The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Building Healthy Churches)

How does the church portray the beauty of Christ?

The gospel is a theological message. But this message also creates human beauty―beautiful relationships in our churches, making the glory of Christ visible in the world today.

In this timely book, Pastor Ray Ortlund makes the case that gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. In too many of our churches, it is the beauty of a gospel culture that is the missing piece of the puzzle. But when the gospel is allowed to exert its full power, a church becomes radiant with the glory of Christ.

Part of the 9Marks Building Healthy Churches series.

• Explains the importance of the gospel for cultivating beautiful, fulfilling relationships with other people
• Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series, which expands on Mark Dever’s 9 Marks of a Healthy Church

Ray Ortlund is the president of Renewal Ministries, the pastor to pastors at Immanuel Church in Nashville, and a canon theologian with the Anglican Church in North America. He is the author of several books, including Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel; The Death of Porn; and the Preaching the Word commentaries on Isaiah and Proverbs. He is also a contributor to the ESV Study Bible. Ray and his wife, Jani, have been married for over fifty years. 

J. I. Packer (1926–2020) served as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. He authored numerous books, including the classic bestseller Knowing God. Packer also served as general editor for the English Standard Version Bible and as theological editor for the ESV Study Bible.