Life Worthy of the Gospel: I don’t know what it is about reading and listening to random sermons, but I have to admit, it has become one of my favorite pastimes lately. Most of the time I’m not even looking for anything in particular. I just tune in to hear what people are saying, and somehow it almost always sparks a few thoughts. I think that is what I enjoy most about it.
This particular message was called A Life Worthy of the Gospel, and admittedly, I cherry-picked it because of the title. With everything I’ve been thinking about lately concerning sanctification, and especially the distinctions between law and gospel, I was curious to see where the preacher would take it. Let’s just say, it did not disappoint. In many ways, it almost seemed to provide a little picture of the larger landscape I’ve been trying to sort through.
What made the message especially interesting was that much of it sounded perfectly reasonable at first. There were things I could readily agree with. The Christian life matters. Our conduct matters. Our profession should not be contradicted by the way we live.
But fairly early in the message, he gave an example that made me begin to wonder exactly what kind of “life” we were talking about: “There are a lot of people who profess Christ, but who don’t live like it. I like sports, I do. But you watch any sporting event, you watch an Alabama football game, and you’re gonna see some athlete who maybe has tattoos all over their body, who maybe got caught smoking marijuana or whatever, who’s got chains and sparkly teeth and earrings and all the rest, say at some point, I just wanna thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
What caught my attention was how several very different things had suddenly been placed into the same category. A question of actual conduct was sitting beside tattoos, jewelry, and appearance, as though all of them equally told us something about the reality of a man’s profession. And this is where I think the discussion becomes important. Once we begin saying that a Christian ought to be easily identifiable by the way he looks and the way he lives, we had better be very careful that the picture we are drawing comes from Scripture rather than from a particular Christian culture.
Because that immediately raises another question: how much of what we call “Christian conduct” is actually biblical morality, and how much of it is simply the outward appearance we have learned to associate with Christianity? That is where cultural identification can take the place of biblical discernment. Certain clothes, certain music, certain mannerisms, certain outward habits begin to feel “Christian” simply because they are familiar to us. And before long, we find ourselves measuring spiritual reality by a picture that owes as much to our religious culture as it does to Scripture.
This is where the discussion begins to move beyond ordinary exhortation. Scripture tells believers how they ought to live, and obedience matters. But that is different from making outward conduct into a kind of spiritual measuring stick. Once outward conduct begins to carry the weight of identifying what is happening spiritually underneath, dress, habits, entertainment, speech, and lifestyle can start functioning almost like visible indicators of grace. At that point, we are no longer simply asking: “How should a Christian live?” We are asking: “What must a Christian look like in order for us to believe his profession?”
The gospel does affect the way a Christian lives. Paul certainly did not believe that grace leaves a man indifferent to conduct. He could exhort believers concerning their speech, their relationships, their honesty, their purity, their charity, and nearly every other part of ordinary life. But that still leaves an important question: what exactly are we expecting the Christian life to demonstrate? The gospel is not the announcement that Christians live better lives. It is not the announcement that Christians dress differently, listen to different music, avoid certain forms of entertainment, or maintain a visibly distinguishable lifestyle. The gospel is the announcement of what God has done in Christ.
Christ died for our sins. Christ was buried. Christ rose again. Christ accomplished what sinners could never accomplish for themselves. Christian conduct should adorn the doctrine we profess. It should never become the doctrine itself. The good news remains outside of us. The gospel points us away from ourselves and back to Christ. MPJ