Internalizing the Gospel Story

As I sit in front of my laptop, I read and reread the assignment I’ve already said “yes” to: “Write an article for OnPractice about internalizing the gospel story and encourage the reader (yes, that’s you!) to internalize that story, leading to transformation.”

So how hard could that be? (Insert raucous laughter/laughing-crying emoji here).

None of us can genuinely speak about the transforming work of the gospel without speaking of ourselves. Isn’t that paradoxical? The gospel is not about you, Brian – how narcissistic! And yet, if it’s not about me, then who is the gospel for? Since the gospel is more than information, or a worldview, it has a God-intended application. The gospel is a mirror. The gospel shows me who I was, who I am, and who I can become. This is the journey of becoming all that God intends, in macrocosm (all things made new[1]) and in microcosm (my very mind being made new[2]).

As those given the opportunity and responsibility of education and gospel communication, our ongoing challenge is movement from knowledge to understanding. Knowing is an awareness. Understanding is the interpretation, processing, and then application of that awareness.

Yes, it is possible to teach the gospel without personally engaging with it. To have knowledge of it. To stand before the mirror with my eyes shut tight, seeing nothing. Darkness.

And when I open my eyes the gospel reflections show me my truest self, just as Jesus did with the woman at the well “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did” (John 4:29).[3] Understanding. Light.

Both Mark and Luke capture Jesus’ response to “one of the teachers of the Law” about the greatest commandment.[4] This teacher had knowledge yet seemed to lack understanding. Jesus provides him with no new information, and yet Jesus’ challenge towards application is on the level of scaling Mount Everest. Easy to see, difficult to achieve. So the question you and I face every second of the day is not “how well do I know the gospel?” but rather, “to what extent do I understand the gospel?” Is the good news of Creation/Fall/Redemption/Restoration permeating everything I think, feel and do, i.e. heart, soul, mind and strength?

Both Charles Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones refer to the concept of “self-preaching,” where the locus of the message is first in the heart of the communicator. Surely as educators we can identify with this principle. We must be the first to look in the mirror of the gospel and discover our true image; we are fully in Christ. And then by the work of the Holy Spirit to allow the clarity of that message to inform everything in our living and in our teaching.

Let me suggest an action we can take to reflect the light of the gospel. Before I stand in front of my students, I stand in front of the mirror to examine my own current reality in light of God’s grand narrative of Creation/Fall/Redemption/Restoration. Consider:

• Are the stories you tell yourself (and therefore model for your students in your behaviour) true to God’s great story?
  • Your inner narrative has the potential to bless them or curse them through your actions.

• Do you see and celebrate God’s work in creation and in the work of people created Imago Dei[5]?
  • This can include cutting-edge science discoveries, art, horticulture, math, economics…the precision of God’s design, the wonder of things yet unseen and unknown, humans filled with the desire to create.

• In what ways does brokenness (even in your classroom) remind you that all creation is groaning in bondage to decay?[6]
  • What do the very real challenges of your students suggest about the depth of the fall? Our hearts tell us that things are not right. This longing echoes God’s original intention for us. What idols do we worship in the culture(s) we find ourselves in? Self-sufficiency? Success? Political systems as the solution to societal problems?

• How does Jesus’ act of redemption for you impact your thinking today? What has He made new? Where is He beginning further new life in you or your context?
  • Contemplate God’s act of bringing you back to Himself: We each went our own way, yet He searched for each of us and paid our ransom.[7]

• How is the Kingdom of God breaking into these moments of brokenness?
  • Do you see people showing patient endurance, even when no solution is in sight? This is an expression of God’s character. Medical progress, increased availability of education. (Your work is park of the Kingdom coming even now!)
  • Do you see gifts of creation, technology, culture, social order? These can point to God’s already and not-yet Kingdom.

In conclusion, as you stand before the mirror of the gospel with eyes wide open to His grand narrative, may you be captivated by the reality of what you now see and the hope of the fulfillment to come:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

–Revelation 21:3-5

Brian Delamont
Brian serves as an Executive Vice-President with TeachBeyond. He holds a Bachelor of Religious Education degree from Canadian Bible College (now Ambrose University) and a Masters in Worship and Leadership from Briercrest Seminary. In addition to 24 years of pastoral ministry he served as the faculty advisor for the B.Min. Worship Arts program at Ambrose University, Calgary, Canada. He is credentialed with the International Coaching Federation, has served on the TeachBeyond Global Committee and in Germany with Janz Team. Brian loves music, coaching leaders, being with his wife Darlene, his kids and grandkids, and having a good cup of coffee. A great moment is when he can walk with someone, see them grow and become all that God intends.