What exactly IS the Gospel Pipeline?

From Bob's blog--I thought it worth having over here.

In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter concludes his letter by encouraging us to keep growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, Aslan, the Great Lion, the King (the Christ figure of the stories) encourages His people to go "Further Up and Further In" to Narnia...the "Promised Land" of His love, grace and salvation. The Gospel Pipeline gives us a picture of how the "flow" Further Up and Further In often occurs in a Christian's life.

What follows is the Gospel Pipeline Overview:
Gospel Pipeline Overview
1. Gospel Conversion
Titus 2:11; Titus 3:5--Supernatural Grace regenerates the heart     Grace for the entire Christian life is defined by grace at the start!
2. Gospel Diversion
Titus 2:12, 14—The “Basics” often divert the emphasis from Christ to behaviors     There is a tendency to “leave” the Gospel of Christ and focus on the efforts of man
3. Gospel Perversion
Titus 3:1-2—focus on behaviors often lead to a performance paradigm    We live as if God's delight in us is merited or maintained by our performance rather than through Christ
4. Gospel Reversion
Titus 3:7—grace leads us to revert back to focus on Union with Christ    We revert to the TRUE Basics of the Christian life-Identity in Christ
5. Gospel Aversion
Titus 3:8—our flesh resists grace on many levels 
We’ve a built-in aversion to looking to Christ alone for spiritual growth
6. Gospel Insertion
Titus 3:8—insistence upon grace leads to an internalization of grace
Grace overcomes our resistance and we eventually adopt a grace paradigm
7. Gospel Immersion
Titus 3:4—soaking in the truth of God’s love leads to the “Hot Tub”     “Getting used” to grace becomes comfortable…sometimes TOO comfortable
8. Gospel Incursion
Titus 2:11-12—grace leads to a hostile invasion against sin by “Waltzing”     We discover grace is not merely unconditional love but transforming power
9. Gospel Emersion
Titus 2:14—A Gospel lifestyle begins to truly emerge from right motives    Grace leads us to make full use of the Gospel Means of Grace
10. Gospel Dispersion
Titus 2:14--The Gospel begins to flow outside ourselves toward others   Grace leads us to mission: we share grace with the Least and the Lost
11. Gospel Assertion
Titus 2:13; 14—grace leads us to assert that the ultimate aim is God’s glory   Grace, ultimately, is not about me or even mission, but the honor of Christ
12. Gospel Recursion
Titus 2:12-13—grace teaches us we never “arrive” in this life.  Grace is how broken people with broken lives live in a broken world

Notes on the Gospel Pipeline: Grace and Gospel Adoption

J. I. Packer on Grace:

Definition:  The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed I defiance of their demerit.  It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity.

Those who suppose that the doctrine of God’s grace tends to encourage moral laxity (‘final salvation is certain anyway, no matter what we do; therefore our conduct doesn’t matter’) are simply showing that, in the most literal sense, they do not know what they are talking about.  For love awakens love in return; and love, once awakened, desires to give pleasure; and the revealed will of God is that those who have received grace should henceforth give themselves to ‘good works’ (Eph 2:10, Titus 2:11 f); and gratitude will move any man who has truly received grace to do as God requires, and daily to cry out thus---

Oh! to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be;

Let that grace now, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee!

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;

Prone to leave the God I love—

Take my heart, oh, take and seal it,

Seal it from Thy courts above!

QUOTES on Adoption

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18 It is like a fairy story – the reigning monarch adopts waifs and strays to make princes of them – but, praise God, it is not a fairy story: it is hard and solid fact, founded on the bedrock of free and sovereign grace. This, and nothing less than this, is what adoption means. No wonder that John cries, ‘Behold, what manner of love…!’ When once you understand adoption, your heart will cry the same. 
                                                                                                             J.I. Packer, Knowing God

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As we try to replace old behaviors with new ones, it easy to take our eyes of our status as children of God. In fact, the longer we struggle with a problem, the more likely we are to define ourselves by that problem. We come to believe that our problem is who we are. But while these labels may describe particular ways we struggle as sinners in a fallen world, they are not our identity! If we allow them to define us, we will live trapped within their boundaries. This is no way for a child of God to live!”                                                                                                                     Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

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If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God has his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

                            J.I. Packer, Knowing God

How great is the love 
the Father has lavished on us, 
that we should be called 
children of God! (1 John 3:1)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption. (Romans 8:15-16).

