Daily Archive

In part one of this chapter, we discussed the great need to be gospel-saturated.  In the remaining part, Anyabwile gives us five steps in the path of becoming gospel-saturated.  I want to provide them for you below, along with some pointed excerpts from his book.

* Five Steps to Becoming Gospel-Saturated *

1.  Know the Gospel

“The gospel or good news of Jesus Christ is that God the Father, who is holy and righteous in all his ways, is angry with sinners and will punish sin.  Man, who disobeys  the rule of God, is alienated from the love of God and is in danger of an eternal and agonizing condemnation at the hands of God.  But God, who is also rich in mercy, because of his great love, sent his eternal Son born by the Virgin Mary, to die as a ransom and a substitute for the sins of rebellious people.  And now, through the perfect obedience of the Son of God and his willing death on the cross as a payment for our sins, all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, following him as Savior and Lord, will be saved from the wrath of God to come, be declared just in his sight, have eternal life, and receive the Spirit of God a a foretaste of the glories of heaven with God himself” (40-41).

2.  Desire to Hear the Gospel and Preach the Gospel to Yourself

“We must cultivate and protect a ravenous desire for this message.  Regularly bearing and plumbing the depths  of the gospel increases our knowledge of the message, our affections for the Savior, and our skill in sharing the message” (41).

3.  Order Your Life Around the Gospel

“As church members, our aim is to understand the gospel so deeply, so intimately, that it animates every area of our lives.  We want the gospel central to our communication with others, central to how we encourage and correct, central to individual career and relationship decisions, central to the decisions the church makes corporately, and central to all our habits of life.  We want the gospel, the God of the gospel, to take priority in every area of life” (42-43).

4.  Share the Gospel with Others

“If we would contribute to the health of our local congregations, we must be committed not only to harvesting the gospel for ourselves but to shipping it to others as well.  We must do the work of an evangelist.  With urgency and love we must tell the non-Christians among us to repent of their sins and to believe on Jesus Christ. . . . A gospel-saturated life is a life that splashes out onto others with the good news.  A healthy church is built, in part, on healthy gospel-motivated members” (44).

5.  Guard the Gospel

“The healthy church and church member fight for and protect the apostolic gospel delivered and preserved in the pages of Scripture” (45).

This chapter on being gospel-saturated, I would argue, is the most important mark of a healthy church member.  The importance and sufficiency of the gospel for believers could not be emphasized enough.  Anyabwile has done a great job in laying out five incremental steps in the path of becoming gospel-saturated, and we would all serve our churches well to consider ourselves in light of these important truths!