Tullian Tchividjian's Blog, page 39

A Sabbath-Eve Gospel Prayer

As all of us prepare our hearts and minds for worship tomorrow, my prayer is that we go, first and foremost, expecting to encounter the glory of God.

I pray that, as we sleep, God would expand our want to sing of who he is and hear of what he's done.

I pray that we go ready and willing to feel the grief of our wreckage so that we can feel the glory of his rescue.

I pray that we go to see God on display, not preachers or musicians. A worship service is not the place to showcase human talent; it's the place for God to showcase his Divine treasure. A worship service that contains the power to change us (even us preachers) is a worship service that leaves us with grand impressions of Divine personality, not grand impressions of human personality. Isaiah did not leave the temple in Isaiah 6 thinking, "What great music, what a great building, what a great preacher." He left thinking, "What a great God."

Perhaps John Stott's words will be used to grow our love for the great gospel we will encounter tomorrow:

The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.

Amen!

Remember: we gather for worship not to escape the real world, but to be reminded that this present world in its present fallen state is not all there is. For the Christian, the best is yet to come.

So worship humbly and hard tomorrow. You need it…So do I!

A Sabbath-Eve Gospel Prayer is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

More Gospel Tweets

In a post back in October I mentioned that last year the media guys at Coral Ridge dragged me kicking and screaming into twitter world. I had no interest whatsoever in adding one more thing to my life. But since that time, I've come to love it. I've even been called a twitter-holic. I jokingly tell people that I've finally found my calling–that God has hardwired me for 140 characters.

In all seriousness, it's been a huge blessing for me. I love words. I love turns of phrases. I think in sentences. I also love the gospel–and I can't stop thinking about it. The gospel is the only thing I want to communicate. And I want to help Christians think out the deep implications of the gospel and revel in the rich resources of the gospel everyday and in every way.

As a preacher, therefore, I'm constantly trying to come up with different, concise, memorable ways to share God's good news and Twitter challenges me to do this. It's also a great tool for me personally as I've come to use it as a way to catalog my gospel thoughts and quotes. It's become a way for me to "journal" what God's teaching me about the gospel.

So, from time to time I will gather together a handful of my "gospel tweets" and post them here. I hope the truths in these sentences help you the way that they've helped me.

God's intention for the gospel is that it not only grow wider in the world but that it also grow deeper in Christians.
When you trust in Jesus, your identity and worth is no longer based on what you can accomplish but on what Jesus accomplished for you.
I preach the gospel with life or death passion, not because I believe the gospel fully but because I don't believe the gospel fully!
One reason we fail in OUR doing is because we fail to grasp at a deep, heart level what JESUS has already done.
One reason we give up in our efforts to obey is because we obsess more over our performance for Jesus than we do Jesus' performance for us.
The tent of God's grace has plenty of room for our mistakes.
The gospel frees us from the slavery of becoming preoccupied with our goodness.
The gospel frees us to GIVE UP our place for others, not GUARD IN our place from others because our security is in Christ, not our place.
God's grace toward us is not a lessening of his demands. Grace is experienced when we realize these demands have already been met in Jesus.
The gospel is meant to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we finally place our meaning, purpose, and sense of well-being in Jesus.
Because Christians find our emotional security in Christ's achievement for us, we can admit our wrongs and weaknesses and not feel deflated.
My struggle isn't believing my performance can EARN God's favor; my struggle is believing my performance can KEEP God's favor.
Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.
Only the gospel can cause you to rejoice and be glad in your expendability: because Jesus was someone, your FREE to be no one.
God's love for me and approval of me does not get bigger when I obey or smaller when I disobey. This makes me want to obey him more, not less!
Fall in love with Jesus' work for you and you'll grow. Fall in love with your work for Jesus and you'll shrink.
Those who end up obeying more are those who increasingly realize that their standing with God is not based on their obedience, but Christ's.
If you're overly concerned with what others think then your living in the prison of human approval. Only the gospel can set you free!
Legalism says, "Pursue holiness to make God happy with you." The gospel says, "Pursue holiness because God is happy with you." HUGE DIFFERENCE!
What motivates our obedience determines whether or not it is a sacrifice of praise. Obedience to God's commands prompted by fear or guilt is not true obedience.
The pursuit of holiness must be anchored in, and motivated by, the grace of God; otherwise it is doomed to failure.
Our spiritual lives become unimpressive and laborious when we spend our time and energy trying to spiritually impress God.
We only start "doing better" as we increasingly focus on what Jesus has already done, not on what we must do.
When we transfer trust from our success to Christ's success, we experience the abundant freedoms that come from not having to measure up.

