How the Gospel Changes Everything
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.—1 John 1:9, 10
The core of real change comes from the gospel alone.
Not positive thinking. Not better habits. Not self-control or hard work.
Those can be more like hacks or workarounds. But they can never get to the core problem: sin.
We need the gospel because we need forgiveness from the sins that we commit.
But we also need the power that the gospel provides to forgive when we have been sinned against.
And we need the hope that the gospel brings when we suffer the effects of sin in the world around us.
The gospel is what gives us confidence when Satan seems to be gaining ground in the world. It reminds us that he is already defeated. His judgment day is coming and one day justice will be done.
The gospel is more than just a ticket to heaven when we die. No, the gospel is critical if we desire to see real change, for it alone grants us freedom from the penalty of sin. It gives us power, hope, and confidence to move forward in love towards God and others.
It is what gives us the strength to make the hard choices that real change requires:
loving Him even if it is going against the grain of our peer group,
shining as a light in a dark world,
sacrificially serving who give nothing back in return.
It is what gives us a vision for the future:
reunion with our beloved Savior,
a perfectly restored body reunited with a soul finally made perfect,
in a new heaven and earth freed from its groaning and pain.
It is only this hope, made possible through the gospel, will we be able to live the Christian life.
Even when we are suffering with chronic illness or other difficult long-term conditions, the gospel will help us to run the race with endurance, eyes fixed on Christ.
Even when we have endured much wrong in the hands of others, the gospel will help us forgive—even love—our enemies.
Even when our culture claims wrong is right and right is wrong, the gospel will give us peace, knowing that we are in the hands of a God will who restore all things and rule once again.
Because of the gospel, we can smile through tears at the death of one of his saints, knowing that death will not have the final word.
Because of the gospel, we can finally deal with the rotten root behind the rotten fruit.
Because of the gospel, we can be free from slavery to sin and all the compulsions and idolatry we struggle with.
Sin warps the hearts that God intended to reflect His image, but the gospel restores us in the innermost being to be children of God.
Sin deceives us by telling us we can be our own God, but the gospel tells us the truth of who God is—and therefore who we really are.
Sin foolishly devises impotent plans to satisfy our own longings in our own way, but the gospel frees us from our own foolishness and helps us to live in His righteousness.
The Gospel: The Key to Real Change
Too often, we merely think of the gospel as an academic concept.
But saturating ourselves in the gospel is actually the key to real change.
Soaking ourselves in the truths of the gospel regularly—daily, even—is what helps us to reorient our focus, reframe our perspective, and renew our purpose.
This is the key that sets biblical counseling apart from secular or even secular-based Christian counseling.
Facing the issue of sin head-on—in ourselves, in others, in our world—is the first step.
Even if you are not the one perpetuating the sin, do not excuse yourself so easily.
We need the gospel for our hidden sins—the sins no one sees:
Pride. Self-righteous judgment. Self-reliance. Controlling others to do your will.
Unbelief. Ungodly worry. Living by the false belief that you are alone and must fend for yourself.
Chasing worldly pleasures to satisfy the emptiness.
Unforgiveness hardening into resentment and bitterness. Anger swept under the carpet, moldering and making us impure.
We also need the gospel for those sins of omission—failure to do the good we know we ought to do:
Taking time to listen when we’ve got a zillion things to do.
Giving up a Saturday of relaxation to serve those who need more help than you do.
Carving out time for a weekly Sabbath to honor the Lord and spend extra time with Him and others.
Taking the risk to share the gospel with conviction and love with someone on the way to hell.
Trusting God to right your wrongs instead of taking it on yourself to rectify the situation.
Oh, how easy it is to fool ourselves regarding sin!
But when we take the time to reckon with the way sin infiltrates everything about us—our thoughts, desires, emotions, plans, words, actions—we get to the root of the issue. We see where change really needs to happen: in our hearts, which we so often hide, of which we are often blind.
Bring Your Heart to the Cross
Because sin is first and foremost an offense to God, real change begins with a Godward step. It does not begin with things we do or new habits or resolutions.
We need to learn how to reframe our sins in terms of your relationship with God.
Every time we withhold love, respond in anger, refuse to trust Him, lean on someone or something else for hope—we are really saying that we don’t believe He is able to make things right.
The sin that still indwells us readily believes this lie. This lie then stokes the self-centered desires in us.
We then begin to form our own plans for relief, justice, or control. Can you see how this unholy seed then leads us to rotten fruit?
We can be completely orthodox in our confessions of our faith, yet when it comes to living in the heat of our reality, we live no differently than unbelievers.
For that reason, we need to confess and admit these things to God first and foremost.
Father, I admit and confess that:
I don’t love my neighbor and am unwilling to lay my life down for her
I love being in control because I think it will ensure the outcomes I want
I want things my way, even at the expense of others
I am lazy about holding my tongue because it gets the results I want faster
I fear what others think of me so I don’t share the good news of Christ—what they most truly need
When we do so, we can cling to the promise of 1 John 1:9. Because of Christ, when we confess our sins to Him, we can trust Him to do the right thing: forgive us.
Sometimes we will need to confess over and over, the same sin. We need to trust that He who calls us to forgive our brother repeatedly (Matt. 18:21-22) will do no less for us.
Beware the Sin of Not Confessing
As John says in 1 John 1:10, if we say that we are without sin, we are fooling ourselves.
Even when we have not committed obvious, overt sin towards another, we are always at risk in sinning against God.
One of the things I am learning about myself as I grow in Christ is how very deep my sin nature runs. As long as I only think that it is limited to the obvious wrongs, I am only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Our sin runs deep.
Every time we fail to respond well to wrong done to us, we sin.
When we hold our tongues but let resentment stew in our hearts, that’s sin.
When we pretend that nothing is wrong and let the perpetrator continue in their sin without speaking up, we are complicit in encouraging their sin.
When we fear the consequences more than we fear God and stay silent, that is sin.
When we silently judge others or wish them ill, when we give them the silent treatment or cold shoulder, that is sin.
Because of sin, it is so easy to be blind to the many ways that we, when wronged, can respond in a godless fashion.
Because it is not outwardly visible, it is easy for us to overlook it or even excuse it. This cannot be.
Even when we are on the receiving end of someone else’s sin, let us be vigilant to respond rightly to God. To bring our griefs and sorrows to Him in lament. To open our hearts to Him in trust instead of curling inwards to hide in towers of our own safety.
But I do not want to end this post on this note. The Gospel is not only about confessing sin. It is about great hope.
Rejoice in the Gospel
As forgiven people, the gospel gives us great hope. We are truly free!
Sin may still dwell in our flesh until the day we die, but it no longer has mastery over us. We have a new king, a new master. Better yet, we have a new Father.
This Father loves us and is for our good. That is why we can be at peace, for there is nothing that can happen to us that will take us away from His love (Rom. 8:38-39).
This Father protects us from the evil one. Even if he should kill our body, he shall not touch our souls. We are eternally safe.
The Father guides us into paths of righteousness. Even if we hear these messages from our culture that seem to make sense, He helps us discern the truth from the lie.
Because of Christ’s work on the cross, because He has come to forgive us, we are set free to love. We have hope. We need no longer fend for ourselves but entrust ourselves to Him.
This will set us up for the next post on repentance: the real work of change.
Until then, take a moment to dwell in the gospel, to seek forgiveness through the gospel, to rejoice in the hope of the gospel.
