We can’t live the Christian life alone, God has made is dependent on each other and him in what we call – Gospel dependency.
Have you ever looked at the Great Commission — the call to go and make disciples of all nations — and felt suddenly overwhelmed? Or perhaps you’ve looked at the call to “put off the old self” or “love your enemies” and thought, “I can’t do that!”
If so, here is the good news: you’re right.
In the final installment of our Soma Basics series, we are exploring the core of what it means to be a Christian community. We’ve looked at the Gospel, our identity in Christ, and how to live a Gospel-centred life. But none of those things are sustainable if we are trying to power through them on our own steam. To live the life God has called us to, we must become Gospel Dependent.
The Beautiful Necessity of Dependence
There is a novel called The Art of Hearing Heartbeats that tells the story of a blind boy and a girl who cannot walk. They form a radical dependency: he carries her, and she directs him. They are so entangled that one cannot navigate the world without the other.
Our relationship with God is much the same. Left to our own devices, we are ill-equipped for the “New Life.” Scripture is a gallery of “messed up” people — Abraham, Moses, David, and the disciples — who constantly failed until they leaned into God.
The short answer to “How can I do this?” is: you can’t. But God can. Here are the three ways we live out that dependency in the everyday stuff of life.
1. Dependent on His Presence (God Working With Us)
In Matthew 28, the disciples meet the risen Jesus on a mountain. Some worshipped, but the text honestly notes that some doubted. Jesus didn’t wait for them to be “doubt-free” before giving them their mission. Instead, He gave them a promise that changes everything for weary people:
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We don’t live in the hope that God might show up; we live in the reality that He is already here.
In His Word: We have “Special Revelation,” where God continues to reveal His heart and salvation to us daily.
By His Spirit: As Jesus promised in John 16, He sent the Holy Spirit to fill, lead, and help us. You never go into a hard conversation or a mission field alone.
2. Dependent on His Power (God Working In Us)
If you look at the disciples before Pentecost, they were a bit of a mess. Peter denied Jesus; they all fell asleep when He needed them; they ran away when He was captured.
But look at them in the Book of Acts. Suddenly, they are standing before crowds, sharing everything they own, and proclaiming Christ even in the face of death. What changed? Not their IQ or their personality — the power of God changed them.
God’s power by the Spirit changes our hearts. We see this in our own lives when we realise, “I would never have been that patient, forgiving, or generous five years ago.” That is the Gospel working in you.
3. Dependent on His Gifts (God Working Through Us)
Finally, we are dependent on God’s work through the community. God has bestowed spiritual gifts on every believer for the building up of the body.
Dependency means realising you don’t have to have every gift. We depend on:
Hospitality from the natural welcomers and cooks.
Mercy from those who have a supernatural capacity for compassion in times of distress.
Wisdom and Teaching from those who help us navigate the complexities of Scripture.
When we share our lives in Gospel Communities or DNA groups, we aren’t just “hanging out.” We are activating the gifts God gave us for the sake of one another.
Living the Dependent Life
Being “Soma” — the Body — means moving from self-sufficiency to Spirit-dependency. We are a family of servants, missionaries, and learners who recognise that we are weak, but He is strong.
As we go out this week to fulfil a commission that seems overwhelming, remember: He works with us, He works in us, and He works through us.
Key Takeaways
- Inherent inadequacy is the point: We are naturally ill-equipped to live the life God calls us to — loving enemies, forgiving ourselves, or making disciples. This realisation isn’t a failure; it’s the starting point of the Gospel.
- Presence over performance: Jesus’ promise in the Great Commission isn’t just a command to “go,” but a guarantee that He is working with us through His Word and His Spirit until the very end.
- Transformation is a work of power: Just as the timid disciples became bold apostles in the book of Acts, our growth and change are the result of God’s power working in us, not our own willpower.
- Community as a gift-network: We are dependent on God’s work through us. No one person has every spiritual gift; we rely on the hospitality, mercy, and wisdom of others to function as a complete Body.
- Active dependency: Living a Gospel-dependent life means eagerly desiring and developing the spiritual gifts God has placed within our community to build each other up.
Discussion Questions
- Where are you feeling ill-equipped? In what areas of your life — family, work, or faith — are you currently trying to “power through” on your own strength rather than leaning into God’s presence?
- How have you seen God’s power change your heart? Looking back at who you were a few years ago, what is one “act of grace” or shift in your character that you know was a result of the Spirit working in you?
- Whose gifts do you depend on? Think of a person in your Gospel Community or church. What specific spiritual gift do they have — mercy, teaching, hospitality — that has helped you grow or sustained you in a difficult time?