A Christian is not something you are, it is something you become. You don’t automatically become an adult at a certain age. In order to be an adult, you have to act like an adult. So, too, you do not automatically become a Christian because of going to church, or the family you are born in. In order to be a Christian, you must act like a Christian. This sense of redemptive process is missing in the world around us. The gospel of Christ not only declares that God is active, it describes what He is doing and how He is doing it. The gospel reminds us that God’s primary goal is not our personal happiness, it is nothing short of our becoming a participant in His Divine nature, according to 2 Peter 1:4. It is through the Word of God that we can demonstrate that the very relationships which I struggle and the difficult situations which I would like to escape are the instruments God is using to produce the heart change that will result in a life that is fruitful to His glory. Unless we have an understanding of the problem of indwelling sin and the struggle within, and without an understanding of the presence, character, and activity of God and His sanctifying process, life will not make sense. As followers of Jesus Christ, we offer to our community through the Word of God a clarity they lack because they lack the personal wisdom, insight, and practical agenda setting understanding that comes when we view ourselves and our situations from the vantage point of the gospel. There is no way, that those who are blind to the realities of who they are as sinners, can interpret what is happening to them correctly. As followers of Christ, we are not to see the Bible as an encyclopedia of life principles that need only be followed to have a happy life. Scripture gives us a radical view of life that has its roots in the gospel; every biblical perspective and principle is rooted there. God is at work in each situation to conform us to the image of His Son, supplying all that we need to do what He has called us to do. We cannot extract Christ from the principles of Scripture without doing violence to them. All that God calls us to do is rooted in what Christ is doing. If we do not keep the gospel at the heart of our interpretive system, the principles of the Bible will make no sense to us, and we will not respond appropriately.
