Tullian had a post today on his blog about the centrality of the gospel in the Christian’s life, and how for many, it is viewed as simply the gate one passes through to join the club, instead of as the path one must walk down into Christ’s kingdom. He makes the point that preachers of grace must return and share Jesus’s good news over and over in a myriad of ways, keeping the believer near it, because it is actually through a closeness to that message that God helps us to discover more about Him and His grace. It is through our faith in His good news that we become better lovers, as He designed us to be. Our ability to love is reformed and amplified through our experiences with Him and His love in our lives.

“Once God saves us he doesn’t then move us beyond the gospel, but rather more deeply into the gospel… Christian growth is always growth into grace, not beyond it.”
– Tullian Tchividjian

Tullian makes a pretty good point, I think. Often in evangelical Christianity, when the significance of what the gospel message means becomes dull to a minister, sharing of the gospel simply becomes a commercial. “This week’s spiritual suggestions are brought to you by the Gospel- receive it, and be saved!” The gospel at that point becomes merely a gate along the way in one’s spiritual journey.

The kingdom of heaven, however, is not for those who simply see the gospel as a door to be walked through, as a backstage pass to the coolness of God’s grander ventures, to be checked once and then thrown in the back pocket as we head into a great celestial exhibit hall. The gospel is the embodiment of love- what love looks like, how love acts, and where love comes from- and love is the singular spirit of heaven. The gospel reveals to us Who love is, and as a result, reveals to us that the nature of God’s kingdom is grounded only in love as God displays it, and it is a love that must take rule over our hearts at some point in time.

Instead of viewing the gospel as a gate or a backstage pass, perhaps we would do better to view it as a boat that we must enter into and remain within as we move forward in this life. Within it, God ferries us from our old nature and our life of self into His kingdom, where life in His grace and love rule supreme.

Our love grows within us as we accept and embrace the love that He shows to us, and He showed to us monumentally at that one point in time.

When Jesus became God’s ongoing good news.

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Photo Credit: “Admit One” by Vanessa Lynn (Flickr). Under Creative Commons license.