In the Bible, we read story after story of people meeting God and walking away completely changed. The same is true for Christians today. Being a Christian, by Dr. Jason Allen, shows how Jesus redeems all of life. Useful for new and mature believers, small group and personal study, Being a Christian walks readers through the gospel’s impact on all facets of life, from your relationships to your resources, from your work to your rest, from your past to your future.
In the Bible, we read story after story of people meeting God and walking away completely changed. The same is true for Christians today. Being a Christian, by Dr. Jason Allen, shows how Jesus redeems all of life. Useful for new and mature believers, small group and personal study, Being a Christian walks readers through the gospel’s impact on all facets of life, from your relationships to your resources, from your work to your rest, from your past to your future.
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Overview
In the Bible, we read story after story of people meeting God and walking away completely changed. The same is true for Christians today. Being a Christian, by Dr. Jason Allen, shows how Jesus redeems all of life. Useful for new and mature believers, small group and personal study, Being a Christian walks readers through the gospel’s impact on all facets of life, from your relationships to your resources, from your work to your rest, from your past to your future.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781462761937 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | B&H Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 02/01/2018 |
| Pages: | 160 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.63(d) |
| Age Range: | 3 Months to 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
You & the Gospel
Since this book is about the Christian life, and how the gospel empowers us to live it, we must begin with one massive caveat: you will not be able to live the Christian life unless you are a Christian. It is not until you are a Christian that the life of Christ is in you. The gospel is the door that leads one to life in Christ, the Christian life.
That's why, before we get too deep into this book on how the gospel redeems us, we need to pause and reflect on the most urgent of all questions: what is the gospel? What do we mean when we speak of preaching the gospel? Or sharing the gospel? Or believing the gospel? What does this word gospel mean?
What Is the Gospel?
In short, when we refer to "the gospel," we are referring to a message about a man, Jesus Christ. The word gospel simply means "good news." It is the message of good news about the man Jesus Christ. This news is summarized in places like John 3:16, "For God so loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life," and 2 Corinthians 5:21, "He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
While John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and many other verses present the gospel in encapsulated form, the broader narrative of the gospel message runs throughout Scripture. In fact, the gospel story begins before Scripture, in eternity past, when God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, purposed to create all that is — a creation intended to bring them glory. And, within that creation, they chose to redeem a people to reflect their glory throughout eternity future.
In the Garden
The earliest words of Scripture both introduce and foreshadow this gospel message. In Genesis 1 and 2, we learn of a sovereign God who created all that is within the universe, including Adam and Eve. The Bible begins, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The climactic act of God's creative work came on day six, when he created man in his own image.
God not only created the first couple, he positioned them in an ideal setting — the garden of Eden. This location was perfect, facilitating a perfect life for God's perfect couple. From the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were called to husband the land, to exercise dominion over God's broader creation, and to enjoy and glorify God forever.
As the product of a perfect and holy God, his creation was perfect and holy. It was unimprovable and a place in which Adam and Eve could enjoy perfect harmony with God and one another. Everything about Adam, Eve, the garden of Eden, and the totality of God's creative work radiated his glory.
The Original Sin
Yet Satan, appearing in the form of a serpent, persuaded Eve and, ultimately, Adam to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent was cunning, devilishly brilliant. He persuaded Adam and Eve to doubt God's Word and to believe that if they ate of the fruit, they would become like God. Cue the ominous background music and read with me Genesis 3:1–6:
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You can't eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.'"
"No! You will not die," the serpent said to the woman. "In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Their sin was ruinous. It severed their relationship with God, caused their immediate spiritual death, set in motion their physical death, and plunged all of humanity into sin and death with them. In the words of the apostle Paul, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). To this day, we are now all sons and daughters of Adam.
It is impossible to understand the world we now live in without a healthy doctrine of original sin. The brokenness, poverty, illness, warfare, sexual abuse, and every other human vice trace their roots back to that ill-fated day in the garden of Eden. The emptiness our lives are marked by apart from Christ is a direct result of Adam's sin.
The Second Adam
Thankfully, the story doesn't end with Adam. All that Adam lost, the second Adam — Jesus Christ — gained on our behalf. And that is precisely what all of creation needed — a second Adam, a Messiah who could make right all that Adam made wrong.
Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets foretold of one who would come and deliver God's people from their sins. The sacrificial system depicted the coming sacrifice, Jesus, who would die for our sins. Every time a priest sacrificed a spotless lamb, it foreshadowed, "The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).
Thus, when Jesus came on the scene, he arrived in a season of pent-up messianic expectation. The Jews' desire for a spiritual deliverer had morphed into a desire for deliverance from Roman oppression, a deliverance from political bondage. He came to his own, but his own did not receive him.
Spiritual Deliverance
But that wasn't Jesus' mission. His task wasn't to deliver his countrymen from political bondage. It was to save sinners from their spiritual bondage. Born of a virgin, Jesus was fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life, performed countless miracles, and throughout his earthly ministry demonstrated he was God's only Son. As Peter declared in Matthew 16:16, he indeed was the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Not only did Jesus' disciples recognize his claim to deity, so did his detractors. In fact, throughout the New Testament, we see the Jewish leaders seeking to stone Jesus, precisely because he claimed to be God's Son, making himself equal with God.
So, Jesus, as the spotless Lamb of God, died for our sins — paying a sin debt we could never pay. In so doing, he purchased us from the slave block of sin, redeeming us for his own. And on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.
Jesus' resurrection demonstrated that he was God's divine Son and that the Father accepted his payment for our sin. Now, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father, presiding over the cosmos, interceding for his followers, and preparing to return for his people and the final judgment.
Not Just a Message, a Man
In light of this, it is essential that we remember that the gospel is not just a message; it is a man — Jesus Christ. The message is only as powerful as the Man of whom it speaks. Thus, our response is not so much a response to a message about Christ; it is a response to Christ.
We come to know Jesus and we experience his life through repentance and faith. These are gifts from God, and when we repent — turn from our sins — and place our faith in Christ, we are made right with him. This glorious transaction is summarized in Romans 5:6–9:
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from wrath.
Saved, in Every Dimension
Through the power of Christ, the gospel saves us from our sins — in every dimension. We most often think of salvation as freeing us from the penalty of sin, and that it does. Despite conventional wisdom, there is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain. Hell is a real place, populated with real people, experiencing real, eternal punishment. And those who die apart from Christ spend eternity there. As the above passage teaches us, those who die in Christ are "saved through him from wrath." The gospel saves us from the penalty of sin.
The gospel also saves us from the practice of sin. Christians don't become perfect, but we do make progress along the way. Before our conversion, we lived, in the words of Ephesians 2:3, according to "our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath." After conversion, the Holy Spirit resides within us, enabling us to live the Christian life. Our desires change as we mature in him, and we find ourselves able to increasingly honor him with our lives.
Finally, the gospel saves us from the pain of sin. Many of us, perhaps you personally, live with a sense of guilt hanging over us. Filled with regret over past actions, words, or events, we wonder if God can even forgive us. As we'll see in chapter 2, the gospel makes all things new — including our past.
The Gospel for All; the Gospel for You
Remember, the gospel is for all, and the gospel is for you. There is no one beyond the reach of the gospel. There is no one too bad to be saved; there is no one too good to need to be saved. So, as we proceed with this book, let's be clear about the gospel and its impact on one's life. Throughout this book, I'm assuming you're a believer and am orienting the book toward believers wanting to grow in Christ. But I shouldn't assume too much, and neither should you. Before you read further, reflect on the gospel, your life, and the message of Christ, and make sure you know him.
CHAPTER 2
The Gospel & Your Past
Over the years, I have had the privilege of marrying dozens of couples. When two Christians come together as one, it is always a special, joyous occasion. To ensure the couple is ready for marriage, and to strengthen their forthcoming life together, I always insist upon premarital counseling. This is nonnegotiable. The couple must complete premarital counseling before I will marry them.
When visiting one-on-one with the man, there's one question I am often asked: "How much of my past should I tell her? Should I tell her about past relationships? About stupid decisions I made? About all the baggage I am carrying?"
When they ask me this question, I usually see fear in their eyes; I can hear it in their voices. They are afraid if they "come clean," their fiancé will break off the wedding, wanting to marry someone with less baggage.
