Trinity Bible Church Sermons

Time is limited for living out Christ's victory over sin and death because the end of all things is at hand. Peter's focus in these verses turns to how Christians are to live with one another in community. We are to redeem the precious time remaining in love and service to one another. The power to do so is through prayer; the tasks are constant love for one another, Christian fellowship in our homes, and stewarding our spiritual gifts in service to the church. Peter concludes with a beautiful doxology of purpose.

God dwells in unapproachable light. So it follows that His manifest presence is perceived in the likeness of fiery brilliance. As the Holy Spirit commences the promised New Covenant, the light of His presence and power shines forth, revealing the salvation of God to the nations. It is a most remarkable event. The Lord shines His face upon His remnant so that His way may be known on earth, His saving power among all nations! This is the definitive record of the miraculous gift of speaking in tongues, furnishing the only authoritative explanation of its meaning and purpose. It is supremely a light for the nations. The salvation of God in Christ Jesus is to reach to the end of the earth!

In personal, powerful presence, God commences the New Covenant. The event is sudden and singular. It dramatically demonstrates God's supernatural sovereignty in fulfilling His promise through Christ and Him crucified. It is an overwhelming display of the consequence of the cross and the exaltation of Christ. It is a monumental event—the “New Covenant Day.” The triune God moves in unprecedented power as the Holy Spirit manifests Himself in and through Christ's redeemed, the church. The scene is full of deeply significant, pivotal, even eschatological signs and wonders.

The victorious Christ, crucified, risen, ascended, and reigning from above, now inaugurates the promised New Covenant. It is the consequence of the cross and is about to be realized with dramatic force. The scene that sets in motion all that follows is one of deep significance. It marks a rich fulfillment. In relatively recent times, the attention and assumptions attached to the Day of Pentecost are often off center. In this introductory sermon to one of the most pivotal days in redemptive history, the firstfruits of the New Covenant are explained in the fulfillment of the Day of Firstfruits.

The introduction of Acts ends with a surprising scene. In the wake of Christ's ascension, intriguing attention is given to the apostles returning to Jerusalem, praying as they wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and seeking to replace Judas Iscariot—the apostate apostle. This peculiar passage appears obscure to many. How does it connect with Christ's ascension? How does it relate to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? What significance does it have in the book of Acts? Why does it take up so much space and form the conclusion to its introduction? This sermon seeks to unfold these and related observations in this important passage to show that the ascended Christ is reigning from above.

The interval of time within which we now live is designated for proclamation. Christ is worthy of witness and the knowledge of His supremacy must shine forth in this dark world. The introduction to Acts is mounting. A most significant event is now observed: Christ's ascension. The apostles are eyewitnesses to this dramatic exaltation of Christ. By it, His supremacy is formally sounded. Founded upon the apostles, the church is charged with the high privilege and responsibility of making much of this Christ.

The Church is chosen. The Bride is predestined. She is loved now with an everlasting love, and what she will be has not yet appeared. While Christ's electing and prevailing love is her secure foundation, she is still in the making. She has not yet arrived. The local church that understands these marvelous spiritual realities will increasingly delight in making much of Christ, which constitutes her magnificence.

Christ is worthy of witness. This is the formal and functional theme of Acts. The entire drama of the book traces the unfolding providence of the apostles bearing witness to Jesus as the Christ. The apostles are a unique and instrumental selection of eyewitnesses assigned to testify that Christ has died, that Christ is risen, and that Christ will come again. Many are the implications of these grand realities. Such are the teachings of the apostles. Whatever the apostles did or taught, their defining appointment was bearing witness to the glory of Christ. What is recorded in these pages is foundational to the church in every age, calling for a living and reverberating echo of the apostolic witness.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. These matchless truths must flood the earth. Christ is Lord and is worthy of witness. In the opening scene of Acts, all attention is directed to the risen Christ. He is King of the cosmos and is depicted as commanding and commissioning a military assignment. He reigns and is in sovereign control over all despite His physical absence, and He is on a conquest. His appointed apostles, somewhat like chosen generals, are charged with the humanly impossible task of standing in the stead of Christ as His witnesses to the end of the earth. The gospel will go forth.

