Preaching the Gospel to Yourself

This will be the first 2 part blog on Partakers, so get pumped up! (that is, if anyone but Andrew and I read this). The first post will discuss preaching the gospel to yourself as a concept (mainly for those who haven’t heard of it or are skeptical of its utility) and the second will deal with the practicality of it – putting it to use, that is.

I owe my own experience with this concept to 3 wise men (no, not those guys from the Nativity – besides, there was only mention of 3 gifts, and there may have been more than 3 men who visited the infant Christ…. A story for another time, I digress). 1) Martin Luther, its originator (or at least its articulator); 2) Martin Lloyd-Jones, who urges more talking to oneself and less listening, allowing us to take an active role in what our mind and affections follow rather than sitting idly by as a victim to our mental whims; and 3) John Piper – the guy who taught me about this whole thing in the first place in his book When I Don’t Desire God. He talks of its endless utility in battling those spiritual ruts and our times of darkness. These men all have a wonderful grasp of how the gospel transforms us, not only at salvation, but each moment afterwards.

So here are 3 benefits of this concept for believers:

1) It keeps the gospel on the forefront of our minds: It keeps our affections upon Christ, steering us away from sin.

2) It helps us learn the gospel: and the more familiar we are with the gospel, the more use it has for us, for we can apply it to more areas of our lives.

3) After we sin, it will lift us up: God is more able to pardon than we to transgress (thank Spurgeon for that one). As we proclaim the gospel to ourselves, it helps us see our sin for what it is and to see Christ for whom he is, and as our thoughts turn towards Christ we are flooded with a sense of forgiveness and reminded of the grace extended to us because of Christ’s finished work on the Cross

Of course, before any of this can happen, one must know the gospel. So ask yourself, do you know the gospel? If you blow through a quick answer, think this whole idea is trivial, and find yourself already bored, then you don’t know the gospel of Christ. Sadly most Christians have a 1^st grade understanding of the gospel – enough to profess faith in Christ, but not enough to tackle any issue that arises. The truth is, the more we know about Christ, the more we fall in love with him; the more we fall in love with him, the more we want to know. And there is always more to understand – in fact, we will spend eternity getting to know God more, each moment realizing a new truth of how glorious the work of Christ was on our behalf. It would be arrogant of me to say all of this without giving some Scripture that loudly proclaims the gospel, so for those wanting some ammo to try out this new spiritual weapon, I offer the following 2 to start out, but remember – all of Scripture is about the gospel (paraphrasing Luther, coincidently)

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us – Romans 5:8

God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

More will follow this on Pt. 2, so stay tuned.