A Word from Bob 

You’re reading Part 4 in a multi-part series on What Makes Biblical Counseling Truly Biblical?

• Go here for Part 1: Where Do We Find Wisdom for Life in a Broken World?
• Go here for Part 2: Looking for Answers in All the Wrong Places.
• Go here for Part 3: The Gospel for Real Life.

I’ve developed this series from Chapters 1 and 2 of my book Gospel-Centered Counseling: How Christ Changes Lives. In Gospel-Centered Counseling, I use the ten classic systematic theology doctrines as a grid for answering the question, what makes biblical counseling truly biblical? I turn those ten doctrines into 8 ultimate life questions. In this blog mini-series, we’re focusing on the first question:

• Question #1: The Word: “Where do we find wisdom for life in a broken world?”

Redemption: Experiencing Abundant Life Today and Eternal Life Forever

Can you imagine if Paul ended with the Fall—with alienation from God, domination by Satan, and our hearts, minds, wills, and emotions surrendered to evil beliefs and behaviors? We would have no hope or help to offer Ashley and Nate. But God’s grand gospel narrative is a resurrection narrative. Death dies. Hope lives. Christ rises and we rise with Him.

The epi-center of the book of God—the Gospels—is nothing less than a victory narrative. Gospels were a common literary form in the ancient Near East. Whenever a great king won a major victory, he commissioned the writing of a gospel—a vivid retelling of the good news of the vanquished enemy and the victorious king. This glorious good news was told again and again, often from multiple points of views, to exalt the king and encourage his people.

To the Colossians, struggling to know how to live well and wisely, Paul opens the curtain to the main movement in the drama of redemption—victory, resurrection. Then Paul points the spotlight on the main character in the drama of redemption—Christ. He rejoices with the Colossians that they have “faith in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:4). He points their attention to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, reminding them what they had embraced “…the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth” (Colossians 1:5-6).

In Jay Adams’ classic work, A Theology of Christian Counseling, he accurately notes that “all counselors have one goal in common: change.”^[i] But what type of change and how does it happen? This is the counseling question that we must answer before we answer Nate’s questions about hope and help: “What is the ultimate focus of wise and loving counseling in a broken world—what does help look like? How can gospel-centered counselors minister to saints who are facing suffering and fighting besetting sins—what does hope look like?”

When the Colossians asked Paul about the best route to change, it’s no contest. It is Christ’s gospel of grace that is bearing fruit all over the world and in the heart of each believer in Colosse.

Paul says, “You want to know about change? About victory? Listen to the gospel announcement of Christ’s victory! And I’m not talking only about past victory over sin, as amazing as that is. I’m also talking about ongoing victory in our daily battles as we face suffering and struggle against sin.” That’s why Paul reminds them—as believers—that this gospel is continuing to bear fruit and grow “just as it has been doing since the day you heard and understood it” (Colossians 1:6, emphasis added).

Of course, Paul is not in any way minimizing, nor am I, the eternal significance of the gospel. In Christ “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin” (Colossians 1:14). In Christ we have been reconciled to God (Colossians 1:22).

For a long time I only applied half the picture of my salvation. Here’s how I pictured it. God is a holy and righteous Judge. I’m on trial before Him because of my sins. God is about to pronounce me guilty when Christ steps up and says, “Charge me instead. Put Bob’s sins on Me, and put My righteousness on Bob.” God the Judge accepts His holy Son’s payment on my behalf and declares me “Not guilty. Pardoned. Forgiven.”

That’s pretty amazing. But my picture used to stop there. God is the Judge; He forgives me; then He sends me away on my own and says, “Next case.”

But that’s not the full picture of our salvation. That’s not the picture painted by Paul in Colossians 1. In the biblical picture, Christ takes me from the courtroom by the hand and leads me into the Father’s house, walking me into God’s presence. When we enter the living room, the Father, my Father, is not in His judge’s robes. He’s in His family attire. When He sees me, it is just like Luke 15 and the prodigal son. My Father runs to me, throws His arms around me, and kisses me. He puts the family ring on my finger and ushers me back home!

Through Christ, God is not only the Judge who forgives you. He is your Father who welcomes you. He has always loved you. That’s why He sent His Son to die for you. And now with the barrier of sin demolished, nothing stands between you and your loving Heavenly Father. You can meet God person-to-Person, son or daughter to loving Father. It’s not simply, “Come on in, the water’s fine!” It’s, “Come on home, everything is fine between us!”

Talk about addressing life’s ultimate questions! Life’s overarching question is, “How do I find peace with God?” Paul answers: “In Christ!”

Of course, embracing Christ doesn’t stop a fallen world from falling on us—we still face suffering. And embracing Christ doesn’t end our battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil—we still wrestle against sin. However, embracing Christ does empower us so that we “may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father…” (Colossians 1:10-12). That’s the type of real life gospel change we can promise folks like Nate and Ashley.

Church: Love Poised Between Faith and Hope

As Paul provides spiritual counsel for the troubled and confused Colossian Christians, he doesn’t envision them alone. Instead, he envisions them together “as God’s chosen people” (Colossians 3:12), and “as members of one body” (Colossians 3:15)—the Church. Paul shares these words of one-another ministry in the context of growth in grace (Colossians 3:1-11) because sanctification is a Christ-centered community journey. “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).