Extra: Average Christian’s  view of God from J I Packer:  “he imagines God as a magnified image of himself, and assumes that God shares his own complacency about himself.

Mustard Seed vs McWorld

"McWorld" has become a kind of code-name for globalisation and the modern consumer culture. The bulk of Sine's book is devoted to an analysis and evaluation of this trend. Whole nations are jockeying for position in the new global economy, with cyber-space locking them into the system. They are not being manipulated by some sinister conspiracy for world domination - in fact, the really scary thing is that no-one is really in control. The all-encompassing vision of a McWorld future is short-sighted and naïve. People will have more things in McWorld, but they will have less happiness. More and more time will have to be invested in economic work, leaving less and less time (not to mention money) for God's work. The gap between rich and poor will continue to widen, but no-one will really be happy.


"...we permit modern culture… to define our notions of the good life and better future. As a consequence our lives are too often driven by the same manic aspirations that propel McWorld. No wonder we are exhausted. Modernity calls the tune and we dance." (p222)

"I am convinced that one of the main reasons why Western Christians aren't terribly effective in evangelism is that we are so much like the culture around us that we have very little to call people to." (p223)

I think Sine makes an excellent point when he talks about "dualistic discipleship" - giving lip-service to the claims of Christ, but still serving the claims of modernity, job, economic security, etc.

http://www.csubculture.com/page20.html

Tom writes in one of his excellent books, "Mustard Seed vs. McWorld":The American church, in its many expressions, seems to quietly accept the modern culture's demands on its members as a given and then content itself with whatever is left.  Virtually all the Christian books I have seen on discipleship - or for that matter, on finances, time management, and career planning - also tend to accept the demands of modern culture as unquestioned givens, and then advise that we simply try to practice our discipleship over the top, as if it all goes together.  And of course, it doesn't...


In spite of all the talk about Christ's lordship, everyone knows that the expectations of modern culture come first.  Everyone knows that getting ahead in the job comes first.  Getting ahead in the suburbs comes first.  Getting the kids off to their activities comes first.  And we tend to make decisions in these areas pretty much like everyone else does, based on our income, our professions, and our social status.


...following Christ is too often trivialized to little more than a devotional lubricant to keep us from stripping our gears as we charge up the mountain, trying to get ahead in our careers, the suburbs, and our kids' activities.  In this dualistic discipleship model, following Christ is for too many of us reduced to a little more than fifteen minutes in the morning and two hours on Sunday.  In this model, we wind up with a highly privatized and spiritualized piety that is often largely disconnected from the rest of our lives. 

Read more:http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=174229258&blogId=282848577#ixzz10fXW9qgJ

Classical christianity

westminster 35 and heidelberg 60

Q. 33. What is justification?

A. Justification is an act of God's free grace,[91] wherein he pardoneth all our sins,[92] and accepteth us as righteous in His sight,[93] only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us,[94] and received by faith alone.[95]

Q. 34. What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God's free grace,a whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.[96]

Q. 35. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace,[97] whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God,[98] and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.[99]

Question 60. How are thou righteous before God?

Answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; (a) so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, (b) and am still inclined to all evil; (c) notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, (d) but only of mere grace, (e) grants and imputes to me, (f) the perfect satisfaction, (g) righteousness and holiness of Christ; (h) even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; (i) inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart. (j)

The Old Gospel Pipeline

For reference I wanted to keep a copy of how Bob used to describe the Gospel Pipeline and then compare to what his final outcome this go round.