Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves

"Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed'" (John 8:34-36, NIV).

Sin is an ever present reality this side of glory. From the image of sin "crouching at the door" (Gen. 4:7) to Paul's description of sin as an indwelling presence (Rom. 7:15-20), sin is displayed in Scripture as more than just lawbreaking. Sin is personified as an enemy of humanity, bent on our destruction. Often, we find ourselves within the grasp of sin and wondering how we got their.

This presence of sin, makes preaching the gospel a daily necessity. It is necessary because of the universal reach of sin. There isn't one life (except Jesus') that hasn't been affected and infected by sin. It is necessary to preach the gospel, because only Jesus has the power to free us from slavery. As he stated, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

However, sin doesn't just affect other people, it affects all of us. So it is necessary to preach the gospel to ourselves as well. We need to continually remind ourselves that we are right before God, because in his grace sent his Son into the world to die for our sins, and receives by that grace through faith. We are right with God, because we trust that Christ paid the penalty for our sin. Our righteousness is not maintained by our efforts, but by the all sufficient work of Christ accomplished on our behalf by his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

Jesus and his message becomes the driving force of our lives, because it is through him that we have access to forgiveness, hope, and purpose. Therefore, we have to continually return to the cross, not to be saved again and again, but remind ourselves of how we were saved in the first place. The cross is the means of our deliverance. Until it pleased God to reveal to us the need for salvation through the preaching of the gospel, we were slaves to sin.

Sin would have us to believe that we were still its slaves. However, the gospel declares us to be sons. Sin would have us to believe we are captives, but the gospel declares us as freemen. Those the Son set free, through his death and resurrection, are truly free (from sin and death). Even if we are able to overcome sin in this moment, it will most like trip us up in the next. Thus, we proclaim the gospel to ourselves to remind us that salvation is not based on our performance.

We must be gospel-centered if we are to maintain our focus. John compels us to remember, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us form all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, ESV). We have to continue telling and retelling the story of salvation to ourselves and others. The hymn, "I Love to Tell the Story," captures the thought well:

I love to tell the story; For those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it, like the rest:
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing a new, new song;
'Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.