Every Monday afternoon, the Ballard campus staff and I get together for a brown bag lunch and a great discussion on what Jesus is doing in our church and in our lives. We share evidences of God’s grace that we saw the previous Sunday. We talk about the scripture that was preached and how it impacted us personally and in ministry. And we tell stories of how God used His word to transform lives.

This week, the main topic of conversation was the difference between Christians consuming the gospel of Jesus versus being consumed by Jesus. The difference is staggering.

In the book How People Change, authors Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp talk about how a Christian can know the gospel of Jesus and still not know it. They call this the gospel gap. It is the gap between knowing the truth and living the truth. Often this gospel gap happens between the head and heart. You can know the truth in your mind and yet still have a disconnect in your heart.

So what are these subtle differences? Here are a few we talked about…

Intellectualism. A person can know a lot about God intellectually without actually knowing Him or having a relationship with Him through Jesus. In this case, I am merely a consumer of the knowledge of God; I am not transformed (or consumed) by the truth. In this case, a person might be a Christian, but they are not experiencing the fullness of the Christian life.

Seeking grace without repentance. In His wisdom, God gives people godly grief, which leads to repentance. Repentance is turning away from sin and toward Jesus. Godly grief moves a person toward having a personal relationship with Jesus and experiencing heart transformation. Worldly grief, which is not godly grief, seeks to end guilt with shallow apologies in hopes of finding a shortcut grace with no true heart change. This is a way to consume grace without being consumed by the Giver of grace, who is Jesus.

Self-centeredness. How can the gospel benefit me? This worldview starts with who I am instead of who Jesus is. It is first and foremost about how the gospel can benefit me, versus how it brings glory to God. How can I consume this gospel without it taking me out of my comfort zone and calling me to die to myself?

The list goes on and on – we Christians are masters at trying to fit God into our lives on our own terms rather than seeing ourselves in light of the person and work of Christ Jesus. So, bottom line…are you consumed by Jesus through his transforming work on the cross & his magnificent resurrection from death? Or are you merely a consumer of his story?

It’s my prayer that each of us would be constantly consumed and renewed by Christ Jesus himself, with more concern for his glory than that of our own. In order for this to happen we need to stop focusing so much on ourselves and start focusing more on treasuring Jesus and being grateful for the great gift that He is.