The Danger of Drifting

During last Sunday’s sermon, I shared some comments by Jerry Bridges about our tendency as Christians to “drift” away from the gospel.  Here’s how he put it:  “If you do not daily appropriate the gospel, you will drift toward a performance relationship with God.”  A “performance relationship”—in other words, the idea that we’re accepted by God based on merit.  That’s our reflex; our fallen human tendency is to slip back into a me-focused mindset!  And to protect against that kind of sinful impulse, and to help us look away from ourselves, we need a daily dose of the gospel.

What do I mean by “the gospel”?  Here’s how I put it during the same message:  The Gospel is the awesome fact that the God of the universe has made a way for his enemies to become his friends forever.  The Gospel is the news bulletin from heaven that people like me, and you, who’ve defied the King and exalted ourselves, can be forgiven—and the way this works is by God himself—God the Son, Jesus Christ—entering human life, taking our guilt upon his shoulders, paying our penalty in his death, so we can live and thrive forever!  The gospel is the BEST news in the universe!  And you need it today.

I doubt that many of us would forget to make time each day to seek out physical nutrients—to go to the kitchen and get some food!  So too, it’s vital for our spiritual health to get daily spiritual nourishment by reviewing and reflecting on and giving thanks for and sharing God’s gospel.  Because it’s truth for life—not just truth for our first response to Jesus, but for every day on the journey of faith and every day as we follow Jesus together as his church all the way home to glory.