Gentlemen, This Is A Football

Introduction

Before the NFL was completely gay, it was filled with men of legend. One such legend is Vince Lombardi, who won the Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers and looks exactly the way you would think a professional football coach would look from the 50’s and 60’s. As legend has it, Lombardi walked into the Green Bay locker room to begin the 1961 season, and held up a football and said, the now legendary line, “Gentleman, this is a football.”

He uttered this line in order to stress the importance of fundamentals…He was one of the best coaches in the league and was coaching men who had all risen to the top of their game in their respective positions. But it didn’t matter how great they were, or how much they got paid, or how beloved by fans they were. If they forgot the basics – and couldn’t get the fundamentals right, it didn’t much matter and they would find themselves on the receiving end of a, good ol-fashion butt-whoopin’. Not only that,

if they forgot why they were there in the first place, namely, the love for the game which all revolved around the control of that football - it didn’t much matter either.

In the last couple decades within churchianity and broader evangelicalism, there has been a movement towards gospel-centeredness. Just on the surface, as a general concept, our response to this should be – DUH!...There was much good about this movement, and much like every movement, it served as a correction to what many perceived to be the previous generations dryness and coldness regarding the gospel. And there was truly a deep desire by many to see sinners saved and we praise God for that.

Perhaps one of the biggest problems for the last 20ish years with being “Gospel centered” wasn’tthat they thought too much of the gospel, but rather that they thought far too little, and in effect, were pretty much guilty of the same sins of the previous generation, however, they looked much cooler doing it.

There is nothing wrong with being “gospel-centered”…one can make an easy argument that the Bible is “gospel-centered” if we allow the Bible to define “gospel-centered.” If we understand the full effects of what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on High. If we understand, Jesus as our New Covenant Head, and the last Adam.

If we understand the full implications of His threefold office as Prophet, Priest and King…and all that, that means! Being gospel-centered in fine if by that you mean that through Christ’s active and passive obedience the Father bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name and that at His name every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.

One of the big issues with the gospel-centered movement was that they were so focused on their relationship with Jesus, which they reduced exclusively to a syrupy-version of His Priestly office at the expense of His Prophetic office and what that meant regarding the law of God and His holy love, and at the expense of His Kingly office and what that meant regarding His rule over every aspect and every sphere of life, including the civil sphere.

Another massive problem with this movement across the board, this one in practice, is that we all just assumed that if someone was in the church they knew what the gospel was. That is, everyone just presupposed that we were all talking about the same thing when we used the term “gospel.” However, this is not true and all, and these chickens have been coming home to roost over the last few years or so.

A few years ago, everyone just assumed that they were working with the same definition, until they got pressed on all sides from state-sponsored covid tyranny, vaccines, race-riots, media propaganda on both sides of the aisle, climate Commies, and LGBTQIA2+ Commies…we realized that all calls for unity within the church were falling on deaf ears because we were working from different starting points all along, and the overarching principles that make unity possible were different, thus, making it impossible.

What the church needs today, is the same thing that it needs in every generation, we’ve just forgotten that because we’ve gotten soft and fat and stupid…What we need is men with grit like Lombardi to walk into the locker room, command our attention and say, “Gentleman, this is the gospel!”

Philippians v. Galatians

In Philippians 4:2, Paul says, “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.”…even in the ancient church there were people who didn’t get along. We’re not told why. Perhaps Euodia forget to say hi to Syntyche one Sunday morning. Perhaps Euodia seemed to have it altogether. Perhaps Syntyche sent her kids to a private school, but Euodia home schooled…Perhaps Euodia wore a bonnet to church (sorry, I decorative doo-rag) and Syntyche just went in the buff just letting that hair swing low…we can’t really be sure what the source of their disagreement was, but their certainly was one.

Paul entreats them to agree in the Lord…this is not a generic call to unity, but rather is based on everything that Paul says previously about the gospel, particularly about the gospel and humility and exaltation of Jesus. My point being, you can’t call anyone to unity, or to agree in the Lord if you don’t have something to unite around. If there isn’t an overarching principle that supersedes all your individual desires or preferences than there is nothing to conform to or unite around.

Christ Jesus died and rose again. That is history. He loved me and gave Himself for me. That is doctrine. From the very beginning of Christianity it was about the proclamation of a message…of Good News – that all of God’s promises are yes and amen in Jesus.

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-5

If we don’t get the message right we don’t get anything right. It is the centrality of the message and all that it entails that enables us to agree in the Lord. The message of the risen Jesus is the foundation. It is the football, if you will. Certainly there is a lot more to football than the football itself, but you can’t have the game without it, nor can you replace a football with a baseball and then call is football – it doesn’t work that way, any more than it works to call Christianity a life and not a doctrine.

Statements like these give the impression of a resounding pious, but are really just a clanging symbol and noisy gong. First, because saying that Christianity is not a life but a doctrine, is itself a doctrine, and Second, our lives are lived, based on what we believe about the world. Specifically, the fundamentals about the world. In this, doctrine is the very basis of life. Which means, if our doctrine doesn’t coalesce than our lives certainly won’t. But if our doctrine coalesces, then it should cover a multitude of offenses.