The resurrection of the crucified Christ is the central icon of hope. “He is risen!” expresses the exultant exclamation of His redeemed throughout the ages. But how was the revolutionary reality of this event first perceived and proclaimed? Did the Jews anticipate the resurrection of a murdered Messiah? Did the Hebrew Scriptures foretell that the Christ would be raised from the dead? Was this some imaginary invention or newly devised doctrine? The apostles boldly proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ who was not only crucified but raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Contained in this short clause is a wonderous wealth of substance and relevance for the past, present, and future.

Of all the sacrificial ceremonies presented in the Old Testament, none are more significant and expressive of the purpose and meaning of the cross than that which is dramatized on the Day of Atonement. It was designated the holiest day of the year. In it all the sacred sacrifices came to a climax. It was central to the sacrificial system and the people's communion with God. The life-giving presence of the Holy One was impossible without the work performed on this singular day of the year. And the high point of that day was also the most intriguing and extraordinary. Here in striking symbolism a unique dimension of the cross is graphically depicted.

The pen is laid down. The inspired letter is finished. Three verses close Romans in an impressive economy of words, centering on Christ, celebrating the gospel, and commending all glory and honor and praise to God. “Now to Him … be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” This models more than epistolary etiquette. It calls for more than momentary adoration. It demonstrates a deeper principle and beseeches a broader, more defining reality. Doctrine is purposed for doxology.

What is the outgrowth of the gospel? In a word, the church. As Paul begins his official valediction of this monumental letter, a Christ-centered farewell emerges intertwined with personal greetings that celebrate the gospel. This portion of sacred Scripture offers much more than an inspired list of names. It is written and preserved for our good, with powerful relevance in every age of the church. It extols the glories of Christ in a most tangible demonstration of gospel outgrowth.

Paul closes his magisterial letter with an overflowing heart. He ties up threads and offers explanations for why he is writing, his plans, and his needs. But more than all this he beams with a heart for Christ. This passage puts on display the multifaceted glory of making much of Christ. The wonder and beauty of Christ compels each otherwise disjointed line. Christ is worthy of every detail of our lives and pursuits. He is worthy of every heart and hand. He is worthy of more than the nations and all creation combined. Christ rightly known cannot be contained. Here is a powerful example and encouragement to make much of Christ together in the local church and unto the nations.

Paul brings his magisterial letter to a close with a conventional mixture of greetings, warnings, and prayers. It also features a series of significant reminders. He begins his personal conclusion with insights into his “priestly” ministry. Paul is not a priest. He is not a mediator between God and man. Christ alone is that mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). But Paul's calling and appointment are revisited and explained. He is divinely appointed as a minister to Christ to the nations in the priestly service of the gospel of God. All is emphatically to make much of Christ. To this, Paul solicits the church in Rome to see and support the same.

The last major section of exhortation is drawn to a close. Paul has extolled the person and work of Christ for God's glory and the joy, peace, and hope of His redeemed. His thesis in this section has been that all who are justified by faith are welcomed in Christ for the purpose of worship. As he opened this section so now he closes it with a catchword for what Christ has done for us. We are “welcomed” in Christ for worship. There is a strong corporate dimension to the joy, peace, and hope that Christ has won for us. This closing crescendo celebrates the work of Christ in the gospel, freely reconciling sinners to God and one another, resulting in joy and peace that abounds in hope (15:8-13). The foretaste of a glorious and eternal worship in God's presence breaks into the here and now through the hope that is in Christ.

Let us live daily for Christ, living in Him. Such a life requires casting off sins and sinful practices, and even expectations, traditions and comfort, striving daily to follow in His footsteps wherever His places us and in whatever circumstances through fixing our eyes on Him alone.

Jesus Christ uttered a few final words as He hung on the cross at His crucifixion. Among other words Jesus said, “It is finished.” Many have wondered what *actually was finished* when He uttered those words. Scripture is very clear what Jesus was saying at that time. Every word Jesus spoke is eternal and every word He spoke has eternal significance.

Unity is an important subject. Many reasons are advanced for it. Many also are the purposes. Paul brings his pastoral address on the conscience to a unifying conclusion with a wonderful emphasis on Christ and the organic outworking of the gospel applied. Here Christ is exalted, to God's glory and the encouragement of the redeemed.

Chapter 4 begins with one of Peter's most cherished themes: the sufferings of Christ. Our Lord suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous (3:18). Peter again urges believers to willingly follow Christ's example of unjust suffering. We are to arm ourselves with Christ's way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Suffering for doing good, instead of sinning, is to be the hallmark of true believers who by the gospel will live in the spirit even though they die in the flesh.

