The Total Gospel

A man from the back mountains of Tennessee found himself one day in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman marched smartly off. The father hollered to his youngest son, "Billy, go get mother."

Source Unknown.

All humor aside, when I hear that story, I think it gives us a good picture of something biblical. Before we were saved by God’s grace, we were spiritually speaking wretched and depraved and deplorable, indeed, dead in our sins, but by the wondrous Power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we were transformed, changed into a new creature in Christ! We were given new life! We went to Christ as ugly as possible Spiritually speaking, we were made beautiful, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Now as new Creatures in Christ we are to live accordingly. We are new in Christ, so we live a new way, a better way.

You will see I titled this message “The Total Gospel.” That may sound strange to some us. What I mean to suggest with such a title is that there is such a thing as half a gospel; for us to realize the gospel does not begin and end with our repentance and confession in Christ. It does begin then in our lives, but it does not end there. What I mean for us to realize with such a title is the gospel is to be totally encompassing in our lives. Use example of pie chart. There is not a single dynamic, aspect, part, fraction, or speck of our lives that the Gospel does not demand total obedience in for the glory and supremacy and exaltation of our most magnificent Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whether it be your marriage, job, family, church, relationships, hobbies, money, toys.  I almost titled this message “Grow Up” to stress the fact that when you are born again in Christ Jesus by the power of the Gospel o f Jesus Christ, you are but a babe in Christ and are expected and commanded by God to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. A baby matures and grows up, so are we as believers in Christ. We start as babes in Christ but we are supposed to grow up. Either title gets the point across – The gospel is to be totally encompassing in your life, demanding total submission to Christ, demanding you grow up in Christ. The gospel is not something you can believe and then forget. Jesus Christ said, if you love me you will keep my commandments. The gospel, rightly understood and believed, profoundly changes the actions, attitude, will, emotions, everything about the individual – it totally and thoroughly changes us and totally and thoroughly demands obedience.

The believers in Corinth needed a good reminder of this glorious truth. You see, they certainly believed the gospel, but they were failing to heed to the gospel in everything they were doing. In fact, because of profound self-centeredness in their lives, they have failed to mature much at all since Paul first left them and wrote this letter. He says in v. 2 and 3 I fed you milk, not solid food because you were not ready. Indeed, you are still not ready. Because of this immaturity in the Christian life, they were wrongly causing divisions by seeking status through rubbing elbows with prominent church leaders. They are spiritual, but divided. What a contradiction.

This should not be. They should be growing up into the head of all things, Jesus Christ. They have been justified and made peace with God but where is their sanctification?

I. The Stinging Rebuke

In verses 1-4 Paul gives a stinging but tender-hearted rebuke to the believers in Corinth for their inconsistent, fleshly behavior. The rebuke is clear, though you are believers you are still acting fleshly and by doing so Paul asks, “are you not being merely human?” HE rebukes them so severely to shame them, or to shock them back into reality. You are believers, you possess the Spirit, you have the mind of Christ, now live like it. Be faithful and consistent in your walk. Perhaps that is what some of you need this morning, you need to be shocked or shamed back into reality. You say you are a believer, show me by your actions? You say you area  believer, why is there such division in your church or life? You say you are a believer, live like it! Your life should be startlingly different from everyone else!

As a wise man once said, “Some people will change when they see the light. Others change only when they feel the heat.”

So let us unpack this rebuke.

He Calls Them Brothers (v.1)

This is a tender term, used to express oneness and love in Christ. And really it is remarkable to me that Paul begins such a rebuke with such a tender term! It shows Paul’s meek spirit. He is deeply troubled over their fleshly behavior, and he wants them to know from the start that even though he has some strong words for them, it is done in a spirit of brotherly love and affection. It is because he loves them and desires them to be growing in Christ that he gives this brotherly rebuke to them.