The perfect way to understand this dynamic is to look at how Paul dealt with rival preachers in Philippi and Galatia. In Philippians Paul says this,

“Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” Philippians 1:15-18

In short, these preachers had, shall we say, not pure motives, and they certainly didn’t want the best for Paul. However, the message they were preaching was true – the doctrine was right. Paul doesn’t care about any ill-intent towards him – if the gospel is preached, who cares, God will sort it out in the end, and the last laugh will be on them.

However, the situation in Galatia was different, and Paul had no such broad-minded tolerance for the rival preachers in Galatia because they had jacked with the message.

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8-9

Paul continues,

“But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!” Gal. 5:11-12

To add anything to the finished work of Christ as necessary for salvation, which is exactly what the Judaizers were doing was to pervert the gospel message.

“The Judaizers believed that Jesus was the Messiah; there is not a shadow of evidence that they objected to Paul’s lofty view of the person of Christ. Without the slightest doubt, they believed that Jesus had really risen from the dead. They believed, moreover, that faith in Christ was necessary for salvation. But the trouble was, they believed that something else was also necessary; they believed that what Christ had done needed to be pierced out by the believer’s own effort to keep the Law.” J. Gresham Machen

Paul says, that if anyone perverts this message let him be accursed, i.e., damned to Hell. Not only that, but let him live consistently with his error. Namely, if a little bit of circumcision makes you holy why not cut the whole thing off and become super-holy…Paul actually goes one step further and says, I wish they would. To which, modern evangelicals respond with, “I don’t like his tone” and “that’s not very winsome” – perhaps, hypothetically speaking, we should tell them to choke to death on their own pious tongue.

Anything that anyone would add to the finished work of Christ as a means to finishing the work of Christ becomes the noose around their necks and the cause of all the disunity and strife within the church, whether it be the current cultural cause, or a more respectable theological hobby horse…

Yes, yes, yes, we believe the gospel, BUT…fighting racism, BUT climate activism, BUT

Ukraine, BUT racial inequity, BUT equity and inclusion, BUT trans rights, BUT fighting

poverty, BUT vaccines and my stupid face diaper… Ironically, the vast majority of people that were involved in the gospel-centered movement (broadly defined), who were very concerned about their relationship with Jesus and wanted to live out the implications of the gospel, forgot what put them in relationship with Jesus and ended up living out the implications of a naturalistic paganism centered on man.

“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10

Their problem isn’t that they thought too much of the gospel, but rather, too little. Most

Christians today would look at Philippi, and say, that’s exactly what we need to be doing…this is the principle of Christian humility and charity and unity at its best and this is what we need to strive for. But wasn’t Paul doing the exact same thing in the Galatian church? The goal for Paul was always faithfulness to the message, either through commendation or condemnation, both of which result in actual unity. This is why an elder is not only to be able to teach sound doctrine but also to refute those who contradict…for the sake of the gospel.

Orthopraxy always follows orthodoxy and never the other way around. If you forget this you end up like Andy Stanley…substituting a false gospel for the true gospel which is really no gospel may put butts in seats like forgetting the fundamentals of the game and throwing a hail Mary every play will put butts in the stadium but at the end of the day won’t really accomplish anything, and certainly not victory.

That fact of the matter is that everything is built on fundamentals, like the foundation of a great structure. Without that, you’re erecting a wonderful monument on sinking sand and will end up like Ozymandias with an empire of dirt regardless of how pious you may sound getting from A to B.

If the objective truth of the gospel message is compromised in any way, not only can you kiss Christian-living and unity good-bye, but more importantly you can kiss salvation good-bye. Like filling the room with air-freshener after something unseemly happened…like Taco Bell…so too is much of the modern church. You can put perfume on a turd all day long, but that won’t change it into a flower.

The heart of the gospel is that we can’t change anything, not in ourselves and certainly not in the world without the love of Christ compelling us to do so, and that will never ever happen until we repent and believe the gospel. Not the gospel as we think it to be, not the gospel as we wish it to be but the gospel as it actually is with all of its beauty and all of its sharp edges.

God is holy, and you are a sinner, and your only hope is through the resurrection of Jesus,

through which He creates a new humanity as the last Adam. He lived the life that you could not live and died the death that you deserved to die. Jesus died and rose again, and ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high. That is a historical fact. He loved me and gave Himself for me is doctrine…When the gospel of Jesus Christ is received, it works all the way down and all the way through and all the way out. This is, of first importance. That is, nothing is more important, nothing is more primary, nothing is more needed, and nothing else can ultimately be built upon.

All of this is not to say that we don’t love other doctrines, it’s simply to say that without the glorious objective reality of the gospel there are no other doctrines of which to speak. This is not to say that we shouldn’t long to live more like Jesus, it’s simply to say that if you remove yourself from the fundamentals of the gospel (by adding to it or subtracting from it), it’s not the Christ-life that will be produced in your life no matter how respectable you may appear.

Conclusion

Gentlemen, this is the gospel. We never get beyond it. We never get above. However, by the grace of God, through the Spirit of God we build upon it, and this building will eventually cover the entirety of the earth.