Gospel-Saturated Life

Gospel Saturated Life

My Plea

What does this mean? How can I possibly be saturated with the Gospel? These are questions that we, believers, deal with. These are questions that concern me not just about the lost but about the believers—the Christians. Are our churches filled with folks who long for and practice a life saturated with the gospel? I would argue this not to be the case. This saddens me when I think about the believers all around the globe. Our lives should scream the Gospel. It is the good news, right? When I made an “A” in school I told people. When I bought my first car I told people. When I asked my wife to marry me I couldn’t wait to share the news with everyone. When we learned we were having a son we were overwhelmed with joy and the news came out of us to all that would listen—we found ourselves sharing this news with complete strangers. Why don’t we do this with the Gospel? Good news is to be shared. My prayer is that we would all understand the importance of a Gospel saturated life. This is a life that screams Jesus; his life, death and resurrection. Think of it this way; when a dish rag is saturated with water it drips everywhere—there is no stopping it. Our life and walk needs to be like that dish rag. The Gospel should flow out of us uncontrollably.

A Gospel Saturated Life is

The first question we have to tackle is what does this mean? This is a life that longs for and yearns for a deeper relationship with Christ. It is a life that understands and believes the truths of Scripture. Jesus was prophesied about years before He was born,

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 ESV)

Notice here that soon after the fall of man God was preparing the way. God is pointing out that One offspring will come from Eve that will conquer all evil and crush Satan’s head. This is a great truth that we must not neglect. We hold onto the truths of the Authoritative Word of God, and here in Genesis 3 we see that sin and death entered the world but God already had a plan in place to save us. He already had a plan in place that would bring Him the glory. That plan centered on Jesus!

This life also forces us to understand and believe that Jesus was born a man and lived. Did he face temptation, absolutely? We see this in Matthew 4. Satan himself could not break Jesus. I love the fact that Jesus—fully man and fully God—used scripture to combat Satan. Jesus could have took the bait and called down angels but instead he prayed and used God’s Word. What does this show us? Jesus gave us an amazing example of how we are to conquer temptations in our life. We cannot call down angels but we can go to the Word and pray to the Father. I love the fact that I pray to the same God my Savior prayed to.

A Gospel Saturated life must also hold onto the truth of Jesus’ death. Remember this death did not come as a surprise to God. This death was prophesied long before the crucifixion,

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

These verses should cut you to the core. Why did He do this? Why would He suffer? Why step down from the thrown in heaven? The answer is simple, because of us. Apart from God’s saving grace and mercy we are destined for hell. Jesus came to glorify the Father and to show us that we are solely dependent on Him. We cannot do this on our own. Praise God for His grace and mercy. God is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), but we must not forget His wrath. He saw our sins before we even committed them. Christ didn’t hang on that cross because I deserved His grace or mercy. Christ hung on that cross to bring God the Father glory and to show us that the only chance for us to have eternal life in heaven was for Jesus to become the ransom and satisfy forever God’s wrath.

We are sinners. Since the fall in Genesis 3 every man born—except Jesus—was born a sinner. Scripture shows us the penalty for this sin is death (Romans 6:23). We deserve nothing more than death. We deserved the cross. Praise God that “with his wounds we are healed”. We have eternity because Jesus became the ransom. Jesus paid the price that we owed with His blood. Do you understand this truth? Does your life show this truth?

A Gospel Saturated life cannot stop there. We must remember that Jesus didn’t simply die. He was sent to conquer death, and He showed that in His resurrection.

“And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.’” Luke 24:5-6 ESV

This is great news. The tomb was rolled away and our Savior lives! Showing once and for all that death cannot hold our God. What does this mean for us? So He lives, now what?

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 ESV

Paul is telling us here that we will face certain persecution; certain despair, certain afflictions but Christ’s resurrection and God’s mercy and grace will always triumph. Our treasure is not found here on earth. The treasure was on that cross. The treasure gave Himself up. The treasure will be found in heaven. This is how Paul made it through the difficult times. When he was persecuted he simply held onto the truths of the Gospel and the truths of the Word. He held onto the treasure; Jesus!

How Do We Apply This

Now that we know what a Gospel Saturated life looks life we must apply it. We first have to stay in the Word. We cannot have a life focused on the Gospel without being in the truth. Martin Luther said it like this,

“I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me.”

The Word is truths given to us directly from the Holy Spirit. This is what we have; this is what we hold onto when everything else is lost. Advice of men, family, friends, coworkers or bosses change and lead us astray but the truth found in the Word never leaves us nor forsakes us. Does that bring comfort? Does that make you want to dive in and soak up all that is there? I pray it does. Paul emphasizes the Word in his letter to Timothy,

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV

Why the emphasis? Paul is letting Timothy know that a time is coming when it may be difficult to preach. The world around us is changing and some are not going to be receptive to the Word but we must be bold and preach it. In order to preach it we must be in it. We cannot expect to share the good news if we are not immersed in it ourselves.

Why Should the Gospel be Central

Christ’s life, death and resurrection must be central to all we do. This is the life changing, soul saving news. The Gospel is salvation. We can learn from Paul and we can relate to Peter but only Jesus can save us. Only His blood on the cross can cover our sins. We see this throughout the Bible. Men fail. Moses killed a man. David committed adultery and then killed the husband of the woman he laid with. Peter denied Christ—Jesus literally called him the devil. Paul arrested and murdered those following Christ. Paul’s mission before Jesus saved him was to stop the spreading of the gospel by any means necessary.