HE could not address them as Spiritual (v.1)

With this phrase, Paul is reminiscing a little bit. He is talking about when he first came to Corinth and discipled the new believers. When he first talked with them, he could not address them as Spiritual, but as people of the flesh, that is, as infants in Christ. Because they were infants in Christ, he fed them the appropriate diet, milk, not solid food. When one comes to faith in Christ, he is an infant spiritually speaking (no matter if he is 2 yrs old or 102 yrs old). One has much to learn both intellectually and experientially. Paul, upon their conversion, fed them “milk” as it were to nourish and strengthen their feeble faith. One can imagine Paul in the 18mths he was there spending hour after hour, often late into the night, lovingly and patiently and carefully instructing these new believers in the elementary principles of their new found faith and also fervently praying on their behalf that they might be growing in the grace and knowledge of God.

He rebukes because they are still not ready and are still of the flesh (v.2, 3)

This is where the rubber meets the road. Up until this point, Paul has said when I first came to you and ministered to you I fed you “spiritual milk” to strengthen you and nourish you. That is natural and right, but he says, “even now you are not yet ready” for solid food because you are still of the flesh. That is not natural and right. They should be growing up in Christ. They should be ready for the solid foods and they should not still be of the flesh.**** STATE SLOWLY****What are we to understand by this phrase “worldly” or as in other translations, “fleshly?” The Greek word is sarkikos, which has negative ethical overtones. It means to be characterized by the flesh. It is a theological evaluation that describes the person who is centered on the self. It refers to an individual’s values, attitudes, and judgments, which manifest themselves in self-centeredness, self-indulgence, and arrogant self-sufficiency. ****STATE SLOWLY****

Paul discerns this is true because of their behavior. He is not just coming up with these accusations out of nowhere. He has irrefutable proof -their behavior. He says in verse 3, “for since there is jealousy and quarreling among you are you not fleshly? Are you not acting like mere men” and in verse 4 “for when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?” Jealousy and strife are not of the Spirit but are of the sinful flesh! Elsewhere Paul writes, “the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” In Romans 13:13 Paul wrote, “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. In James, we find much stronger language and warning, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice…”Paul in effect is saying by acting in this way, you are no different from the rest of the Corinthian society. By “treating the church community as an arena to maneuver and advance their personal status reveals that they are controlled by human motives and the purely human order of things (Garland, 109).” This should not be so.

Now, put yourself in the Corinthians shoes. They consider themselves to be “spiritual ones,” indeed, part of some spiritual elite caste possessing elite wisdom. They are less sure about Paul and have probably communicated such misgivings to him and others. Along comes Paul and he says, “I still cannot give you solid food for you are still fleshly.” What a shot to their ego’s! What a shot to their self-proclaimed spirituality and righteousness. It is not unlike Jesus Christ in Matthew 23 and his seven woes to the Pharisees. With such language, Paul is trying to shock them or perhaps shame them into reality. You think you are so mighty and great and high spiritually speaking but I could not even address you as being one who is spiritual at the beginning or even now! Ouch. Why does Paul speak so firmly and with such stinging words of rebuke? Doesn’t he know he could hurt their frail egos? Yes, he does know, and that is exactly why he uses such strong words – to shame them and to shock them back into reality. He forces them to have to face up to their true condition. You do possess the Spirit. You do possess the mind of Christ. You can understand the wisdom of God displayed in the foolishness of the Cross. Face up to it! Live like it! Stop being dominated by the flesh and its fleshy sin! Stop being inconsistent. Be in step with the Spirit of God. Illustration of good music and bad dancing with that music. Its terrible and offensive. Me dancing and how bad it looks and is.

Some Practical Considerations

1. What is a carnal Christian?

One often hears the term “carnal Christian” thrown around quite often in Christian circles. It is painfully obvious though that most people do not know what Scripture means when it refers to one as a “carnal” Christian. This is evidenced by the fact that to one person it means one thing and to another it means something else entirely. What are we to make of this? Is there such a thing, and if so, how does Scripture speak of such? As we consider such questions, we must keep in mind, two things. What you think a carnal Christian is and what Scripture says it is may be two different things, and where you are wrong, you need to conform to the teaching of Scripture. Second, this is the only place in the entirety of Scripture where we read of a “carnal” Christian, so we can look nowhere else for the answer than here.

First, is there such a thing as a carnal Christian? Stated in another way, can a true Christian be carnal? The answer is straightforwardly yes. Paul teaches that in crystal clear language here. First, he calls these fleshly believers brothers and second he refers to them as “infants in Christ.” So, yes, they are Christians and they are acting carnally.

Second, what is a carnal Christian? ****STATE SLOWLY****A carnal Christian is one who possesses the Spirit of God but in certain particulars does not act like one who possesses the Spirit of God. The first particular of a worldly Christian is they are spiritually immature. “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. There are Christians who simply cannot digest what Paul calls “solid food.” You must give them milk, for they are not ready for anything more. And if you try to give them anything other than milk, they upchuck and make a mess of everything and everyone around them. At some point, the number of years they have been believers leads you to expect something like mature behavior from them, but they prove disappointing. So they are “stuck” at the milk stage. They are not growing in their understanding and application of the word of God generally, and the gospel in particular. Not for them solid knowledge of Scripture; not for them mature theological reflection; not for them growing and perceptive Christian thought. Any attempt at feeding them solid food results in an upchuck. So the first particular of one who is a worldly Christian is they are spiritually immature, stuck at the milk stage. Every attempt at deepening and growth results in violent upchucking. As D.A. Carson puts it, they want nothing more than another round of choruses and a ‘simple message’ – something that won’t challenge them to think, to examine their lives, to make choices, and to grow in their knowledge and adoration of the living God.

The second particular of a worldly Christian is they act fleshly even though they possess the Spirit of God. This is what he says in verse 3. You are still worldly. You, even though you possess the Spirit of God, are acting like one who does not, and by doing so, you are fleshly. What does Scripture mean with this word “fleshly?” Remember, it comes from the Greek word sarkikos which means to be characterized by the flesh. It is a theological evaluation that describes the person who is centered on the self. It refers to an individual’s values, attitudes, and judgments, which manifest themselves in self-centeredness, self-indulgence, and arrogant self-sufficiency. While this fleshiness can exhibit itself in various ways, it has exhibited itself in two specific ways at Corinth. First, it displays jealousy and quarreling. As long as they display such sins, they are worldly, exhibiting what is characteristic of fallen human nature. The second way in which they are acting worldly is by succumbing to factionalism, one group claiming loyalty to Paul and to another Apollos and to another Cephas and to another Christ (see 1:10). This factionalism and such pettiness it fosters are actions of mere men. It is to act worldly. It is to act as though one does not possess the Spirit of God. So a carnal Christian has two particular qualities. He is stuck at immaturity and any effort to encourage otherwise results in messiness and he is fleshly, that is self centered resulting in general strife and jealousy.

****STATE SLOWLY****Here is the key point Paul is making. A carnal Christian cannot remain carnal. While a Christian can be, for a time, carnal, a true Christian will not remain carnal for his entire lifetime. Now I know none of us are perfect, we all sin and when we do so we are being carnal, but true Christians are not content with this carnality, indeed we hate it and do all we can in our strength to get rid of it, and we wrestle with God in prayer aksing him to give us the victory over it. A true Christian will not remain carnal. ****STATE SLOLY****Some have abused the idea of a “carnal Christian” by saying that it is possible for people to come to faith in Christ and then proceed to live the rest of their lives in a completely carnal manner, with no evidence of being “born again” or a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Such a concept is completely unbiblical. James 2 makes it abundantly clear that genuine faith will always result in works. Indeed, it says Faith without works is dead. Ephesians 2:8-10 declares that, while we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, salvation will result in works. Can a Christian, in a time of failure and/or rebellion, appear to be carnal? Yes. Will a true Christian remain carnal? No. HE will and must grow, be it painfully slow or miraculously fast, he will grow up in Christ.

