Not a Shakey Shack Anymore
Now I would remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.* (1Co 15:1-2)
1Corinthians 15:1-2 makes it clear that every Christian has an ongoing relationship with the Gospel. How we receive the Gospel defines our spiritual growth.
But what do we do with the Gospel next, after we receive it? In 1Corinthians 15:1 Paul calls us to stand in the Gospel.
Get it? The next step is to stand.
Scripture calls us to stand and walk, wait and work, push forward and stay rooted. These are not in tension. They are the What and the How of the Christian life.
What do we do? Fight the good fight, do good works to the glory of God, walk worth of Christ. How do we do it? Stay rooted in Christ, wait on the LORD, stand in the Gospel.
We will not make any progress in the Christian life if we don’t stand in the Gospel.
To receive the Gospel means to let it into your life. But now, to stand in the Gospel means to enter into it as your world. Where are you now? In the world created by the Gospel!
But what does this mean? We’re not physically standing in an open Bible! Let’s contrast “standing in the Gospel” with what we were “standing in” before.
Before we learned the Gospel we understood our lives as a collection of anxieties.
We were anxious to meet our parents’ approval, to measure up in the classroom or the arena, to fit in with our peers. We were unsure of ourselves, our bodies, our minds, our standing. We took pride in what we were told to take pride in—you are fast, you are smart, you’re so cute, you’re so funny.
We “stood in” a cobbled-together shed of insecurity, over-identification, bluster, and shame.
If only we had better clothes, clearer skin, smarter brains… a better resume, bigger house, smarter investments… Now that I’ve graduated, gotten rid of that, achieved this…
We “stand in” our personal collection of “if only’s” and “now that’s.” Our insecurity motivates us and our pride keeps us steady.
But Jesus says all that is shifting and sinking sand. That’s nowhere to build a life; that’s a too shakey shack! Tumbleweeds see more of the world, but they don’t know what it means to live.
The Gospel builds something new, something better, with foundations. The Gospel says, All your “if only’s” have become “now that’s” in Jesus. Now what motivates us is not what we lack but what we have. What keeps us steady are not fictions about ourselves, but facts about our Savior.
Set aside the old insecurities and false superiorities; put a Gospel truth where they used to be.
To stand in the Gospel means to not stand in anything else but where Christ put us. The Gospel is where we live now.
As surely as the laws of nature shape the physical world, so the truths of the Gospel invite us to live in a world shaped by Jesus’ sacrificial love instead of one shaped by need and greed, to live in a world shaped by His humility and kindness instead of one shaped by shame and blame, to live in a world shaped by the surety of His Promises instead of a world of planned obsolescence.
Oh, it’s a hard thing to stand where Christ has put us. But life comes from Jesus. Life is attachment to Him, rooted and growing, standing firm, staying put, like a tree, planted beside streams of water… (Psa 1:3)
Photo by Charlotte Harrison on Unsplash