Healthy churches are comprised of healthy church members. Because I love the church I thought it might help to challenge some of her members to evaluate themselves.

Take a few moments to answer these ten questions and consider what type of church member you are. (These questions are not original as I have based them on the primary emphases in a helpful book.[1])

1.      Are you an expositional listener? Proper sermon digestion requires “listening for the meaning of a passage of Scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our personal and corporate lives as Christians” (20). Healthy churches are built with men and women who discipline themselves to hear God’s word in a way that fosters understanding and obedience.

2.      Are you a biblical theologian? A believer’s first and greatest calling is to ‘know God.’ Do you know what the Bible says about God? Are you committed – through systematic study – to pursuing this knowledge of God?

3.      Are you gospel saturated? “Apart from the gospel, the church has nothing to say – that is, nothing to say that cannot be said by some other human agency” (39). Have you so immersed yourself in this story that you order your life around it’s truth?

4.      Are you genuinely converted? Salvation brings life alteration. Is there obvious fruit in your life of a genuine life change?

5.      Are you a biblical evangelist? The call for a disciple is to be a disciple-maker. Are you active in sharing the gospel with others?

6.      Are you a committed member? Church membership is a vow taken before God to participate in the life and ministry of a local church. Have you broken that vow through inconsistent attendance, a failure to give, or a refusal to serve?

7.      Do you seek discipline? Church membership involves mutual accountability. Do you humbly seek and receive the loving correction from others?

8.      Are you a growing disciple? Healthy churches grow from healthy church members. “It’s impossible to divide the well-being of a church member from his or her spiritual growth and discipleship” (83).

9.      Are you a humble follower? “Leadership in the local church is established by God for the blessing of his people” (103). Do you follow God’s leaders with wide-open hearts, eager obedience, and joyful submission?

10.  Are you a prayer warrior? Perhaps the best way to support the ministry of your local church is to beg God to accomplish what mere men cannot.

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[1] Thabiti M. Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member? Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008.

“You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Exodus 20:5-6 (ESV)

Many people struggle to embrace “jealousy” as an aspect of God’s character. Once again J.I. Packer sheds some helpful light on understanding God.

“God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy and spite, as human jealousy so often is, but appears instead as a (literally) praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely precious.”

Jealousy can be “zeal to protect a love relationship or to avenge it when broken. This jealousy also operates in the sphere of sex; there, however, it appears not as the blind reaction of wounded pride but as the fruit of marital affection . . . . This sort of jealousy is a positive virtue, for it shows a grasp of the true meaning of the husband-wife relationship, together with a proper zeal to keep it intact.”

“God’s jealousy over his people . . . . presupposes his covenant love; and this love is no transitory affection, accidental and aimless, but is the expression of a sovereign purpose.”

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 170-172.

Far from being offensive, God’s jealousy is a fundamental expression of His sovereign love for us and His desire to keep our covenant relationship intact.

The last three posts began to answer a simple, yet critical question. What are the essential elements of the gospel?

The Gospel is the message of God’s plan and work to save sinners from His wrath and bring them into a relationship with Himself through the work of Jesus Christ and the offer of that gift to all who will turn from sin and trust in Christ.

This very pregnant sentence demands unpacking so I began commenting on each phrase. Thus far we have made six statements. First, the “gospel” has a singular definition. Second, the “gospel” is a message or a definitive collection of concepts that relate a specific joyous announcement. Third, the “gospel” relates God’s plan. Fourth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work. Fifth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work to save. Sixth, the “gospel” offers salvation to sinners. Seventh, the “gospel” offers salvation from God’s wrath. Eighth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work to bring sinners into a right relationship with Himself.

Ninth, the “gospel” tells of the “work of Jesus Christ.” God’s work to save was accomplished through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He is only way to salvation thus the message about salvation must center on Him and His work.

Tenth, the “gospel” offers a gift. This message announces the solution to the deepest problem in our soul (our separation from God because of our sin). And this gift is FREE. It requires no work or merit. In fact, any attempt to earn the gift prevents a person from receiving it.

Eleventh, the “gospel” offers a gift to “all.” The only requirement for eligibility is to be a human being.

Twelfth, the “gospel” invites a person to repent from sin. Repentance is a change of mind resulting in a turn from sin. To receive the gospel a person must reorient their will away from sin. Don’t misunderstand, however, repentance is not work or merit. Rather it is a reaction to sin by a person who hears and believes the gospel.

Thirteenth and finally, the “gospel” offers a gift that is received by faith. In other words, faith is the means by which God appropriates salvation. The work of Jesus to cover our sin and reestablish our relationship with God is only applied to persons who trust fully in Christ. This trust is beyond mental acknowledgement of facts about His life, death, and resurrection. Faith in Jesus is life-altering causing us to rely solely on the work of Jesus to deal with our sin and to surrender absolutely to follow Him at any cost. When a person places his faith in Jesus, God applies Jesus’ work to him and saves him.

Therefore, the gospel is the message about salvation for salvation.

