A Purpose Received, a Condition Revealed, and Grace Given: A Primer on Preaching the Gospel to Yourself

Let me ask you a question. What does God require of you?

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Matthew 22:37-39

Jesus, in response to the Pharisees question above, asks a question of his own: “Which is the greatest commandment?” 

God requires you to love him with everything you have. With all of your heart, soul and mind. Also, God requires you to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Let’s first consider why God revealing what he requires of you is such a gift!

God’s requirement of you is a gift because it reveals how you OUGHT to live.

How many times have you wondered what am I supposed to do with my life? What is my purpose? Why am I here? Is it really to make the most money so I can have stuff that makes me the most comfortable and then die and turn into worm food?

No! In revealing what he requires of you, God also gives you your purpose. A purpose that is given by God, not created and maintained by you.

Your purpose, the reason that you are here, is to love God with all that you have and to love your neighbor as yourself. God’s requirement is not that you would “look” like a nice person on the outside, but that you would actually love him and others. In God’s requirement, you find that your purpose is to love and obey him internally with all that you have in every circumstance.

Whether you are a Fortune 500 CEO or a janitor, a 30 year old single employee or a young stay-at-home mom, your purpose is the same. In a world that is clearly trying to find purpose within itself, isn’t it refreshing to find out that your purpose is not generated by your own efforts or feelings, but is given to you by the one true God?

God’s requirement of you is a gift because it reveals how you REALLY live.

Do you sense a problem when you look at God’s requirements? Not an issue with the requirements, or with God really, but with you, with the way you actually live your life.

The issue is that when you focus on what God requires, you are immediately confronted with your own failure to meet his requirements. If God commands you to love him with everything and love your neighbor as yourself, you are left with two options: Admit the truth, or believe a lie.

Believing a lie means thinking and professing that you meet God’s requirements. Or maybe you convince yourself that you meet them “well enough.”

But admitting the truth is knowing and professing that you do not meet what God requires of you.

In short, you admit that you sin.

Could it be a kindness of God to reveal to you that you have not satisfied His requirements? God’s requirements do not leave room for a “bad day,” a “one-time slip up” or a “comparison to others.”

But wait, you object, I thought God was loving!

God is loving. You see, God’s two commands are the MRI machine to reveal what is in your sin-ridden soul. They reveal what is actually going on inside you no matter how healthy you look on the outside. Imagine having cancer and never knowing it. Further, imagine that your friend knew you had cancer and never told you. Is that kind of ignorance bliss?

What a gift it is to have someone who not only knows your condition fully, but does not keep your true condition hidden from you.

But what makes God better than a doctor who just gives you the bad news?

God’s requirement of you is a gift because it reveals your NEED for the grace that only God can provide, and he provides it freely.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them – Matthew 5:17.

Just like an MRI machine, God’s requirements only reveal a need for intervention. And like the MRI machine, God’s requirements are not capable of performing the intervention required.

But in God you not only have someone who knows your true condition and who is willing to give you the bad news of your true condition, you also have someone who is going to send His own Son to rescue you from your true condition.

Even better, His Son is going to go on this mission willingly, gladly, even though it means his own death. Why? Because the Son loves his Father with all of his heart, soul, and mind, and he loves his neighbor (you) as himself.

Jesus didn’t come to say, “The MRI machine was wrong; you are actually fine.” He came to meet you in the despair of your reality and offer himself as a willing sacrifice on your behalf. He came to live the life you are required to live and die the death that you deserve. He is the only person who has met God’s requirements. He is the only one with no need of grace.

When God’s requirements are applied to Christ, they reveal a holy Son, a healthy Son, a righteous Son with whom God is well pleased.

But there is an enemy of God, the devil, at work during this whole time. The devil grabs on to what God’s requirements reveal in you, your sin, and seeks to destroy you!

Look at Martin Luther’s advice to believers,
“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!’”

Jesus made satisfaction of what God requires on your behalf! This is the Gospel. It actually happened. This is the message you are to preach to yourself and others.

Author and speaker Paul Tripp frequently says, “Don’t look to the law of God to change what only grace can accomplish.”

Because God’s requirement of you is fulfilled in Christ, you are FREE from sin and death.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

No more weight of impending doom.

No more wondering my true condition.

No more questioning my purpose.

Through faith in Christ, not only have God’s requirements been fulfilled in you, but the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Now we live to do what God requires of us by grace through faith in the one who has already satisfied those requirements.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11: 28-30

Persevere.
Joey Turner
Pastor Student Ministries

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