The church's unity is the organic outworking of the gospel applied. It revolutionizes our relationships, especially in the church. The historically pressing issue that Paul deals with in Romans 14 has to do with certain Christian consciences being bound to the law of Moses and the resulting challenges that presents in the New Covenant church. In the opening of Romans 15, Paul summarizes his address on these matters of conscience. His primary burden is that Christ would be central in the church. To this end, he urges the church to prioritize apprehending and applying the beauty and glory of Christ in the gospel. Masterfully, he redirects both the “weak” and “strong” in conscience to the perfect law and liberty that is ours in Christ. Christians may not be under the law of Moses, but they certainly are under the law of Christ.

Paul has been admonishing his readers to live the redeemed life that is in and for Christ. In chapter 14, he addresses the particulars that are primarily concerned with challenges in transitioning from Old to New Covenant worship. The particulars serve the purpose. Paul's address concerning the weak and the strong in faith is for the purpose of directing the church in blood-bought worship. His call to live in harmony is a call to put on Christ for reconciled worship. His exhortations to unity and peace are to extol the gospel in worship. His meticulous admonitions regarding matters of conscience, liberty, and love are all to promote Christ-centered worship that overflows in joy and peace, abounding in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit (15:13). This sermon seeks to capture the main issue that Romans 14 is addressing, namely matters of conscience. It summarizes and clarifies what is and is not in view, and how matters of conscience apply to us today, to make much of Christ for God's glory and our joy in Him.

The church can be divided by distractions. The peace and joy, the righteousness and witness of the gospel in the redeemed life can be robbed when priorities are not maintained with deliberate focus of heart. When Christ is decentralized, for any reason, the church suffers. This happens when Christians judge one another in matters of conscience. To assert one's own liberty at the expense of love is to act contrary to the character of the kingdom of God. In these verses Paul adds to his pastoral admonition regarding Christian liberty and love the importance of living conscious of the kingdom of God.

In love, Christ suffered condemnation in the place of and for the redeemed. His death purchased our life, His captivity to wrath our liberty from wrath. With this in bold relief, Paul returns to his admonition regarding how we ought in Christ's church to welcome and love one another in Christ. Love, not license, is the Christian hallmark, because Christ and Him crucified is our Lord. Disagreement can painfully challenge a right demonstration of Christian love. Especially when disagreements are based on conscience. Here, Paul calls for Christian love within the church, one to another, addressing the place of Christian liberty and love.

The same portion of sacred Scripture that says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23–24) and “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), also says, “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God … each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:10, 12). In the context of denouncing the judgment of one another in matters of conscience and of extolling Christ as the one Lord of life and liberty, Paul now points to the reality that the justified will stand before the Judge. How shall the justified think of appearing before the judgment seat of God and giving an account of himself? This sermon seeks to explain this non-trivial doctrine, a teaching that is thoroughly Christ-centered.

We are stewards. The Bible presents human life as a stewardship. Individuals are not owners but stewards of who they are, what they have, and what they can do. Life itself is a divinely appointed stewardship. Stewardship is a comprehensive concept in the Christian life. It acknowledges that everything belongs to God, and that we are accountable to be faithful in and with the life He gives. Life and regeneration in body and soul is a gift entrusted to us for the purpose of knowing and growing in our love and service to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

God came to us in unsuspecting glory. The advent of Christ reminds us that God's ways are not our ways. Even when we stand in expectation of God's promises, fulfillment can be unexpected. A depth of wonder is sounded here. Faith is a prominent feature in this story. It defines our trust and refines our expectations. And the glory that is here revealed, well, we are reminded that it exceeds all expectation. This sermon opens a lesser-known story that is connected to Christmas. A foreshadowing of the glory of Christ is put on display, with principles readily applicable to our present lives. 

Jesus Christ has been the most controversial person for 2000 years. For the past 2000 years, countless millions of people have thought Him to be a fraud, a fake, a liar, an imposter, only a wise man, and definitely not the Messiah of God. For the past 2000 years, countless millions of people have believed Jesus to be the Christ, God in human flesh, the Son of God, and the absolute Messiah of God. Raising Lazarus from the dead was the final miracle performed in His public ministry and is the most powerful display of the deity of Jesus Christ before his own resurrection. How powerful is the voice of Jesus Christ?