More Gospel Tweets is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

The Glorious Exchange

My mom reminds me of Jesus. Not because she always acts likes Jesus. In fact, she would be the first to admit that, in her attempts to behave the way Jesus behaved, she fails more often than she succeeds. She reminds me of Jesus because she birthed me.

Let me explain.

The very process of giving birth is a beautiful picture of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for sinners like me. In his remarkable book Jesus Ascended, author Gerrit Scott Dawson puts it this way:

A child is conceived through the loving communion of husband and wife. The child grows inside the sheltering womb of the mother. But the child cannot live there forever. He is made for another world, a world of daylight and air, starlight and sky. So in the hours of her labor, the mother offers a new and living way. The way to life as a human being into the world passes through the curtain of her flesh. The curtain must be torn that the child might live and reach the daylight world. The mother is the new and living way. By her pain, the child is born.

This is precisely the way the Bible speaks of Christ's work on the cross. In Isaiah 53, the prophet foretold of a "suffering servant" who would one day bear the sin of many. He tells of a "man of sorrows" who would take on himself the punishment we sinners deserve. He would carry our sickness and swallow our disease. He says in v.6, "All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all." He goes on to say in v.5, "He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed." Approximately 750 years later, the apostle Peter assures his readers that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy (1 Peter 2:22-25). It was Christ who accomplished a glorious exchange: his death brings us life. In the same way that we were brought into this world through the pain and suffering of another, we are brought into fellowship with God through the pain and suffering of Christ.

The way to true everlasting life passes through the curtain of Christ's flesh. Because of my sin, he had to die so that I might live. He is the one who passed through the "valley of the shadow of death" so that I might enjoy the "still waters" and "green pastures" that friendship with God brings.

So when I think about my mother, I can't help but think about the suffering she endured to give me life. I was born because, in love, my mom spent herself in pain and agony. Her blood, literally, brought me into this world.

Similarly, Christ's blood brings sinners into fellowship with God. Jesus is the new and living way (Heb. 10:20). He not only provides passage to God, he is the passage to God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

"By weakness and defeat He won the meed and crown, Trod all our foes beneath His feet, By being trodden down."

A glorious exchange indeed!

The Glorious Exchange is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Thoughts On The Gospel

A while back I emailed my dear brother Scotty Smith (Pastor at Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee) and asked him to provide me his thoughts on the gospel. What he sent me was by no  means exhaustive, but was pure gospel gold nonetheless.

Enjoy…

The gospel is God the Father's irrepressible commitment to redeem his pan-national, trans-generational family, and restore his broken creation through the person and work of Jesus and the power and presence of his Holy Spirit


The gospel is the glory-story of how God the Father is redeeming a people from every single race, tribe, tongue and people group for a life of worship service in the new heaven and new earth. All of this is being accomplished through the person and work of his Son, Jesus, and the power and presence of God the Holy Spirit.


The gospel is the doxological drama in which Jesus, the second Adam, servant-Savior and loving Lord, is redeeming his pan-national Bride and making all things new, to the glory of God


The gospel is the unfolding story of God's contra-conditional love for an ill-deserving people, and for his beloved and broken creation-a story which has Jesus as its hero, the nations as its characters, the world as its storyboard, and the new heaven and new earth as its goal.


The gospel is like a great song: It has a lyric to be known (theology), a music to be loved (doxology) and a dance to be learned (mission). Indeed, the gospel calls for informed minds, en-flamed hearts and engaged feet.


The gospel is God's passionate, joyful, covenant commitment to make all things new through the person and work of his Son, Jesus, and by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit. "All things" include both a people and a place-the Bride of Christ, and the new heaven and new earth. We dare not emphasize one of these to the exception of the other.

For more of Scotty's gospel-soaked insights, you can read his daily prayers here.

Thoughts On The Gospel is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Remember The Duck

This story told by my friend and former professor, Steve Brown, illustrates well the radical discrepancy between the ways in which we hold other people hostage in their sin and the unconditional forgiveness that God offers to us in Christ.

Do you remember the story about the little boy who killed his grandmother's pet duck? He accidentally hit the duck with a rock from his slingshot. The boy didn't think anybody saw the foul deed, so he buried the duck in the backyard and didn't tell a soul.

Later, the boy found out that his sister had seen it all. Not only that, she now had the leverage of his secret and used it. Whenever it was the sister's turn to wash the dishes, take out the garbage or wash the car, she would whisper in his ear, "Remember the duck." And then the little boy would do what his sister should have done.

