Gospel Deeps E-Book

Jared C. Wilson

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

While pastoring for the past fifteen years, Jared Wilson has become known in contemporary evangelicalism for his passionate, gospel-centered writing and teaching. Following Wilson's well-received publication of Gospel Wakefulness, he writes Gospel Deeps as a "next step" to establishing the need for astonishment, which begins by looking at the astonishing things God has done in and through Christ. Wilson holds up the gospel like a diamond and examines it facet by facet, demonstrating the riches of its implications. This book serves as a valuable contribution to the emerging canon of gospel-centered literature, in the spirit of John Piper's Pleasures of God and Tim Keller's emphasis on a "robust gospel," and continues in the glory-reveling legacy left by Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, and the like. The distinctiveness of Gospel Deeps is found in Wilson's winsome and frequently ecstatic writing voice, as well as his unique approach to showcasing the gospel's beauty.

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“Wilson labors to make us appreciate the greatness and grandeur of the gospel and its Christ. Again and again he succeeds.”

J. I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College; author, Knowing God

“Too many of us treat the gospel as somebody else’s news. We know it’s what saved us, but we encounter it only as we overhear ourselves rehearsing it to unbelievers. Or, we treat the gospel as some law of supernatural quantum physics—holding everything together but too complicated to think about very much. That’s a dry, flat, and depressing way to live. This brilliant, winsome book calls us back to the exhilarating bigness of the gospel, in a way that can spark up every day with crucified power. Read this book. It’s like a gospel fountain flowing, deep and wide.”

Russell D. Moore, Dean, School of Theology; Senior Vice President for Academic Administration; Professor of Theology and Ethics, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“This is good leaf, grown with gospel sap, grounded in Bible soil. Drop this fresh bag from Jared in your soul’s mug, and give it a good steep. As good as the flavor was in Gospel Wakefulness, it’s even better in Gospel Deeps.”

David Mathis, executive editor, desiringGod.org; elder, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Twin Cities, Minnesota

“If your faith in Christ is shallow, this is not the book for you. But if you are suffering, if you are sinning, if you are broken, and you need a big Savior, Jared Wilson’s Gospel Deeps might take you deeper with Christ than you’ve ever gone before, deeper than you’ve ever dreamed of going. Enjoy the journey.”

Ray Ortlund, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee

“Jared Wilson’s Gospel Deeps is not just another book on the Christian life, it is a book on what gives the Christian life—the gospel. And it isn’t a mere summary of the gospel, but a plunge deep into the good news to help the reader understand the gospel’s centrality and power in our lives. Gospel Deeps helps us behold and experience the glory and goodness of Jesus Christ in ways we often forget, or may be completely unfamiliar with.”

Joe Thorn, author, Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself; Lead Pastor, Redeemer Fellowship, St. Charles, Illinois

“Those without spiritual eyes will not enjoy Jared’s book. How could they? All he does is stare deeply into the person of Jesus Christ and his gospel work. But for those with eyes to see, what treasures await here. Jared gazes upon the gospel from angle after angle, showing how every area of theology points back to the gospel, and reminding us that the knowledge of God is like a spiderweb—where touching any one spot makes the whole thing vibrate. Jared, like the best theologians, worships as he writes and invites readers to join him. And that means this pastor-theologian’s pen is a lyrical one. Read slowly, enjoy, savor, and worship.”

Jonathan Leeman, Editorial Director, 9Marks; author, Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love

“Wilson’s Gospel Deeps offers a majestic portrait of the gospel that is far more than a solution to guilt or a one-time gate to forgiveness. It’s a path we are to walk each day of our lives, an answer to the moral corruption of our culture and entire cosmos, the power to change us into authentic worshipers of God and lovers of people, and a supernatural power given to the church to bring healing to a broken world. Multifaceted in its reflection of the many spiritual blessings promised to those united with Christ, Gospel Deeps compels us to revel anew in the excellencies of Jesus.”

Steve Childers, President and CEO, Global Church Advancement; Associate Professor of Practical Theology, Reformed Seminary Orlando

“The gospel of Jesus Christ offers to us spiritual riches that exceed our wildest imaginations. Gospel Deeps is a delightful ledger of sorts to these riches. As one of the top writers in the church today, Jared Wilson labors hard to surface great gospel truth with clarity and brilliance, and in language that carries with it a steady overtone of delight. He says it well: ‘If Christ is true then boredom is a sin.’ Yes! And because Christ is true, and because Jared knows it, I dare you to find a boring page in this book.”

