"Why Isn't it Obvious?" The Gospel is Missing in Many Efforts to Reform the Church

What do you think about this comment excerpted from an email I received yesterday:

"...I have been on a journey for a couple of years mainly focused on how we can be disciples of Jesus who actually do what he says to do. People who have been transformed by the Gospel. How does that happen? Why isn't it obvious in those around us?..."

Transformation of the human heart into the image of Jesus Christ is the focus of God's redemptive plan. Scripture is clear in places like Romans 1:16-17 that this transformation is a work of the Gospel. Yet, when I present this simple message --to Christians--, many are surprised as if this were some brand new discovery (which, in many cases, it is!)

The problems faced in churches and homes today (children leaving The Faith, divorce, broken relationships, no real growth, etc.) are fundamentally problems of the heart the transformation of which is the work of the Gospel message which encompasses our justification, sanctification, and glorification.

As my friend pointed out, the fact that this is not "obvious" is a tragedy. But the greater tragedy is that many attempts to reform the church or the home bypass the heart or seek its transformation through a means that is sure to fail.

People are simply trying to "do the right thing" (reading the Bible individually and as households, attend --or not attend-- church programs, choosing the "right" educational approach, dressing a certain way, reading certain books, etc.) with an implicit expectation that doing the right things will lead to a transformed life. But it doesn't happen that way (see Gal. 3:1-3, Col. 2:20-23.) It is believing, or placing our faith in the Gospel message every day that transforms our hearts which LEADS us to do the right things in a way that TRULY glorifies God.

Well-intentioned though they may be, ANY reform efforts that do not flow from the Gospel and that do not seek to apply, or make the Gospel more clear are false Gospels because people (perhaps without understanding it this way) are really placing their faith in the reforms and their performance in living those reforms --rather than the Gospel--to transform their own hearts and the hearts of those they love.

We agree that biblically-focused reform is needed to restore faithfulness in the home and in the church. This much is obvious. But tragically what isn't obvious is God's ordained means for that reform: the Gospel which is the essence of the Bible's focus to begin with! Any truly biblical reform must necessarily be Gospel-centered. Why isn't this obvious?