There is always a limit to that sort of thing. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore–he'd had it! The boy went to his grandmother and, with great fear, confessed what he had done. To his surprise, she hugged him and thanked him. She said, "I was standing at the kitchen sink and saw the whole thing. I forgave you then. I was just wondering when you were going to get tired of your sister's blackmail and come to me."

If he already saw and forgave you, don't let anybody say to you, "Remember the duck."

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:19, "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them." The good news of the gospel is that, for all of us who trust in the finished work of Jesus, God does not count our sins against us–he counts our sins against Christ!

Our own failure to grasp the gospel shows itself when we demand penance from those who have wronged us. Whatever offense I've received is infinitely smaller than the offense God has received from me. And since God has freely, fully, and unconditionally forgiven us in Christ (counting our sins against him) we should be quick and desirous to freely, fully, and unconditionally forgive.

There's simply no better way to get people to contemplate God's unfathomable love and grace than by granting them what he's already granted.

Remember The Duck is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

A Continuing Requirement

The story of Jonah shows us that the gospel—the good news that God relentlessly pursues sinners in order to rescue them—is just as much for Christians as it is for non-Christians. Jonah's life proves this, because Jonah, who knows God, obviously needs divine deliverance as much as anyone else in the story. In fact, his need for rescue gets far more emphasis than anyone else's. It's his destitution, not that of the Ninevites, that gets the most play. That alone should be enough to convince us that God's rescue is a continuing requirement for Christians and non-Christians alike.

The gospel isn't simply a set of truths that non-Christians must believe in order to become saved. It's a reality that Christians must daily embrace in order to experience being saved. The gospel not only saves us from the penalty of sin (justification), but it also saves us from the power of sin (sanctification) day after day. Or, as John Piper has said, "The cross is not only a past place of objective substitution; it is a present place of subjective execution."  Our daily sin requires God's daily grace—the grace that comes to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Churches, for example, have for years debated whether their worship services ought to be geared toward Christians (to encourage and strengthen them) or non-Christians (to appeal to and win them). But this debate and the struggle over it are misguided. We're asking the wrong questions and making the wrong assumptions. The truth is that our worship services should be geared to sinners in need of God's rescue—and that includes both Christians and non-Christians. Since both groups need his deliverance, both need his gospel.

Christians need the gospel because our hearts are always prone to wander; we're always tempted to run from God. It takes the power of the gospel to direct us back to our first love. Consciously going to the gospel ought to be a daily reality and experience for us all. It means, as Jerry Bridges reminds us, "preaching the gospel to yourself every day."  We have to allow God to remind us every day through his Word of Christ's finished work on behalf of sinners in order to stay convinced that the gospel is relevant.

I find that I especially need a gospel refocus to help steer me away from a constant tendency to drift into a performance-driven relationship with God. I'm not alone in that tendency; Jerry Bridges observes how pervasive it is among us all:

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace. If we've performed well—whatever "well" is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven't done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works rather than by grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the "sweat" of our own performance.

Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to "try harder." We seem to believe success in the Christian life (however we define success) is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way. We give lip service to the attitude of the apostle Paul, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15:10), but our unspoken motto is, "God helps those who help themselves. The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience."

As I've said before, the difference between living for God and living for anything else is that when we live for anything else we do so to gain acceptance, but when we live for God we do so because we are already accepted. Real freedom (the freedom that only the gospel grants) is living for something because we already have favor instead of living for something in order to gain favor.

A Continuing Requirement is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Coming Soon: Jesus + Nothing = Everything

In the fall of 2011 my next book entitled Jesus + Nothing = Everything will be released by Crossway. My hope and prayer is that it will serve the church a probing and practical theology of the gospel. It is autobiographically illustrated–using the most difficult year of my life (2009) to show how God helped me rediscover the emboldening, liberating power of the gospel.

Here's Crossway's description of the book:

Jesus + Nothing = Everything is the equation that Tullian Tchividjian took away from a year of great trial and turmoil. In his new book he describes the bitter divisions that soured the beginning of his pastorate at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, and the personal anchor that he found in the overwhelming power of the gospel. The book of Colossians, in particular, forms the basis of Tchividjian's call for Christians to rediscover the gospel and continually reorient our lives around Jesus.

