The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ
By Ray Ortlund and J. I. Packer
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About this ebook
The gospel is the greatest message of all time addressing the greatest need of all people. However, the good news about Jesus does more than just promise eternal life to all who believe. In the latest addition to the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series, pastor Ray Ortlund explains the gospel's power to transform individuals from the inside out and create beautiful human relationships. This short book helps readers experience the power of God as they are encouraged to trust in Christ and allow him to transform their beliefs, perspectives, and practices. For everyone who wants to be true to the Bible and honest with themselves, this book offers a practical guide to the fundamental teachings of the gospel and how they affect our relationships with others.
Ray Ortlund
Ray Ortlund is the president of Renewal Ministries, the pastor to pastors at Immanuel Nashville Church, and a canon theologian with the Anglican Church in North America. He is the author of several books, including Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel; The Death of Porn; and the Preaching the Word commentaries on Isaiah and Proverbs. He is also a contributor to the ESV Study Bible. Ray and his wife, Jani, have been married for fifty years.
Read more from Ray Ortlund
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Reviews for The Gospel
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written
Doctrinally accurate
Very convicting both personally and corporately.
Book preview
The Gospel - Ray Ortlund
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When Ray Ortlund speaks, I listen. My generation has grown in knowledge but needs sages. Pastor Ray is that to us. Pick up this resource and hear from a man who espouses theological depth matched by gospel grace.
Eric M. Mason, Lead Pastor, Epiphany Fellowship, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; President, Thriving; author, Manhood Restored
Churches don’t make the gospel true, but when ‘the sweetness of the Lord’ is upon us, the church becomes a powerful testimony of God’s grace. With both realism and hope, Ray Ortlund tells us how that grace can thrive among us—even as broken as we are—so that Christ’s glory will radiate from us.
Bryan Chapell, President Emeritus, Covenant Theological Seminary; Senior Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church, Peoria, Illinois
Ray Ortlund weaves together profound biblical reflection on how gospel doctrine must lead to gospel culture with choice quotations from great saints in church history. A must read for any church that wants to help rather than hinder the lost in being attracted to Christ.
Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary
Compelling. Convicting. Encouraging. Probing. And most of all, entrancing. What a beautiful vision of what the church can be through the power of the gospel. How evident it is that the gospel has penetrated Ortlund’s own heart. Read it. Pray through it. Ask God to use its message mightily in your church and in many other churches as well.
Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Pastor-scholar Ray Ortlund, in his newest book, brings out the goodness in the good news. And a church that doesn’t show this goodness in their life together, says he, undermines the very gospel they preach. It’s a good argument, and worthwhile.
Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, DC; President, 9Marks
In this incisive book, Ray Ortlund does the necessary and compelling work of connecting the life-giving gospel to the lived experience and witness of the church. His vision for gospel cultures that bloom in the rich soil of gospel doctrine will capture those who desire to see the world captivated by Christ.
Stephen T. Um, Senior Minister, Citylife Presbyterian Church, Boston, Massachusetts; co-author, Why Cities Matter
9Marks: Building Healthy Churches
Edited by Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman
Biblical Theology: How the Church Faithfully Teaches the Gospel, Nick Roark and Robert Cline
Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus, Jeramie Rinne
Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus, Jonathan Leeman
Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, Jonathan Leeman
Conversion: How God Creates a People, Michael Lawrence
Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus, Mark Dever
Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus, Mack Stiles
Expositional Preaching: How We Speak God’s Word Today, David Helm
The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, Ray Ortlund
Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global, Andy Johnson
Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church, John Onwuchekwa
Sound Doctrine: How a Church Grows in the Love and Holiness of God, Bobby Jamieson
BUILDING HEALTHY CHURCHES
THE GOSPEL
RAY ORTLUND
The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ
Copyright © 2014 by Ray Ortlund
Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.
Cover design: Dual Identity inc.
