Gospel Renewal :: Personally and Corporately

As we ramp up for our Spring Cycle of Redemption Groups the Spirit reminded me of his grace to Kaylan and I. It was through Redemption Groups at Mars Hill Albuquerque where Jesus did a monstrous work of gospel renewal in our life.I recently read Tim Keller's words on gospel renewal and it led me to worship Jesus because he reminded me specifically what he has done in our lives individually, in our marriage, and overflowing into our relationships and ministry. Keller says:

 "Gospel renewal is a life-changing recovery of the gospel. Personal gospel renewal means the gospel of doctrines of sin and grace are actually experienced, not just known intellectually. This personal renewal includes an awareness and conviction of one's own sin and alienation from God and comes from seeing in ourselves deeper layers of self-justification, unbelief, and self-righteousness than we have ever seen before. There is a new, commensurate grasp of the wonder of forgiveness and grace as we shed these attitudes and practices and rest in Christ alone for salvation. Perhaps we have previously said that we were 'resting in Christ's work, not our own work' for salvation, but when we experience gospel renewal, we have a new clarity about what this means in our mind and a new experience of actually doing it with our heart."

I am praying now that Jesus would gift us a season where our whole church experiences gospel renewal together. That we would experience as Keller puts it, "what we already believe in and possess--the presence and love of Christ (Eph. 3:16-19). But how does this experience happen? It comes through the work of the Spirit, strengthening our 'inner being' and our 'hearts' so that as believers we can know Christ's love (see v. 16). It happens, in other words, through gospel renewal."Let's pray for Jesus to do a monstrous corporate work of gospel renewal. That the Spirit would peel back layers of our idolatry, showing us the sinfulness of our sin, lead us to repentance and belief in Jesus' work on our behalf. That we wouldn't default to works-righteousness but trust in Christ's work alone - the only place we put our hope.  And that we would dive deeper into his incarnation, substitutionary atonement, and glorious resurrection.If you are aching for this to happen I ask you to pray for yourself and our church as a whole and consider applying for this cycle of Redemption Groups here. I don't believe it is the answer, I know Jesus is, but he has used it in the past and I pray he will in the future.Ryan Keeney is the Deacon of Discipleship and Counseling at The Paradox. You can contact him here.