What does it mean to be gospel-centered?

It will be no longer resting in the blessings of the gospel, wonderful as that is, and growing in a deeper appreciation of them, but surrendering all that you have and are for the will of God, that you henceforth “LIVE UNTO HIM.” The daily practice of this will set life in a different angle, and will bring the soul into such an appreciation of Christ that the experience will not puff the believer up, but will humble; and in humbling lift him up spiritually. In short he will be Christ-centred and not self-centred. When a Christian is self-centred in a pious way, his condition is offensive to the Lord, and dangerous to himself, and harmful to others. When he is Christ-centred, he will have Christ before him in every way and be marked by self-forgetfulness in being occupied with Christ.

So let each one of us calmly and honestly face the issue. Am I following in the steps of Saul of Gibeah or Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul — meaning, little — the Apostle of Jesus Christ? Am I disobedient and fighting against being set aside or displaced; or am I obedient to the truth of the Gospel, and glad to be set aside — displaced in order that Christ may be placed in His rightful position in heart and life? To be Christ-centred and not self-centred is proper Christianity.

It is exceedingly important in these days to have Christ the centre of everything to us, so as to be able to say, "to me to live is Christ;" to be walking in the light of His glory shining down upon our path, in everything that glory kept uppermost; not to be allowing two lives in us, the life of the flesh and the life of the Spirit, but to be sinking the life of the flesh, and having only the life of Christ living in us.

To reach the end that we have here, we must begin aright. Christ as the governing principle of the life is the starting point in the Christian race, and the necessary condition of the final result: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It would be altogether wrong to suppose that every Christian can say this. It is open to him, surely; but as practical attainment, how far often from being reached! The result here is found only by the man to whom Christ is the governing principle of his life, the pattern of his way, and the Object for his heart. We must put these things together or we misplace the truth. It is a truth of experience; and experience alone can give it to us. Thus here, we have something more indeed than Christ being our life. It is rather the result which the epistle to the Galatians gives us, of Christ living in one. Christ our life is the necessary basis-truth; but Christ living in us is the actual power for the life, — Christ objectively present to the soul, governing it entirely: "To me to live is Christ;" and notice how this clears the sight as to all the way itself. The apostle is able to decide, as it were, whether he shall live or die, by these interests of Christ which govern him. He longs to depart and be with Christ, but he sees that his remaining in the flesh is necessary for Christ's interests, for the sake of His people, and thus he knows he shall remain and abide with them all. How thoroughly will a principle like this clear the sight as to all details! It is, in fact, the single eye; and if the eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light. It is the practical result of the exhortation in Colossians, to do whatever we do, in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus; that is, as representing Him upon the earth. Thus, then, we start in the epistle before us.

This, indeed, is true Christian experience, possible for all believers; but, alas! we have to confess how little known in the measure in which the Apostle lived this life. How could those, in the Apostle's day, who were preaching Christ of contention (Phil. 1:15), seeking their own things (Phil. 2:21), or minding earthly things (Phil. 3:19), know anything of this true Christian experience? Let us challenge our own hearts as to how far we have been content with merely an occasional taste of such blessedness as living only for Christ. With Paul it was the constant experience of his soul. It was not only that Christ was his life, but he says, "For me to live is Christ." It is one thing to have Christ as our life — every believer can say this — but it is another thing to live the life that we have. Is Christ the one Object before us, that occupies us from day to day — the motive for all that we think and say and do?

Oh, my young friends! we have something here very glorious. Our Saviour has died for us that we may be diverted altogether from life of the old order and find a life with another Object and End altogether, living not to ourselves but to Him that died and rose again. There dawns upon us the vision of OUT living Saviour, the One who gave Himself for our sins; He lives to be the dominating factor, the new Object of the believer's life. Our lives, instead of all centring in some way upon ourselves, are to be centred on this new Object, the One who died for us and rose again. There is no deliverance greater, I believe, for the Christian than this of which I am speaking, the deliverance of being lifted clean out of yourself, and self-seeking with its likes and dislikes, so that instead of being centred upon yourself you are centred upon another, and that Other a worthy Object, a divine Object, an eternal Object. If I might offer a prayer for you it would be that you may very early discover in the Lord Jesus Christ, not merely a Saviour, to deliver from the penalty of sin (He is all that) but an Object of infinite love, excellence, glory, worthiness, to command your life and fill your heart. Oh! how excellent to be delivered from oneself and to be centred upon Him.

The gospel is concerning Christ ( Rom. 1:3), and those who are saved by it are saved for His praise, and that He might be glorified in them. They have professed to own His lordship over them, and if they reason rightly they will say, “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, BUT UNTO HIM which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).

CHRIST Himself is the good news. Philip preached Christ in Samaria (Acts 8:5), and there was great joy in that city (v. 8). "He preached Jesus" to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:35) and he went on his way rejoicing (v. 39). May God help us to remember that our business is to "announce Him as good news." Romans 1:3 tells us that the good news is "concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." It is not a doctrine we preach. It is Christ Himself. He is the good news. He is the living, loving Saviour.

The reception of the gospel resulted in a completely different orientation of life for the believer, the entrance into a spiritual fellowship formed by divine teaching, and outwardly marked by the breaking of bread and prayers.

"Christianity." We now leave the ground of objective testimony, or the expression of authoritative truth, and come upon that of subjective experience, or the living expression of this truth. The question now is, supposing truth to have been rightly taught and rightly received, what will be its legitimate effect? This is answered in the directest way by the apostle in the summary he gives of the effect of the gospel on the Thessalonians. He speaks of them as remembering their "work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope, in the sight of God and our Father." And this answers to his expression in Corinthians, "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three." There is that in the revelation of the truths of heavenly grace which thus acts, by the power of God on the soul, when it is yielded up to its power. The "work of faith" is seen in its turning the heart to "God from idols," in all the intensity of the contrast between utter emptiness and vanity, and eternal living fullness. The "labour of love" expresses itself in the outgoing of life's energies in the service of Him who, in the all-commanding and constraining power of infinite and unstinted love, makes Himself known to the soul, and by love thus enchains and leads it captive. "The patience of hope" takes the definite form of waiting for the accomplishment of the promise of Him who said, "I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Hope shows its power in the soul by sustaining the patience while "waiting for God's Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead [with all the pregnancy of this mighty truth in power and love and grace] even JESUS, who delivered us from the wrath to come."