I just have to pass this along… In his Internet Monk blog, Michael Spencer linked to this brief rework of Tim Keller’s discussion of Gospel vs Religion. The bottom line of this is” “The gospel is ‘I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey’ while every other religion operates on the principle of ‘I obey, therefore I am accepted.’”
Check this out; then for more on the radical nature a of Gospel-focused life, read Keller’s Centrality of the Gospel which begins, “the Christian life is a process of renewing every dimension of our life– spiritual, psychological, corporate, social– by thinking, hoping, and living out the “lines” or ramifications of the gospel. The gospel is to be applied to every area of thinking, feeling, relating, working, and behaving.”
My friend Britt introduced me to Keller’s Gospel-focused message a few months ago, and it has been part of what God is up to in renewing me. When I see my life as a loving and joyful response to what Jesus has done for me and is doing in me, I am truly living — living in light of the Gospel.
This morning in our band of brothers, the guys were talking about our tendency to work hard at re-writing the script of our lives. I’ve spent so much effort trying to edit my life that, for years I failed to really live it. But, when I see God and his plans for me as really really good, I can get beyond the “what-ifs” and be satisfied with the plot because I know and trust the writer.