How Much Of The Gospel Do You Want to Buy?

I was looking around the internet and came across this:

From D. A. Carson's Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians:

I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please.

Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted.

I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust.

I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture.

I want ecstasy, not repentance;

I want transcendence, not transformation.

I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell.

I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged.

I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please. (pp. 12-13)

Ray Van Neste comments:

This is piercing application. I am cut to the quick. I know the approach to life he is satirizing not simply by looking out at others but by looking within. I need to hear this word again. And, how we need this word in our churches! All too easily we warp the gospel into a way for securing the ‘good life’ for ourselves. . . . Brothers, we must preach this searching point. Many will be entirely content for us to “do our sermon”, but when you begin to press the call of the gospel to shape our lives, rebuke our sin, calling for repentance many will rebel. But without this we have failed to discharge our ministries (Col 4:17). Without this we are mere hirelings awaiting rebuke from the Master on the final day. There is no discount version of the Gospel. It is all or nothing. Let us wield the searching sword of the Spirit (Heb 4:12) as those who have first been pierced by it.

I am blown away at these quotes because I am guilty of only wanting $3 worth of the gospel. We Christians, for some reason, do not want the full nature of the gospel. We do not want to be free, we want to be just free enough.

I cannot thank Steve Brown enough for showing me that I have been living on $3 dollars worth of the gospel for far too long. I was striving for perfectionism through working to become a better Christian instead of resting in Jesus. I wanted to be able to say I've never done this or said that. I wanted to be able to point to myself and say that I was better than most Christians. I was prideful and did not fully understand the gospel.

My wife, Melissa, tells me that I need to be more specific and give examples of the theological concepts that I state, so that people will understand what it looks like to live them out. I want to attempt to show how we may live on more than $3 dollars worth of the gospel.

1. Those whom God has forgiven and accepted into his family, we should accept and fellowship with as family, even if they believe differently than we do about baptism, Calvinism, the gifts, or differing systematic theologies.

2. There is no more condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus! That means we are all sinners and we should be able to confess our sins to one another without fear. Sovereign Grace's Care Groups are to me the Gospel lived out in the real world.

3. Forgiving others and being able to admit your wrong or could be in the wrong without fear of not being seen as a "good" Christian is truly living in the wealth of the gospel.

This is what God has been teaching me lately by better understanding the gospel. I am learning that it is harder to live free because it forces you to rest in the gospel and in Christ's obedience not your own. It is hard work living free and resting in the Gospel, yet, I am beginning to taste and see the Joy of the Lord in ways I never had.

"If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed" (John 8:36)

Infinite Gospel is infinitely better than $3 dollars worth!


Source: Kubecki.com
Between Two Worlds