Gospel Centrality is Biblical
Ephesians 3:10
[S]o that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
In the circles and camps that I run with, gospel centrality is becoming something we hear a lot and see in a lot of book titles. A lot of people treat the idea of being gospel-centered as a passing fad. While the term gospel-centered may be fairly new the concept is completely biblical. Ephesians 3:10 is one of my favorite verses when it comes to gospel-centrality. I don’t have the time to unpack all of Ephesians to show you exactly why I think 3:10 is crucial to the concept of being gospel-centered, but this quote from Mark Dever gets at the heart of it. “Christian proclamation might make the gospel audible, but Christians living together in local congregations make the gospel visible (see John 13:34-35). The church is the gospel made visible.”[1] So what I am saying is that Ephesians 3:10 teaches that God makes the gospel visible to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places and also to the world through His church.
Don Carson says, “The gospel is regularly presented not only as truth to be received and believed, but the very power of God to transform (see 1 Cor 2; 1 Thess 2:4; [Rom 1:16-17])...
One of the most urgently needed things today is a careful treatment of how the gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought to shape everything we do in the local church, all of our ethics, all of our priorities."[2] The gospel must be the focal point of everything we do as a church and it must drive everything we do as Christians. It is the power to make and mature disciples, so this is what should define us as Christians and local churches. So we must preach and teach the gospel and then live out the implications of the gospel. As Paul puts it in Galatians 2:14, we must live lives that are in step with the gospel.
One of the most urgently needed things today is a careful treatment of how the gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought to shape everything we do in the local church, all of our ethics, all of our priorities."[2] The gospel must be the focal point of everything we do as a church and it must drive everything we do as Christians. It is the power to make and mature disciples, so this is what should define us as Christians and local churches. So we must preach and teach the gospel and then live out the implications of the gospel. As Paul puts it in Galatians 2:14, we must live lives that are in step with the gospel.
The idea behind this is that in the church you have gospel doctrine through the preaching and teaching of the Word and gospel culture through the lives and relationships of the people that make up the church. Only when the doctrine and the culture of a church are in step with the gospel is a church living out Ephesians 3:10 and proving to be truly gospel-centered. A church can’t be truly gospel-centered if it is lacking in either of these areas.
Gospel Centrality is the Answer
In my church I hear people talk often of reaching younger people. By younger people they mean my aged people (20s-30s) and below. They ask questions like, “Why don’t they care about the church? Why don’t they have a desire to grow?” These are fine questions to ask, but how we respond to these questions are what’s really important. The typical response is to come up with bigger and better programs, events, and productions in hopes that it will attract these disinterested folks and change their current disengaged status. While the motives behind these efforts are well and good, the efforts themselves are misguided. As long as we measure success by numbers and not faithfulness to the gospel we will never be a true gospel-centered church.
If programs, events, and productions aren’t the answer, what is? Put simply, gospel centrality is the answer. Francis Schaeffer put it like this, “If the church is what it should be, young people will be there. But they will not just ‘be there’—they will be there with the blowing of horns and the clashing of high-sounding cymbals, and they will come dancing with flowers in their hair.”[3] So, when the church lives out the mission of Ephesians 3:10, paying attention to both gospel doctrine and gospel culture, the watching world, including young people will see and will be attracted to it, eagerly attracted to it. Ray Ortlund puts it like this, “We accept that the truth of biblical doctrine is essential to authentic Christianity, but do we accept that the beauty of human relationships is equally essential? If by God’s grace we hold the two together—gospel doctrine and gospel culture—people of all ages will more likely come to our churches with great joy.”[4]
Francis Schaeffer shows this to be true in the early church. “One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community, but exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.”[5]
So we can’t neglect doctrine or culture, they are both import. Ray Ortlund says it like this:
“Gospel doctrine - gospel culture = hypocrisy
Gospel culture - gospel doctrine = fragility
Gospel doctrine + gospel culture = power
Only the powerful presence of the risen Lord can make a church this gospel-centered. . . . People will see him in us as we build our churches into gospel cultures with the resources of gospel doctrine, taking no shortcuts.”[6]
So there you have it; as people hear and see the gospel in the church people will become interested and engaged. The gospel is the answer. We over complicate things by trying to come up with the next best thing to reach the world, but Scripture is clear, the gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). We must focus on what is truly important. We must stay centered and saturated with the gospel of Jesus Christ for the sake of our doctrine and our culture. Anything less loses the power to transform lives and falls short of the beauty of Ephesians 3:10.
The Gospel Attracts the Elect
When my eyes were opened to the beautiful riches of mercy and grace that are in the gospel I not only fell in love with Christ, but I fell in love with His bride the church. When I learned that I was created for more than just trying to enjoy myself and avoid pain and discomfort, I became recklessly abandoned for the mission of the gospel. The idea of pouring out my life for the fame of Jesus among all nations was and is incredibly attractive to me versus the American Dream. When I learned that through the gospel I had been brought into a war against sin and Satan and by pursing holiness and making disciples I could push back the darkness and my life could have an eternal impact on this world for Christ, I felt truly alive for the first time.
Jesus promised that the elect will be attracted by the gospel (John 10:16). When the elect hear the gospel and respond in repentance and faith they are made alive to the true purposes they were created for. Evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and the like, are all tied to the gospel and these are things the elect live for. Church and the Christian life was never meant to be a safe, moralistic, country club where we sing songs and put on shows (though I certainly believe we must sing out in corporate worship). The church is a gospel-centered people who make the gospel visible to the world and make war on sin and Satan. When we stop worrying about the next best thing and numbers and start worrying about the gospel and the mission of the gospel, then we will become the gospel-centered church Ephesians 3:10 speaks of, and then we will begin to reach this world for Christ.
Let’s Pray for Gospel Centrality in Hopes of Gospel Transformation
The gospel is good news, not good advice. The gospel is not something we do but a message about something that has been done for us. The gospel is the glorious message that tells us that God has made a way for lost wicked sinners to be reconciled to Him and live forever with Him in a world free of sin and its effects through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is glorious news that should be shared. The Bible is clear, the gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who will believe; so we must preach this gospel to unbelievers in hopes of their justification and we must preach this gospel to ourselves and other believers in hopes of sanctification.
As men and women of God the gospel should shape and mold every aspect of our lives, everything we do, and everything we are. The gospel is what we need. The gospel is what this world needs. We have been saved so that we would live in this world as gospel-centered, gospel-saturated ambassadors for Christ, pleading with this world to be reconciled to God. As we allow the gospel to center and saturate us the grace of God will transform the doctrine and culture of our churches… As pastor Ray Ortlund has said, “How does change happen? Not by our brilliance or will power. Not even by our agreement with the gospel. We change as we press the gospel into our hearts deeper than ever before.”[7] So, join me in going deeper into the gospel and praying that Christ transforms us into the gospel-centered church He saved us to be, for the evangelization of the world, the edification of the saints, and the glory of God.
[1] Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible (Nashville: B&H, 2012), xi.
[2] D. A. Carson, “What Is the Gospel?—Revisited,” in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper, ed. Sam Storms and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 165.
[3] Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century (Downers Grove, 1970), 107.
[4] Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 22.
[5] Francis Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World, 62.
[6] Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 23.
[7] Ray Ortlund in Jared Wilson’s book, Gospel Wakefulness (Wheaton, Crossway 2011), 9.
