Play

We’re in a new series that I’ve called Practical Christianity. The general idea of the series is found in Paul’s words in Philippians 2:12-13 - work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. We do not work for our salvation, but once we have been saved and come into a relationship with God, we spend our lives learning to work out the implications of our salvation, of the gospel, into every aspect of our life, as God works in us. Over the next couple of months, this is my goal, to help you work out your salvation into your love life, family, work, money, friendship, church, city, and personal growth. This morning the focus is going to be on your love life. Please understand this is not “5 steps to a happy marriage,” but something I believe will be much more valuable, because it will teach you how to approach every area of your life.

Last week we talked about the gospel, and if you weren’t there, I would encourage you to go on our website and listen to that sermon. Let me sum up the three elements of the gospel that I focused on:

1) Salvation and justification by grace

2) New life

3) A certain hope

(1) Salvation and justification by grace

According to Jesus and the rest of the Bible, the fundamental problem with the world is that although we were created to know, love, and serve our God, we have been separated from God and from the life we were meant to live by sin. And because of this we are missing out on the life we were created to enjoy, we stand guilty before God, and we are staring at eternal separation from God. And as we learn in Romans 3:20-24, no one will be declared righteous by observing the law. However, a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been given – through faith in Christ.

Consider as well Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

Grace is an undeserved gift given by an unobligated giver, offered to all in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which you receive by faith, by repenting of your sin and believing that you need His forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is not by works, but by grace. The only way you could be saved from sin, the only way you can know God and be acceptable in His sight, is by the death and resurrection of the Son of God. This is humbling, because you can not earn this. But His love for you is so great that He willingly died for you – while you were still sinners – to restore your relationship with God, to give you eternal life. The gospel is “I am accepted; therefore I obey.”

Contrast the gospel of salvation and justification by grace with two prevailing ways to live:

(1) Moralistic, religious way – most religions and philosophies operate by this approach - try harder, do good, follow the rules, and God (or life) will reward you. I hear this way of looking at God or life all the time – if I’m doing good, then life should go well. If life is not going well, then what is it I’m doing wrong? Why is God punishing me? But salvation and justification are by grace, not by works. No amount of effort or good works can earn God’s favor.

(2) The liberal, antinomian approach – The opposite approach is this one: God loves everyone, so just try to be a good person. But the gospel tells us that you are so utterly sinful that only the death of the son of God could save you, yet you are so loved that He willingly died out of the joy of having you. His love is not just like a Barney the purple dinosaur love – it is a costly love that had to go through death, but in the end transforms the heart.

We are all looking to things and people to save us, to justify our existence. The only way to know God and to be righteous is by grace, not by works. “I am accepted, therefore I obey.”

(2) New life

The second element of the gospel is that those who have been saved are born again to new life, which the Bible calls eternal life.

Last week we looked at Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, where Jesus told Nicodemus that unless someone has been born again, they can not see the kingdom of God. Every New Testament writer testifies to the need for a new heart, new life, new birth, new creation.

In order to know God and become the people we were meant to be, the answer is not moral improvement or behavior modification but begins with receiving a new heart from God. And the rest of your life is about learning to live into that new nature, like a baby growing into maturity.

(3) A Certain Hope

The third element of the gospel is that in Jesus’ death and resurrection we have been given a certain hope in God and the future he has for us.

1 Peter 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you,

The word inheritance points to the reality that we have been adopted as children of God, so that we have an inheritance, a certain hope, that death is not the end of us, that our failures and our suffering are not the last word in the book of our life, that our deepest needs for love, meaning in life, power to overcome our challenges, peace in our anxiety, are all ours in Christ. The third element of the gospel is that we have been given a certain hope, an incredible confidence about our past, present, and future that, when we get it, absolutely transforms everything about the way we live today.

We are hope driven people, with our peace and joy often dependent on what we think is ahead. We are hoping in all sorts of things – hoping for someone who will love us; hoping that the one we’re stuck with will change; hoping for a better job, a better life. Or, some of us have little hope at all because we can not see things getting better. The gospel tells us to put our hope in the Lord and to not trust in anything or person in this world.

The three elements are:

(1) Salvation and justification by grace

(2) New life

(3) A certain hope

That is the gospel. Now let’s talk about how to work the gospel of salvation and justification by grace, new life, and the certain hope we have in God into our love life. Wherever you are at – married, single, divorced, widowed – the gospel has a lot to teach you.