Tony Reinke, author, Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books

“First of all, a given: Jared Wilson is one of the finest and brightest young pastors and gospel thinkers in America. Second, a nongiven: Jared is still growing. What excites me most about Gospel Deeps is that it represents the trajectory of a heart that is continuing to come alive to the implications of the gospel. In this book, Jared is not just our gifted teacher, but also our worship leader. He bids us join him in putting our roots deeper and deeper into the garden of God’s grace. Thank you, my brother, for theology as doxology.”

Scotty Smith, Founding Pastor, Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN

“If you have assumed that doctrine must be dull, cool, or cerebral, Gospel Deeps will disabuse you of that notion. If you think that passionate adoration and deep dogmas—sovereign election, double imputation, inaugurated eschatology—don’t belong together, Gospel Deeps will surprise you by its blend of worshipful warmth with theological profundity. If you are beginning to realize that growing up in Christ does not mean getting beyond the gospel but going more deeply into it, exploring the implications of Jesus’s sacrificial death and resurrection on our behalf, Gospel Deeps will energize your pursuit of holiness by fortifying your assurance of the Father’s unwavering love and glad acceptance. If you thirst to know the triune God who saves you, Gospel Deeps will lead you into the Word by which he reveals himself and invites us into communion with himself. Plunge into these deeps!”

Dennis E. Johnson, Professor of Practical Theology, Westminster Seminary, California; author, Him We Proclaim; coauthor, Counsel from the Cross

OTHER CROSSWAY BOOKS BY JARED C. WILSON

The Explicit Gospel (with Matt Chandler)

Gospel Wakefulness

Gospel Deeps

Copyright © 2012 by Jared C. Wilson

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.

Pages 194–95: “The New Testament’s Multi-Dimensional Fulfillment of the Old” by Dane Ortlund. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design and image: Barton Damer, Already Been Chewed

First printing 2012

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. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from TheNew American Standard Bible®. Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture references marked RSV are from TheRevised Standard Version. Copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

Scripture quotations marked (Weymouth) are taken from the Weymouth Translation.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-2640-4 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-2641-1 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-2642-8 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-2643-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilson, Jared C., 1975–

Gospel deeps : reveling in the excellencies of Jesus /

Jared C. Wilson.

p. cm.

Includes bilographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4335-2640-4

1. Salvation—Christianity. 2. Jesus Christ—Person and offices. I. Title.

BT751.3.W545         2012

2012013350

234—dc23

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

VP  22  21  20  19  18  17  16  15  14  13  12

15  14  13  12  11  10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

For my wife, Becky, again.

Because every day you love me, again.

You are the daily picture of grace to me.

Contents

Foreword by Matt Chandler

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Gospel Deeps

2 The Gospel’s Threefold Vision

3 The God-Shaped Gospel

4 At Play in the Fields of the Lord

5 The Sharp Edge of the Atonement

6 The Glory of Suffering

7 As Far as East from West

8 The Fold

9 Cosmic Redemption

10 The Crosswise Excellencies of Christ

Conclusion

Foreword

God is big, weighty, thick, immense. This is no cliché, although we could make it one. God is so big that to dwell on his immensity long enough could lead one into terror. In the display of his glory God is beyond overwhelming. We sense God’s bigness in his interaction with his creation. For instance, as many of us as there are—eight billion at last count—he nevertheless knows us all, even, according to Matthew 10:30, down to the number of hairs we have (or don’t have) on our heads. He knows our personal histories and all of our thoughts past, present, and future and all of our feelings and motivations and needs and desires, and how all the moments in our lives have led to the person we are this very second as we hold this book. The elements obey him, and even a sparrow doesn’t fall out of the sky unless he allows it. I have no idea how many sparrows there are but I’m guessing they are right up there with us humans, if they don’t outnumber us. That’s a lot of activity! And God is all over all of it.

