Gospel-Centered Idolatry: Consuming the Benefits of the Gospel on the Preeminence of Self

By R L Coursey

Thomas Chalmers, in his classic sermon entited, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” correctly ascribes subjective power to subjective affections, for love does have an expulsive power, whether one loves God to the despising of self, or loves self to the despising of God. But he incorrectly sides with objective justification, full pardon and gracious acceptance as the power that creates love and the engine that empowers sanctification. He is right to suggest that a new affection has expulsive power, but wrong to suggest that the source and power of a new affection is primarily in the indicative benefits.

Jonathan Edwards, on the other hand, sided with regeneration for the obvious reason that without a new nature, the natural man can only be constrained by outside considerations (the indicatives) to superficially walk in newness of life (the imperatives). Such considerations mght produce change that rises as high as the outward performance of the Legalist, but it is still only the superficial height that self-love alone can achieve.

The Spirit’s work of illuminating the higher glory and beauty of Christ to the soul is the only source of an affection that can be called new. If the expulsive power of a new affection does not dethrone self as one’s primary concern in life and theology, then what exactly is being expulsed by the power of the gospel? If one’s religion does not surpass one’s primary concern for what’s in it for oneself, then one’s self-love may have an expulsive power, but it will be the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus that is expulsed by the power of self-love.

The irony of the cross was that Christ was crucified by those who already had a knowledge of God’s steadfast love and rejoiced in spiritual priviledges. The proper force and source behind the believer’s love for God is not found in the objective benefits as they reflect upon the believer’s high privileges, but God’s power alone as it is exerted in the soul by the Spirit imparting a new heart, new affections and a new principle of action that did not exist prior. Good fruit is produced only by a good tree, and however constrained by outside forces, a bad tree cannot be manipulated to produce fruit contrary to its nature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664279513

R L Coursey

The extensive teaching ministry of R L Coursey has taken him throughout the continental US and into 19 countries. He has served on the faculty of several seminaries and preached in churches from over 20 different denominations. He now lives in Grand Rapids Michigan with Claudia, his wife of 30 years, where he devotes his time to writing.

Book preview

GOSPEL-CENTERED

IDOLATRY

Consuming the Benefits of the Gospel

on the Preeminence of Self

R L COURSEY

55180.png

Copyright © 2022 R L Coursey.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked (NKJV) taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7950-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7951-3 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/12/2022

CONTENTS

Introduction: Gospel-centered Theology Defined

Chapter 1The Imputed Benefits of the Gospel can only be Properly Cherished through the Exerted Power of the Spirit in the Proper Use and Exercise of the Imparted Benefits of the Gospel

Chapter 2The Gospel Saves by the Goodness of a Power Exerted, not by the Power of a Goodness Perceived

Chapter 3Gospel-centered Distortions, the Misuse and Misappropriation of Gospel Benefits

Chapter 4The Knowledge of High Privileges, Neither the Primary Motive nor the Motor that Turns the Wheels of Obedience

Chapter 5Corinth, a Case Study in the Application of the Gospel To Immature Believers

Chapter 6Paul’s Use of the Atonement When Addressing an Immature Church Like Corinth

Chapter 7Grace Shown but not Imparted, the Essence of Practical Antinomianism

Chapter 8Gospel-centered Theology, Rejecting Christ Crucified as the Wisdom and Power of the Gospel

Chapter 9Other Theologies that Reject Christ Crucified as the Wisdom and Power of the Gospel

Chapter 10Sola Beneficium, the Essence of Cheap Grace

Chapter 11The Gospel, Its God-centered Purpose, Power and Plan, and Christ-centered priority and Essence

Chapter 12Reflecting the Benefits of the Gospel onto the Glory of God, the Unavoidable Link between Glory and Virtue

Chapter 13The Forward-looking Power of the Gospel, the Unavoidable Link between Faith and Virtue

Chapter 14The Objective Benefits Alone are Insufficient to Secure Reasonable Worship either Directly or Indirectly

Chapter 15The Power of the Gospel in the Life of the Believer

Chapter 16Gospel Worship Requires all the Gospel Benefits

Chapter 17Eight Characteristics of Gospel-centered Idolatry

Chapter 18Walking Worthy of the Gospel

Appendix I:The Gospel-centered Movement: An Overview and Critique

Appendix II:The Believer’s Identity, Saint and/or Sinner

INTRODUCTION

Gospel-centered Theology Defined

It is passive ingratitude to be motivated toward change on the simple basis of the indicative benefits alone. Natural gratitude is possible on the basis of grace shown, but spiritual gratitude is only possible on the basis of grace powerfully applied. Once grace has been applied through the illuminating and regenerating work of the Spirit, the expulsive power of a new affection no longer proceed simply from the good of indicative benefits alone, because the new affection does not center primarily on the same object as the old affection – oneself.