Cover image(s): Wayne Brezinka for brezinkadesign.com
First printing 2014
Printed in the United States of America
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture references marked JB are from The Jerusalem Bible. Copyright © 1966, 1967, 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and Doubleday & Co., Inc.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture references marked NLT are from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Ill., 60189. All rights reserved.
All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4083-7
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4086-8
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4084-4
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4085-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ortlund, Raymond C.
The gospel : how the church portrays the beauty of Christ / Ray Ortlund.
1 online resource. – (9marks: building healthy churches)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
ISBN 978-1-4335-4084-4 (pdf) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4085-1 (mobi) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4086-8 (epub) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4083-7 (print)
1. Jesus Christ–Person and offices. I. Title.
BV203
262–dc23
2014005113
Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
To Immanuel Church,
where gospel doctrine and
gospel culture converge,
for God’s glory alone
CONTENTS
Cover
Newsletter Sign Up
Endorsements
Series List
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Series Preface
Foreword by J. I. Packer
Introduction
1 The Gospel for You
2 The Gospel for the Church
3 The Gospel for Everything
4 Something New
5 It Isn’t Easy, But It Is Possible
6 What We Can Expect
7 Our Path Forward
Special Thanks
Notes
General Index
Scripture Index
9Marks: Building Healthy Churches
9Marks: Building Healthy Churches Series
Back Cover
SERIES PREFACE
The 9Marks series of books is premised on two basic ideas. First, the local church is far more important to the Christian life than many Christians today perhaps realize.
Second, local churches grow in life and vitality as they organize their lives around God’s Word. God speaks. Churches should listen and follow. It’s that simple. When a church listens and follows, it begins to look like the One it is following. It reflects his love and holiness. It displays his glory. A church will look like him as it listens to him.
So our basic message to churches is, don’t look to the best business practices or the latest styles; look to God. Start by listening to God’s Word again.
Out of this overall project comes the 9Marks series of books. Some target pastors. Some target church members. Hopefully all will combine careful biblical examination, theological reflection, cultural consideration, corporate application, and even a bit of individual exhortation. The best Christian books are always both theological and practical.
It’s our prayer that God will use this volume and the others to help prepare his bride, the church, with radiance and splendor for the day of his coming.
FOREWORD
Satan, in his wicked way, is a shrewd strategist. C. S. Lewis reminded us of this in The Screwtape Letters, and the apostle Paul clearly never forgot it (e.g. 2 Cor. 2:11; 11:14). Sherlock Holmes spoke of Professor Moriarty as the Napoleon of crime,
and we do well to think of Satan as the Napoleon of sin.
Satan stays active, keeping pace with God, cunningly aiming to spoil God’s work and to thwart his plans to do good for his people and bring praise to his name. So the church must ever be at war with Satan, since Satan is always at war with it—with us who believe.
Today, God is renewing within the church a concern for a deeper knowledge of his truth in Scripture and of his love in Christ. Yet already it is observable that Satan seeks to derail this concern by causing trouble in the congregations that possess it. We can be certain, moreover, that he will keep on doing this as long as the renewal of orthodoxy continues. And so books that call for authentic, Christ-centered faith to show itself in Christlike beauty of life—books like this one—become very significant for the Christian cause at this time.
It seems beyond question that we believers do not think often enough, or hard enough, about the culture of our congregations. Culture, a word borrowed from sociology, means the public lifestyle that expresses a shared mindset and convictions held in common. A church’s culture should be orthopraxy expressing orthodoxy. It should look like self-giving love for others that in turn reflects the sacrificial love for us of Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord.
By hammering home the reality of this, our cultural calling, and reminding us that Christian belief minus Christian culture is real hypocrisy, Dr. Ortlund renders us good and needed service. May his words be heard and taken to heart.
J. I. Packer
Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology
Regent College
INTRODUCTION
Evangelion (what we call the gospel
) is a Greek word, signifying good, merry, glad and joyful