Amidst a world trying to earn righteousness, letting guilt and shame become the narrative, and attempting to control our futures, Louie Giglio invites us to shift our eyes to Christ. We can let the pressure fall at the foot of the cross, the only thing able to dwarf our obsession with the world and the only thing with the power to bring us from death to life.
Key Takeaway
Religion has told you that you can do enough to earn salvation. The Bible tells us that there is nothing we can do that is enough to earn righteousness without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
This message begins with presuppositions. What is a presupposition? A framework by which you choose to see and live your life.
Key presuppositions that people have right now in the world we live in include:
- I have rights.
- I should get to decide.
- I know me best.
- I deserve more.
- I deserve to be happy.
But the Gospel speaks to our presuppositions, and the Gospel we have proclaimed, a redemption story, informs our presuppositions.
Without Christ, we have a problem. Without Him, we are separated from a God that is Holy, Holy, Holy. Christ changes all presuppositions.
When you're spiritually dead in your sins, and you're trying to make the jump to holiness, religion tells you that you can make it if you try hard enough and you work hard enough. But you won't make it. Through studying Ephesians 2, we see that without God, we're an object of His wrath because of our sins.
But it's in His love, grace, and kindness that we can make that jump to holiness, even if we're spiritually dead.
What's the game plan? It isn't trying your best to get to a holy God, exercising religion. It's realizing you're dead until He gives you life. Our presuppositions shift because of the Gospel, understanding that God makes us alive.
"For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
There is a new purpose. But with that new purpose, you have to have new power. And Paul gives us the secret to the new power: Christ. Christ died for us, and He now lives in us.
If you can jump to holiness by yourself, Christ died for nothing. If righteousness can be attained through the law, Christ died for nothing.
Consider the magnitude and the shadow of the cross.
The cross dwarfs...
- Powerless religion and its demands and empty claims.
- The choking grip of guilt and shame.
- Anxiety about your future plans.
- Me and mine.
- Your love affair with Earth and Earth's love affair with you.
Discussion Questions
- Which of the aforementioned presuppositions have you struggled with?
- Have you been taught by religion that if you do enough, you will reach holiness?
- How does your perspective shift knowing that there is nothing we could ever do that could earn us righteousness without Jesus Christ sacrificing Himself on the cross?
- Without Christ, Ephesians 2:3 says that we are deserving of wrath. Do you find yourself believing otherwise and justifying your sins?
- Without Christ, Ephesians 2:3 says that we are deserving of wrath. Do you find yourself believing otherwise and justifying your sins?
- Does the sheer size of the cross help put into perspective the magnitude of the sacrifice of Jesus? How so?
- Why do you think guilt and shame are so detrimental to our faith?
- How can you sit in the tension of wanting to plan for the future without fearing it and trying to control it—understanding that God has ultimate control and will use your life for your good and His glory?
- Galatians 6:14 reads, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." What does this verse mean to you?
- How can you say no to this world and say yes to Jesus?
Scripture References
