God doesn’t just teach us the gospel. He gives us real world scenarios where it can be lived and worked out in our daily lives.
The last several years have been life changing for me. I bought a house, I got married, and I became a pastor of a local church. It all happened in rapid succession. In the same regard, I’ve been afforded a lot of opportunities to grow.
To start, owning a house has taught me a great deal about how to overcome adversity. It’s a fixer-upper. I thought I could do most of the work myself. I read articles and watched countless videos, but it wasn’t until I started doing the work that I began to pick up on how difficult the task would end up becoming. There are just too many things I didn’t know. Only someone who has spent years working in construction, making mistakes and learning along the way, would be able to anticipate the problems and meet the requirements of the inspector.
Without a doubt, the same can be said of my marriage. I’ve read countless books, preached multiple sermons, counseled married couples, and performed many weddings, but nothing could have prepared me for being a good husband apart from experiencing the highs and lows for myself.
The Christian life is no different. We have plenty of resources and countless examples to learn from. We can be pretty critical of the characters in the Bible who are constantly messed up, but until we get out of the boat, we can’t understand how challenging it is to actually follow Christ. Fortunately, God doesn’t just teach us the gospel. He gives us real world scenarios where it can be lived and worked out in our daily lives. The Apostle Paul describes this as walking in a manner “worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). Once we begin to take our first steps in obedience, we realize how difficult it actually is, how dependent we are on God’s grace, and how beautiful the results are when we are transformed by the process.
Our Doctrine and Instruction
The Book of Ephesians begins with this amazing discourse of doctrine describing who we are in Christ and the riches that we have been granted. Paul prays that Christians would be able to comprehend the surpassing knowledge of Christ’s love. If we could only experience the gospel, it might begin to change us. Then, in chapter four, he goes on to explain how the gospel is worked out in everyday life.
I think that we sometimes disconnect the doctrine from our instruction. Doctrine tells us who God is, who we are, and what the gospel means, while instruction tells us how to live and what to do. In our minds, there’s a wall compartmentalizing the two ideas. Paul, however, ties the two together. We are adopted as joint-heirs with Christ, but we are also predestined in Christ for good works. This means that our knowledge and gift from God should result in real world transformation.
Our appropriate response to the gospel is not simply to say a prayer and ask Jesus into our hearts. It also entails walking the walk. Jesus is not just our savior, He is also our Lord. Therefore, we ought to surrender to His authority over our lives and act accordingly.
Our Manner of Learning
But Jesus' authority isn’t tyrannical. He is meek and lowly, and His manner of teaching us is gentle. First, He puts us into a new family: the Church. We are not meant to be isolated individuals, drifting in the vast vacuum of space. We have apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to help us navigate this new life. It is a community of multiple generations, so that we can learn from those who have already been through the various life experiences that we are facing; all in order to equip us to be mature.
Furthermore, we have Jesus and our personal encounter with Him as our prime example. We have experienced the love of Christ in our salvation. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Therefore, we ought to love others as Christ loved us. This leads into the practical working out of the gospel. In Ephesians 5, Paul tells us that wives are to submit to their husbands as though they are submitting to Christ and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and sacrificed His life for her.
This is probably one of the most picked apart pieces of Scripture we have in the New Testament. Why? Because we look at it as instruction, rules, and law. We fail to comprehend the gospel principles being worked out here. Everyone thinks their situation is different. “You don’t understand what I have to deal with.” You’re probably right, but all that means is that you have been given a unique destiny, by the grace of God, designed before the foundation of the world, perfectly tailored to your composition, in order to teach you the mysteries of the gospel and transform you into the image of Christ. That’s amazing!
Our Process of Transformation
When the Bible instructs wives to submit to their husbands, husbands to love their wives, children to honor their parents, and servants to obey their masters, it does so by pointing to Christ. If we are still caught up in our own concerns while sitting at the foot of the cross, we might, no, we definitely have a problem. When we dwell on the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins and wrestle with the log in our own eyes, we cannot hold onto our old grudges anymore. When we allow Jesus to wash our feet, we cannot get upset when others aren’t submitting to us. No one is greater than their master. This is the process that begins to change us. This is where we start to shed our old nature.
First, we have to remember, as Paul is so quick to point out, who we were before we were saved. We were dead in our tresspasses and sins. This should lead us to repentance. We need to continuously remind ourselves of our former way of walking so that we won’t begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. It’s easy to focus on our privileges with Christ and translate that into our reason for boasting. The only way to confront that is to call our hearts to repentance.
But we cannot remain in that state. We often don’t want to dwell on our mistakes because the reality of our sins paralyzes us in despair. However, looking at our frailty should always remind us of the immeasurable love of Christ. This should overwhelm us with joy, leading us to praise God, and, corporately, singing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
Finally, we are invited to put on the new creation, the likeness of Christ. We bear His name as Christians, therefore, we ought to follow His example. This is easier said than done, but it is also a lot easier to convince ourselves that we love God more than we actually do before it is put to the test. Fortunately, God has given us real world examples to practice what we preach.
Loving sinners is not easy, but Jesus did it for us. Serving ungrateful people is frustrating, but Jesus served before we appreciated Him. The circumstances we face in our home, work, and social life are not easy, but they are all designed to teach us how to be conformed into the image of Christ. Therefore, we ought to embrace the challenges with excitement as opportunities to grow.