Much like actual warfare the battle of the Christian life often is weakened by unsuspected enemies. There are the sneaky traitors from within the camp and the powerful blows of the enemy’s surprise weapons that injure military forces. And in the Christian life we are mindful of heresies, doctrinal compromise, and Satan’s schemes. And aware we should be.
GOSPEL AMNESIA
But at the same time there is the enemy of gospel amnesia that is extremely dangerous. I believe that when we forget the gospel (what Christ has really accomplished for sinners in history– 1 Cor. 15.3-5) then we have lost our minds. We are in trouble. Our actions are not ones motivated and calibrated by the gospel but rather moral (at best) attempts to leave peaceably or even worse, they are selfishly inspired attempts to gain fame.
MIX IN A LITTLE 1ST PERSON PLURAL
The commonly repeated but uncommonly performed antidote for this problem is the remind ourselves and one another of the truthfulness, power, and beauty of the gospel. We must preach the gospel to our forgetful hearts every single day. Without this, we are sitting ducks.
One way that we can subtly do this is to insert the oft-neglected ‘we’ into your encouraging, admonishing, prayerful words to one another. An example of this might be in a conversation with another believer where you are talking about the need to honor Christ with all of our lives. Well, instead of just saying ‘you’ we can mix in the ‘we’. After all, it is the ‘we’ that this applies to. Right?
If you have to confront sin or admonish unbiblical thinking it is a great opportunity to remember the gospel yourself. So in so doing speak to the brother/sister about the gospel. Talk of your own neediness for grace and how you treasure the sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness for you. In this conversation you are reminding yourself and others of the need for the gospel.
It can become second nature to point the finger at the politicians, the Hollywood stars, the thugs in your town, the ‘unbelievers’, etc… without ever including yourself as one who needs grace.
Sadly this often does not look a lot like being broken over sin but self-righteousness over folks who have broken your rules or trampled upon your moral code. When we see ourselves as all needful of the gospel of grace there is no room for us to stand on our perches to point out others shortcomings. Instead we are reminding ourselves and others of our mutual need for grace. We show our shortcomings in light of God’s standard to love and obey him perfectly. We then point happily to the only one who ever could or would do this (John 8.29).
Inserting the 1st person plural into our conversations and emails helps to combat our short-term memory issues with the gospel.
(note: there is definitely a place for the 2nd person, both singular and plural. However, my fear is that this is used almost exclusively and as a result some of us forget the gospel. this post is an attempt toward balance as an antidote.)