By Daniel Fusco
Immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. -Ephesians 2:6
The good news is not that Jesus makes bad people good. The good news is not that Jesus makes decent, moral people even better. The good news is not that Jesus takes rebels and failures and does an extreme makeover on them. None of that. The good news is that Jesus makes dead people alive.
The Bible tells us that when we were trapped in our sin, we were dead. This is binary stuff: dead and alive. You don’t get less dead—you get undead. At one point you are dead, and at the next moment you are alive. How? Who flips that switch? God does. Father, Son, and Spirit.
The bad news was that we’re rebels and failures who will never, no matter how hard we try, make it out of the messiness? That’s exactly why the good news is all the sweeter. Infinitely sweet. Because God looks at us, just as we are, and says, “I am merciful. I love you with an everlasting love. And I will put back together what is broken.”
It’s one thing to embrace a decent person. A grateful person. But it’s a different deal entirely to embrace a hideous person. A bitter person. A person who is actively rebelling against your love.
Messy people are everywhere. Literally everyone is messy. And messy people make leading really hard. Excruciatingly hard. I have never met a leader who has not been let down by people. Conversely, I have never met a leader who has not let down others as well. This is the human condition!
Leading would be the most atrocious experience without the Gospel. The fact that God can make dead people alive is awe-inspiring and game changing. And guess what? We need to lead in a “God can do anything” way because that is the power of the Gospel.
Are we Gospel-centered leaders? When we step into the reality that by the power of the Spirit, because Jesus is real, God can do anything, in anyone, at any time, it transforms how we lead. We are always on the lookout for the fingerprints of the miraculous God.
How are you allowing the Gospel to inform your leadership?
Where are you failing to see the potential of the miraculous God in your situation?
How is Jesus transforming you to be more like him?
What is one step you can take today to put Jesus center stage?
Daniel Fusco is the Lead Pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Vancouver, WA and author of Honestly: Getting Real About Jesus and Our Messy Lives