Paul is calling for unity in diversity, concerning matters of conscience. Those welcomed by God are called to welcome one another. Christ is why. His person and work are the ground of their acceptance before God. But there is more. Paul interjects a shift in emphasis. Jesus serves not only as our Justifier but also as our Judge. All in Christ are freely redeemed yet still responsible. A Christian is no longer under the condemnation of their sin. Their criminal status has been acquitted in Christ. But they are now not their own. They have been bought with a price. They are now accountable to the One who redeemed them. Here, tremendous stress is placed on Christ's lordship. The logic is clear: there is one Lord, who alone judges the living and the dead. All will give an account to Him and no other.

All who are justified by faith in Christ alone are welcomed for worship by God. In the opening of this section, Paul touched a swollen nerve that threatened division in the early church, and in some ways still does today. The nerve has to do with division between Christians, those following the laws of the Old Covenant and those living in the liberty of the New Covenant. It was a crucial period of practical transition between covenants. Beginning with observance of dietary restrictions, Paul now includes observance of days as examples of differences that threaten division in Christ's church. Here, Paul addresses the more fundamental issue, namely the aim and ambition of the heart. As he does this, the central concern of the letter emerges in a most comprehensive manner and Christ is extolled as the Lord of life and liberty.

As Paul moves into the last major section of his letter, justification by faith alone in Christ alone resurfaces with profoundly practical application. In Christ, sinners are welcomed by God and one another. The local church is a household of worship, welcomed in Christ. This glorious truth is easily accepted at the conceptual level. But in practice differences of various sorts and sizes between redeemed sinners have a shocking potential for causing division and undermining Christ. Disputes over disputable matters readily rob saints of joy and disrupt peace in the church. It acts contrary to our hope in Christ. This is the first message in a new series, introducing the theme of the last major section of Romans and unfolding its opening verses. It addresses what Paul means by weak in faith, helping us to welcome one another who are welcomed in Christ.

In this passage, Paul adds the last few strokes to his masterpiece on redeemed living. Romans 12 and 13, illuminating redemption's renovation and reverberation, is crowned with a deliberate discipline of daily life centered on and celebrating Christ. With a sense of true urgency, the redeemed are called to a daily life in and for Christ.

Brilliantly, Paul advances his unfolding of redeemed living on the thought of obligation. Transitioning from the principle of being under authority for Christ and giving what is owed according to conscience, he now directs our attention to our chief obligation and debt to one another: love. Here the hallmark of Christ in us is called out in bold relief. As touching our relationships in this world, it represents the center and summary of Christ in us. Christians are the product of Christ's love. Redeemed to reflect the Redeemer. Reconciled to delight in righteousness. The resounding principle of love is the essence of the fulfillment of law. This Christ is and has done. We love our neighbor in and for Christ, for God's glory and man's joy.

Christians live under earthly authorities for the praise and promotion of Christ, the Author of all authority. Submission to civil government, then, is driven by more than fear of punishment. More significantly it is a matter of conscience. It touches the heart-mind-will complex and addresses our aim and ambition in the actions we carry out under whatever civil government we find ourselves. To be sure, Christian obedience is never blind and delegate authorities are never autonomous. Conscience both heightens and limits our obedience to them. The thrust of the passage aims at the heart of those in Christ. Redeemed living is reflected in law-abiding obedience and respect from within. Christ-likeness must be lived out in society, not merely among Christians. We live before the face of God, always and everywhere. A properly informed conscience is purposed to help guide us live out our redeemed lives for Christ's sake.

“Have no fear of them ... Rather fear Him.” A healthy and holy fear of God acknowledges His holiness and justice, while resting in His grace and forgiveness. Gospel fear is a reverent awe and respect for God, rooted in the majesty of Christ's person and work as revealed in the gospel. Nowhere is an elevated spirit of gospel fear more intensely represented than in the last pre-Reformation reformer, the martyr, Girolamo Savonarola. His heart was aflame for the glory of God and the good of man in the very birthplace of the Renaissance. With colossal conviction and an indefatigable devotion, he warned people to flee to Christ from the wrath of God, to turn to God from idols of man's making. Against unprecedented corruptions, Savonarola unleashed sacred Scripture, calling for regeneration in Christ's church. This short devotional message looks at the words of our Lord in Matthew 10 and through its lens considers the life and ministry of Savonarola. The aim of this message is to make much of Christ in the present, to stir our own souls in deepening devotion, and to guard from being desensitized by the world.

