Dear Mr. Sloppy Gospel…
Thursday, June 23, 2011
I stumbled across this article this morning from a friends blog. It is apropos for Southwood today:
An Open Letter To Mr. Grace-Loving Antinomian
There seems to be a fear out there that the preaching of radical grace produces serial killers. Or, to put it in more theological terms, too much emphasis on the indicatives of the gospel leads to antinomianism (a lawless version of Christianity that believes the directives and commands of God don’t matter). My problem with this fear is that I’ve never actually met anyone who has been truly gripped by God’s amazing grace in the gospel who then doesn’t care about obeying him. As I have said before: antinomianism happens not when we think too much of grace. Just the opposite, actually. Antinomianism happens when we think too little of grace.
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http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tullian/
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Recommended Reading
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“Jesus + Nothing = Everything will remind you of the ancient yet ever-fresh truth that everything we need is found in the perfections of Christ—not in ourselves, not in our reputation, our relationships or wealth or accomplishments—in Christ alone. If you’ve never rested in the finished work of Christ this book is for you. If you’ve rested in it for decades like I have, this book is for you, too. Why? Because we forget; And, although we love Jesus, we’re blind to the ways in which his work connects to our daily lives and we wonder why joy and zeal are foreign concepts to us.” -Elyse Fitzpatrick
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Get ready to be bothered by the Gospel. Steve Brown teaches grace in a way that gets under your skin—- Reading Brown is like having a gospel hair in your mouth of your conscience. The more it bothers you the more beautiful the pearl produced will be
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From the publisher: “It is a deep and rich biblical study of sanctification - how Christians grow in holiness and become more like Jesus. In a day when Christians are very prone to pursue self-help methods to grow in obedience to Christ, Walter Marshall lays out the biblical way of growth: obedience comes as Christians live by grace, in union with Christ, by faith.” This book influenced me PROFOUNDLY on the topic of sanctification. The Modern-English re-write makes this a TOP PICK for 2011!
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I ‘accidentally’ picked up this book simply for the title alone. I grew to hate it quickly. It hit a little ‘too close to home.’ Fischer’s book plunges the scalpel of self-awareness and need for deep repentance deep into the hard hearts of Pharisees like ME!
Recommended Listening
- Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Ricky JonesRicky Jones is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a trophy of grace. If you want to listen to bold preaching by a man who knows his sin, knows his weaknesses and trusts only Jesus to take what he says and use it to God’s glory then you are heading in the right direction. The preaching is bold, the preacher is humble and you will be blessed.
- Key Life Ministries
Steve BrownSteve Brown is not the most subtle guy you will ever meet. If I were to write an S.A.T. question about Steve this is how it would go: Steve Brown is to legalism what a child hopped-up on cake and ice cream is to an pinata! I love this guy. Check out his website and fair warning: you are not heading to a ‘SAFE’ little Christian site!
- Coral Ridge Presbyterian
Tullian TchividjianAs one comment on iTunes said: “Tullian preaches the Gospel in an unadulterated and undomesitcated way…The way it should be preached!”
Recommended Links
- Mockingbird Blog
David ZahlMockingbird is a ministry that seeks to connect the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life in as fresh and down-to-earth a way possible.
- White Horse Inn
MIchael HortonWhite Horse Inn is a multimedia catalyst for reformation. We believe that each generation must rediscover and apply the gospel to their own time. We long to see a second reformation take hold of our churches and return them to the God-honoring, Christ-centered, Spirit-wrought places of worship they should be.
- On Earth as it is in Heaven
Tullian TchividjianWilliam Graham Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) is a Florida native, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham.
- Heavenward
Scotty SmithSmith is the founding Pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN, avid writer, prolific blogger and tweeter. His nuggets of Gospel wisdom are seasoned by years of service to the Bride. He is gentle and very purposed in his every comment.
Comments
Anonymous | June 23 2011 at 1:31 pm
Sloppy Gospel Extra Grace…in context, from what I recall this is a play on words from how Jean likes his roast beef po-boys, how the only way to make a real roast beef po-boy is sloppy with the mayo, and extra gravy…likewise the only real gospel is fully God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone, and it has so much grace that it can’t be considered “extra”.
The analogy breaks down if I haven’t heard that sermon; it sounds like we are sloppy about what we consider the gospel to be, and that we have found a way to add more grace than proper for the gospel. Fact is that the gospel isn’t sloppy at all, it’s very precise…sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus.
I feel that much of the pushback is that there’s no need to be sloppy with the gospel, and that the believers already justified by grace are also hungry to understand and also apply the continuing work of God’s grace in our sanctification without “…[dragging our works] back on board as a means of maintaining favor with God”. I understand how this may be difficult to do when taking Galatians verse-by-verse, desiring the people to struggle with each point Paul made as he made it. But Galatians was given to us as a full letter, so Galatians 1 can’t be isolated from Galatians 5. They’re like a lead guitar and bass, jamming together back-to-back, playing the music of the gospel (thanks for the analogy : ) That’s what we’re hungry for. To paraphrase from your sermon on May 8th, maybe it’s not that we don’t understand grace, maybe it’s that we need to understand the gospel.
Anonymous | June 23 2011 at 6:16 pm
Ooops, correction to second paragraph, first sentence. Should be: “...found a way to add more grace to a gospel that is already full of it.” Didn’t catch that, didn’t want to imply that there are any limits to grace in the gospel!
Anonymous | June 24 2011 at 1:19 pm
I don’t understand the subtle difference between understanding grace and understanding the gospel. And here’s the best news - I don’t need to.
Retarded people can know God and experience grace - I’m beginning to think they have a greater capacity for receiving it (and being happy in it) than I do.
But then there’s good news (aka Gospel) for me. I am retarded in significant ways: patterns of guilt, anxiety / depression, hauntings of past wrongs (by me or to me), or the gnawing thought in the back of my head that I must always “be right”. Even as I write these sentences, I want them to be perfect!
I’m sure that the mature among us don’t deal with these things to the extent that I do. But if I can just recognize how broken I am in these areas (and more), perhaps I can become happy in it (because God accepts me regardless). I believe every Christian (mature or not) has a similar story / struggle.
Please, pile on the Gospel of Grace! Call it “sloppy”, or call it the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s unique affections to His people.