Tchividjian insists that many who assume they understand the gospel fail to actually apply its riches to their lives. He takes particular aim at self-righteousness that emphasizes moral behavior while ignoring gospel indicatives. In contrast, Tchividjian delivers a strong grip of the gospel and the radical freedom and peace that are only then possible. This book delves into the profound theological truths of the gospel, yet the message is intensely practical—Tchividjian sounds the call for believers to lean hard on Christ in every area of every day.

Stay tuned…

Coming Soon: Jesus + Nothing = Everything is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

The Church Has Waited Long

Merry Christmas everyone!

Though our world is in turmoil and many things seem uncertain, the light of the gospel gleams as brightly as ever; and one day–in his own time and by his grace–the Savior who came to redeem us will return to make all things new. "Even so, come Lord Jesus."

I hope and pray that this Christmas you'll be comforted and fueled with hope by the glorious truth expressed in this hymn by Horatius Bonar called "The Church Has Waited Long":

The Church has waited long,

Her absent Lord to see,

And still in loneliness she waits,

A friendless stranger she.

Age after age has gone,

Sun after sun has set,

And still in weeds of widowhood,

She weeps a mourner yet.

Saint after saint on earth

Has lived, and loved, and died;

And as they left us one by one,

We laid them side by side;

We laid them down to sleep,

But not in hope forlorn;

We laid them but to ripen there,

Till the last glorious morn.

The serpent's brood increase,

The powers of hell grow bold,

The conflict thickens, faith is low,

And love is waxing cold.

How long, O Lord our God,

Holy, and true, and good,

Wilt Thou not judge Thy suffering Church,

Her sighs, and tears, and blood?

We long to hear Thy voice,

To see Thee face to face,

To share Thy crown and glory then,

As now we share Thy grace.

Should not the loving bride

Her absent bridegroom mourn?

Should she not wear the signs of grief

Until her Lord return?

The whole creation groans,

And waits to hear that voice

That shall her comeliness restore,

And make her wastes rejoice.

Come, Lord, and wipe away

The curse, the sin, the stain,

And make this blighted world of ours

Thine own fair world again.

The Church Has Waited Long is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

The Grammar Of The Gospel

Justin Taylor fantastically summarizes a section from Sinclair Ferguson's talk earlier this year at the 2010 Basics conference. This is gospel gold. Take notes.

There is, according to Ferguson, a very clear grammar in the gospel: the mood, the tense, and the prepositions.

The Mood of the Gospel

We need to learn that the grammar of the gospel has its appropriate mood.

In our languages today we speak in the indicative mood and the imperative mood. The indicative mood is saying these are the things that are true. The imperative mood is saying these are things you need to do. And in the gospel, the structure of the grammar is always indicative gives rise to imperative. . . .

The Tense of the Gospel

There's also a tense of the gospel: the present is to be rooted in the past. You need to go backward to what Christ has done in order to go forward in what you are to do. There is an emphasis of the already and the mopping-up operation of the not-yet.

The Prepositions of the Gospel

Do you remember how Paul uses prepositions in Galatians 2:20-21, where in a few words he summarizes the work of Christ:

The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me;

and therefore I am crucified with Christ;

nevertheless, I live, but not I; Christ lives in me.

In these three prepositions the apostle Paul has, in a sense, summarized the basic structure of our union with Christ.

Since we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, he came as our substitute and representative—there is this sense in which we now know through faith that we were crucified with Christ. And the past that dominated us has been nailed to the cross; the dominion of sin that reigned over us has been broken—so that  he has died for us and we have been crucified with him, and wonder of wonders there is this third dimension of our union with Christ: a mutual union, in which not only are we are said to be in Christ, but Christ the Lord of glory, in all the fullness of his role as our benefactor comes to dwell in the heart of the merest believer.

Justin has provided the video of Dr. Ferguson's talks here. And you can access the audio here.

The Grammar Of The Gospel is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

The Tri-Centrality Of The Gospel

There's a lot of discussion taking place regarding the essence of the Gospel. People are asking questions like "What is the essence of the Gospel?" and  "Can (or should) the essence of the Gospel be distinguished from its implications?" Some insist that the gospel is just the message of Christ's substitutionary atonement and anything else is an "entailment" or a "result." However, the Bible says the essence of the Gospel is bigger than this.

For instance, in Romans 2:16 Paul says that Christ coming to judge and put the world to rights is part of his gospel. And in Acts 13:32 Paul says that the good news includes the fact that in Christ, the Old Testament promises to Israel are fulfilled. But perhaps the most explicit places where the fullness of the Gospel's essence is seen is in Mark 1:14-15 and Luke 16:16, where Jesus defines the gospel as the coming of the kingdom of God which includes the restoration of all things. In other words, the Gospel is certainly not less than Christ's substitutionary work, but it is more.

