The gospel is not just for unbelievers. It is for believers, too. As believers, we must constantly preach the gospel to ourselves in order to avoid the all to common trap of performance based Christianity, which always leads to despair or self-righteousness.

The gospel reminds us that our acceptance as Christians is NOT based upon how well we perform, but upon the shed blood and victorious resurrection of Jesus. God does not love me more or less based upon my daily performance for him. He loves me the same because of Jesus, regardless of my performance. If we begin thinking that God’s love for us or our current acceptance before him is dependent upon our performance, two errors are inevitable. On the one hand, when we have “good” days and we feel like we have lived up to whatever standard we have set for ourselves, we will be prone to self-righteousness, impressed with our own performance that has put us in the position of good standing with God for the moment. On the other hand, when we have a “bad” day and don’t live up to whatever standards we have created, we will be prone to deep despair, failing to recognize that God’s love for us and acceptance before him is rooted not in what we do, but in what Jesus has done.

Also, the gospel is the source of transformative power upon which every believer is dependent in order to live in accordance with Scripture. In other words, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is our empowerment for Christian living. It is not just the means by which we have our sins forgiven. It is also the means by which we fight sin and live a holy life.