The Gospel House

What is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ stood in the place of sinners, absorbing the wrath of God and imputing His righteousness to sinners in order to unite them and make them right with God. This happened by Christ living a perfectly obedient life to God, dying a sinner’s death on the cross, and raising from the dead by the power of God, defeating sin and death.

So in the gospel there is salvation to sinners who repent of their sin and have God-given faith in Christ alone. This salvation is entirely available by the grace of God, unmerited by the sinner, completely earned by Christ and given to sinners freely.

This is incredible news.

What does the gospel do? It saves.

Unfortunately our culture, due to bad theology, has misunderstood what exactly it means to be saved; therefore we’ve missed much of the goodness of the gospel and much of it’s functions.

Much of our culture thinks that being saved is the moment we are justified before God by the work of Jesus. In other words, we think the moment we are saved is the moment we repent of sins and believe on the Lord Jesus for salvation for the first time.

That’s when we are justified. We are justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. However, justification is not the fullness of salvation. Or you could say justification does not complete salvation. It is simply an element of salvation. An incredibly important, essential, and wonderful element indeed.

Or maybe a better way to try and say what I mean is to say that justification is not the only thing that Christ’s death on the cross purchased for us.

So what else did Christ purchase for us on the cross and through His resurrection?

There are many things that Christ purchased on the cross for us; but there is just one other thing I want to discuss right now. Christ’s death not only purchased us justification but also our sanctification. And it’s not an A La Carte purchase, but a combo deal. We get them together. We don’t get one without the other.

What is our sanctification?

Sanctification is God’s working out of salvation in us. It’s the process of God’s grace making us more like Him. It is not our efforts and strivings, but God’s work in us. It is our life. This is another aspect of our salvation. Very simply put: sanctification is our living. Christ purchased our living on the cross. This means that the gospel infiltrates, informs, and influences the entirety of our lives. There is not a single part of our lives the gospel does not touch.

For this reason, the gospel is not simply a door through which we walk, but it is the home in which we live. We do not “get saved” and then move on from the gospel to something else, but rather we go deeper and deeper into the gospel.

The gospel is something in which we live and move and breathe. The longer we live in the gospel the more we understand it’s beauties and complexities. The more we live in the gospel the more we understand it’s structure and makeup. The more we live in the gospel the more we understand the way in which it informs our living and influences our thinking. The more we live in the gospel the more we rest in it, trust it’s foundation, and then adorn the gospel home in which we live.

One of my pastors, Brandon Dodd, wrote a poem about this very thing called “The Gospel House.” I will end with it.

“Welcome to the gospel house, full of pleasures forevermore

Observe the wondrous gospel house – a floor, the walls, the roof, the door, whose construction began long before, the foundation of the world was poured

The gospel house, whose firm foundation, is God’s love for every tribe, tongue, nation, together with his righteousness without which none will pass the test and enter in and find true rest

And what’s a house without a roof, the proof that ‘it is finished’ – Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection shelter all within it

The roof which shelters from the storms, of God’s wrath, fury, anger, scorn, is the work of God’s own Son, the shed blood of the only righteous one

Then there’s the walls, which close us in, the promises of God that help us win, the fight against every single sin

The walls where every board of wood is a promise that all things are good, for those whom in their place Christ stood, nail pierced hands, cross of wood

The promises for all the called, that nothing, not a thing at all can separate them from the love, poured out on them, through Christ’s shed blood

This gospel house has just one door, the truth the life the way, our Lord, the Christ, the Savior, God’s own word

In Him alone, are we secured

Secured and free, safe and sound, once lost sheep who’ve been found, and brought inside the gospel house

Through Christ alone, can we enter in, only then, are we freed from sin, guiltless, no condemnation, He is the door, He is salvation

But what about the key, can we, enter? No, it’s locked, our plea, is that God himself would condescend, to give the key to sinful men, – the key is faith, in Christ alone, the key opens the door to home

A home where we can live with Him, be safe from sin, find joy and then – glory

Glory full and finally, if only we would use the key, will you use the key?

Will you enter the gospel house? Full of pleasures forevermore

Find comfort and peace in the gospel house, find joy in Christ our Lord

The love of God and work of Christ, the promises to grant us life, make up the floor, walls, roof and door – turn the key, trust the Lord, and enter in the gospel house, find joy and pleasure forevermore”