Who is the Gospel for?
                March 12, 2007                      

The Gospel Vibe blog posts the Testimony of John Fonville- a very good read!

Here are some highlights:

Throughout much of my Christian life I was a functioning Roman Catholic (cf., Calvin, Institutes, IV. xvii. 41, pp. 1418-1419!).

What do I mean by that?

I would habitually turn inward to conduct personal "fruit inspection" and then wallow and mope around for long periods of time in despair, guilt and a troubled conscience.

I would beat myself up ("How could you do this? You are such an idiot!") with self-imposed acts of contrition trying to "get right" with God (or at least do enough to sense that God and I were once again on good grounds).

I was NEVER taught that the death of Christ was also a death for Christian failure (i.e., the power of sin/sanctification).

Jesus' example only condemns us!

Law has no power to change!

I diligently sought to obey Scripture because I was taught obedience is the ground of assurance.

And without at least being willing to "lay it all down" I couldn't even be a disciple because this is the "Gospel according to Jesus."

I discovered that I had been making two mistakes in my thinking.

1. First, I unconsciously assumed that I could live by/obey the commands/imperatives of the Bible.

This was simply self-focused, performance-driven, legalism (and I didn't even know it). Rich Young Ruler, Calvin, vol. I, pp. 831-832!

2. Second and even worse, I assumed that God's acceptance of me and his blessing in my life depended on how well I obeyed/performed.

I knew I was saved by grace through faith in Christ apart from works.

I knew the Gospel was for the "unsaved."

But, no one ever told me that the Gospel was also for Christians.

To alleviate my guilt/conscience, I would confess my sins repeatedly until I felt some level of being back in a "good standing" with God.

And so, I was a professing Evangelical, functioning as a Roman Catholic.

The Common Misconception Within Evangelicalism

Performance-Based Discipleship or law-driven sanctification plagues the majority of Evangelical churches today.

Evangelicals commonly think that the gospel is for unbelievers (i.e., what we preach to get people "saved.").

Our need for the gospel only applies to evangelism.

A big part of the problem is to think that once the unsaved are inside the kingdom's door, now as believers, they need to hear the message of discipleship.

To learn how to live the Christian life and be challenged to go do it.

So, we put the Gospel on the shelf and go on to the duties of discipleship.

This common misconception is based on a misunderstanding both of the Gospel and of the discipling process.

I highly recommend reading the whole article. It is well worth the time and effort !! You will begin rejoicing in your salvation by the end!!