Posted in Gospel
The phrase "gospel-centered" has become an adjective that can get put in front of about everything that relates to the Christian life. We are to have gospel-centered sermons in gospel-centered churches that have gospel-centered worship and gospel-centered songs and are filled with gospel-centered marriages. We are to be changed by gospel-centered sanctification and read our Bibles in a gospel-centered way. Our parenting is to be gospel-centered because we want to raise gospel-centered adults that engage their world in a gospel-centered way.
But we need to take a step back from all of this gospel-centeredness and ask a basic question, What is the good news – the "gospel" – anyway?
A phrase like "gospel-centered" or any phrase that gets used so much needs to be defined clearly if it is to have lasting value. Otherwise it will become an empty badge that we slap on to things we like, and a critique that we leave off things we don't. Preachers we like we'll label "gospel-centered," and about authors we don't like we'll say, "He's okay, but he's not very gospel-centered."
The fact is, the phrase "gospel-centered" is loaded with glorious meaning because the gospel itself is. It's a diamond with a million facets, a rainbow with a trillion colors. I can't possibly explore every side of it, but I'll look at a few in the next three posts.
First we need to explain what we're even talking about. "Gospel-centered" means that the gospel is at the center. But what is the gospel? Remember, the word in Greek means "good news," and from various places in the New Testament we learn that this "news" has to do with Jesus Christ the Son of God (Rom. 1:1-4).
It is "good" because it tells us God sent Jesus to earth as the perfect and complete solution to the greatest problem we have—sin and all of its horrible, eternal consequences. We come to God with sin, guilt, and unrighteousness, but the message of the gospel is that by believing in Jesus as our Savior and Lord, the punishment that our sins deserve is accounted to Christ and the reward that his righteousness deserves gets accounted to us (Rom. 1:16-17; 2 Cor. 5:21).
Because this can happen only through Jesus' shed blood, Paul also calls the gospel "the word of the cross" (1 Cor. 1:18) or "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (2:2). Sometimes he summarizes it by saying "Christ died for our sins… He was buried, and…He was raised on the third day" (1 Cor. 15:3, 4).
So if we don't specifically mean the good news that centers on Jesus and his shed blood and resurrection, then we probably shouldn't use the phrase "gospel-centered." I'm not at all trying to be the word police—just wanting us to protect a bit this wonderful phrase.
But knowing the gospel doesn't quite solve all the riddles. We need to ask a related question: Just because the gospel is so great, should it be at the center? Does it rise to that level of importance in the Bible? Should it have that kind of orienting place in our lives? That's what we'll look at in our next post.
Daniel