The Gospel Forms The Church

Without a proper understanding of the gospel, people will miss the big biblical picture and all the joyful freedom that comes from living it. They will run from God in shame at their failures instead of running toward Him because of His mercy.

Just as a river forms distributaries, the gospel forms the Church. The distributaries do not form the river, just as the Church does not form the gospel. When a church confuses the order, she loses her true effectiveness. When a church chooses something other than the river of the gospel as the driving force behind her teaching, programming, staffing, and decisions, she empties herself of all power. Instead of becoming a distributor of life, she becomes a distributary of death. She doesn't really have anything to offer...Although the gospel does impact everything, everything is not the gospel. If everything about Jesus and the Bible becomes "the gospel" to us, then we end up being gospel-confused rather than gospel-centered...The gospel centers us on Jesus' person and work or it isn't the gospel...Ultimately, the gospel is not a nebulous or ethereal concept, but Jesus Himself.

The gospel. What is it, really? In its simplest form, the gospel is God's reconciling work in Christ-that through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, God is making all things new both personally for those who repent and believe, and cosmically as He redeems culture and creation from its subjection to futility...The gospel also forms the church. Scripture says Jesus "gave himself up" for the Church (Eph. 5:25 ESV), buying the church "with his own blood" (Acts 20:28 ESV), in order "to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14 ESV).

Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson, and Eric Geiger - Creature of the Word