The Great Enemy of Gospel-Centeredness

Yesterday, thanks to the wise words of a friend of mine, I was reminded of something I had written last year on the Seeking Him blog. As I have searched my own heart, this seems to me to be such a great danger that it is worth being reminded of again and again. Here's what I wrote (a year ago yesterday, oddly enough):

Beware of being a Pharisee about the Gospel.

I know these two things appear contradictory, and they are. A Pharisee is by nature not gospel-centered, and truly embracing the Gospel crushes the roots of a Pharisee. Yet I have seen in my own heart the subtle way that a genuine desire to promote the glory of the Gospel can turn into a cold-hearted, arrogant condemnation of those who don’t meet my standards of gospel-centeredness.

When I say beware of being a Pharisee about the Gospel, I mean beware of looking down upon others and casting judgment upon those people who you think are not as gospel-centered as they should be. In reality, none of us are as gospel-centered as we should be. But I’ve sensed in me a tendency toward pride, an attitude that we have now ‘arrived’ because we know the centrality of the gospel for all of life. We hear sermons and grumble that they are not gospel-centered enough. We look down on certain church leaders or authors or small-group members because ‘they just don’t make the gospel central enough.’

The Gospel tells us that there is absolutely nothing we can do to merit the favor of a holy and just God…and even passion for the gospel can be something we use to try to win God’s approval and make ourselves feel superior to others. Nothing is farther from the true spirit of the gospel than to use the gospel to elevate yourself or your knowledge above those of other people.

In the same way that many ‘Calvinists’ turn off other Christians to those doctrines because of their condescending attitude toward those who don’t believe like them, so also can genuine lovers of the gospel distort the gospel by being condescending toward those who aren’t as ‘gospel-centered’ as they think they are. Few things will make the gospel as unattractive as a person who uses it to feel superior to others who they regard as ‘unenlightened’.

So beware of this, brothers and sisters. I have been placing a high emphasis on the centrality of the gospel lately, urging others to make the main thing the main thing. With all my heart, I believe that is right, and should be contended for at all costs. Yet I have seen in my own soul this tendency toward becoming a Pharisee about it. It is ugly, and it is an awful distortion of true gospel-centeredness. It will only hinder the spread of the gospel we so long to see cherished.

For the sake of the gospel, let’s resist it at all costs!