The Gospel gets our eyes off ourselves.
But, it is clear I haven’t been impacted by the Gospel if I am still getting upset at other people, what they say and do, irked by their pride, jealous of their success, glee at their failure…
If I’m upset by others, it’s an indication my eyes are squarely on me, and what I get or don’t get in life. This is not a Jesus-centered life, this is a self-centered life.
But, if I have received Jesus Christ into my heart, the King of Heaven has come to live inside me and have relationship with me: The King of Heaven wants to be my friend!! There is no greater thing I can receive, no greater gift I can be given than intimate friendship with Jesus—He offers this to every one.
This revelation changes a person so fully that we die to our self-centeredness. The whole focus of our life is now Jesus, and we see other people through His love and grace and truth, which also means we cannot be upset at what they do or don’t do, or their pride, etc.
To have the Gospel fully impact our lives like this requires repentance from our self-centered habits of thinking—and I am writing this, talking to people who may have been in church all their lives, call themselves Christian, yet haven’t allowed the Gospel to impact them like this.
