Gospel Zero
MARCH 29, 2025
by Andrew Farley
Friends, we’ve officially broken up with the Law, courtesy of Christ, to be in an exclusive relationship with God. Digging up the Law is like sliding into your ex’s DMs—spiritually cringe-worthy at best. The Law still stands as a testament to divine holiness, but in Christ, we’ve ghosted the Law for a life led by the Spirit.
This whole debate about the Law’s role in our lives should really be over by now. The Gospel is simplicity itself: liberated from the Law to bask in the Spirit, swaying to the rhythm of grace and love in Christ. The New Testament, with its spiritual jazz, isn’t laying down a new law but riffing on the life of the Spirit within us.
In Christ, we hit the jackpot. The Law has been fulfilled not by us ticking off its demands but through His sacrifice. And now the call to love as He loves isn’t a drag; it’s the freedom of living in stereo, powered by the Spirit.
So why, oh why, are we sitting through a rerun of The Law’s Greatest Hits in our congregations? Must we cling to a burden even our spiritual ancestors couldn’t shoulder? Let’s not be the sequel to the foolish Galatians, hoodwinked by a repeat of legalism.
We implore you, siblings in spirit, to dive back into the Scriptures, to immerse yourselves in the vast ocean of freedom Christ has unlocked for us. Let’s shed the weight of legalism and waltz in the glorious liberty of grace and truth. May our lives be a rave review of the Spirit’s transformative power, not a tribute band to the Law we’ve bid adieu.
Here’s to not resuscitating a bygone covenant but living out loud in a covenant of the Spirit, grooving to His hit parade of love, joy, peace, and all that jazz. Christ dropped the ultimate liberation album; let’s crank it up and refuse to hit the “legalism” station ever again. Because, honestly, why settle for yesterday’s noise when we’ve got the Spirit’s anthem of freedom?
Picture this: the pyrotechnics of God’s judgment torch the false teachings of deceivers, leaving only what’s genuinely built on Christ. This isn’t a celestial bonfire of lost rewards for believers but a cleansing blaze that incinerates the works of false teachers. Here, God is simply upholding the purity of His truth. It’s about God’s disdain for deception, not a stingy handout of heavenly prizes.
Plus, Colossians 3:23–24 introduces a real twist: “the reward of the inheritance.” Um, hello? An inheritance isn’t earned; someone dies and leaves it to you. So, it’s not about climbing the spiritual corporate ladder but about what Christ has already accomplished through His death. This inheritance isn’t a collection of certificates redeemable in Heaven’s gift shop—it’s an unspoiled reward waiting for every believer. Yes, all, because Jesus died and gave it to us as an inheritance. In fact, we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17)!
Now, about those crowns—the Scriptures do mention shiny headpieces, but to imagine them as tangible rewards we collect is to miss the point. These aren’t victory laps for our achievements; they’re symbols of what we already have in Christ: life, glory, and righteousness. He is our ultimate crown. (Note: That’s why the twenty-four elders in Revelation toss their crowns like frisbees at the feet of Jesus.)
Consider the vine-branches dynamic in John 15—it’s the final nail in the coffin for the level-up theology of bigger mansions and bling. If our spiritual fruitfulness stems from Christ within us (and apart from Him, we’ve got zilch), then the idea of earning an assortment of rewards based on our actions starts to look rather silly, don’t you think? Our deeds are the byproduct of His work in us, not a spiritual résumé to be graded.
It’s time to ditch this fantasy faith where God’s a cosmic vending machine and embrace the reality: Christ is the treasure. Our inheritance isn’t a piecemeal collection of celestial knick-knacks but a shared destiny with Christ, secured by grace.
Listen or Watch our interview with Andrew Farley here!
Copyright © 2025 Andrew Farley & John Lynch. Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing Inc.