In Paul’s letter of spiritual counsel, he does not move directly from Redemption to Consummation. Instead, he teaches that we find ourselves as the Church living between two comings—the first and the second coming of Christ. We are poised between looking back with faith in our Redeemer and looking forward with hope as we await His return as Conquering Groom. What is our role in this dramatic waiting epoch?^[ii] God calls us to speak and live truth in love.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:12-14, emphasis added).

And how is the Church to love one another? “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16a). Where does the Church find wisdom for life in a broken world? In God’s Word where the grand gospel narrative is told. We are to build wisdom’s house together as the redemptive narrative dwells deeply within each of us and overflows lovingly between us.

What has the Church to say and do that no other human institution can say and do? We are the Jesus-centered community that speaks gospel truth in love to one another in such a way that it opens a door for sharing the gospel message (Colossians 4:2). In God’s grand narrative drama, the Church is, as Kevin Vanhoozer pictures it, the theater of the gospel.^[iii] We are to perform the gospel in our one-another relationships with the world as our audience so that they will ask us for a reason for the faith, hope, and love they witness (Colossians 4:2-6). As the Church we are to embody communion with God and one another in a manner that entices and invites others to join in. 

Consummation: The War Is Won; The Bride Is Wed

Paul concurs that the Bible’s narrative presents life as a war and a wedding, that we can capture the Bible’s drama as “slay the dragon, marry the damsel.” To people beaten down by sin and beaten up by suffering, Paul says, “Let me tell you the rest of the story—the end of the story. We were under Satan’s domain of utter darkness. Helpless and hopeless, Christ has rescued us. Just as earthly rulers transplant a conquered people from one country to another, so Christ has transplanted us from our earthly citizenship to our heavenly citizenship. But he transplants us not from liberty into slavery, but from slavery into liberty. He transplants us not out of darkness into semi-darkness, but out of dismal blindness into marvelous light. He’s disarmed His enemies and yours, triumphing over them by the cross” (compare Colossians 1:13; 2:14-15).

Paul not only pulls back the curtain to show us the end of the war, he also shows us the beginning of the wedding. “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22). This is almost identical to Paul’s wording in Ephesians 5:25-27 where his focus is on Christ’s love for the church providing the example for a husband’s love for his wife. This is wedding language!

Paul is letting us eavesdrop on eternity. Just like John does. “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear” (Revelation 19:6-8). The victory is announced. God reigns! The wedding march starts. All the scars and blemishes of sin are cleansed. The bride wears white!

Paul and John share the same message: “The war is won! The bride is wed!” Both messages communicate the same point: the gospel is about God radically changing people. The war Christ wins for us provides victory over sin and Satan where once we were their slaves. The wedding Christ prepares us for produces purity where there once was sin and shame. And it is all for God’s glory.

This victory narrative forms the foundation of our counsel and changes the agenda of our counseling. Typically we ask God and seek help from each other to change our feelings and our circumstances. God is in the change business, but a very different type of change—heart change, Christlikeness—presenting everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).

Listen to the song of eternity—it’s about celebrating Christ’s victory and the Bride’s purity for God’s glory! We look at our lives and want instructions or explanations. What we need is imagination and vision to see life today in light of eternity.

Gospel-centered counseling starts with Easter. The gospel message is not like the White Witch’s evil rule over Narnia where it is “always winter and never Christmas.” The gospel narrative is Christ’s holy and loving shepherding of the universe where it is “always spring and always Easter!”

Confidence as a counselor begins with how we view the Bible. The central message of the Bible is God’s announcement of our past, present, and future victory in Christ. Because God so loved us, He sent His Son to slay the dragon and marry the damsel—the Bride of Christ—us! 

The Good News as the End of the Story 

Though the outcome of the war is sure, skirmishes continue. When our current dreams are dashed, when we surrender yet again to another temptation, we must remind ourselves that we’ve read the end of the story.

The grand narrative of the Bible shows that life makes sense. History is moving toward a God-ordained purpose. More than that, the stories of our lives have purpose. God is directing all of history toward the final defeat of evil, toward happily ever after, toward His people ruling with Him and in relationship with Him.

Christ’s triumph in the drama of redemption guides our interactions in our one-another ministry. We engage one another in gospel conversations encouraging each other to ponder: “Why give up when we lose one battle, since we know we have won the war?” “Why choose mere survival, when we are more than conquerors?” “Why choose the cheap thrills of the pleasure of sin for a season when in the end we rule the universe forever dressed in pure white robes?”

The Bible’s Grand Narrative 

I’ve summarized life’s first ultimate question as, “Where do we find wisdom for life in a broken world?” Of course, we all would agree on a two-word answer: “God’s Word.” In chapter 1, I’ve developed that answer further, but can still condense it into a tweet-size summary: To view the Bible accurately and use the Bible competently we must understand the Bible’s story the way God tells it—as a gospel victory narrative.

So, when folks like Ashley and Nate ask for help and hope, the church does not have to feel inferior and refer them to “outside experts.” We don’t have to sprinkle in a few Christian principles alongside the world’s wisdom. We don’t have to follow the shallow concordance approach of one-problem, one-verse, one-answer.

Remedying these approaches involves understanding the Bible’s grand narrative and connecting it with wisdom to our daily lives. The Bible’s drama of redemption provides the context from which we offer wise biblical counsel. Our imaginations must become captive to Scripture so that the Bible’s CCFRCC Narrative becomes the governing framework for how we speak truth in love. Our role is to help one another to re-narrate our lives in light of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Notes

[i]Jay Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling, ix.

[ii]For the role of the Church in God’s grand narrative, see Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine.

[iii]Ibid.