This morning I am continuing in a series I’ve entitled “Practical Christianity.” My goal for this series is to examine what the implications are of the gospel for various areas of our life. In this way I am essentially trying to put into practice what Paul said in Philippians 2:12-13, where he told the Philippians to “Therefore my dear friends, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Now that you have been saved, now that you have believed the gospel, work out the implications of the gospel into every area of your life as God works in you. Not “work for your salvation” but “work out the implications of your salvation.”
Here is the gospel summary statement I will be using this series: “We are sinners who have been saved and justified by grace, learning to live as new creations according to God’s will, trusting in a certain and glorious eternal hope and future.”
If you read that statement closely, you will recognize that it has a past, present, and future dimension. Let me unpack those three aspects and examine what the implications are for community – your friends and church.
We are sinners who have been saved and justified by grace.
We are sinners means that we are separated from a holy God, so full of wickedness that we can not save ourselves by our own good deeds. But we have been saved and justified by grace. The second part means that God loves us so much that His Son, Jesus, died for us, to rescue us from our sins. This humbles us into realizing we are no better than anyone else, and it lifts us up to realize just how loved we are. We are justified, declared not guilty, perfect in the sight of God, not because of anything we did, but because of what Jesus did for us. There is no condemnation and nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
The more the gospel shapes our identity, how does this affect our friendships and community?
