Gospel Motivation

Here is the problem with pleasing God. It’s too base a goal, in that it requires no relationship. How do I know this? The outcome when I fail is not congruent with God’s posture toward you and me. He is looking at us right now in light of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Joy! Pleasure! Connectedness…

When I fail to please God, guilt and shame are what I learn.
When I fail to trust Jesus’ work on the cross, I learn that nothing has changed…

“Guilt and shame are good motivators, but terrible transformers.
Grace and love are also good motivators, and they are great transformers.” Dr. Eric Sandras

The Gospel preached to myself today motivates and empowers! It's scandalous, and makes me laugh at the audacity of God! When you walk into the room, I can remind you and laugh with you at His shattering of shame in your life! It is freedom…

Paul does this! His prefered mode of ministering to the saints is to rehearse the gospel! It's in the majority of his letters. He challenged them to "stand", or be strenghtened and motivated, by the same method that they were "ushered", or brought without effort, into the kingdom of God.

It’s a false dichotomy, to choose trusting grace or pleasing the author of it. We must have both, to have all of Christ.
But pleasing God outside of the context of the gospel is painfully non transformative.

When we wash ourselves with the realities of the Gospel daily, we are creating the environment in which pleasing God is healthy. So you could say, living daily on the journey of trusting God is the prerequisite for the journey of pleasing God.

Thus all discipleship must be in the context of the gospel.

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