A “gospel-driven” champion of life is someone whose external actions spring naturally from gratitude to Christ for being rescued by Him in the gospel.
Does this describe what drives you to champion life?
Unfortunately, many champion life for sub or anti-Christian motives. Some who spew bitter condemnation and judgment are driven by an imbalanced affection for God’s law and an overblown sense of their own piety. Some who heap shame and guilt on others are driven by unresolved guilt, perhaps fueled by their own abortion experience. Some who do their ministry in highly visible ways are driven by a hope for human approval, or insecurity. Still others who campaign only for behavioral change are driven by a craving for political, social, or moral enlightenment.
Do any of these describe what drives you to champion life?
We all wrestle with our motives from time to time. The Bible is clear that even Christians with God-given, Christ-like hearts battle a tangled remnant of corrupt motives (see Romans 7:14ff). What is even clearer is that God desires that we are driven to serve Him by our captivation with Christ in the gospel. He puts it this way in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship.”
In this verse, “offering our bodies as living sacrifices” is to be done “in view of God’s mercies.” The “mercies” referred to here are God’s lavish gifts of forgiveness and grace that are ours through faith in Jesus Christ through the gospel. These mercies are explained in detail in the first eleven chapters of Romans. God intends that our entire lives are an expression of gratitude, “living sacrifices” as He puts it in this text, exuding naturally from our continually viewing these very specific mercies.
Think for a moment of a time when you viewed something incredibly beautiful. Maybe it was gazing out across the Grand Canyon, a European basilica, a pristine beach, the birth of a child, a misty mountain vista, or fiery sunset. As you stood staring at that sight, it is likely that the view captivated your heart and elicited a spontaneous outward expression of joy like, “Wow!” Maybe you took pictures to remember the view and shared them gladly with those you love. In that case, your external actions were driven by your inward captivation with the beautiful thing you had seen.
God desires this same dynamic in us as we continually view, or gaze out across, His beautiful mercies in the gospel. In so doing, He then wants us to respond with our entire being in spontaneous, outward expression of joy and service to Him. In fact, through the Apostle Paul, God urges that this movement characterizes our lives as Christians. Another way to put it is that God desires that we be “gospel-driven” people. He wants our entire lives to be a joyful expression of our continual, inward fascination with Christ in the gospel.
Since our entire lives are to be “gospel-driven” in this way, that includes how we champion life. It is our fascination with Christ in the gospel, not anger, guilt, politics, duty, or acclaim, that must drives us! Instead, a “gospel-driven champion of life” continually seeks Christ in the gospel, and with growing astonishment and gratitude, serves Him as a joyful response.
The question that remains, then, is “what drives you to champion life?”