Again, read these statements and consider your beliefs regarding the gospel because this message lies at the heart of what it means to be “Christian.”

The last two posts began to answer a simple, yet critical question. What are the essential elements of the gospel?

The Gospel is the message of God’s plan and work to save sinners from His wrath and bring them into a relationship with Himself through the work of Jesus Christ and the offer of that gift to all who will turn from sin and trust in Christ.

This very pregnant sentence demands unpacking so I began commenting on each phrase. Thus far we have made six statements. First, the “gospel” has a singular definition. Second, the “gospel” is a message or a definitive collection of concepts that relate a specific joyous announcement. Third, the “gospel” relates God’s plan. Fourth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work. Fifth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work to save. Sixth, the “gospel” offers salvation to sinners.

Seventh, the “gospel” offers salvation from “God’s wrath.” The wrath of God is best understood as His settled reaction toward sin. Unlike human wrath, His is never out-of-control, never lacks wisdom, and is never cool or indifferent. God’s wrath is His directed, intense, just reaction to sin. It is not an impulsive, flying off the handle, fit of rage.

The practical result of this wrath is death. We die physically as we pay the penalty for our sin. We also die spiritually as we pay the penalty for our sin. In the Bible, spiritual death is described as separation from God. So, God’s wrath is a reaction to sin that brings us physical death and separation from God. The agony of this separation from God will reach its highest (or we might say lowest) point when God judges all people and brings everlasting punishment upon those men and women who rejected Him. The Bible calls the place where these people will suffer for eternity “hell” and describes it as a lake of unquenchable fire. So, the gospel is the message of God’s work to save people from His wrath, which they justly deserve because of their sin.

Eighth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work to bring sinners into a right “relationship with Himself.” Isaiah 59:2 makes a clear and alarming proclamation about sin and its effect on a person’s relationship to God.

“but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.” (ESV)

As we have just seen in looking at wrath and death, we are hopelessly separated from God because we are sinful and He is perfect. To overlook our sin and welcome us anyway would tarnish His perfection. The gospel is the message of how God has crossed this chasm created by our sin and built a bridge for us to return to Him.

Again, read these statements and consider your beliefs regarding the gospel because this message lies at the heart of what it means to be “Christian.”

Last time I began answering a simple, yet critical question. What are the essential elements of the gospel?

The Gospel is the message of God’s plan and work to save sinners from His wrath and bring them into a relationship with Himself through the work of Jesus Christ and the offer of that gift to all who will turn from sin and trust in Christ.

This very pregnant sentence demands unpacking so I began commenting on each phrase. Thus far we have made two statements. First, the “gospel” has a singular definition. Second, the “gospel” is a message or a definitive collection of concepts that relate a specific joyous announcement.

Third, the “gospel” relates “God’s plan.” This message has been unfolding from the foundation of the world. God is not reacting to man’s whims or figuring it out as He goes along. Through Jesus Christ God is working out His plan and the gospel tells this story. Jesus teaches this truth in Matthew 25:34: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (ESV).

Fourth, the “gospel” tells of “God’s work.” This message tells of God’s activity. He is not a mere bystander nor does He simply direct the affairs of salvation from afar. God is active and the message of the gospel reveals His activity.

Fifth, the “gospel” tells of “God’s work to save.” He is not merely making moral people or helping people find their purpose in life. God is first rescuing men and women from the penalty and power of sin. People are drowning in the lake of their rebellion and God is reaching into the water to “save” them.

Sixth, the “gospel” offers salvation to “sinners.” As Jesus said, “For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13b ESV). This message claims that every person everywhere has offended God’s holy standard and is separated from Him. The gospel makes a strong statement about mankind: namely, all people are sinners and in desperate need of salvation.

Again, read these statements and consider your beliefs regarding the gospel because this message lies at the heart of what it means to be “Christian.”

More than two months ago I introduced a book that deals with seven important topics promising to address each of them in turn. Having written about the first two (truth and evangelism), I come now to #3: the gospel.

With much contemporary debate and misunderstanding about salvation, my goal through these entries is to answer one question. What are the essential elements of the gospel?

Also, please don’t lose sight of our goal with this series and with what will be several entries about the gospel… “I want to challenge you to consider your beliefs regarding seven topics (and now ‘the gospel’) because they provide a foundation for your understanding of Christianity and the Church.”

The Gospel is the message of God’s plan and work to save sinners from His wrath and bring them into a relationship with Himself through the work of Jesus Christ and the offer of that gift to all who will turn from sin and trust in Christ.

This very pregnant sentence demands unpacking. And thus we will over the course of a few entries expound upon the phrases of this important definition. (I’ll try to keep track of my first, second, third, etc. as we move along, but I make no promises.)

First and obvious, the “gospel” has a singular definition. Much of the current discussion about the gospel is an attempt to circumvent any negligible definition. The gospel has become something of a moving target that bends and flexes as we roam along from culture to culture and society to society. However, biblical revelation is our guide to all matters of faith and practice and it most certainly provides a single definition. Thus, one can only embrace or share the ‘gospel’ when he or she has rightly identified it.

