- Jesus: The Series (Season 9)
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Did you ever know someone that stood out in a crowd? Maybe it was their physical appearance; perhaps they were tall? Maybe they had a particularly loud laugh or they were just charismatic it. So much of our lives are spent trying to fit in and blend in. But as followers of Jesus, the Gospel makes us different! If in “church culture” we can get sucked into the playing the part and fitting in. The Bible even warns us about “church people” that are there to lead us astray and away from God’s will for how we carry ourselves. But when we live out the Gospel, we will stand out in our actions, words, and attitudes.
This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. -Titus 1:13-16
Religion doesn’t produce Godliness. Religion makes up empty rules, and then it emphasizes adherence to those rules, more than actual life change. Religion emphasizes what you do, not who you are. Religion uses God for gain; God is a means to an end. The Gospel produces gratefulness, but religion produces pride. Religion says I should go to heaven because “I am a good person, I am a church member, I was baptized, I give money”. Religion is self-righteous. But the grace of the gospel says, “I shouldn’t go to heaven, but God made a way anyway!” Religion says, “Just do these things my way, and you will be ok. Look this way, talk this way, emphasize these people over these people.” But the grace of the gospel says “you are bought with a price” and it calls for full surrender, heart, soul, and mind. The Gospel Calls us to be different. Being different isn’t always safe; sometimes it’s scandalous. Religion worships events, rules, and things but uses God. The Grace of the gospel worships God and uses things.
The Grace of God is what changes us. We were saved to be different. It’s not religion that changes us. Transformation doesn’t happen by waging a culture war OR by assimilating to the culture’s way of life.
Instead, we are to be in the world but not of the world. Participate in culture but with a life based on a different value system. Living a life that only points towards the saving message of the gospel. No distractions. This is how we avoid becoming a church that grows through church transfer, to a church that grows through transformation. Changing people’s lives by being different and looking like Jesus.
Paul writes this letter to encourage Titus and us Christians to remember the truth, which leads to Godliness. He says the grace of God that saved us is what trains us to be the person that God made us to be! Looking upward to who He is, backward to what He has done, and forward to who He is making us will change us at the heart level!
The Grace of the Gospel redirects our worship -who God is.
The Grace of the Gospel restores our gratefulness- what God’s done.
The Grace of the Gospel raises expectations- who God is making us into.
The grace of the gospel fights our tendency to drift toward false religion. We were saved to be different.