Monday Musings: February 2007 Archives

One of the most important things (if not the most important thing) I have learned since becoming a Christian is how desperately I need the gospel each day. My default mode, even now, is to listen to myself—to my self-justifying or self-condemning or self-affirming thoughts—rather than preach the Good News of Christ's redemptive accomplishment to myself . If I don't preach to myself the good news of God making Christ to be my righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—the totality of my identity (1 Corinthians 1:30), I will listen to one of my many "self" voices. So, it is my daily practice (and many times a day!) to confront myself with the transforming news of the gospel.

Justin Buzzard wrote a post several weeks ago listing key texts he uses to practice the discipline of preaching the gospel to himself (read it here). It is an excellent and, I am convinced, absolutely necessary spiritual discipline for the Christian. If, indeed, the gospel is the power of God to justify, sanctify, and ultimately glorify us (Romans 1:16), then we would do well to cultivate this practice of preaching the gospel to ourselves. Unfortunately, it is my experience that few Christians really know how to do this, or if they do, they aren't very good at it. So, I thought it might be helpful to write a series of brief posts about using Scripture to preach the gospel to ourselves each day (Food for Thought: It has become my conviction that the better Christians become at preaching the gospel to themselves the better they'll become at preaching it to unbelievers. One reason we Christians might be weak at preaching the gospel to unbelievers is that we are not very good at doing it to ourselves.).

I have found that those who do practice this spiritual discipline do so almost exclusively from the New Testament. It's really not that difficult to discern why, though, since the New Testament is explicitly Christ-centered. It contains a wealth (understatement) of texts that clearly speak of his great redemptive achievement. But if Jesus preached the gospel to his disciples from the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:27, 44), that is, from the Old Testament, we would do well to learn to do the same. I will quickly admit that it requires more work on our part to do so, but I believe that it will ultimately deepen our understanding of and appreciation for the gospel. So, I plan to use the Old Testament exclusively, beginning with the Psalms, in this series of preaching the gospel to ourselves.

If you are interested in understanding more about the discipline of preaching the gospel to yourself, here is an excellent resource that a pastor wrote for his congregation. It was written to be a "guide designed to help Christians experience the gospel more fully by preaching it to themselves every day." Download it here: A Gospel Primer for Christians (pdf document).

I discovered what looks to be a number of helpful resource links on biblical theology over at God is Better than All.

An introductory lecture (mp3) on biblical theology by one of the men whose thinking on gospel-centeredness and biblical theology has influenced me most, Graeme Goldsworthy. His Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture is always nearby when I'm studying Scripture. Its pages are well worn. So, I think you'll find this introductory lecture worth your time (especially if you are not quite sure what biblical theology is). If you listen to it, let me encourage you to share your thoughts about it in the comment section of this post.

A lecture on biblical theology (mp3) by Dr. Peter Jensen, a former colleague of Graeme Goldsworthy at Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia.

A relatively short article on interpreting texts in the context of the whole Bible by Dr. David Baker.

Trueman-Goldsworthy Debate on biblical theology. Carl Trueman: A Revolutionary Balancing Act. Graeme Goldsworthy: A response to Carl Trueman's “A Revolutionary Balancing Act”