Never Lose the Wonder of the Gospel!

As a senior gift, my amazingly wonderful, talented, and influential viola teacher gave me the book Disciplines of a Godly Woman, by Barbara Hughes. She told me that it was really helpful to her in college, so I placed it with the small percentage of my books that I was going to be able to bring with me down to Auburn. For some reason, it caught my attention this week, and so I took it off the shelf and began reading it. The second chapter is entitled “Discipline of the Gospel,” and lo and behold, every sentence echoed the call that I have been hearing that I really need to know the Word of God by reading it, and by the knowledge of the Scriptures, so much else follows. Read this excerpt by Barbara Hughes (emphasis mine):

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is unrelenting in seeking to convert every area of our hearts and lives. The Gospel is all-encompassing. It is in fact the only source of godliness. Seek anywhere else, and you have nothing more than self-reform at best and idolatry at its worst.

Wow. Talk about conviction, this is a straight knife to the heart. How often do I seek to reform myself according to how moral I think I should be instead of going to the gospel? How often do I dismiss what the Gospel truly offers? In doing that, I am just worshipping myself, and my ability to make the “ideal me” in my head and carry it out. Yet, the Gospel is the only source of godliness. Here are some more convicting excerpts from Disciplines of a Godly Woman.

            …the Gospel shapes everything about you…As women who understand and embrace the Gospel, we find God’s Word so dynamic that it at once defines us, satisfies us, and motivates us.

            …The Scriptures who us where we fit into God’s plan for the world and detail what we are to do with our lives…

            …remember that the Gospel is the foundation for every single thing you are and do.

I just wanted to share these quotes with you because they were so convicting and really clenched the conviction that I had gradually been becoming aware of through multiple sermons and small group meetings. Finally, I come to what I wanted to talk about in the first place! At the end of the chapter, Barbara points out something that should convict us all.

            Never lose the wonder of the Gospel!

She tells the story of a new believing woman who came to a small group study and was ecstatic about an amazing verse she just found, and read it aloud slowly to the group. The verse was John 3:16. Here, read and listen in your mind to what it must have sounded like when she read it like this:

            “For God…so loved…the world…that He…gave…His one…and only…Son…that whoever…believes…in Him…shall not perish…but have eternal life.”

In case you didn’t get it the first time, here it is again, in a slightly different form.

            “For God.

            So loved.

            The world.

            That He.

            Gave.

            His one.

            And only.

            Son.

            That whoever.

            Believes.

            In Him.

            Shall

Not.

Perish.

            But have.

            Eternal.

            Life.”

Do you get it now? How does it normally sound when those of us, raised in the Church, who can’t remember a time when we didn’t have this verse memorized by heart, spout it off? Something a little like this:

  “ForGodsolovedtheworldthatHegaveHisoneandonlySonthatwhoeverbelievesinhimshallnotpersishbuthaveeternallife.”

We forget the beauty of what it is saying! We lose the wonder of the Gospel!

Last night, after reading this chapter, I went on to do my scripture reading. I just started Ephesians, and spent a long time on just the third and fourth verses of chapter one. Verses that I’ve heard all the time growing up, and tend to go right in one ear and out the other.

            “³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

Now, read that again, like you were reading it for the first time (unless, of course, you were reading it for the first time). Is the weight of what is being stated in this passage weighing down on your heart? How do we read right over passages like this? BLESSED in CHRIST with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the HEAVENLY PLACES, by the one and only GOD and FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ! As He CHOSE US in HIM BEFORE the FOUNDATION of the WORLD! That WE should be HOLY and BLAMELESS before HIM!

How do we lose that wonder? Or maybe it’s just me, tell me if that’s the case. But I don’t think it is.