Second, the “gospel” is a message or a definitive collection of concepts that relate a specific joyous announcement. Often called the good news, the gospel tells a distinct story. Thus, one can only embrace the gospel as good news when he or she has heard and understood a specific message.

A few words from J.I. Packer’s Knowing God related to God’s wrath.

“To an age which has unashamedly sold itself to the gods of greed, pride, sex and self-will, the church mumbles on about God’s kindness but says virtually nothing about his judgment. . . . What is it that makes us awkward and embarrassed when the subject comes up, that prompts us to soft-pedal it and hedge when we are asked about it?

The root cause of our unhappiness seems to be a disquieting suspicion that ideas of wrath are in one way or another unworthy of God. . . .  [But] God’s wrath is the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. God is only angry where anger is called for. . . . It is precisely this adverse reaction to evil, which is a necessary part of moral perfection, that the Bible has in view when it speaks of God’s wrath.”

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 149-151

The contemporary view of God seems to be that wrath is beneath him and that as God he should be ‘better than’ reacting in anger to human sin.

But as Packer points out, it is precisely his God-ness that requires him to react to sin with wrath. When the moral perfection of his God-ness is offended, anger is the only ‘right’ response.

So God’s wrath is not his ‘dark side’ that should shame us as His children. Rather his wrath is wonderful confirmation of his absolute moral purity.

Almost two months ago I introduced a book that deals with seven important topics promising to address each of them in turn. Through a four-part series last month, I addressed the first of these topics: truth.

Today, I return to this larger series to begin discussing the second of these seven topics: evangelism. More specifically, we’ll seek to answer the question, ‘How can churches strike the correct balance between welcoming unbelievers into their community while guarding the growth of maturing believers?’

Also, please don’t lose sight of our goal with this series and with what will be several entries about evangelism… “I want to challenge you to consider your beliefs regarding seven topics (and now ‘evangelism’) because they provide a foundation for your understanding of Christianity and the Church.”

As in most areas of life, most churches (and believers) are drawn to extremes at the point of evangelism. The seeker movement led many to embrace evangelism as the only goal of their corporate meetings. The pursuit of ‘decisions for Christ’ became the standard for any gathering. Unbelievers were confronted with the gospel and their response to it formed a litmus test for their ability to ‘belong’ to the community. In this model the pursuit of spiritual maturity was often relegated to small group meetings and discipleship classes reserved for those people who had been converted.

The emerging movement pushed in a different but equally dangerous direction by creating welcoming communities that rarely ever call for a ‘decision for Christ.’ Their response to this emphasis on (if not obsession with) conversion was to dismiss it altogether opting for a salvation through belonging. They want to allow people to join the ‘faith community’ trusting that their relationship with the group will bring them to know God. In this model, however, a specific call for conversion is often absent entirely.

Our philosophy of evangelism must be framed by aspects of both these models while being dominated by neither. At the heart of the matter is a proper understanding of conversion and faith community.

Next time I’ll summarize a proper understanding of ‘conversion’ and ‘faith community’ that will lead us to know how a church can strike the correct balance between welcoming unbelievers into their community while guarding the growth of maturing believers.

Today, I share another convicting quote from J.I. Packer on Christmas. This time he speaks of the poverty as the heart of the Christmas spirit.

“We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory . . . . a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony . . . . It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich.”

“We talk glibly of the ‘Christmas spirit,’ rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas.”

“It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians – I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians – go through this world in the spirit of the priest and Levite in our Lord’s parable, see human needs all around them, but . . . . averting their eyes and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit.”

“The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor – spending and being spent – to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others – and not just to their own friends – in whatever way there seems need.”

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 63-64.

In a culture and season of spending, many Christians fail to realize that poverty is at the heart Christmas.

In the spirit of the season, here’s an old truth from J.I. Packer on Christmas.

“The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man – that the second person of the Godhead became a ‘second man’. . . . This is the real stumbling block in Christianity. It is here that Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses . . . have come to grief. It is from misbelief (sic), or at least inadequate belief, about the Incarnation that difficulties at other points in the gospel story usually spring.”

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 53-54.

Did you catch that the Incarnation is “the real stumbling block in Christianity”? In other words, for many of the almost-Christian religions heresy begins at failing to embrace the biblical claim that Jesus was fully God and fully man.

“The Incarnation is in itself an unfathomable mystery, but it makes sense of everything else that the New Testament contains.”

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 54.

So Christmas presents us with an incomprehensible truth upon which Christianity hinges. Namely, that the baby born in the stable and laid in the manger was at the same time God and man.

While I trust this statement will not sound ‘new’ to most of you, I hope it compels you to marvel for two reasons.

1. God accomplished a mind-blowing feat in Bethlehem by squeezing all of His God-ness into a human body. Now that’s impressive.
2. While Christmas seems like a happy time, it is incredibly controversial because it makes such a pivotal claim about Jesus. And this claim ultimately separates true believers from false ones.

So Merry Christmas… or should I say, “Happy Incarnation!”