"The God Who Gathers and Transforms His People"

The God Who Is There

Written by D. A. Carson

“The God Who Gathers and Transforms His People” – Chapter Twelve

Introduction

• What is of life changing, ultimate importance to you?
• Everyone will “transcendentalize” someone or something. 
• Is God your Creator of ultimate importance to you?
• If not, then it is a manmade idol that has captured your worship.

Not about Rules

• Christianity is not about making a set of rules or keeping rules.
• Christianity is about the grace of God that gathers and transforms his people. 
• When God’s grace (not our own efforts) is central, it humbles us and transforms us.

Ephesians 2

• We need to be reconciled to God, but we ourselves must be changed.
• God performs a work of new creation in his people. He transforms them.
• Good works flow from this grace-granted transformation. They are the outcome not the cause.

Ephesians 2

• This transformation is brought about by God’s Spirit. He is already at work within us, changing our hearts and minds.
• God transforms and gathers his people.
• God is gathering a community of believers from every race.

Ephesians 2

• The gathered church is the place where God meets with his people-it is the temple where God dwells.
• The church is not a building, but a gathering of transformed believers.
• The NT knows nothing of unbaptized or unchurched “Christians.”

Ephesians 4:17-5:10

• The living out of our Christian faith in our daily lives is not driven by rules, but by the gospel—our faith in and our gratitude for the cross and resurrection of Christ.
• Our morality is first and foremost a function of gratitude to God for what Christ has already done.

Ephesians 4:17-5:10

• The Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent empowers us to live in a way that is different form the way we lived before.
• Our ethical behavior is driven by our redemption by Christ—we are not our own.

Ephesians 4:17-5:10

• The Holy Spirit gives us a desire to please God. We are eager to find out what pleases him.
• The Holy Spirit has not yet perfected us—We are not yet what we will be, but by the grace of God we are not what we used to be.

Galatians 5:13-26

• We are justified by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ.
• It is not enough for us to stand acquitted before God and be reconciled to him. We must also be transformed.
• Where there is no transformation, there is no saving faith.

Take Up Your Cross

• Being bought with a price and transformed by God means that we come under the lordship of Christ, following him wherever it may lead us and whatever it may cost.
• It has been granted to us by grace to believe in Christ and to suffer for Christ (Phil 1:29).