Values of a Gospel-Centred Church

7th February 2022

What are the values of our church family? Who are we seeking to be and become? In this 5-part series, we will look at the five values of our church, which seek to keep the gospel at the heart of who we are and what we do.
These values are not new to Calderwood Baptist Church but whether you have been part of the church family for a long time or a short time, it is really helpful to be reminded of the culture we are seeking to cultivate in our church family at Calderwood.

A Community of Grace

Every Christian is utterly dependent upon God's grace for their salvation.

At the start of his gospel, John says that he has gazed on Jesus in all His glory. He has been awestruck by the eternal Son of God whom He has seen in the flesh. What was it that made him awestruck as He gazed on Jesus? It was that Jesus is full of grace and truth (John 1:14-17). What an incredible description of our Lord – the one who is full of grace and truth. And John goes on to say that from His fullness, we have received grace upon grace. This echoes the revelation of who God is when we read that the Lord is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, and who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin (Exodus 34:6-7).

We have a grace-filled God. And just as John was awestruck with Jesus’ glory when He gazed on Him, when Moses heard that God was merciful, compassionate and grace-filled, he too was so awestruck that He bowed down and worshipped.

And so Paul writes,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:4-9)

We are a community with this in common: we are each utterly dependent on God’s grace for our salvation.

We are sinners saved only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus. We cannot save ourselves nor do we merit God’s salvation, but we rely completely on the grace of Christ. The outworking of this, Paul says, is that we have no grounds for pride or boasting because our salvation is wholly a work of God. We can add nothing to grace – the mere attempt to add anything to grace stops it being grace. This is glorious and this is unique! The grace of God sets Him apart from all other ways of life, philosophies, and religions.

Living as a community of grace

• We celebrate salvation and baptism because they testify to God’s gracious character, they cause us to be filled with awe, wonder and worship at our God who saves His people as an act of kindness and grace. And salvation and baptism testify to God's grace in our lives, and the sufficiency of God’s grace alone to justify us.

• We practice church membership because it recognises that none of us merit a place in God’s church, but all are members by the grace of God who has redeemed us. None are better or more valued because Christ graciously arranged His body according to His choice, and gifted each by His grace that we might live in loving relationship together.

• We preach grace because whether we are teaching adults, teens or children, we want everyone to know the freedom of being saved by grace through faith – that salvation is not something we can earn or work for but is all of God’s grace. So we do not teach legalism that demands a man-made standard or cheap-grace that makes a mock of grace by permitting wilful disobedience to God.

• We grow in grace because grace does not only apply to the moment we first believe but to all of our Christian lives. Grace encourages us to grow in our faith and in godliness free from guilt or the pressure of self-improvement. Grace leads us to humility and sacrificial love for others.

• We live by grace because God’s grace towards us affects every interaction and relationship with one another. We seek to let grace saturate our marriages and our families. We seek to let grace saturate our relationships with one another in God’s church. This means we seek to be forgiving, accepting, encouraging, and restoring in how we live together as God’s people.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit,

Next - Fuelled by Prayer