Paul does not have in mind one who has made a profession of faith, carried on in the Christian way for a short time, and then reverted to a lifestyle indistinguishable in every respect from that of the world. Never to be seen or heard from again. After all, these Corinthian believers are meeting together regularly for worship, are endowed with remarkable spiritual gifts, are wrestling with theological and ethical issues and are in contact with the apostle whose ministry brought them to the Lord. What this means is that it will not do to apply “carnal Christian” or “worldly Christian” to every person who has made a profession of faith, perhaps years ago, but for umpteen years has lived without any evidence of Christian faith, life, repentance, values, or interest. In such instances it is far more likely than not that we are dealing with counterfeit conversions. The nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon once told a story of how he was walking down a London street when a drunken man approached him, leaned on the lamppost nearby, and said, “Hey, Mr. Spurgeon, I’m one of your converts!” Spurgeon responded, “You must be one of mine – you’re certainly not one of the Lord’s!”

There is no sand in the line I can draw and say, “Yes, you are a Christian,” or “No, you are not a Christian.” That is between you and God. You must go to God and consider carefully and prayerfully these things. We need to drink deeply from this truth and ask ourselves some soul searching questions. Am I a carnal Christian? Or perhaps even, am I saved? Either one is unacceptable. If you are not saved you need to be! If you are a carnal Christian you need to submit to God’s word, grow in the grace and knowledge of God, and stop being fleshly.

2. Remaining fleshly is not an option. You must stop.

When Paul says you are of the flesh, mere infants in Christ, he is not patting them on the back. He is saying something is terribly wrong. They should be progressing in understanding, moving from an elementary understanding of truth to a more mature knowledge of the deeper things of God.

Paul’s point is potent. To be a carnal Christian is wretchedly, unacceptably, spiritually, immature. Those who have the Spirit, and who therefore come to grips with the message of the cross, are expected to mature, to grow up! Such growth will reveal itself in a growing ability to take in more and more Christian truth. It will also show itself in a large-hearted attitude that avoids quarreling and jealousy, and refuses to sink into narrow factionalism.

The gospel is more than just something you believe once in your life, never to think of again. The gospel is your life, and upon salvation, you are to be seeking to live the gospel in all you say and do. The theological word for this is “sanctification.” The gospel is as much a message of sanctification as it is a message of justification. By faith you have been justified, declared holy before a holy God and you have made peace with a wrathful God, but that is not all. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel is to have a sanctifying effect in you also! A cleansing, a putting to death, of all sinfulness and worldliness in your life. Read Philippians 2:1-5. Paul is quick to say, this is not true of you Corinthians. What sorrow that must have placed in Paul’s heart. Consider a contrast with 2 John 4 and 3 John 3, 4.

Cling to Christ! Be more like your Savior! Is he not worth it? Oh, he is supremely worth it. He gave me life. Without Him I would still be dead in my sins, hopeless and helpless and well on my way to eternity in Hell, damned in my sins. O how the love of Christ should compel us to obedience!

Now in saying all that I have said, the wrong reaction for you to have is to sit here and think, yeah, that’s great pastor, so and so really needed that! That is the wrong attitude. Take the log out of your eye! Everybody thinks of changing Humanity and Nobody thinks of changing Himself.  It is easier to cry against one-thousand sins of others than to kill one of your own. I want you to search your hearts, search your lives and see where and how it does not conform to the gospel. Ask God the Holy Spirit to search your inmost being and change you more like our Savior! I want God to search my heart, because I know in all honesty that there is too much Corinth in me, too much fleshiness, too much carnality and it is true of your lives – so ask God to change you! It is in his power that will happen!

And if you are here this morning saying yes I am so sick and tired of this sin in my life, if you are one just crying out for forgiveness and cleansing and purification from those deadly sins. Cry to Jesus. Run to Jesus. He is the great physician of souls.

I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, "By the grace of God I am what I am.

John Newton.