As I've come to understand it, the Gospel is the good news that God's Kingdom has come from heaven to earth in the person of Jesus. This includes all that he accomplished by living a perfect life (fullfilling the law–what theologians call his active obedience), all that he accomplished by his substitutionary death (breaking the curse of sin and absorbing the Father's wrath–what theologians call his passive obedience) and all that he accomplished by being raised from the dead (conquering death and thereby guaranteeing the eventual renewal of all things).

In other words, Christ's life by itself is not the center of the Gospel, the cross by itself is not the center of the Gospel, and the resurrection by itself is not the center of the Gospel. Anyone of these without the other two fails to bring about redemption. The Gospel has a tri-centrality to it. So, we don't have to choose between parts of Christ's finished work as being the center of the Gospel. It's much more theologically accurate to say that Christ himself (his life, death, and resurrection) is the center of the Gospel.

I think this is what Tim Keller is getting at when he says the center of the One Gospel is incarnation, substitution, and resurrection. Not one. All three. He puts it like this:

In the person of Jesus, God emptied himself of his glory and became human (incarnation). Through the work of Jesus God substituted himself for us and atoned for our sin, by grace, bringing us into fellowship with him in the church (substitution). At the return of Jesus, God will restore creation and make a new world in which we can enjoy our new life together with him forever (restoration).

I like that.

As I was discussing this with a friend of mine, he shared these helpful insights:

I agree that the essence of evangelism is calling people to repent and believe. What some today are rightly concerned about is that many younger folks are saying that rehabbing houses and feeding the poor is just as much 'proclaiming the gospel' as verbal communication. If you study the Biblical texts, 'preaching the gospel' is almost always a verbal call to repent and be converted. And I think some today are rightly afraid that simply helping make the world a better place (like in mainline Christianity) will become identical to 'living out the gospel' or 'preaching the gospel.'

But its another thing to say that the gospel content –the good news of what Jesus has accomplished–is only that our individual souls are saved and not that the world is going to be renewed. The good news of the Gospel includes our sins being forgiven and that we are finally going to be given a new heavens and new earth. We must be careful not to imply that some of the benefits of the cross are good news (like pardon and justification) and some are not (like resurrection, restoration of the world, home.) Or, that one is more important than the other. Or, that one is the essence of the Gospel and the other only an implication.

Jesus is the divine curse-remover and creation-renewer. Christ's law-fulfilling life qualified him alone to be our substitute (which is why I often say that we are not saved apart from the law–rather we are saved in Christ who perfectly kept the law for us). Christ's substitutionary death on the cross broke the curse of sin and death brought on by Adam's cosmic rebellion. And his bodily resurrection from the dead three days later dealt death its final blow, guaranteeing the eventual renewal of all things "in Christ."

The dimensions of Christ's finished work, then, are both individual and cosmic. They range from personal pardon for sin and individual forgiveness to the final resurrection of our bodies and the restoration of the whole world. Now that's good news—gospel—isn't it? If we place our trust in the finished work of Christ, sin's curse will lose its grip on us individually and we will one day be given a renewed creation. The gospel isn't only about reestablishing a two-way relationship between God and us; it also restores a three-way relationship among God, his people, and the created order. Through Christ's work, our relationship with God is restored while creation itself is renewed. This is what theologians mean when they talk about redemption. They're describing this profound, far-reaching work by God.

Of course none of this is available for those who remain disconnected from Jesus. Sin's acidic curse remains on everything that continues to be separated from Christ. We must be united to Christ by placing our trust in his finished work in order to receive and experience all the newness God has promised. For, as John Calvin said, "As long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us." But for all that is united to Christ, everything false, bad, and corrupting will one day be consumed by what is true, good, and beautifying—and this includes the material world.

As the beloved Christmas hymn "Joy to the World" puts it:

He comes to make his blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

In this remarkable line, we broadcast in song a Gospel as large as the universe itself. The good news of the Gospel is that the blessings of redemption "flow as far as the curse is found." This hymn reminds us that the Gospel is good news to a world that has, in every imaginable way, been twisted away from the intention of the Creator's design by the powers of sin and death, but that God, in Christ, is putting it back into shape.

Because of our various fears, insecurities, and tendencies to overreact to abuses, we have a real knack for creating dichotomies where dichotomies aren't supposed to be. I guess I'm just not sure why there's so much disagreement. Do you?

The Tri-Centrality Of The Gospel is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian