Our Framework: How the Gospel Transforms
Understanding the Gospel Today’s Theological Approach
At The Gospel Today, we believe the gospel is not merely the entry point to Christian life but the foundation and power for all of life. This page explains our theological framework—how we understand God, humanity, transformation, and the church’s mission in the world.
Gospel-Centrality: Our Foundation
The gospel is the core of everything we do. We believe the gospel speaks to every issue, problem, and question—transforming how we understand God, ourselves, others, and the world. Everything we create and share points to Christ and His finished work.
The gospel isn’t just good news about forgiveness—it’s the power of God for salvation and sanctification. It addresses our deepest needs, reshapes our fundamental identity, and reorients our entire lives around the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Our Core Values
1. Gospel-Centrality
The gospel is the lens through which we view all of reality. We seek to apply the gospel’s transforming power to every area—personal, relational, and cultural.
2. Biblical Authority and Sufficiency
Scripture is our final authority for faith and practice. We are committed to deep, careful study of Scripture—going beyond surface-level reading to understand context, meaning, and application. The Bible provides everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
3. Theological Depth Made Accessible
Sound theology isn’t just for seminaries—it’s for every believer. We communicate biblical truth clearly and practically, presenting it with both scholarly integrity and conversational accessibility. Deep thinking about God should lead to transformed living.
4. Heart-Level Transformation
Lasting change happens below the waterline—at the level of our deepest beliefs, longings, and motivations. We address the heart, not just behavior. True biblical change begins from the inside out as the gospel exposes our attempts at independence from God and calls us to complete dependence on Christ.
5. Practical Discipleship and Application
Faith must be lived out daily. We equip believers with resources that help them apply Scripture to real-world challenges, showing how the gospel transforms everything from relationships to work to suffering to cultural engagement.
6. Community and Discipleship
Followers of Jesus were never meant to walk alone. We emphasize the vital role of the Church as the community where transformation happens. Discipleship is relational, happens in community, and involves believers investing in one another’s lives.
7. Cultural Engagement Through a Gospel Lens
The gospel critiques all human systems and speaks prophetically to every cultural moment. We examine contemporary issues—both inside and outside the church—through the transforming lens of the gospel, helping believers think biblically about the world around them.
8. Spirit-Dependence
True growth comes only through the work of the Holy Spirit. We rely on Him for wisdom, understanding, transformation, and faithfulness. While we are responsible to cooperate with His work, all genuine change is ultimately His doing, not ours.
9. Humble, Prophetic Truth-Telling
We speak truth with conviction while maintaining pastoral compassion and humility. We critique ideas and teachings, not people. We aim to be prophetic without being self-righteous, clear without being harsh.
10. Hope Rooted in Christ
In a world marked by anxiety, division, and despair, we offer hope grounded not in human solutions but in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God is sovereign, His purposes will prevail, and those who trust Him have secure standing regardless of circumstances.
Key Theological Foundations
The Heart as Central
The heart—defined as our deepest longings for significance and security—is the control center of human life. Everything we think, feel, desire, and do flows from the heart.
The Heart’s Two States:
For unbelievers: The heart itself is corrupted (heart of stone, Ezekiel 36:26), directed toward independence from God, and trusts counterfeit gospels for significance and security.
For believers: The New Covenant gives a new heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26)—not an improved version of the old heart, but a complete replacement. The heart is regenerated and now truly wants God and desires dependence on Him.
However, much of what drives behavior operates beneath conscious awareness—the “deep water” of Proverbs 20:5. For believers, this includes old programming and flesh patterns formed when the Sinful Heart ruled, which contradict the new heart’s actual desires. True transformation involves aligning the soul (mind, will, emotions) with the new heart’s direction.
Biblical Foundation: Proverbs 4:23 (everything flows from the heart), Proverbs 20:5 (purposes lie in deep water), Matthew 15:18-19 (sin comes from the heart), Ezekiel 36:26-27 (new heart and Spirit), 2 Corinthians 5:17 (new creation).
Below the Waterline
Like an iceberg, most of what drives human behavior exists below the surface of conscious awareness. Our core identity issues—fundamental beliefs about how to find significance and security—shape everything visible “above the waterline” (our emotions, thoughts, decisions, and actions).
Above the Waterline (Visible):
- Behaviors and actions
- Emotions and feelings
- Conscious thoughts and decisions
- External circumstances
Below the Waterline (Hidden):
- Core beliefs about significance and security
- Counterfeit gospels (false sources of life)
- Unconscious assumptions and operating images
- Deepest longings and desires
- Ultimate loves and commitments
Key Insight: Surface-level behavior modification cannot produce lasting change. True transformation must address the beliefs and desires that operate below our awareness.
The New Heart and Remaining Flesh
Understanding what operates “below the waterline” requires theological precision about the believer’s condition under the New Covenant.
The New Covenant Gift: When God saves someone, He doesn’t repair the heart—He replaces it entirely. Ezekiel 36:26 promises: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
This new heart is fundamentally oriented toward God and truly desires dependence on Him. However, the flesh—old programming, accumulated beliefs, and patterns formed under the Sinful Heart—remains and requires progressive renewal. Sanctification is the Spirit’s work of aligning the soul (mind, will, emotions, behavior) with the new heart’s direction.
Important Distinction:
- Your heart is NEW (if you’re in Christ). You ARE a new creation. The struggle is between your new heart and remaining flesh—not between two corrupt hearts.
- Your new heart already treasures Christ and truly wants God. The problem is the flesh (old programming) that contradicts what your heart actually knows and desires.
- Sanctification is alignment, not improvement. The Spirit is bringing your whole person into alignment with your new heart’s actual direction.
Biblical Foundation: Ezekiel 36:26-27 (new heart), 2 Corinthians 5:17 (new creation), Romans 7:14-25 (inner conflict), Galatians 5:16-17 (Spirit vs. flesh), Romans 8:5-11 (mind set on Spirit).
Gospel Transformation
True change happens when the gospel:
For unbelievers: Exposes heart-level idolatry and brings regeneration—the replacement of the heart of stone with a heart of flesh.
For believers: Exposes flesh-level counterfeits (counterfeit gospels) and brings progressive sanctification—aligning the soul with the new heart’s actual desires.
The gospel reveals:
- Our futile attempts at independence from God
- The counterfeit gospels we’ve been trusting
- Christ as supremely satisfying, not just superior
- True security and significance found in Him alone
The gospel produces:
- Renewed minds through the Word and Spirit
- Transformed desires from the inside out
- Behavior that flows from heart transformation, not willpower
- Complete dependence on God rather than self-reliance
How the Gospel Addresses Life
The gospel isn’t merely information to be believed but a transforming power that addresses our deepest needs. Here are key gospel implications for life:
Identity and Security
The Gospel Truth: Our significance and security are found fully and finally in Christ alone. We are unconditionally loved, fully accepted, completely forgiven, and eternally secure in Him.
Life Impact: We no longer need to prove our worth through performance. Our identity is no longer tied to success, failure, or others’ opinions. We’re free to take risks, confess sin honestly, serve sacrificially, and face failure without despair.
Sin and Repentance
The Gospel Truth: Sin is not merely breaking rules but living independently of God—seeking to be our own savior. The gospel exposes our self-sufficiency as futile and calls us to repentance and dependence on Christ.
Life Impact: We move beyond guilt management to true transformation. Repentance becomes fundamentally reorienting our trust from self/counterfeits to Christ.
Suffering and Trials
The Gospel Truth: God uses suffering to conform us to Christ’s image, prove the genuineness of our faith, and display His sustaining grace. Our security rests not in comfortable circumstances but in God’s unchanging character.
Life Impact: We can lament honestly while trusting confidently. We don’t need to understand God’s purposes to rest in His character. Suffering becomes a means of grace rather than evidence against God’s goodness.
Relationships and Community
The Gospel Truth: Because we are loved unconditionally by God, we are free to love others sacrificially. The gospel creates a new community where barriers are broken down and mutual love flows from our union with Christ.
Life Impact: We’re freed from using people for our own significance. We can genuinely love enemies, forgive those who wrong us, and serve sacrificially. The church is God’s primary means of our transformation and witness.
Calling and Purpose
The Gospel Truth: God created us for relationship with Him and gave us purpose in displaying His glory through every sphere of life. There is no sacred/secular divide—all of life is sacred when lived for God’s glory.
Life Impact: Ordinary life becomes worship. We’re freed from pressure to find some “special” calling and can faithfully serve wherever God has placed us.
Truth and Culture
The Gospel Truth: The gospel speaks prophetically to every culture, critiquing all human systems. No political, economic, or social system can save—only Christ. Yet believers are called to engage culture as salt and light.
Life Impact: We engage the world’s issues through a gospel lens, asking not “What’s the conservative/progressive position?” but “What does the gospel say?”
Hope and Future
The Gospel Truth: Because Christ has conquered sin and death, and will return to make all things new, we live with certain hope. History is moving toward God’s predetermined end.
Life Impact: We can face death without fear, endure injustice with patience, and persevere in faithfulness knowing that our labor is not in vain.
Sanctification and Growth
The Gospel Truth: The same gospel that saves us also sanctifies us. Growth in Christlikeness is not by human effort but by the Spirit’s power as we trust the gospel more deeply.
Life Impact: We pursue holiness with diligence while resting in God’s faithfulness. We’re honest about ongoing sin while confident in progressive change.
Our Statement of Faith
Scripture
We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God—fully trustworthy and sufficient for all matters of faith and practice. All Scripture is “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and reveals who God is, who we are, and how we are reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ.
The Triune God
We believe in one God who exists eternally in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—equal in power and glory. God is self-existent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and sovereign over all creation.
Jesus Christ
We believe Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man—the eternal Son who took on human flesh. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross as our substitute bearing the penalty for our sin, and rose bodily from the dead on the third day.
Human Nature
We believe all people are created in the image of God, bearing His likeness as personal, rational, and relational beings created for community with God and others. Through the fall, sin has corrupted every aspect of humanity—heart, mind, will, emotions, and body.
Salvation
We believe salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It is entirely God’s work from beginning to end. God regenerates hearts, grants repentance and faith, justifies by imputing Christ’s righteousness, and preserves believers unto final glorification.
The Church
We believe the Church is the body of Christ—the universal community of all believers across time and space, and the local gathering of believers for worship, discipleship, and mission. The Church exists to glorify God through worship, to build up believers through discipleship, and to proclaim the gospel to the world.
Sanctification
We believe sanctification is God’s progressive work of conforming believers to Christ’s image. It is ultimately God’s work through His Spirit, requiring human cooperation through obedience and spiritual disciplines, addressing the whole person, happening in community, and continuing throughout life until glorification.
Last Things
We believe Jesus Christ will return personally, visibly, and bodily to judge the living and the dead, establish His eternal kingdom, and make all things new. Those who have trusted in Christ will be resurrected to eternal life in His presence; those who have rejected Him will face eternal separation from God.
Applying This Framework
This theological framework shapes everything we create at The Gospel Today. We’ve developed several resources to help you apply this framework to your own discipleship:
Bible Studies
Our Bible studies integrate this framework throughout, helping you see how Scripture addresses the heart and produces transformation.
Reading Below the Waterline
We’ve developed a practical four-step method for applying this framework to any Scripture passage, helping you move from understanding what Scripture means to experiencing transformation through Scripture.
The Gospel Lens
Our cultural commentary examines contemporary issues through this gospel-centered framework, helping you think biblically about the world around you.
How to Study the Bible
Learn foundational principles for biblical interpretation and how to read Scripture in a way that produces transformation.
Three Questions for Reflection
- What are you currently seeking for significance or security apart from Christ? What would devastate you if you lost it? That’s likely where your functional worship is directed—where you’re trusting a counterfeit gospel.
- How does understanding that you have a new heart (if you’re in Christ) change how you view your struggles? Can you distinguish between your new heart’s true desires and the flesh’s old programming?
- Where do you need the gospel to address not just your behavior, but your beliefs? Where are you trying to change through willpower rather than through Spirit-powered transformation that aligns with your new heart?