As if that weren’t big and thick and immense enough, against the broader scope of the universe, our earth is tiny, and we are of course even smaller. Though we believe it to be so massive and unending, this green and blue ball of ours is actually a tiny blue speck in God’s grand display of his eternal might. We are a small planet surrounded by an immeasurable amount of space that includes millions of larger planets and celestial bodies that dwarf what we define as “big.” As far as earth goes—and this is being generous—we are a small ant pile in the middle of the Sahara. The prophet Job tells us that this entire expansive universe is but the outskirts or fringes of God’s power. I have often marveled at the fact that David didn’t know the half of it when he wrote in Psalm 8:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him? (vv. 3–4)

David didn’t have the images from the Hubble telescope or a strong understanding of just how big the universe really is, but he marveled that the eternal God who had created such an immense universe spared thoughts for mankind. I wonder what David would have written had he known the even bigger picture—had he known the universe's immensity with the help of satellite imagery and astronomic charts.

When I say that dwelling for long on God’s immensity could lead one into terror, I have in mind our smallness in light of his holiness. Isaiah knew the feeling well, as God’s glory filled the temple (Isaiah 6) and Isaiah felt “undone,” as if he might break or explode or melt into a puddle at the very subsuming presence of the perfect radiance of God. C. S. Lewis writes:

The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object.

The fact that God sustains and maintains the universe and beyond without the slightest strain on his abilities should make us draw back, vulnerably in tune with our impossible smallness and fragility. How do you communicate with this God? If you don’t like how he’s wired things or you’re not amenable to what he commands, what could you possibly do about it? We are plankton shaking a microscopic fist at a killer whale.

Yet he hears us. He takes note. He is, the Bible says, “mindful” of us. And that should awe us (Ps. 8:4; Heb. 2:6).

Because as big and mighty as God is in light of the universe, the declaration of glory in the heavens is still not where he has most beautifully flexed his muscle. God reveals his power most fully not in the expanse of the universe but rather in his rescuing of those ants in that tiny mound in the middle of the Sahara, by being for them all they couldn’t be and taking from them what they could never be rid of. The depth, width, ferocity, and immensity of God is seen most spectacularly in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have found in the last decade of pastoral ministry that people tend to understand the “width” of the gospel in that they can describe Jesus and the cross, but they have trouble with the “depth” of the gospel, struggling to see how it informs and shapes every aspect of our lives. In Gospel Deeps, my friend Jared does a masterful job of taking us into the depths of God’s biggest, weightiest, thickest, most immense plan for the universe and for us, the princes of it. I’m glad you have this book in your hands, and I am praying that the Spirit will show you through it the many glories of God in the rich depths of the message of Christ.

Matt Chandler

Acknowledgments

This book could not have been written without the prayers, wisdom, and loving dedication of friends new and old: David and Sarah McLemore, Ray Ortlund, Chris Booth, Rob Townshend, Jeremy Veldman, Dale Carr, Mike Krohn, Bill Streger, and Matt Chandler; and Josh Cousineau, Mark Gedicks, and the other righteous brothers of the Gospel Alliance New England.

Trevin Wax, Burk Parsons, Dane Ortlund, Joel Burdeaux, and Robert Peterson all offered invaluable insights into the crafting of this or that portion of the manuscript. What is good is better for their refinement; what is bad is the result of my stubbornness.

I am especially grateful to the church communities that have graciously allowed me to audition some of this material in various forms in front of their people over the last couple of years. Thank you Conroe Church of Christ in Conroe, Texas; New Life Church in Gahanna, Ohio; St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas; Grace Church in Brockton, Massachusetts; and East Auburn Baptist Church in Auburn, Maine, where the Gospel Alliance holds the LEAD Conference, a venue that has endured my thinking aloud most readily.

Most especially I am grateful to and for Middletown Springs Community Church, my own church family. Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for “going where the gospel goes,” with me, and for receiving God’s Word with gladness and submission time and time again. It is so fun to revel in the God-ness of God with you!

Introduction

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”—John 1:16

My driving conviction in this book is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is big. Like, really big. Ginormous, if you will. And deep. Deep and rich. And beautiful. Multifaceted. Expansive. Powerful. Overwhelming. Mysterious. But vivid, too, and clear. Illuminating. Transforming. And did I mentionbig?

I grew up in a Southern Baptist church in the Bible Belt. We were conservative, biblical, evangelistic, and invitational. Not a Sunday school class, worship service, Wednesday evening prayer meeting, youth group function, retreat, camp, or potluck went by that we weren’t given an opportunity to receive the gospel. No matter what the topic of the gathering might be, we could always count on being invited to raise a hand or walk an aisle at the end. And that is not in itself necessarily a bad thing. Many of us point to experiences just like that as the moment of our conversion to Christ. And the preaching of the gospel should always come with an invitation (of sorts) to repent and believe init.