Use It
I've been working with a friend who is a master electrician on some of his jobs part-time. It's been an education for sure.
It can be amazing how much simpler a task can be when done with the proper tool that was specifically designed for it.
The same principle applies to spiritual matters. God has equipped His children with what they need to walk with Him in a healthy relationship. He has equipped us with everything we need in Christ Jesus.
2Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
The right gospel, according to the new covenant Jesus established with His blood, equips us to know Him correctly. In it is revealed the love of God for us, the righteousness of God we have become in Him, the sanctification we have received in Christ Jesus, the wisdom from God that is now available to us as a result, and the promised Holy Spirit who teaches us all things concerning Him and leads us in the right way.
Whenever the gospel is treated as merely an introductory message designed to get someone initially saved and then left alone, little to no real fruit is the result. The supernatural fruit the gospel produces is rooted and grounded in a relationship with God forged by the obedience of Christ Jesus and applied to our own lives by grace through faith.
The gospel is the primary tool of the New Covenant that Jesus established. When we remember to ask, how does the gospel apply in this situation? What can the gospel reveal to me about how Jesus feels and thinks about me in this matter? What can the gospel show me about the decision I need to make in this circumstance?
In every one of these examples, the gospel will point us to interact with the One who loves us so deeply and faithfully.
1 Corinthians 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
The enemy wants us to believe that everything we face is too complicated for something as simple as the gospel to be our tool, bringing us to the right place for proper wisdom and solutions.
Colossians 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
The gospel is your tool. May I encourage you to use it?
