I recently read the following paragraphs on Ray Ortland’s blog.  It is both encouraging and challenging to me.  What does it really mean to be a gospel-centered church? Here’s what Mr. Ortland says:

“A gospel-centered church holds together two things.  One, a gospel-centered church preaches a bold message of grace — so bold that it becomes the end of the law for all who believe.  Not our performance but Christ’s performance for us.  Not our sacrifices but his sacrifice for us.  Not our superiority but only his worth and prestige.  The good news of substitution.  The good news that our okayness is not in us but exterior to us in Christ alone.  Climbing down from the high moral ground, because only Christ belongs up there.  That message, that awareness, that clarity.  Every Sunday.

Two, a gospel-centered church translates that theology into its sociology.  The good news of God’s grace beautifies how we treat one another.  In fact, the horizontal reveals the vertical.  How we treat one another reveals what we really believe as opposed to what we think we believe.  It is possible to say, “We are a gospel-centered church,” and sincerely mean it, while we make our church into a law-centered social environment.  We see God above lowering his gun, and we breathe a sigh of relief.  But if we are trigger-happy toward one another, we don’t really get it yet.”

How we treat one another reveals what we really believe!  This phrase reminds me of our text from last week – that we are set free to love one another and serve one another.  I pray that God continues to transform us as a church by His word and that we will indeed preach the free grace of God in the gospel and see the power of the Spirit continue to work in us to love one another just as God the Father loves us!

Grace to you today,

Eric