How can we apply the Gospel to Everyday Life?

Many believers confess with their mouths that “Jesus is Lord,” yet struggle to connect that confession with the small, ordinary moments of daily life. The gospel is not merely the doorway into salvation—it’s the pathway of transformation we walk every single day. Seeing the life of Jesus in your every day life comes from understanding the shape of the gospel in our life. This shape is a “U” shape.

Romans 10:8 proclaims that “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” The gospel isn’t distant or abstract; it’s present within “U”, the believer. Starting at the Incarnation of Christ, He descended into our broken world, lived a perfect and sinless life that we could not (2 Corinthians 5:21) and bore our sin on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). He died and was buried (1 Corinthians 15:3-5), resurrected and ascended to the Father—completing what Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer called the “U-Shaped Gospel*.” His descent into our pain and His resurrection life now shape our identity and our responses to daily challenges. We live out the gospel in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and present position.

In biblical counseling, this truth becomes intensely practical. For example, when you face rejection, remember: Christ was rejected so that you could be accepted by the Father. When you are tempted to strive for worth through performance, rest in the finished work of Jesus, who fulfilled the law perfectly on your behalf. When you feel powerless to change, recall that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you (Romans 8:11). Do you have His Holy Spirit living with in you?

The gospel reorients our hearts from doing for approval to living from acceptance. It reshapes how we think, feel, and act. Here are some examples:

• In relationships: Jesus took away the sins of the world (1 John 2:22). We forgive because we’ve been forgiven (Colossians 3:13).
• In work: We serve as unto Christ, not for human praise (Colossians 3:17).
• In suffering: Jesus suffered and we too will suffer yet bear it in Christ (Luke 24:36, Acts 9:16, Romans 8:17, 1 Peter 2:20).
• In seeking: Give me the mind of Christ so I see my position in you (Colossians 3:1-3).

Applying the gospel daily means confessing truth over our hearts instead of listening to lies. It’s reminding ourselves and joyfully living in that Jesus is enough—today, in this conversation, in this decision and we “confess it” to be truth. It’s remembering that righteousness is not achieved by law-keeping but received by faith as we live in the imputed righteousness only through the “U” shaped gospel in Jesus Christ.

So, speak it: “Jesus is Lord.” Believe it in your heart. Let His descent into your brokenness and His resurrection power lift you into new and eternal life. Every moment—mundane or miraculous—becomes an opportunity to live out the gospel’s “U-shaped” rhythm: life in Christ, death to sin, and at times; humility, persecution, surrender, and life in the resurrection hope as we are seated with Christ and as we await our final glorification.

PRAY: Jesus, I want to live for U each day. Show me how how your life is in me and where I am in my faith walk with U, what you have planned for my purpose on earth and how it relates to the finished work of the gospel. Give me your Holy Spirit, assist my life in U alone, help me die to my own sin, forgiven and forgiving. Would U bless me and heal me when I suffer, so that I can live in the power of the resurrection and be seated along with U now, as you have confirmed in scripture? In U, Jesus, I pray. Amen

*Taken from my “Confess It” Biblical Theology II paper at Westminster Theological Seminary, 2013.

#Ushapedgospel – What Jesus did 4 U belongs 2 U