I am part of a team of church planters that is headed to Denver to start a church in 2011. Our core group of eight has been gathering weekly to discuss what we see as foundational in the Scripture regarding ecclesiology. Last week we went through what it meant to be gospel-centered or gospel-driven. Not only that but I have the privilege of being a member of the community of faith we call Summit Church. We as a church love the gospel and preach it corporately when we meet and individually on a daily basis. These two things have really begun to make me critically walk through what it means biblically to be a gospel-centered church.
Paul wrote to the church in Corinthians that “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” There is so much to potentially unpack here. I’ll start with the idea of the Scriptures. To be gospel-centered is to be Word-centered. Those who are Christian believe that God has revealed himself. More specifically, those who are Christian believe that God has specifically spoken through prophets and apostles inspired by the Holy Spirit who wrote down what we call the Bible. Obviously, these are very loaded terms and ideas that many over the years of Christian history have written in more detail than what I am attempting to do here.
I am not attempting to provide a defense of the full canon of Scripture or its inerrancy(both of which I hold to) but to see Biblical revelation as tied directly to being a gospel-centered church. If we look back at Corinthians, Paul gives a summary statement of the Gospel. It is the promised and fulfilled work of Jesus Christ on the cross for the remission of our sins. This work of the Son of God is not found in the beauty of a sunset or a tree, nor is it found in philosophy. Man, in his own intellect, could not glean a correct understanding of God and when he attempts to do so, only creates systems and images that are eerily similar to himself and his way of thinking.
In Luke 24, Jesus basically takes two men and illuminates how his work is only understood in light of the Scripture. If we want to be gospel centered then we better know the Word, for it is about the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I’ll quote it here.
“While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? “And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. “But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.”Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.”And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!”Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
To sum this passage up, the Scriptures are consistently and coherently pointing to the work of the Son. From the prophets to the apostles, the entire corpus of Scripture is about God’s glorious work of salvation. If we are to be a gospel-centered church in Denver, then my prayer is that we would hold fast to the Scripture. The glory of the Father is seen there in the work of the Son through the power and movement of the Spirit. If we want to see the nations discipled in the gospel then we would do well to hold fast to the very words of God for in it we know the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation.