Jesus never fails. Jesus’ birth was a success. His life was perfect. Even in His death He succeeded. He then rose from the dead to show that death had no hold on Him. God does not fail. When we mess up we look to the cross knowing that Jesus meant it when He said, “It is finished”. That was not a lie. Jesus didn’t say, “I hope it is finished” or “I think it is finished”. Jesus emphatically declared the work was done. He paved the way. We cannot save ourselves. We see this throughout Scripture,

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Ephesians 1:4-10 ESV

He saved us. Please understand that Jesus did the work. This means you can stop checking off the boxes on your “Christian” list. Your works are worthless—“filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)—when it comes to salvation. This is why we saturate our lives with the Gospel. When this happens we grow closer and we understand that we are completely dependent on God.

A Gospel Saturated life is also eager to share the news. We cover ourselves in the Gospel so that others see it and hear it. I am not arguing for you to go hide in a dark room with the Bible. I am arguing that this life will have you sharing the gospel with all. Paul lays it out as an imperative,

“For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” 1 Corinthians 9:16 ESV

I can hear Paul screaming, “WOE TO ME”! The Gospel is of first importance. We study it, love it and share it because lives depend on it.

My Prayer

My prayer for those of you reading this is to turn your focus off of man and things of this world and turn your focus to Him. This is not just some guy in the Bible. This is our Savior the perfect lamb. My prayer is not for you to treasure up the Gospel for you and you alone. My prayer is that you would treasure up the Gospel so that your life starts to scream the truths of our God. We spend so much of our time worshipping the things of the world while our friends, coworkers, family, and neighbors are on a path to hell. Does this sit well with you? If it does than I would encourage you to take another look at your own life and salvation. We are commanded to go and tell all the good news.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 ESV

This is Jesus talking. The disciples were worried about the kingdom on earth being restored. Jesus alerted them that He would take care of that in His time but He had a mission for them. This mission was of first importance. This mission was a direct command from our Savior. Jesus wanted them to be witnesses to the world of the great news—Christ life, death and resurrection. It would be easy for us to sit back and say, “Jesus was speaking to His disciples not us”. We must not take the easy way out. If we truly believe that God has done a transforming work in our life than we must be obedient and we must spread the Gospel.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 ESV

Jesus isn’t asking us to share the Gospel. He is commanding that we go. He then follows that up with, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” If we are to teach others to observe the commandments than we ourselves—the witnesses—must also observe the commandments. I realize that some of you may question your ability to do this. “I don’t have the words to say”, or “I am shy”, or “I don’t have the opportunities to share the Gospel”.  These are excuses. What did Jesus finish out Matthew 28 with? He brings us comfort when He says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Quit acting like you are a lone wolf. This is not a solo act. He is with you and He will give the words to say, He will take away your shyness and He will give the opportunities to share the Gospel. We just have to open our eyes and recognize that He is sufficient in all that we do.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters please take heed and immerse yourself with the truths of the Gospel. Let it takeover all that you are. We must become saturated in this great news. When we are saturated we will not only scream the good news but it will constantly flow out of us. Why is this important? Some may argue that they are believers but they don’t have the time to spend in the Word. Others may say “this sounds good but I don’t want to step on any toes or make people feel uncomfortable.” Please don’t let this be you. We must be bold. Take some time and read through Acts. Believers were constantly being persecuted—arrested and murdered. This did not stop the early church. They constantly prayed for boldness. They didn’t pray for safety and they didn’t pray for the persecution to stop. They prayed for boldness so that they could continue to share the Gospel. There was no hesitation. They stood strong. Why did they do this? Did they want to be held up as heroes? The early church did this because the focus was on Christ and what He had done and would continue to do. We see that the Lord added to their number daily and thousands were saved. Is this your prayer?  Is this your plea?

Some may read this and argue that persecution ended in Acts. I would invite you to read Paul’s letter to Timothy.

                “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” 2 Timothy 3:12 ESV

Paul is warning Timothy of what is coming. Persecution will happen in the life of a Christian. Paul knew this better than anyone. This should not scare us because we have Christ. He suffered the ultimate so that we may have life eternally. Remember that this life on earth is not the focus. Our treasure is not here. Suffering here for a brief time will only make heaven that much sweeter. 

                “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 ESV

Notice Paul’s heart. He longed for the day he would be worshipping our Lord and Savior in heaven, but he realized that he had a mission while on earth. He knew that suffering would come—he endured quite a bit. He knew that mocking would come. This did not scare him. He did not consider his life his own. He was Christ’s. He also knew that God was working through him and people were being saved all over the globe. This is why his statement stands out. It is a statement from a man devoted to Christ and His kingdom. He was anxiously waiting the day he would stand in the presence of the Father but until that day he had one focus, one mission—to live a life saturated with the Gospel.

This Gospel Saturated life is not easy. You will be persecuted, you will be mocked, you will lose friends and even some family members, but I assure you He—Jesus—is worth it. I am not encouraging this life so that you can receive awards or speak at conferences or so you can boast in yourself. I am writing this so that we may see that He and He alone is worthy of our praise. He and He alone deserves our mind and heart. This is why we go and tell all the good news. The truth of the Gospel does not bring begrudging submission. The truth of the Gospel brings us to a place where we willingly go with loving hearts and minds telling all, the good news. I pray that we open our eyes and see the amazing truths found in the Word and that those truths create in us a life saturated with the Gospel.