Gospel-Centered Resolutions

This is just what you needed, isn’t it? Yet another New Year’s article focused on resolutions. This week, nearly every major publication will feature an article, post on their socials, or make a video about New Year’s resolutions. So, why should you read another one? Why should I even spend the time writing one? The space is so crowded; how can another article about resolutions be anything more than noise in the chaos?

This article, however, is more about the gospel than it is about resolutions. Every year, people quit on New Year’s resolutions because they feel caught in a failure loop. They make plans, work hard for a couple months, see marginal change, and give up. If that is your experience too, then perhaps it’s your resolutions that need to get saved.

The gospel challenges our normal approach to resolutions. Rather than starting with our desires, it reminds us that our desires are deceitful. We need to look elsewhere for our goals. Rather than telling us how to find value, the gospel reminds us that our value has been established by the blood of Jesus on the cross. Rather than telling us to try harder and be better to accomplish our goals, the gospel is the “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). A gospel-centered approach is simply truer. It is more life-giving. It is powerful. If you’ve given up on resolutions before, don’t lose hope. Instead, give up on “you-centered” resolutions and replace them with the gospel.

A gospel-centered resolution will be defined by a handful of characteristics:

1. Gospel-Centered Resolutions Are From Identity, Not For Identity

Most resolutions I’ve heard or made are about trying to claim a new identity—new year, new you. I want to lose weight to look more attractive and become acceptable to other people. I want to go to the gym so I can feel better about myself. I want to read more books to prove I’m more intelligent. I want to reorganize to claim control over my life.

The problem with this approach is that you already have the best possible identity in Christ. In Christ, you have become an adopted child of God (Eph. 1:5). In Christ, you are holy and spotless (Eph. 5:27). In Christ, you are a royal priest (1 Pet. 2:9). Christian, you don’t need to create a new identity for yourself; Christ remade you. You don’t need to prove your worth; Christ already proved it.

A gospel-centered resolution will not be a vain striving to become something new. A gospel-centered resolution will be rooted in your belief about who God is and who he has made you to be. It will seek to live in step with your new identity in him.

2. Gospel-Centered Resolutions Set Christlikeness as the Goal

Ephesians 4:12–13 teaches that the ministry of the saints will build up the body of Christ “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Christlikeness is the eternal goal of the Christian life.

It’s a good thing to be fit, learn more, start a new career, pay off debt, and get organized. However, these are not ultimate goals. They are not large enough to capture the heart through the waves of life. Fitness falls to the wayside when life gets stressful, because we have never addressed the root issue. We use coping mechanisms to deal with stress rather than actively trusting God in prayer. We become discouraged when the new career becomes a series of false starts, because we forget our identity does not come from a title or a salary.

If we are not pursuing the ultimate goal of Christlikeness, all our other goals become fragile.

3. Gospel-Centered Resolutions Proclaim the Kingdom of God

The gospel is not about you. In Luke 4:43, Jesus tells a crowd, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” When Jesus says, “preach the good news,” he is using the word “gospel” as a verb. For Jesus, the gospel is about the Kingdom of God.

The gospel is not only about your personal salvation; it is a proclamation of a new Kingdom. God is coming back to reclaim his throne and make right what man made wrong. A gospel-centered resolution does not end with you. It will be good news to the world around you.

Perhaps this means a change in how you interact with people to show more love and grace. Perhaps it means talking about the power behind the change when people notice it. Perhaps it means committing yourself to works of justice, mercy, and humility before your God. Whatever the step is, a gospel-centered resolution becomes a proclamation of a better Kingdom.

4. Gospel-Centered Resolutions are Holy Spirit-Empowered

When Paul commends the Philippians to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, he reminds them, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). When our change project is gospel centered, we are not on our own. We have the Spirit working in us.

This means that while so many resolutions fail within just a couple of weeks, there is hope for gospel-centered resolutions. The same power that holds the universe together is at work in you, believer, changing you to be more like Jesus. 

5. Gospel-Centered Resolutions Lean on Community

As a believer, you are not on your own. Scripture compares individual believers to parts in a body, bricks in a temple, and members of a family. When we speak the truth of the gospel in love to one another, we grow up together to look more like Christ.

Gospel-centered resolutions have an additional resource to succeed. The believer has people around them to encourage them and hold them accountable. There is a body that builds itself up. Believers can lean on one another for gospel-centered growth.

Getting Practical

If you’ve made it this far, it’s probably a safe assumption that you want to learn how to make a gospel-centered resolution. I would recommend three phases to the process.

Phase one involves identifying the problem and the plan. This side of heaven, we all have things we need to change. Unfortunately, we are often blind to our issues, like a man walking around with a plank in his eye. This is one of the first roles a community can play in a gospel-centered resolution. The believers closest to you can help you spot the problem that you’re not seeing. As well as asking other believers for help, open God’s Word and gaze into the mirror. Hear what God has to say and then become a doer of the Word.

Once you understand the problem, come up with a plan. What would change look like? What are the root beliefs and desires that led to the problem? What true beliefs and Christ-centered desires will correct the root problem? How can you reinforce true beliefs and true actions?

With a problem and a plan, you move on to phase two: carrying it out. What makes this phase distinctly gospel centered is embracing the fact that you are not alone. God has given you a church family, so find those people you can trust to encourage you, express God’s grace to you, and press you to follow through. Be open with these people. Share your struggles as well as your successes. Don’t try to hide or make yourself look better than you actually are. Your identity is in Christ, not in your performance.

In phase three, we celebrate. Celebration is a central characteristic of the Christian story. As God is changing your life, share his work with people around you to his glory. Let your testimony turn to praise.

Like any other resolutions, gospel-centered resolutions are about change. What makes them different, however, is that we have a model for change in Jesus, power for change in the Spirit and the people of God, and the promise of change in the resurrection. This New Year, let’s embrace a resolution that tells the story of God, proclaiming his Kingdom in this world.