Walking in the Gospel: Part I

We often talk about conversion to Christ as a moment. The exact moment when we turn from our sins and recognize the forgiveness and love of Christ. I was on a mission trip at the tender age of 16 in Mexico City when one of the youth participants asked me when I became a Christian. I told him of my experiences in youth group, but he kept pressing, trying to find the exact moment. He strongly implied that if I couldn’t point to a dramatic life changing moment, then I wasn’t really a Christian. Looking back on my conversion story I can identify the moment when I said the prayer inviting Jesus into my heart (I think I was 14) but it wasn't until years later that I really understood the gospel of grace and salvation.

The past few days I have felt burdened with the gospel and a desire to fight through its different presentations. The centrality of the gospel in our lives and communities is of the utmost importance. But what gospel? Whose Gospel? There's Paul's gospel of individual repentance and redemption. The Gospel of John focuses on individual and inward aspects of spirituality and eternal life. But the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke talk about the social and behavioral change that the gospel brings. And yet they are all the same gospel, each a different perspectives of the same story. But when we focus on one perspective of the gospel we loose the fullness of the story of Jesus.

Looking back at the story of my conversion I am now more convinced than ever before that it’s the story of a lifetime. That as I continually walk with Christ I turn more and more towards His love and desires for my life. I think this is also true in the stories of the disciples. In a moment’s decision they left what they were doing and became followers of Christ. But they spent years walking with him, daily learning from their Rabbi. Along the road they had various bouts with selfishness, pride and disbelief, abandoning Christ at the Cross. But through his grace and strength they went on to serve the name of Christ and become the builders of his Church and the bearers of the gospel.

When I read the gospels I see the story of Christ. I see a story of Christ walking with his disciples on the road to the cross. When I look at our lives today I see us walking with Christ and the people around us to serve Christ. But what are we walking towards? The disciples walked with Christ, unsure of where their road would lead them and unaware of how redemption would flow from the Cross. As we walk with Christ we walk towards the ultimate redemption and restoration of the World, completely unsure of how it will come. It is my guess that our wait for the ultimate redemption of the world isn't one of standing still. It is my guess that our wait is a wait of walking, that we have to walk toward the redemption of the world, unsure of how God will complete it. We walk toward redemption by living out a life committed to the gospel, letting the gospel radically change our perspective on the world, our relationships and the decisions we make. We walk toward redemption by following the commands that Jesus taught us about how to care for his sheep and build his kingdom.