In The Gospel Transformation Study Bible, like all gospel-centered material, the general editor renders priority and attributes power to the indicative benefits in ongoing spiritual transformation of believers,

Contributors have therefore indicated how the indicatives of the gospel (i.e., the status and privileges believers have by virtue of God’s grace alone) provide motivation and power for God’s people to honor him from the heart.¹

The indicatives of the gospel (our status and privileges) provide no power to honor God from the heart, because they are not a power exerted upon the heart. Including the phrase, by virtue of God’s grace alone, does not place the priority on grace as a power above the believer’s status and privileges, but rather renders the efficiency of grace indebted to the perception of these privileges as the key to power. The motor that drives the ongoing transformation is the perception of man’s good above God’s glory. This implies that transformation has not yet occurred, because no change of center has taken place.

It is true that the indicatives do indirectly provide further motivation to honor God from the heart in all those whose hearts have been directly infused with a new principle to honor God. But pay careful attention as to how objective grace erroneously becomes the primary force to stimulate further loving obedience in the saint:

Only the grace of God ultimately displayed in the provision of Christ for sinners can stimulate such loving obedience.²

An extrinsic inspiration that operated from an outside display is not an intrinsic power exerted directly upon the heart at all. The power of God exerted in the gospel is more effectual than a mere mental recognition of the love and favor offered to both the unbeliever and believer in the gospel. While it is true that God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,³ and that Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it,⁴ the general manifestation of His love cannot be confused with either the end or efficacy of His death on the cross. Concerning this end, Paul writes, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.⁵ The goal of highlighting the infinite love of God for the comfort and edification of the church is not achieved without reference to sanctification, because God’s love is not solely objective in nature; As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.⁶ The apostle John, when demonstrating the marvelous love of God in the granting of sonship, immediately connects it to present sanctification and future glorification.⁷ Therefore, the general concept of God’s love and grace toward believers displayed on the cross, without the intended end or power of the cross, is not the meaning of the gospel for believers. This work of Christ by the Spirit in sanctification is not meritorious in the saint, but a manifestation of Christ’s continued work of love, and the efficacy of His death.

The infusion of a new principle of holiness within the soul often utilizes, but does not depend upon, the outside consideration God’s objective love and goodness displayed towards us to effect subjective change. His love is not simply understood in redemption accomplished, but experienced in redemption applied. Therefore, concisely defined in one sentence,

Gospel-centered theology is an attempt to exalt the benefits of the gospel that highlight God’s objective love, goodness and grace toward man for the primary purpose of either evading or effecting those benefits that come in power to produce either initial or ongoing subjective change into the image of Christ from glory to glory.⁸

Whether for the purpose of either evading or effecting the power of God, the use of the objective benefits in the gospel-centered scheme is an affront to all three persons of the Trinity. For the glory of God to be revealed in the face of Christ Jesus, and for the work that ensues to be that of the Spirit, Christ must be preeminent in one’s concept of the gospel. The Spirit’s application of redemption is primarily Christ-centered. While there are innumerable benefits in the gospel and unsearchable riches in Christ, without a clear perception of the glory of God, they become counterfeit benefits and riches that are twisted to exalt the imaginary brightness of one’s own glory. To eclipse Christ with any number of preferred benefits of the gospel, or to limit the gospel to one’s preferred attribute of God, centers the gospel around the preeminence of man above the glory of Christ. Gospel-centered theology, then, becomes a more generous and appealing offer because it invents a scheme of salvation that legitimizes the customer’s claim to preeminence in the gospel.

Any attempt to glorify God through the use of indicative benefits alone, while simply referencing the subjective benefits, renders one active in those benefits that are passively received, and passive in those benefits that are actively received. It makes static benefits that are already perfect operate dynamically, and those that are increasing and dynamic to operate statically or passively. This misapplies the further power of God in the gospel, and idolatrously places preferred gospel-privilege above God as the real power to effect positive change.

In a sermon entitled, God Glorified in Man’s Dependence, Edwards show that redemption is not properly applied unless the redeemed have all their good in God.⁹ Going one step further than the emphasis of gospel-centered theology, he states, we not only have it of Him, and through Him, but it consists in Him; He is all our good. No benefit or result of the gospel, as it pertains to man, can become the center of the gospel, for the good of all the benefits are in reference to God as the highest good. While we have access and peace, these are valuable only because they are with God. Forgiveness and justification are not benefits that take place in us or before man, but realities that take place in Christ before God. It is only in reference to God that the benefits of forgiveness and justification have both value and significance, and not in reference to a few negative consequences to be avoided by man.

In union with Christ the believer is dead, buried and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. In regeneration we experience an infusion of the life and love of God into the soul. In sanctification, whether positional or imparted, we are set apart for the service and glory of God. Therefore, when we talk about ongoing change in the believer, we are not talking about the positive results of the goodness of the gospel in relation to man, but about the power of the gospel in obedience, service, gratitude and worship directed towards God. No benefit can be received from God that is redirected to point primarily to the good of ourselves or to distract us from Him as the highest good.

Therefore, secondly, no benefit can be granted or enjoyed but to the glory of God. And no preferred benefit can be enjoyed to the glory of God without the use of all of the benefits. No single attribute of God can be preferred to the glory of the gospel that does not recognize all of the attributes of God displayed at the scene of the cross. And this includes the absolute necessity of saving man only in such a way that brings honor to the law.

Placing any benefit at the center of the gospel is impossible, since the nature and glory of God already occupy the center. In describing the good that the redeemed have from Him and through Him as both objective and inherent, Edwards countered the tendency of centering the gospel around any single preferred benefit. Distinguishing both objective and subjective good, Edwards writes,

By their objective good, I mean that extrinsic object, in the possession and enjoyment of which they are happy. Their inherent good is that excellency or pleasure which is in the soul itself.¹⁰

Far from the objective good being the primary means to the subjective good, the objective good cannot even be enjoyed to the glory of God but through the inherent good. Therefore, the proper use and enjoyment of the objective benefits is not the further means unto the subjective benefits. Rather, it is only in the proper exercise of the subjective benefits through the exerted the power of the Spirit that the objective benefits can be properly enjoyed to the glory of God. There can be no true joy, and thus no true gratitude for objective benefits, without the infusion of a new principle that imparts new desires for a Good greater than ourselves. Without this supernatural work, all gratitude will rise no higher than the superficial preeminence of ourselves. This means that the objective benefits are not the key to effect the subjective benefits. Rather, subjective benefits are the key to the proper enjoyment of the objective benefits to the glory of God by the power of the Spirit.

While objective benefits are to be enjoyed, that excellency or pleasure which is in the soul itself can neither be enjoyed nor secured indirectly through the knowledge of objective benefits alone. Therefore, the inherent good is not limited to the acceptance of an abstract message about the grace and goodness of God towards us. These high privileges of the gospel can only be properly cherished by the exerted power of the Spirit in the proper use of the imparted benefits of the gospel. William Gurnall writes about the proper use of the attribute of God’s goodness in relation to the gospel,

God’s essential goodness is a powerful argument to persuade the poor soul to rely upon the promise in Christ for pardon – when he considers that God who promiseth peace to the believer, is a God whose very nature is forgiving, and mercy itself – but had there been no promise to engage this mercy to poor sinners through Christ, this would have been but cold comfort to have believed God was good. He could have damned the whole stock of Adams, and not called His essential goodness the least in question. . . .And, for aught I can find out of the word, they among the sons of men who, either through simple ignorance of the gospel, or prejudice, which their proud reason hath taken up against the way it chalks out for making our peace with God, through Christ’s satisfaction for us, do neglect Christ, or scornfully reject His satisfaction, and betake themselves to the absolute goodness and mercy of God, as the plea which they will make at Christ’s bar for their pardon and salvation, shall find as little benefit from it as devils themselves.¹¹

The knowledge of God’s goodness, though a powerful persuasion even for believers, is not the power of God unto salvation in the gospel. Concerning the saved, the knowledge of God’s goodness, as well as the knowledge of one’s high privileges of forgiveness and justification, work as oil to the wheels of obedience, but are neither the primary motive nor motor that turns the wheels of our obedience, service or worship.

Describing the benefits as both God-centered and God-infused, Edwards adds,

The saints are beautiful and blessed by a communication of God’s holiness and joy, as the moon and planets are bright by the sun’s light. The saint hath spiritual joy and pleasure by a kind of effusion of God on the soul. In these things the redeemed have communion with God; that is, they partake with Him and of Him.¹²

The objective benefits cannot be properly enjoyed to the glory of God without the infused benefits, because both spiritual joy and pleasure in God are infused in regeneration, and justification is not an exerted power at all. This means that the knowledge of God’s grace and love revealed in the gospel, however necessary, have neither the power nor the wisdom to incline the heart towards holiness into the image of Christ without the direct power of God in the gospel both alluring and infusing a new principle of holiness into the soul at regeneration. The attempt to manipulate holiness based only on outside considerations that do not oppose the principle of self-love becomes both necessary and primary only when an inner delight in holiness is absent.

Regeneration, like all passive benefits, is already perfect and has nothing to do with the works of believers other than providing the right desires and motives. Unlike justification, another passive benefit, regeneration exerts a creative power upon the soul. The purpose of justification, while removing the motivation of our so-called good flesh, is not to instill sufficient motive unto good-works. The desire for holiness is imparted in regeneration. But for the further power for obedience, service and worship, the infused benefit of regeneration is not the provision or solution for the believer’s ongoing conflict with indwelling sin. Far from solving the believer’s conflict with sin, the benefit of regeneration is what ignites this hatred and conflict with sin. The answer given for the believer’s conflict with indwelling sin (Romans 7) is the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 8). Man’s dependence upon God does not rest with the initial benefits, but continues despite the initial benefits and includes the further dependence upon God for those benefits that are still in the process of being perfected. Hence, there is no resting in the life of the believer in either privileges or duties; the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.¹³ The perfect benefits are not the end, and the imperfect benefits have not yet ended.

Since the gospel is described as the power of God unto salvation, any attempt to evade or effect change based entirely on benefits, whether infused or non-infused, looks for strength in something other than the Object of faith. We are only to be strong in the Lord, and it the power of His might.¹⁴ But for this to occur we must put on the whole armour of God.¹⁵ A single piece of armor, preferred attribute of God, or cherished result of the gospel, is not enough. If the infused benefit of regeneration does not exert the further power sufficient to mortify sin, certainly the consideration of the imputed benefit of justification alone is not the key to passively or indirectly counter the power of sin and the flesh. To ascribe the power of God in the gospel to the fact that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus is to confuse our walking after the Spirit with our standing in Christ. To make that which is static operate dynamically only condones a continual walking after the flesh.

Viewing the benefits from the perspective of worship, all of the benefits are necessary. Justification is necessary to render our imperfect worship acceptable; regeneration is necessary to render worship desirable; sanctification is necessary to render worship reasonable; but it is the power of the Spirit that renders worship possible. To look to the objective benefits alone as the key to spiritual growth would imply that the desire for change resides outside of ourselves in what God does for us, and is no longer based on what God does directly in us through the power of the Spirit. Not only would this remove the highest motive for obedience, it would also ascribe to an indirect and passive engine the power to turn the wheels of obedience – our good over God’s glory. Such a motor can only drive superficial and self-centered change.

The very fact that the epistles of the New Testament spend much more time applying the gospel than defining the gospel to believers, helps explain how a theology that centers on the simple message of the gospel may actually miss the whole point of the gospel. Hugh Binnings explains why the gospel is often abused and why a new birth is necessary to both cherish and correctly comprehend the gospel,

God’s everlasting love, and the redemption of Christ, is too glorious an object to behold with the eyes of flesh. Such objects certainly must astonish and strike the spirit of men with their transcendent brightness.¹⁶

As the Legalist delights in the letter of the law to the glory of himself, so the gospel-centered idolater delights in the letter of the gospel to the good of himself. They see no transcendent brightness in religion higher than how self may be benefited. With no direct change of center, one’s love and reception of the gospel continues to be motivated in the very same way, and from no higher principle, than that which motivate all men. The result is not sanctification by the Spirit, but superficial change based on the principle of self-love.

Herman Bavinck begins the very first chapter of his systematic theology discussing the question of Man’s Highest Good. He begins chapter one stating, God, and God alone, is man’s highest good.¹⁷ Far from placing the knowledge of man’s objective good at the center of the gospel, in chapter 2, entitled The Knowledge of God, he begins, God is the highest good of man – that is the testimony of the whole of Scripture.¹⁸ The gospel not only concurs with all of Scripture, being a more glorious revelations than that of the law or creation, it shines an even brighter light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Therefore, to make the good we have from Him and through Him the center of the gospel, is not to make Christ the center of the gospel, but rather to make ourselves all our good in the gospel. To make the knowledge of the good we have from Him and through Him the power and basis of the further worship that is due to Him, establishes our good above His glory as the basis of virtue. Centering the gospel on the indicative is preferable only to those who prefer themselves over the glory of God. For God is only glorified, and the Sprit’s work only continues in the heart, when Christ becomes the center, end and priority of the Christian life.¹⁹ The believer must lay hold of Christ by faith, and not simply grasp at one’s preferred benefit or attribute of God.

What acts as oil to the wheels of obedience, cannot be made the motor that drives it. While justification affects sanctification, when viewed as the primary power to effect sanctification, it produces only self-centered change. This is why seeking sanctification through the primary means of justification is idolatrous. Seeking the benefit of oneself may be a very legitimate second or third concern in sanctification, but an idolatrous first or only concern that denies the radical change of principle from self to God infused in regeneration. To tack on that God is glorified by our partial dependence has already been proven to be idolatrous. No matter how outwardly commendable and relatively good, works born or maintained merely out of the consideration of the benefit of oneself can no more glorify God than the relative good of the legalist, whose outer performance was for no higher end than his regard for himself above God.

WHAT IS THE ESSENTIAL PROBLEM IN

GOSPEL-CENTERED THEOLOGY?

The primary effect of the gospel is not to distinguish man with high privileged, but to exalt the preeminence of Christ. Geerhardus Vos points to the true nature of all false theology, including that of the gospel,

That can be demanded only by a theology that does not choose its starting point in God and the honor of God but in man and his bliss.²⁰

Gospel-centered theology chooses the wrong starting point to arrive at what may be considered a very legitimate secondary end and important consequence. But by equating grace and the gospel with justification, forgiveness and the goodness shown to man, and then rendering onto these objective benefits the indirect power to passively produce the subjective fruit to the glory of God, it becomes evident that they only seek God’s glory passively and desire it indirectly through the good of themselves. In other words, their professed desire to glorify God is just as pretentious as that of the Legalist.

While justification does affect sanctification, to render unto this objective good the power to effect subjective change, is to look to man’s good as the primary agent of change and means to God’s glory. God ’s glory cannot be supremely sought in an indirect way that flows from the consideration of our bliss over His glory. To question this very assertion is in itself an evidence of self-idolatry and an affront to the glory of God.

Since man is totally dependence upon God for both the objective and subjective benefits of the gospel, Edwards ends his sermon on God’s glorification in man’s dependence with an urgent exhortations to point all of these in the direction of the glory of God,

Hath any man much comfort and strong hope of eternal life, let not his hope lift him up, but dispose him the more to abase himself, and reflect on his own exceeding unworthiness of such a favor, and to exalt God alone. Is any man eminent in holiness, and abundant in good works, let him take nothing of the glory of it to himself, but ascribe it to him whose workmanship we are, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.²¹

Edwards does not side with some preferred benefit as the source of the others. This would be partial dependence at best. Edwards includes both objective and inherent good as God’s work for His own glory. As such, He must bestow these only in such a way that exalts Him as the supreme good; for of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things.

To look to Christ as the source and substance of all our good, one can no more look to justification as the means to sanctification, than look to sanctification as the means to justification. Christ alone mediates all the benefits that are included in union with Him and granted for His glory. The need for a total dependence upon God for all of salvation, implies that the partial gospel emphasis upon the indicatives is antagonistic to both the gospel and glory of God. Paul crowns his theology of redemption (everything from predestination to glorification), not by centering the gospel on the results that man does not deserve, but with the doxology that God deserves; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.²²

CHAPTER

1

The Imputed Benefits of the Gospel can only be Properly Cherished through the Exerted Power of the Spirit in the Proper Use and Exercise of the Imparted Benefits of the Gospel

The fleshly mind may desire either the imputed or imparted benefits of the gospel in a non-spiritual way, for both legalism and antinomianism emphasize one or the other. The imputed benefits can be held in such high regard that they produce a superficial semblance of the imparted benefits, but no higher semblance than the power, purpose and value that the carnal mind can exert in religion. The tares must resemble the wheat or the enemy sows to no purpose. Only the spiritual mind may esteem them according to their real value, purpose and power.²³ The problem with using justification as the means to either eliminate or effect sanctification, is that it prescribes a method for change that is both indirect and passive, and could easily become self-centeredness under the guise of religion.

A purely indirect or passive method of worship or obedience that points primarily to ourselves and our good fortune in order to motivate and effect change is neither the distinguishing characteristic of the good work of God performed upon the soul, nor of the expected good works to be performed by believer as a result of God’s workmanship upon the soul. Self-interest is a principle that already exists in man’s fallen nature. To employ this indirect method of motivating obedience implies that the believer, like the legalist, obeys both unwillingly and from no greater regard than that of himself. Although regeneration imparts no new faculty to the soul, nor eradicate entirely the old principles, it does introduce new and opposite principles that before never existed. To promote change that ignores these new principles by choosing a few preferred indicatives as the best method of change, bypasses the new principles in favor of the old.

In Psalms 111, the indicatives are indicative of something more than how God has shown His goodness to Israel in all of His works on their behalf. These works, which include redemption,²⁴ are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein,²⁵ for God hath made His wonderful works to be remembered.²⁶ These works are not properly understood unless they end in God, rather than viewed as benefits to be consumed upon ourselves. There must be a certain wisdom gained from the consideration of God’s works if they are to avail in a life of worship. So, Psalms 111 concludes with the only application worthy of all that God’s does on our behalf,

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endureth for ever.

The presupposition of the whole bible, from the judgement in the garden to the book of Revelation, is that God deserves worship and obedience and man deserves death. Unless we understand this, being blind both to and by our depravity, we cannot even begin to probe the depths of the gospel. The works of God in His dealings with man, including those of redemption and the gospel, are not properly understood unless they point beyond man to reveal the nature and glory of God. Even the life of God in the soul that is promised in the gospel cannot be possessed without ongoing growth in conformity to the mind of Christ displayed on the cross. The vision of God’s glory promotes the wisdom of reasonable worship expressed in a life of obedience. The idolatrous heart makes the gospel and all of religion about itself.

Since it is not in the power of anyone to either obey God or desire His glory, all of the glory in redemption belongs to the One who has been given all power in heaven and earth. To ignore the subjective power in Christ’s application of the gospel by the Sprit, by default, denies both Christ’s power and right to reign. While the gospel falls on many soils, Christ’s call alone is effectual in drawing the lost unto Himself, for His power and authority are absolute. There is no need to trust in our appeal to the power of self-advantage to coerce ongoing change. Since the gospel is a light that shines forth the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus through the illuminating work of the Spirit, it cannot be viewed appropriately if we take this power of attraction onto ourselves by affirming man as the essential center or end of the gospel. For this reason, without a new birth, the offer of an objective deliverance alone is a work that does not reflect the goodness, power, wisdom and glory of God in the gospel, but only confirms man’s natural self-orientation that always seek what’s in it for himself.

Gospel-centered idolatry, by resting faith in that which is only the means to a higher end, centers the gospel for the believer around the static benefits that have already been perfectly applied on the believer’s behalf. In the epistles, the ongoing application of the Word that is stressed for the believer,²⁷ and this includes the gospel, is for obedience (sanctification). The term gospel-centered is chosen to make a static benefit operate dynamically, and those that are ongoing and dynamic to operate statically or passively. Because sanctification, like regeneration, involves the heart and will, the affections cannot be coerced towards God neither passively nor indirectly through the consideration of the good of the objective benefits alone. Justification, therefore, cannot be the primary means to the ongoing life of God in the soul of the believer – holiness.

The implications of the new birth is as fundamentally essential to the gospel as forgiveness and justification. Without it, we purposely limit the extent of man’s depravity, and render a superficial meaning to both forgiveness and repentance. Justification and forgiveness are neither the first benefits nor the last benefits of the gospel, but along with regeneration constitutes the necessary 2-fold reconciliation that lays the foundation for the ongoing benefit of sanctification until the final consummation of salvation occurs in the benefit of glorification. The problem with gospel-centered theology is that it correctly offers a new start and a clean slate, but then continues to offer this half-cure for the ongoing life of the believer. It equates the terms justification and forgiveness as equivalent to the term gospel; whereas, John 3:16 includes both faith and eternal life in the essential message of the gospel. The spiritually blind and dead sinner needs more than a show of divine favor to be saved, he needs the powerful infusion of the life of God in the soul.

The danger of choosing justification as the center of the gospel is that it presents the partial solution of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, but fails to either rejoice in hope of the glory of God, or glory in tribulation for its sanctifying effects;²⁸ thus, replacing the proper means and end of salvation with a mere regard for ourselves. Without a more comprehensive view of salvation, there will be no need to advance beyond what’s in it for us, and this limited view of what’s in it for us will be transformed into the primary means to God’s glory. This partial view of salvation does not even solve the problem of legalism, as some falsely claim. It rather renders true worship and obedience either optional or possible from the same principle that drives the legalist (what’s in it for me?).

To counter legalism, one must have a proper view of both justification and sanctification. Justification does affect the heart, attitude and life of the believer in sanctification in that he no longer works to merit, but from gratitude. But justification neither effects sanctification nor is the source of the desire to worship. For, as the Scriptures prove, it is possible and expected that the spiritually blind and dead will worship Christ for both what He has done and what they are able to do for Him, precisely because they are still blind and dead to Christ’s glory. While justification and sanctification are complementary and assist each other, we can no more look to our justification as the source, power or key to sanctification than we can look to our sanctification to merit justification. They must never be comingled together, but consciously and purposely separated.

To rejoice in the hope of the glory of God is a distinctively God-centered change effected by the gospel’s power in conjunction with faith and repentance. While all who believe know that the gospel of free grace and justification by faith alone is most conducive to the glory of God, the reason this gospel is good news to the believer is because it is the scheme of salvation that most accords with the supreme desire of the penitent heart to glorify God. Viewing the gospel from God’s perspective, he now values the good news because the Trinity is the supreme center, ends and means of salvation. Salvation, then, supremely centers on Christ, glorifies God and is empowered by the Spirit. To view salvation primarily through the objective benefits that can be twisted to point primarily to the good of man, is to point salvation away from the beauty and glory of the Trinity.

But how does one come to share in God’s desire for His own glory above one’s own good, since it has only been one’s own good that has ever been sought? Again, the answer is the Trinity. First, it is not merely an enticing contract or a deal that was reached between two parties on equal terms. The preferences of the customer is not consulted in the plan of salvation, because God is not negotiating with the sinner, but exerting His power directly upon his heart by the Spirit of the Lord. It is a Spirit-wrought change that continues into a Spirit-empowered walk.

Secondly, the gospel illuminated by the Spirit is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is a Christ-centered change into the very same image of Christ that is not dependent on the manipulation of lesser interests, however beneficial and legitimate.

And finally, it is a light that transforms one into the same image that shines in the heart; hence, it is a change that must increasingly reflect the same value as Christ for the will and glory of God. Therefore, it is only reasonable that those who have peace with God now rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and glory in tribulation. Although there are some benefits that grow and increase, the three mentioned above are not built one upon the other. For then there would be a time lapse between them, and therefore it would not necessarily be true of all believers at all times. Salvation encompasses all three, and therefore one can be chosen neither at the expense of, nor as the source of, any of the others.

THE POWER EXERTED IN THE

IMPARTED BENEFITS

Regeneration, being the initial change wrought upon the heart, increases from glory to glory in sanctification. This is where the primary motivation and desire for change (sanctification) comes from in the new creature in Christ. Christ’s love objectively received in the gospel, unless emulated in life, is not the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. For love that is not emulated, or indirectly emulates by the consideration of the objective benefits gained, is not the love of God but the love of self.

One characteristic of the believer who is created in Christ’s image is the ready embrace of the mind of Christ. However imperfect this mind may be in the believer, he cannot willingly embrace the mind that is the opposite of the mind of Christ. The description of the mind of Christ that we are to emulate is not one that boast in privileges, places itself at the center or demands certain rights, but one that exalts God’s concern and leaves one’s own exaltation in the hands of God.²⁹ To invent a Christianity that glories in privileges gained as they center around oneself, is an expression of the carnal mind that must be exposed and rebuked. Without the subjective work of regeneration, objective justification alone would be the reception of the benefits in opposition to the mind and preeminence of Christ. This is not the new creation in Christ, but a superficial change that in influenced outwardly from the mere consideration of ourselves and the goodness and grace of God towards us. To allow the consideration of outward privileges to become the primary source of subjective power is to steal the glory of God in those benefits that are granted by the exerted power of His grace and increased in conjunction with the increase of grace by the power of the Spirit.

To exploit the freeness of the gospel to the lost to minimize the efficacy of its application to the saved, gospel-centered theology must exalt a few preferred benefits over the glory and beauty of the Benefactor, and place the further power of the gospel unto salvation in these non-infused benefits. By inserting the doctrine of justification and forgiveness into the realm of sanctification, it essentially denies that the gospel has any direct power to effect change, but only that which is vested indirectly in the objective benefits on our behalf. This exchanges the new principle produced within for the glory and love of God, with the old motives that work only from without for the love of ourselves. This latter principle is only evil when it acts without the former. Once it takes the supremacy in our hearts and theology, it becomes idolatrous.

Quoting from the vast array of Reformed and Puritan literature throughout the centuries, Dane Ortlund is hard pressed to find many quotes that would express the sentiment of James Stewart, whom he quotes as writing,

It is God’s justifying verdict itself which sanctifies. . . . It is precisely because God waits for no guarantees but pardons out-and-out. . . . that forgiveness regenerates, and justification sanctifies.³⁰

In his book Deeper, most of the quotes from page 92 and 93 affirm nothing more than that the same faith that justifies also sanctifies. These quotes correctly articulate that justification may be oil to the wheels of our obedience, but none assert that it is the motor that drives it. We are not to look to Him for one benefit, and then look to this benefit as the cause of the others. Once the power of God that is exerted from within is exchanged for the favors of God pronounced strictly from without, the gospel is made primarily about us; not a power in us for God’s glory, but a word of favor to us for our good. It is true that the gospel is a word of favor for our good to His glory, but it is equally true that it is the power of God exerted directly upon the soul for His glory.

THE COUNTERFEIT POWER OF

AN INDICATIVE GOSPEL

If not from a new principle, under what principle does the gospel-centered scheme work? One can superficially love what he naturally hates, if he can somehow connect it with something that he naturally loves. This describes the motivation of both the legalist and the antinomian in religion. While this natural principle may result in change, indirect love will only produce superficial change. Superficial change is agreeable to both the legalist and the antinomian who both remain blind to the glory and beauty of God, and see no higher beauty than themselves in religion. They do not offer a new principle, but merely seek to manipulate those that already exist. While professing love for God, this love must be constantly upheld and supported by one’s primary concern for himself in religion. Therefore, the essence of gospel-centered theology is to constantly restate or reapply the objective benefits as the indirect to the subjective benefit.

Indirect appeals for change, based solely on the good shown unto us, can successfully produce superficial change even in the unregenerate who love themselves supremely. But appeals for change into the same image of Christ from glory to glory that are based indirectly on the objective good received are neither the fruit of the Spirit’s ongoing work, nor the result of the love of God infused directly into the soul at regeneration. It is not merely the objective benefit received, but the preferred attribute of God’s holiness acknowledged that feeds this desire to grow in holiness for the sake of a holy God.

To suggest that ongoing change into the image of Christ can be achieved either indirectly or passively, as we focus the gospel directly upon our preferred benefits that point to our imagined good, is to be distracted from Christ by the power of self-love. It is idolatrous to compare the supremacy of God with anything else in creation, and it is self-idolatry to invent a religion whereby God is superseded by a concern no higher than ourselves. Exerted power is not even necessary under this scheme. This work is neither Spirit-wrought nor the result of the saving knowledge of God, but a rejection of Christ’s loveliness for our own. To experience the saving knowledge of God, it is necessary not only to know of the love, mercy and grace available in Christ, but also to experience a nature that is affectionately inclined towards all of God’s attributes for their own loveliness, and not simply for their usefulness.

How can we know if we have experienced the power of God unto salvation through the gospel? By new values and motives that before never existed. Because of these new values, the primary question every professor must ask is: Do I value the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone because it is a doctrine whereby I am most benefited, or because it is a doctrine most conducive to the glory of God? Or, even more revealing, Do I value the objective benefits of the gospel as an excuse to ignore any subjective participation in the change that is from glory to glory?

Carnal reason will attribute the ongoing power of the gospel for change to the outside influence of moral suasion (what’s in it for me?), while the spiritually illuminated will attribute this power directly to the One who holds the power of the affections and desires; hence, he will attribute change to the ongoing work of the Spirit and the continuation of the grace that was inwardly infused in regeneration and preserved by the power of God.

In a book written for the purpose of promoting growth in