Great Read: The Music of the Gospel

Am taking a bible class right now, and one of the instructors gave us this artcle to read. It really made me think.....hope it will do the same for you! And hope you "hear the music".......


The Music of the Gospel - by Keith Johnson


Imagine yourself in a large house in which those who are deaf and those who can hear are living together. In one of the rooms, you see a guy sitting in a chair and listening to music on his iPod. Rhythmically, he’s tapping his foot, drumming his thighs, jutting his chin out, swaying to the beat, and pursing his lips like Mick Jagger or someone. His entire body moves in response to what his ears are hearing. It’s obvious that he’s enjoying himself and listening to a pretty good song.

A few minutes later, one of the deaf persons enters the room. Seeing the guy listening to the music and impersonating Mick Jagger, he thinks, That looks like fun. I think I’ll try that. So he sits down next to him and begins to imitate him. Awkwardly at first, he tries drumming his thighs, jutting his chin out, and swaying to the music just like the guy with the iPod. With a little practice, he begins to catch onto it. By watching and trying, he begins to mirror the other guy’s actions pretty closely. But although he eventually gets better at keeping time, he concludes that it’s not as much fun or as easy as it initially seemed (especially the chin jut—very difficult to do when you’re not actually hearing the music).

After a while, a third person enters the room and watches this scene. What does he see? Two people apparently doing the same thing, apparently listening to the same thing. Is there a difference? Absolutely. The first guy hears the music and his actions are a natural response to the music’s rhythm and melody. The second guy is merely imitating the outward actions. Being deaf, he’s not listening to anything.

There’s an important spiritual parallel here. The dance (outward actions) represents the Christian life, while the music represents the grace of the gospel. Though we have come to know Christ through grace, we are often like the deaf man in the story who tries to perform the dance without hearing the music. Our spiritual life is reduced to a series of dance steps— external behaviors and activities—devoid of God’s animating and transforming power. God’s desire is not to get us to do the dance but to get us to hear the music of the gospel, with the dance (godly actions, character, and activities) flowing naturally from it.

The term gospel literally means “good news.” In the New Testament, the gospel encompasses not only the forgiveness of sins but also everything else that God has done for us in Christ (adoption, reconciliation, justification, and so forth). What follows in this article is a brief reflection on how to tune in to the music of the gospel, listening for its rhythm as you read the Scriptures.

Read the rest of the article at: http://ibs.campuscrusadeforchrist.com/ibs/Resources/files/MusicOfGospel.pdf