The Gospel
If we fail to love one another in ways so striking that we actually start looking like Jesus, then the world has the right to judge that we know nothing of him. They might be wrong. We might indeed be Christians. But the world is right to dismiss unloving Christians as unchristian. Jesus himself gave them that right.
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. • The Gospel
Every other hope is based, explicitly or implicitly, on how deserving we are. Only the Christian gospel is based—clearly, boldly, and insistently—on how loving God is to the undeserving.
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. • The Gospel
Let’s set all lesser things aside and prayerfully, before the Lord, rediscover his powerful gospel, while we still can.
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. • The Gospel
Intro summary:
The Church faces a very real adversary in Satan. The Church must constantly be at war with Satan.
Churches must be aligned in the Gospel doctrinally and practically. Walk the talk. Usually, they lean toward one or the other.
We need churches to find their Christianity again - not just more events or programs to attract outside audiences. People want truth, beauty and generosity and are not finding it in churches today.
If by God’s grace we hold the two together—gospel doctrine and gospel culture—people of all ages will more likely come to our churches with great joy. It is more likely that they will think, “Here is the answer I’ve been looking for all my life.
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. • The Gospel
When the gospel is doubted, a beautiful church that sticks together is an unanswerable argument in our angry and divided world.
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. • The Gospel
Jesus’s Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Ble
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Now let’s press further into the implications for our churches. Specifically, what does the gospel create in this present world that wasn’t here before? The gospel does not hang in midair as an abstraction. By the power of God, the gospel creates something new in the world today. It creates not just a new community, but a new kind of community. Gos
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God so loved the world, not because we are lovable but because he is love (1 John 4:16).
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. • The Gospel
How can we press more deeply into the power of God today? The answer will always be simple. All we can do is go back to our Lord and his grace: “Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). Does that answer seem too easy, even a letdown? Then try it. It is never easy. It means deliberately rejecting every other source of stre
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