In the last 10-15 years, a buzzword has shaped much of the thinking in the evangelical church. The buzzword is “gospel-centered.”
It wasn’t too long ago that this “gospel-centered” worldview flooded Christian publications and rhetoric. You can easily find sermons and printed materials on gospel-centered marriages, gospel-centered parenting, gospel-centered community, work, recreation, leadership, preaching, etc. You name it — whatever it was, someone had centered “it” on the gospel.
The peak of using this language seems to have passed, but the church still feels the effects of it today — both for good and bad.
The good effects of gospel-centeredness are somewhat obvious. Focusing on Jesus providing atonement, extending forgiveness, granting righteousness, and securing eternal life for God’s people as promised in the redemptive plan of God linked from Genesis to Revelation — how could the church not benefit from this emphasis? The good effects are clear.
But how has this emphasis been bad for the church? Well, it certainly has not been bad inherently. There’s nothing wrong with centering on the gospel. Instead, at times the bad effects of gospel-centeredness have come in the misunderstanding of how personal holiness relates to the gospel.
Two misunderstandings of how holiness relates to the gospel:
1. All the commands of Scripture are flattened under the work of Christ.
2. Obedience to God is disconnected from the work of Christ.
FLATTENED COMMANDMENTS
One unfortunate misunderstanding of this gospel-centered theme has been to preach and apply the commandments of Scripture in a way that flattens all the commands of God under the one work of Christ.
Usually, this application follows some sort of formula like this:
• God’s law says, “Don’t covet.”
• But you’re a sinner who obviously covets.
• But Jesus was perfect and died for your coveting.
• Aren’t you thankful for Jesus?
Now, this is wonderfully true! At the heart of the gospel is the good news that Jesus has died and paid the penalty for the sinner’s moral failures. May we always proclaim and apply that glorious reality.
But if that’s all we say when teaching the commandments of God to believers, we’re not saying enough. Only saying this leaves us highlighting the work of Jesus without heeding the commands He now empowers us to obey. Unfortunately, in some pockets of “gospel-centeredness,” this has been the way to teach the commandments of God. Fill in the blank: God said don’t. You did. But Jesus died. Be thankful for Jesus.
Like a cartoon portrait presents certain features of a face in disproportionate ways, so too have some spoken of and applied this gospel-centered worldview in unbalanced ways at best and in unbiblical ways at worst. The cartoon resembles the face, but we’re left wondering, “Why are the lips so big?”
DISCONNECTED OBEDIENCE
Another misunderstanding of this gospel-centered theme is a failure to see how the gospel connects to obedience at all. For some, they have heard all the talk about “gospel-centeredness” and have wondered, “Why are we still talking about the gospel? I thought the gospel was what saved us? Haven’t we moved beyond that?”
That type of perspective wrongly sees the gospel as only the starting point of salvation and not the sustaining power of sanctification. It fails to understand grace extending beyond the cross.
CONNECTING THE GOSPEL TO HOLINESS
The way forward for properly understanding how holiness connects to the gospel is to see that God’s grace comes to the believer in both pardon and power.
God’s grace of pardon comes to the individual through the finished work of Jesus. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Indeed, this is the starting testimony for the believer.
But the gospel doesn’t stop there. We also see in the gospel God’s grace of power coming to enable the believer. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).
Paul says God’s grace appears, bringing salvation, and what does that grace in salvation then do? “Trains us to renounce ungodliness … and [trains] us to live godly lives.” God’s grace comes in pardon, but it also comes in power — to train us, instruct us, transform us, and to empower us for growing in holiness.”
Preaching on holiness requires proclaiming the pardon that comes at the cross to disarm sin and proclaiming the power that flows from the cross to fight against sin. Therefore, a call for holiness is not a defense of legalism. The work of Christ does not negate the pursuit of godliness. There is an unbreakable link between the cross of Christ and the content of one’s character.
To understand the gospel in relation to holiness, we must see at the cross that atonement was achieved and power was unleashed — atonement for the sinner to be forgiven now, and power for the believer to be successful now in the fight against sin. Knowing this, we see why you never move beyond the gospel because it’s there that you run back for pardon over and over — and it’s there you run back for power again and again. As John Owen famously said, you must kill sin or it will kill you — but it is the grace of God that empowers you to war against sin’s death grip.
GOSPEL-CENTEREDNESS
Why are we still talking about the gospel? Should we keep talking about the gospel?
The gospel-centered life reminds us that there’s forgiveness ready for when we fail to be as we ought, and power available for when we strive to be as we should.
I’d say that’s worth keeping.
— Donald Thomas serves as lead pastor of Abner Creek Baptist Church in Greer, S.C. He is a graduate of North Greenville University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married with five children.