The Application Question
Reaching the Destination: Application
No sermon is complete that does not apply the truth of the biblical text to life. No gospel-driven theological reflection is complete that does not ask the Application Question.
As we seek the gospel-driven path from text to sermon, we have so far explored three questions. The Story Question helps us to lay a firm foundation for discipleship and worldview by exploring the text with the perspective of God’s grand story. The Brokenness and Redemption Questions help us to establish the gospel as the center of our message by focusing on how the text exposes the problem of our sin and how it points to or anticipates Jesus as the solution.
The fourth and final question provides a fitting culmination of all of these by applying the message in light of the gospel as well as the biblical metanarrative: How does this text invite us into God’s Story?
Application Beyond WWJD
In 1896, a Congregationalist pastor in Topeka, Kansas named Charles Sheldon wrote a novel entitled, In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? Though Sheldon was not the first person ever to ask, “What would Jesus do?” the popularity of his novel (over 30 million copies) made the question famous. In the 1990’s the book and the idea experienced a resurgence, embodied especially by the “WWJD” bracelet phenomenon with millions of people wearing the message on their wrists to remind them to follow the moral example of Jesus.
A lot of application in Christian preaching tends to be just this: a call to follow a good moral example. To do our best. To be as much like Jesus as possible. Desiring to be like Jesus is never a bad thing, but this kind of application raises at least two problems. First the nature of the example we are to follow is usually up for interpretation. Sheldon’s own agenda in the writing of his book was Christian Socialism – a political perspective that would probably not be shared by many who proudly emblazon “WWJD” on their T-Shirts. Second, and even more importantly, the call merely to follow a moral example is an application that is essentially absent of the gospel.
I would like to make two key points about Gospel-driven application: First, regardless of where we locate our preaching text within God’s story, our place in his story is always the same. Second, gospel application is always in light of what Christ has done and in anticipation of where he is leading us.
Finding Our Place in God’s Story
Just as our Story Question calls us to locate the biblical text within God’s grand story, the Application Question calls us to see ourselves within God’s Story. The text may be found in any of the major acts of God’s story: Creation, Fall, Promise, Redemption, Church or Restoration. Our application, however, can only be found in the epoch of the Church. We are to live out the truths of the Scriptures in light of the gospel, and in a unique moment in history. Jesus has lived, died, risen, and ascended. Between these past events and the future event of his return, we are to play our part in the grand narrative.
Jesus has inaugurated his kingdom and has promised to return one day to establish it definitively and completely. We are called to live in the reality of this kingdom in a world that does not yet acknowledge it. We do not ask, “What would Jesus do?” Instead, we ask, “How are we to live in this time between the times?” More specifically, as we examine a biblical text, we ask, “How does the truth of this text call us to live in our part of the story?”
Gospel-Absent Application
This leads us to the second important observation about gospel-driven application: it flows from the gospel truth as seen in the text. The alternative is application that is essentially absent of the gospel. Typically, “gospel-absent application” will call hearers to action through a pattern of imperative-promise, or command-reward.
Such application says, “Do this and you will reap the rewards,” or “Live in obedience and you will be blessed.” It may call hearers to “take these steps and you will arrive at the destination you desire.” The preacher may be well-motivated to offer hearers a clear plan of action, but in the process the application becomes something other than a response to the truth of the gospel.
What happens when we apply the message in this way? The application can take on several flavours, all of which are ultimately lacking in vitality and power:
Application as legalism calls for obedience as obligation, which usually means obedience as drudgery. Or it might feel more like obedience to prove ourselves or to establish our self-worth. Ultimately, application as legalism tends to lead to an impulse to compare ourselves with others.
Application as self-improvement suggests steps toward self-realization. Whereas the focus of “application as legalism” is doing, “application as self-improvement” aims at being or becoming. It says, “here is how to become a better person, a more successful person, a happier person or a more likeable person.”
Application as good advice presents as a path to achieve one’s goals, to accomplish one’s objectives or to live one’s best life. It comes across as sage sayings that inspire us towards our highest aspirations. It may help us feel that, with a few adjustments and good choices, anything is possible.
The problem with these flavours of application is not necessarily that they are wrong, but that they are not necessarily Christian. The command-reward pattern could be just as at home in a motivational speech or a Rotary Club presentation as in a Sunday sermon. In the end, this type of application is a burden because it calls us to work in our own power, and not in the power of what Christ has already done for us and in us.
Gospel-Driven Application
The application we are looking for in our Gospel-driven theological reflection follows a pattern of indicative – promise – imperative. It states a truth that implies a reward, which leads finally to a command.
This type of application says “This is what Jesus has done. This is where he is leading us. In the meantime, this is how he calls us to live.” It invites us into a joyful acceptance of our place in the middle of what God is doing in our lives and in our world.
One might assume on the surface that Gospel-driven application is strictly a New Testament pattern. The Old Testament is all about law while the New Testament is about grace. The God of the first covenant commands his people to obey so that they might be blessed. The God of the New Testament blesses us that we might obey. Actually, this is not the case.
Even in the Old Testament, God first chose his people, and then delivered them from bondage and promised them a land of their own. Only then did he say, “Now this is how you should live in light of who I have made you.” Yes, his covenant carried with it blessings and curses. There was an obligation that was necessary to continue to live in this covenant. But for a nation who delighted to be God’s people, the law was not a burden but a blessing.
What happens when we follow the pattern of indicative – promise -imperative in our application?
Obedience is gratitude as we look back at what Jesus has done.
Obedience is joyful anticipation as we look forward towards where he is leading us.
Obedience is delightful participation as we look around at what he is doing in us and in our world.
When we apply the message of the Scriptures in light of the gospel of Jesus, we set people free to follow him joyfully, gratefully, delighted to be a part of what he is doing in the world. This is gospel-driven application. It is this application that we are looking for when we ask the question: How does this text invite us into God’s story?
The application question brings our theological reflection to its goal. Our next step on the path from text to sermon is to summarize what the text means in our homiletical conclusions.
