Do the gospel truths feel disconnected from your everyday life? How do you relate to a serpent in a garden when you feel angry while trying to discipline your child? Why does God’s good creation matter when your mother is dying from cancer? How can you see Christ’s love on the cross when you can’t see past the mounds of laundry that occupy your living room couch?
You might have to look for it, but the truth is that the gospel is relevant to each of these
circumstances and to every condition of our lives. A beautiful garden, the fall to sin, God’s
redemption through Christ, the hope for our eternal home --- the gospel message is intricately woven into every circumstance we face. The gospel is never too big for you to understand, nor is it too small for you to apply. It is the foundation for our lives, and God is glorified when we view every moment in light of it.
What is the gospel?
I know it’s easy to skip over this part, but I hope you will resist the temptation. It is a need that we never outgrow. We cannot recite it enough.
1)“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was
evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
Genesis 1:31
Matthew Henry writes in his commentary regarding this verse: “It was good. Good, for it is all
agreeable to the mind of the Creator, just as he would have it to be. Good, for it answers the end of its creation, and is fit for the purpose for which it was designed. Good for it is serviceable to man, whom God had appointed lord of the visible creation. Good, for it is all for God’s glory.”
Before the beginning of the world, the Trinity existed, and together perfectly created the world as it ought to reflect the glory of God. And it was very good.
2) But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes,
and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she
also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked.
Genesis 3:4-7
Satan has been God’s enemy since the beginning of creation. All of man fell to sin this day and desperately needed a rescue.
3) “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
The good news of the gospel. Christ came to save sinners. Adam and Eve were not forsaken after they betrayed God in the garden. God had a plan to redeem his people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, long before the first sin was committed.
4) “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise up with healing in its
wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” Malachi 1:2
This is the hope we cling to in the gospel message. Christ will return for his people. No more
affliction. No more pain or death. Right now, we live in this tension of knowing that Satan has
been defeated but sin is still crouching at the door. The truth in this verse gives us hope to
persevere.
How do I apply the gospel?
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You weren’t supposed to be angry in parenthood. God’s
design was joy everlasting in parenting young kids. But when your sin feels strong and you feel weak, cling to the hope that while you are parenting your child, God is parenting you. How does God treat you when you don’t follow his rules? Or when you wrongfully get angry? He shows you in Genesis 3:21 after Adam and Eve disobeyed: “And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” He did not banish them from the face of the earth and cease their existence (which he could do and still be a just God). He clothed them, and he clothes you in your weak and sinful moments with the righteousness of Christ. “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103). Christ died so that God might have mercy on you. The gospel is so evident in parenthood because we can easily see how weak our parenting is and how sufficient God’s grace is. Take heart, parents. What hope you have when you fix your eyes on Christ, the propitiation for your sins!
Your mom was never supposed to die from a crippling sickness. God’s design in the garden was a people to live and glorify him forever. But death crawls the earth as the serpent crawled the ground after he was cursed by God. So, how can you see the good news of the gospel when grief overwhelms you? The answer is found in 1 Thessalonians 4: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” Christ died so that we might live! The gospel is ever present in death.
You weren’t supposed to feel overwhelmed and overworked in your daily work. God’s design
was to delight in the work of your hands (Genesis 2:15). What God meant for your good and his glory now (because of sin) makes you feel bitter, burdened, and burned out. So, where is the redeeming work of the gospel when you are doing household chores late after everyone else has gone to bed or rising early to leave for work? Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Because Christ came, died, and rose in all things, you work joyfully as for the Lord. The gospel message means that you can serve God in your folding laundry, in your changing diapers, and in your organizing spreadsheets with singing and gladness in your heart because your eyes are fixed on an eternal service to Him. The glory of God is so transcendent that you might seek and find the death and resurrection of Christ in something as lowly as pairing socks. The gospel message in your daily work brings hope as it fixes your eyes on Christ and helps you journey on toward the eternal shore.
What now?
I say all of this to say that the gospel is important every day, every hour, every minute, and every moment. It’s not just something we confess once in our initial encounter with Christ, but a foundation that shapes the way we live our lives. It is important for the new Christian to know, understand and recite the gospel not just so that they can understand the reality of what it means to be a Christian but so that they can live in the reality of “now and not yet.” It’s important because Christians need a way to reconcile a good and gracious God with a broken and corrupt world. It’s important because the gospel is not just a few verses of scripture that Christians memorize and share but a confession of our condition, a hope for our pilgrimage, and a lamp that lights our way through life’s darkest moments.
So, the next time you feel weary from whatever hard you are facing, it is my prayer that you will find and cling to the gospel in your situation. God’s initial design was good. We live as
foreigners in a sinful, broken world. Christ defeated death so that we might live in Him. God sees you. He cares for you. And He is glorified when you view your every moment through the lens of the gospel.
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