5 Indicators of Gospel Culture
In his great little book, The Gospel, Ray Ortlund uses this simple, but powerful, formula to explain the essence of gospel culture. Gospel culture = gospel + safety + time.
His point is that we need the gospel pressed in at every level, with many ways of speaking and hearing it. We need safety to be who we are, where we are. We need to be able to confess sin without fear of being looked down on or gossiped about. We need the freedom to be needy. We need time to follow Jesus without pressure to have our lives figured out by the end of the week. We need time to build the beauty of relationships in gentleness and unity.
How do we get there? Gospel culture begins with gospel doctrine. The good news of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection creates a culture of life where real change can happen. Every one of us is a sinner in need of the grace of God. God has not remained silent in our need. By his gospel, he proclaims grace for all of us. When accepted wholeheartedly by a church, the message of grace creates a culture of grace. The clarity of God’s gospel of grace for sinners creates in a church a culture of grace where people find healing in Jesus.
Gospel doctrine, in some ways, is the easy part. We can memorize the right doctrine. But it takes wisdom and openness to God to live in a gospel culture. It’s far too easy for what we say about our doctrine to be unsaid by our culture. The culture that we allow our doctrine to create is the real test of what we believe the doctrine to be. What our culture says will give us the right (or remove the right) to speak to outsiders.
When the gospel takes hold of a church both at the level of doctrine and at the level of the culture, that church starts to radiate with glory from above. We see more of God than ever before. We see more of ourselves than ever before. We repent more. We confess more. We have more joy. We’re freer. We’re no longer hiding. We’re walking in the light together, looking to Jesus alone, and he’s helping us moment by moment.
Who wouldn’t want a church like that? As Ortlund says in his book, “It isn’t easy, but it is possible.”
So how do we get there? Here are five indicators that a church is on its way to experiencing gospel culture.
1. We rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ. “For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name” (Ps. 33:21).
The gospel is not a theory. It is not a possibility. It is a reality. It is the breath of air that we need at every moment. It is the only good news in this awful world. We rejoice in salvation because we know Jesus redeemed us on the cross (Gal. 3:13). Our sin has made us evil—there is no other word for it—but Jesus has intervened to take our punishment and give us new life (Rom. 6:4).
2. We follow Jesus courageously. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).
Our lives are not our own; we have been blood-bought (1 Corinthians 6:20). More than merely rescued, Jesus ushered us into the kingdom of God (Col. 1:13). We are now citizens of a new country (Phil. 3:20-21). We have a reason to try hard and take risks (Phil. 3:14). We can joyfully pay the cost to spread the good news (Acts 14:19–22). We have the freedom to fail because all our failures are covered by Jesus’s blood. We have hope to succeed because all our success is granted by Jesus’s resurrection.
3. We love one another boldly. “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8).
Most love in the world is weak, iffy, wish-washy. It’s here today, gone tomorrow, based on who knows what—feelings? But in a gospel culture, love doesn’t depend on the fickle feelings of sinners but the strong forgiveness of Jesus. When the gospel washes over a church it feels like a place of love, because God is in it and God is love (1 John 4:8). The bold love of God rests upon us, sealed by Christ’s blood, powered by the Holy Spirit.
The love of God changes how we love one another.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
These words from the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth (13:4–7) feel reachable in a gospel culture. Whereas we once looked upon them as lofty ideals, in a church with the gospel we now see them in others.
4. We exult in Christ and forsake self-assurance. “ . . . it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev. 14:4).
In a gospel culture, Jesus is always first. When we laid our life in his nail-pierced hands, we gave up the right to rule our own life. In our coming to faith, we abandoned all our claim to righteousness. We forfeited all our entitlement. We admitted we deserved hell, but God gave us heaven. So, now, selfishness is forsaken. Jesus is all the Savior we will ever need. We don’t own anything. We don’t prove our worth. We have worth. We are stewards of everything God gives (1 Pet. 4:10). Our preferences don’t die, but they are not the ruling factor. They are spectators now of what God is doing. He sets the agenda. We exult and follow—wherever he goes.
5. We expect Jesus to be real and beautiful among us. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Most of our lives are dull. We grow up, get into a routine, and wait for the weekend when our coffee pot turns on at 8:00 AM instead of 6:00 AM. We live most of our lives in the drudgery of our own making. But when God saves us, we’re swept into his great story. Every moment is an eternal one—they all matter. He will change us. He will be real among us, and his beauty will overtake the landscape of our lives.
As he changes us individually, he changes us corporately. And as he does, he builds something beautiful out of the ashes of our lives (Is. 61:3). The church becomes radiant—not because of the beauty of the people, but because of the beauty of Christ in the people (Eph. 5:27). We find ourselves dying to our fleshly desires and coming alive to God’s holy ones.
That kind of culture isn’t easy to maintain. After all, we’re sinners. The world is against us. The Devil is against us. But God is for us! And, besides, we’re not building it at all. He is. Like so much in the Christian life, we’re just receiving his precious gifts. If we look to him and follow him, we’ll see what only God can do, and we’ll be happy all our days, even the bad ones.
David McLemore is an elder at Refuge Church in Franklin, Tennessee. He is married to Sarah, and they have three sons and one daughter. Read more of David’s writing on his blog, Things of the Sort.