Paul continues expounding principles and application of redeemed living. It is a life crowned with a character that is truly from, through, and to the glory of Christ. From beginning to end, the substance of redeemed living is relational. The Christian is a transformed creature. He has a Christly mind. He relates to God, the church, and the world in a new, future-oriented way. And the life he now lives is radically different. Yet, the Christian lives in the dirt and mire of this fallen and cursed world. Though a child of God and a citizen of heaven, citizenship and submission to authorities in this realm remain. This touches the Christian's relationship to all governing authorities. While there are God-fearing and godless governments, the principle is clear: Christians live under earthly authorities for the praise and promotion of Christ. Part two picks up with the motivation of our submission and moves us into Paul's warning.

Paul continues expounding principles and application of redeemed living. It is a life crowned with a character that is truly from, through, and to the glory of Christ. From beginning to end, the substance of redeemed living is relational. The Christian is a transformed creature. He has a Christly mind. He relates to God, the church, and the world in a new, future-oriented way. And the life he now lives is radically different. Yet, the Christian lives in the dirt and mire of this fallen and cursed world. Though a child of God and a citizen of heaven, citizenship and submission to authorities in this realm remain. This touches the Christian's relationship to all governing authorities. While there are God-fearing and godless governments, the principle is clear: Christians live under earthly authorities for the praise and promotion of Christ.

The gospel is worth fighting for. It contains the glorious revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ and through Him the only hope of redemption for a lost and dying world. This great treasure has been entrusted to Christ's bride, the church, to be kept aflame in her heart with all purity. The gospel is as unchangeable as the event of Christ's crucifixion. It is a once-for-all reality. Included in Jude's impassioned plea is both warning and forewarning. Nascent in the church's responsibility to contend for the faith with which she has been entrusted is the charge for her to be ever reforming the affections of her heart and the actions of her hands to the gospel of Christ. This ancient battle-cry brilliantly captures the essence of the Protestant Reformation, the awareness and significance of which this sermon seeks to steward.

Redeemed living is crowned with a character that is truly from, through, and to the glory of Christ. Paul has systematically widened his focus from how the redeemed relate to God to how they relate to one another in Christ's church. Now he widens it still more to see how Christ's redeemed relate to the outside world. At every point, it is in and through Christ that the redeemed live. But nowhere is Christ's character more manifestly on display than here. A Christian's character toward evils done against them is foreign to fallen humanity. Here, the signet of Christ is deeply impressed upon self. Evil will not finally be overcome by sinners. But the redeemed are called to overcome evil with Christ.

A living love is to mark the communion of Christ's redeemed. The church is to delight in, and spread her delight in, Christ and His love. And this is seen and felt at the local level. At the root of every weakness, failure, and conflict in the church is a self-full and Christ-less mind. Nothing does more damage to the life ministry of the church than a diminished view of Christ. And nothing resembles the world more than an inflated view of self. But the church is in and not of the world. She is the light of a new humanity. She is loved to love. She lives in, through, and to the glory of Christ. She is the only one who bears His image in this world. She is called out of the world and together for Christ.

Christians are loved to love. A genuine love to God will evidence itself in the whole of the Christian's life through manifold motions of love in and to Christ's church. The redeemed life walks in Christ, and thus walks in love. The gospel received transforms sinners, uniting them to Christ. All in Christ live out Christ's love in their living, beginning with practical love to one another in His church. Paul makes this plain as he lists various traits of redeemed living. What might otherwise seem to be a disconnected assortment of virtues, is here ordered in and through love. Here the beauty of Christ's character is put on display in His people as they offer themselves as a living sacrifice, with a living love.

Devotion to God reverberates in devotion to Christ's church. This is further illuminated as Paul shifts from grace-gifts given for devotion to devotion's premier demonstration. Love. At the heart of the gospel is the gift of a right relationship with God, won by His love. Paul now focuses intently on right relationships in the church, reflecting His love. Here the greatest of Christian virtues is pictured as the most powerful of Christian ministries. It is the holy hallmark of Christ in us. In Christ, the church is loved to love.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the single most important event in all of Christianity, let alone human history. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ there is no Christianity. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ there would only be another religion filled with human effort. However, there is only One – Jesus Christ – who says of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). Join me in examining the magnitude of how the resurrection of Jesus Christ affects every believer.

