The Gospel Difference

Sometimes I’m not sure if we know the difference between someone well disciplined and someone who has had an encounter with Jesus Christ.

I say that because a lot of the behavioural focus I’ve come across with children, young adults and fully grown mature adults indicates that ‘behaving’ yourself is the key. I know that engagement with the divine changes us from the inside out. I have experienced and been grateful to witness how illuminative it is to see how the Spirit changes us. Yet sometimes whether it’s a slightly skewed view of grace and how church should operate, in some cases I have seen a push towards certain behaviours marking out whether someone is truly a believer or not. Some of these behaviours actually have more to do with social and cultural conditioning than truly marks of holiness.

What helps with noticing the difference the impact of the gospel has is that the focus is not primarily on us and our behaviour. It’s primarily fixated with the centre of the good news. As we look on the Son who comes and declares and demonstrates a new way of living, we are captured by that. As we discover that the Son, for the glory of the Father, obeyed and humbled Himself to the cross that immediately informs us the priority is not behaving like an upright member of the community.

There’s an awareness of the holy love that compels the Son to the cross and then sees Him triumph over sin and death. His authority has credibility as He stands over the grace knowing it has no hold over Him. That realisation again is not primarily about manners and conforming to socially acceptable norms. This is about how now do I live in the light of such an amazing person? How can I say thanks for this work? How can I be a part of the Kingdom?

When questions like that are asked this is where key terms of faith and grace come in. Faith being our connection with Him and our acknowledgement of who He is and what He has done. Grace because everything from that point on must realise it is only His grace that enables us to begin to grow in a way pleasing to Him.

Caught up with those concerns obviously has behavioural effects when we’re challenged in the daily pulls of life. It’s also clear, however, that the gospel impulse and the gospel difference is the desire to share this good news with others. It’s not about fitting in with the status quo. It’s about living for a new Kingdom, a new purpose and a new King.

These drivers make the critical gospel difference.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden