notes from mercyview lab #1

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 1 Corinthians, atonement, Bible, Christianity, community, Galatians, Gospel, incarnation, irreligion, Jesus, justification, kingdom of God, mercyview, New Testament, religion, resurrection, sanctification, sent, social justice, theology
• Date: Jun 22,2010

mercyview is a new church community launching in Tulsa in August 2010 and over the summer, we are engaging those who are interested in it with five “labs” at the Andrews’ home in Midtown Tulsa led by myself.

The “labs” are intended to give a snapshot of what we believe God is calling mercyview to be in the great city of Tulsa and give folks a “no-commitment” opportunity to begin to discern if God may be calling them to join us in the birth of this new church community.

This past Sunday, we held our first lab and our house was full! I was humbled at those who came to be in community and conversation as we talked about mercyview‘s future. [This Sunday, June 27 @ 7pm, we will talk about what it looks for the scattered church to be counter-cultural missionaries in our community]

In the our first lab, I unpacked what I believe is and will always be the “hub” of all of mercyview‘s ministry: the Gospel. Here are the notes from the night for those of you who weren’t able to be with us, are peeking over the fence, or praying for us from afar:

-The four values of mercyview are: gospel, formation, community, mission. In many ways, the Gospel is really not one of the four mercyview values – it is THE value.

-When we talk about anything (formation, community, mission, parenting, marriage, mentoring, counseling, outreach, evangelism, church multiplication etc.) the filter for all of these things @ mercyview is going to be the Gospel.

-I don’t know of an evangelical church that doesn’t formally subscribe to the doctrine of the Gospel but most do not have a ministry that is actually gospel-centered. It is easy to think that if you have the gospel down accurately in your head then your ministry is automatically shaped by it as well.

-So how do we do it – how do we have lives and a church community that is centered on the Gospel? I believe it involves getting three things right about the Gospel [1]:

1. The Gospel isn’t everything
2. The Gospel doesn’t do just one thing
3. The Gospel affects everything

-The Gospel is one thing: how our alienation with God is addressed and removed by the work of Christ. All other alienations in life flow from that – all human problems are symptom and our separation from God is the cause.

-Thus, the gospel is primarily news about the historical events of Jesus – His life, His death, and His resurrection – and the three Gospel themes of the historical events of Jesus are:

1. Incarnation: Jesus represents
2. Atonement: Jesus substitutes
3. Resurrection: Jesus secures

-The gospel is good news not good advice (Martin Lloyd-Jones) — it’s not something we “do” but rather something that has been done for us and that we must respond to.

-We assume that the Gospel is simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved and then we step into deeper theological waters but the Gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths but more like the hub in a wheel of truth. (Tullian Tchividjian)

-In other words, once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel but to move them more deeply into it. (Tim Keller). Therefore, the Gospel is for non-Xians AND Xians.

-Most Xian’s day-to-day rely on their sanctification for their justification, practically functioning on the principle “I live a good life, therefore Jesus accepts me” rather than “Jesus accepts me, therefore I live a good life through obedience.” (Richard Lovelace)

-So how do Xians live as if the Gospel is true? The pathway to Gospel change is beholding the glory of God. Beholding is becoming. 2 Corinthians 2:17-18 says:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

-There are two “thieves” of the gospel: religion and irreligion. Moralism/religion stresses truth without grace and relativism/irreligion stresses grace without truth.

-What do both religious and irreligious people have in common? From the viewpoint of the Gospel, they are really the same. They are both ways to avoid Jesus as Savior and keep control of our lives through worldly pride (relativism) or religious pride (legalism).

-The gospel shows us a God far more holy than the legalist can bear (he had to die because we could not satisfy his holy demands) and yet far more merciful than a relativist can conceive (he had to die because he loved us).

-To “get the Gospel” is to turn from self-justification and rely on Jesus’ record for a relationship with God. The irreligious don’t repent at all and the religious only repent of sins. But Christians also repent of their self-righteousness. That is the distinction between the three groups–Christian, the religious, and the irreligious.

-Even though the Gospel is a set of truths to believe, it cannot remain a set of beliefs if it is truly believed and understood. The Gospel creates a whole way of life and affects literally everything about us.

-Returning to the three Gospel themes of the historical events of Jesus, we can see how the gospel affects everything:

1. The incarnation is the “upside-down” aspect of the Gospel: The Gospel creates a new kind of servant community with people who live out an alternate way of being human. The world’s values are “right side-up” but Gospel values are “upside-down.”

2. The atonement is the “inside-out” aspect of the Gospel: Traditional religion teaches that if we do good deeds and follow the moral rules in our behavior on the outside, God will bless us and give us salvation. But the gospel is the reverse of this—if I know in my heart God has accepted me and loved me freely, by grace, then I can begin to obey, out of inner joy and gratitude. Religion is “outside-in,” but the gospel is “inside-out.”

3. The resurrection is the “forward-back” aspect of the gospel: The coming of the King is two stages. At his first coming, he saved us from the penalty of sin, and gave us the presence of the Holy Spirit. But at the end of time he will come to complete what he began at the first coming — He will bring a new creation, a material world cleansed of all brokenness. Christians now live and serve in light of the future reality (“forward-back”) of a new heavens and a new earth.

-We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that remains alone. (Martin Luther). True gospel belief will always lead to good works. Faith and works must never be confused for one another but neither should they be separated.

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[1] Adapted from “Gospel Theology” by Tim Keller from London Church Planting Consultation, 2008-2009