Devotion to God is three-dimensional. It is never a matter that concerns only God and you. With His blood, Christ redeemed a whole company of sinners. In the ripple effect of redemption, the redeemed are gripped by the gospel to be devoted to God, and by virtue of their union with Christ, devoted to one another—His church. Here, a Christly mind not only sacrifices self and sobers self to mind majesty, it stewards God's grace to serve the local church in holy humility as the soil of genuine love.

Devotion to God is three-dimensional. It is never a matter that concerns only God and you. With His blood, Christ redeemed a whole company of sinners. In the ripple effect of redemption, the redeemed are gripped by the gospel to be devoted to God, and by virtue of their union with Christ, devoted to one another—His church. Here, a Christly mind not only sacrifices self and sobers self to mind majesty, it stewards God's grace to serve the local church in holy humility as the soil of genuine love.

Paul further unfolds the call to mind the majesty of God. Here, man's chief corruption is seen in the gravitational center of his mind. Basic to human rebellion is pride, the mother of all vice. Such is the definitive will of this age. Yet high thoughts of self are indicative of low thoughts of God. Thus, ego is the malicious menace of the mind. But all in Christ are new creatures with a new center. They are redeemed and thereby graciously given a new inner self with the ability to think Christly. It is a mind without mirrors, meek and lowly, with the selfless Christ at the center. Its thought patterns are disciplined to seek the will of God. It delights in acknowledging the grace of God through Christ. Christians are here called to new habits of the heart, to be sound souls through thriving thoughts of God.

Peter concludes the present chapter with yet another exhortation to persevere in the faith despite ongoing persecution. The hope Peter gives is threefold: Christ suffered for the unrighteous to bring unbelievers to God, he was raised from the dead in victory, and he is now exalted in glory. Believers are to fear no trouble in this life because they are secure in Christ and ultimately will share his destiny in glory. This because his sacrifice for sinners was sufficient, and he now sits at the right hand of the Father with all angles, authorities, and powers subject to him.

The vitality of redeemed living subsists in minding the majesty of God. The gospel enables genuine devotion to God. In newness of the life that is in Christ, the redeemed are granted Christly minds to offer their bodies as sacrifices—living, holy, and pleasing to God. All of this speaks of tremendous transformation. The contrast between the old and the new self is stark. Though transformation is a work of the Spirit, the redeemed must train in it. Christians are not passive in their pursuit of God. Vital to Godward devotion is a Christly mind constant in thought replacement, discipline, and renewal. But even this has a higher aim. Transformation is the outgrowth of minding the majesty of God.

True devotion to God is always from the inside out. Only transformed lives can be devoted to God. And this is no will or work of man, it is only by the mercies of God. True transformation comprehends real change, beginning decisively in the new birth and increasing step by step to completion in Christ, by the Holy Spirit. In his masterful application of the gospel of God for redeemed living, Paul here explains how one devotes himself to God. The body is presented by the mind. The mind is redeemed to mind the majesty of God, to be restored to its intended purpose and delight the whole self in the purposes and ways of God. A redeemed mind is a priestly mind. Even more profoundly, it is a Christly mind.

The good news of God in Christ through the Spirit has been unfolded. God's works prompt worship. Right doctrine leads to right doxology, and right praise to right practice. The soul that has tasted God's mercy in Christ lives in the afterglow of that glorious gospel. This is where Romans 12 takes us. It is about redeemed living. Paul seeks to fan a flame. He sketches the ripple effect of redemption. The basic Christian life is not ordinary. In Christ, ordinary people live in the grip of an extraordinary gospel. Those whom God justifies are called to live conscious, intelligent, consecrated lives devoted to God.

Paul has been unfolding “the gospel of God” since the opening sentence of this magisterial book. At the heart of the gospel is God Himself. The saved are not the centrality of salvation, God is. Grace is not the ultimate good, glory is. The gospel is glorious primarily because it is the only means for sinners to enjoy the God who is central and supreme. This is seen clearest in the climax of Paul's unparalleled explanation. Chapters of gospel reasoning mount to fuel a white-hot eruption of praise to God. Here revealed is a compendium of the glory of God, and it is our highest delight!