When The Gospel Becomes Stale
Over the break of Thanksgiving I have chosen to read Romans. It has been a while since I have read it. Today marks the second day of working through it and I can already tell the Spirit was wise and gracious to lead me to this book.
I don’t marvel anymore
As I have been working through the text, my mind has gone back to my college days. Days I was often stunned at the Gospel. Stunned at the reality that I was unrighteous, and by no effort of my own, God had looked upon me out of love and clothed me with a righteousness. That when He looked at me, He didn’t see all the sins and broken bits of me. He saw His son’s perfect obedience in my place. That I was part of his family and cherished.
These things came to mind because the Gospel has become normal to me. Mundane even. I intellectually agree with the logic but do not cherish it with my heart. As I’ve been reading I felt this pain, this longing to marvel at it again. To see the Gospel with fresh eyes.
Has your relationship with the Gospel become one that is stale? Shallow? Intellectual only? Does it grip your heart like it first did? If not, why does this happen and how do we get it to grip us again?
we never graduate from the gospel
Why does this happen? Because many of us, as we advance into our Christian lives, graduate from the Gospel. We leave it behind like a diploma, given to us at conversion but left on the wall after as we move on to “more advanced things”.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes:
So I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Romans 1:15
We should ask, why is Paul eager to preach the Gospel to the Roman church who is predominantly already Christian? A church whose “faith is proclaimed in all the world”(1:8)? It is here we learn our first lesson. We never graduate from the Gospel. The Gospel is not simply the means of conversion. It is the lifeblood of our Christian walk. We need it every day we are alive. The Gospel is for “building up Christians” (Andrew David Naselli)
We take it for granted
I believe this can happen with any type of love, but perhaps a reason we often leave the Gospel behind is that we begin to take for granted the saving love of God towards us. We fail to properly appreciate, especially as a result of overfamiliarity.
It is easy for me to see this in my own life. The longer I am in certain relationships and the more familiar I become with the love that is within a relationship, the easier it is to assume that it has to be that way. I begin to take their love for granted because it is so familiar. How dangerous this is though, because it does not have to be this way. I do not have to be loved by them. They are choosing to love me and that is a precious gift.
The same is true for God, it does not have to be this way. I do not deserve His love. And yet I take it for granted which leads me to leaving it behind. Assuming it should be there.
The remedy
Maybe this is one reason why Paul begins his letter to the Romans with these striking phrases:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. (Romans 1:16)
and
None is righteous, no, not one… All have turned aside… (Romans 3:10-11)
and
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
We are all sinful, we are unrighteous, and what do we deserve? Wrath. Judgement. Condemnation. For God to simply leave us. I do not deserve His love. Why? Because my creator has asked me to follow Him and follow what He says, and in my defiance I have spat in His face and said “forget you”. I have turned aside. I have chosen other things.
Awareness of the weight of sin reveals the beauty of grace. The striking reality that we are inherently broken and sinful and deserving of God’s wrath jolts us awake from taking the love of God for granted, for we know what we deserve. To be left.
Our Hope
So what is our hope? That we are not left. That God does not turn his back on us, though we deserve it. In our sinfulness, God, in His mercy, chooses to place our sin upon His son as a sacrificial lamb, and clothes us with Jesus’ righteousness. Jesus is our substitute in taking the wrath we deserve.
How do we begin to see this with fresh eyes?
We pray and we look.
Pray for eyes to see
It seems simple, but it works. The times God has revealed to me that I have left the Gospel behind, He has prompted me to pray to see it again with fresh eyes. He answers that prayer. Consider the prayer Paul prays for christians- “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” (Ephesians 1:18)
Let us pray to God for eyes to marvel at the Gospel again. We are dependent on Him.
Look and look and look
As you pray, look at the Gospel. Look at Christ. Look at the cross. Over and over and over again. It may take some time. It may even take days. I don’t know why God works mysteriously, perhaps He is teaching you something in the waiting. But keep looking.
And as you do, you will see beautiful truths:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift. (Romans 3:23-24)
For while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
When did God place His love upon you? When you were good? When you were trying your best? When you were abstaining from sin? No, when you were “weak” and “ungodly”. When you were at your lowest point, that is when God sees you and says “I will choose to love you and justify you. Though you are unclean, I will make you clean. Though you have sinned against me, I will not repay you with what you deserve. I will place that punishment upon my Son, on the cross, and by His blood you will be cleansed and justified. And because of this you will not be condemned. You will not be pushed away. You will be cherished, loved, part of my family. You will be brought near. You will have life. You will exist in peace.”
This, my friends, is the beautiful Gospel. That even on our worst days, God’s grace and love are lavished upon us.
If you feel particularly low today, remember the Gospel. You never graduate from it. You do not have to earn your place in God’s family. Grace is unmerited love given to you as a gift. So trust in Jesus and receive this gift. And marvel at it.
Asking God for fresh eyes to see the Gospel with you,
Josh.