Many would-be followers of Christ have a similar outlook, and many Christians live with a persistent, suffocating guilt. They question whether Christ will truly forgive them for what they have done. They feel they will never measure up spiritually, thus assigned to second-class Christian status. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Every Person Has a Past
Every person has a past. I do. You do. Everyone does. By past, I mean things we have done at a previous point in our lives that cause regret and embarrassment, if not outright shame. It is that laundry list of attitudes, actions, and events you aren't proud of. And, again, it's not just you. Everyone's past is marked by, at least to some degree, foolish words, reckless decisions, and sinful acts. Everyone's!
Christianity does not change your past, but it does change what you do with it — and what it does to you. This is the beauty of Christianity, the splendor of a relationship with Christ. Jesus does not reluctantly accept us in spite of our past. He pursues us, calls us, loves us, and uses us, fully aware of our past — regardless of how checkered it may be.
The Apostle Paul
Did you know God can actually get greater glory when he uses people with a checkered past? That is the story of the greatest Christian who ever lived, the apostle Paul. He may well have had the worst past ever to overcome.
He wrote thirteen New Testament letters and traversed the Mediterranean region on three major missionary journeys. This mighty man of the faith planted numerous churches, won multitudes to faith in Christ, and laid the doctrinal foundation on which the church has ministered for nearly two millennia. The apostle Paul was a missionary-theologian unlike any other the world has ever known.
Before Paul, Saul
In Acts 9, Saul met the risen Christ, was gloriously converted, and was commissioned as an apostle. But before he encountered Christ in Acts 9, he appeared in Acts 7. This passage records one of the most diabolical scenes in all the Bible — the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the early church. In that setting, we find Saul, holding the coats of the stone throwers, rooting them on.
Then, in Acts 9, overflowing with hatred and rage, Saul goes to Damascus to persecute other or even more Christians. On that roadway, the resurrected Christ appeared to Saul, confronted him, and subsequently called Saul to himself and commissioned him into ministry.
Consider Paul's autobiographical reflection on his life before Christ, and his conversion story:
I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry — even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" — and I am the worst of them. But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. (1 Tim. 1:12–16)
Did you catch that? Paul said God loved him, through Christ, so that God might get greater glory, as he doled out his grace on such a violent transgressor. Paul never got over this glorious grace. Indeed, God's grace fueled his Christian life and propelled him forward into unmatched ministry accomplishment.
Grace-Filled Accomplishment
Paul's Christian witness was so effective that he experienced constant persecution. See what his faith in Christ cost him:
... far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death. Five times I received the forty lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing. Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my concern for all the churches. (2 Cor. 11:23–28)
Paul's bold witness for Christ led to his house arrest, and ultimately his incarceration in the ancient world's most infamous jail, the Mamertine Prison. There, in an underground, cold, sewage-infested dungeon, Paul awaited his final execution. And executed he was. Church history teaches us Paul was beheaded outside of Rome in AD 67.
The New Testament letters he wrote, the churches he planted, the lives he touched, and the suffering he experienced all come together — especially given the church's unique inflection point during Paul's era — to make Paul the greatest Christian who ever lived.
Paul Overcoming His Past
What was Paul's secret to overcoming his past? Why was his past not a weight but a springboard? The key is that he looked forward to Christian service, not backward in guilt, shame, or regret.
Paul testified, "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13–14).
There is a difference — a massive difference — between overlooking your past and forgetting about it. Paul never overlooked his past. He wrote extensively about man's sinfulness, including his own.
The more he matured in Christ, the more self-aware he grew of his own sinfulness. In his first New Testament letter, written about AD 55, Paul referred to himself as "the least of the apostles" (1 Cor. 15:9). A few years later, in Ephesians 3:8, Paul referred to himself as "the least of all the saints." A few years later still, in 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul declared that he was "the worst of [sinners]."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Being a Christian"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Jason Allen.
Excerpted by permission of B&H Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction: Being a Christian: How Jesus Redeems All of Life 1
Chapter 1 You & the Gospel 11
Chapter 2 The Gospel & Your Past 21
Chapter 3 The Gospel & Your Marriage 33
Chapter 4 The Gospel & Your Family 45
Chapter 5 The Gospel St Your Time 57
Chapter 6 The Gospel & Your Money 69
Chapter 7 The Gospel & Your Work 81
Chapter 8 The Gospel & Your Recreation 95
Chapter 9 The Gospel & Your Mind 107
Chapter 10 The Gospel & Your Church 119
Conclusion: The Gospel & You 131
Acknowledgments 137
About the Author 139
Notes 141