We are gospel centred (Part 3)

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Galatians 3:3

Hi Church,

Why do you think it is that if we are saved by grace, we are so quick to drift back into self-reliance?

In this series we are exploring four priorities that shape our life together at EBC: gospel centrality, gospel centred discipleship, gospel centred community, and gospel centred mission.

Today we continue unpacking Gospel Centrality by looking at the second at the second mark: a focus on grace.

Two Marks of Gospel Centrality: #2 A Focus on Grace.

Not only is Jesus our focus in all things as our Lord and Saviour, but we continually return to our need for grace. We still struggle with sin, and we still need rescue. This isn't just something we needed when we first came to Jesus, it's what we need every day. Grace is oxygen to the child of God. As Paul writes in Galatians, "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

Paul is drawing a contrast between the Spirit of God and our flesh, that is, between relying on God’s grace and relying on our own effort.. Having been rescued by a miracle of God's grace, why would we think we can carry on living apart from His grace? Paul calls the Galatian church fools. He'd call us fools too if we were to abandon the call of grace to prove we can stand on our own two feet without Him.

Grace is oxygen to the Christian. Without it, we cannot live. The gospel-centred church is a church on life support, dependent day by day on the goodness, power and Spirit of God. The man-centred church is a church relying on its own cleverness and skill (and in our day, God help us, our “coolness”). In doing so, it slowly disconnects itself from its only true source of life.

Let us throw ourselves afresh onto the God of all grace who delights to meet us in our weakness and work among us for his glory.

Next time we’ll look at what we mean by gospel centred discipleship, and how the gospel shapes the way we follow Jesus together.

To God be the Glory!

- Pastor Mike