The Gospel speaks deeply to our hearts because it daily reminds us of the free grace, forgiveness and honour that is bestowed upon us. However, the Gospel can often feel “distant” from our day to day existence. We need to see and learn its relevance to our lives and ministry.
The WT Ministry Framework puts it this way: “The Gospel is how any and all spiritual change happens in the lives of individuals, groups, and institutions of people. Therefore, it informs every ministry and is our most fundamental point of reference and principle in every action, plan, and strategy. This principle, before all others, guides us in the decisions we make, the solutions we embrace, the way we conduct our ministries and our relationships with others.”
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to let several WT workers share how the Gospel is changing them, transforming their hearts in different ways and in different contexts. Here’s a another story from a WT worker’s journey:
“One special moment happened when I finally put my new understanding of God’s grace into a quote that I now often use, “The proportion to which you understand your depravity is the proportion to which you understand grace.” I had never deeply understood how only Jesus’ sacrifice was able to take away my sins and I could do nothing to please Him or have Him love me more. It was already done.
Another way to put it is: “Little depravity demands little grace.” That was one of my most powerful discoveries: that I was totally depraved and without hope! But the grace of Christ covers all my depravity/lacking/sin, etc. I think I came to understand very clearly that without the blood of Christ to cover me I am hopelessly lost and condemned. I think I felt I was okay most of the time because I was doing pretty good. But I had to scrape every bit of my self-effort as having any value for God to accept me. That was freedom.”
A question to consider: What quote might best summarize your current understanding of grace and the Gospel?
Join us on the journey by sharing your story about the Gospel: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=E4rd-dxEeUymdtc3N8hETz_lXY4QRJ5ClTCIuVdURgFUQzFHUDI5U0w4SUFOQjY3QzQ3NUtXQjI0WS4u
Filed under: Gospel, Grace, Love of God |
Thoughts Along The Journey 
This is such a good description of the impact of the gospel of Christ:
— recognizing the depth of your depravity leads to joy because you better understand the depth of God’s grace;
— realizing that your self-effort has no value leads to freedom because you accept that Christ’s effort was fully sufficient.
The Gospel is so counter-intuitive! And it doesn’t make any sense, except that the Son of God died for me. The cross changes everything!
Great insight Sean! The Gospel is counter-intuitive as it goes against everything we think should earn us God’s favor. The cross not humbles us, but raises our eyes to see how loved we are in Him!
<< C.S. Lewis once said, “You don’t get second things by doing them first. You get second things by doing first things first.” While our goal in Cuba has been evangelism that results in new house churches, we quickly realized that leaders deeply rooted in works righteousness first needed a solid foundation in the gospel. >> -J. Allen Thompson in CubaNewsletter#11, April 2013
Thanks Jay for this historical insight from our beginning days in Cuba as a mission!
Great reminder this week David about my/our need for the gospel.
Jerry Bridges’ quote has always impacted me – “Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace”.
I’ve always appreciated Jerry Bridge’s examples and quotes in his books on living by grace. His example of how we perceive a difference between a “good” day and a “bad” day due to our obedience or lack thereof has always highlighted how hard it is to accept God’s grace each day and live from it.