You are Loved!

Strong and Courageous

Nov. 2, 2018

Recently we have been looking at what it means to be “all in” in the context of a prophetic word spoken over our church. In this installment, I would like to look into the need for gospel renewal. This is in response to God’s love for us all.

What is Gospel renewal? According to Dr. Tim Keller, he defines gospel renewal as a “life-changing recovery of the gospel. Personal gospel renewal means the gospel doctrines of sin and grace are actually experienced, not just known intellectually.”  In other words, these ideas become our reality in a multilayered understanding of God’s presence, which changes how we think and act.

Keller goes on to say, “This personal renewal includes an awareness and conviction of one’s own sin and alienation from God and comes from seeing in ourselves deeper layers of self-justification, unbelief, and self-righteousness than we have ever seen before. There is a new commensurate grasp of the wonder of forgiveness and grace as we shed these attitudes and practices and rest in Christ alone for salvation. When we experience gospel renewal, we have a new clarity about what this means in our mind and a new experience of actually doing it with our heart.

This is truly the good news of the gospel. Our lives are transformed as we respond to the amazing love poured out to us through the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is an ongoing process that continues to sanctify.

 As church leaders, we are mandated to always bring the gospel to bear on people’s hearts and minds so that they see it as not just a set of beliefs but as a power, that changes us profoundly and continually.