Gospel Living
Did you know there is such a thing as living according to the gospel?
Were you aware that under the New Covenant, the gospel is much more than just a message to get you saved and make it possible for you to go to heaven?
Sadly, too often, many treat the gospel as an entry message only and fail to live their lives according to it. Instead, they use it to gain entry and then revert to looking into the law of Moses for how to conduct themselves. They imagine that the way they are to be sanctified by the word is according to the Old Covenant Law of Moses. This is not gospel living.
For instance, they read in James about being doers of the word, and they imagine it is dealing with sin issues as opposed to gospel issues when it speaks of being doers of the word.
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
Notice how it speaks of forgetting one’s persona. That is speaking of the New Creation transformation in Christ. That is what it means when it says he forgets what manner of man he was. He forgets that he was born again and made brand new in Christ. This has nothing to do with Old Covenant reality.
That is why it says, “He who looks into the perfect law of liberty.” What is the perfect law of liberty? The gospel! We are blessed when we are not forgetful hearers but doers of the truth of the gospel of the New Covenant. The gospel calls us into a new identity and purpose in Christ and gives us clear instructions on how to live. The apostle Paul rebuked Peter in Antioch because Peter was not living according to the gospel.
Galatians 2:11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.13 And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?
Peter was not doing the work of the perfect law of liberty in this instance, and it was leading others astray from the gospel. Peter had allowed himself to come under the deception of something contrary to the gospel. A gospel that had been given to the Jews and the Gentiles for salvation and life. Peter stopped walking in love toward the Gentile believers as a result. He was leading others to violate the New Covenant law of love as well. We are set free in Christ to love God because He first loved us, and that freedom also empowers us to love others, especially those who are of the kingdom. Our work is to believe the gospel with our hearts and then walk in it towards others. That is gospel living.
