The Gospel in the West

Blogging is complex business! I’ve written and re-written this post more times than I can count, trying to come up with a way to express what has been troubling me for some time. So I think perhaps my answer is to give up trying to find a “perfect” way to put out there what I am trying to say and simply state it and see where it may lead.

First, I should identify the two books have led to this post. One, a return to the 1989 classic by Leslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, spurred my initial thoughts that were on a piece of paper. (I am so old school but would welcome an i-pad some day!) The other, a very recent work given to me by a friend, What Is the Mission of the Church? by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, provided a point of entry into the current debate on issues of the gospel.

Newbigin got me thinking by contending that making one’s eternal destiny the starting point for gospel articulation is short sighted. Among his arguments was the problem of centering the gospel on “the individual and his or her need to be assured of ultimate happiness, and not with God and his glory” (179). Much of what I ask below arises from reflecting upon this point.

DeYoung and Gilbert helped through their distinction between what they call the “wide angle lens” and “zoom lens” of the gospel. The former points to the cosmic sense of the gospel found throughout the New Testament. The latter points to the forgiveness found in the cross (a point they contend is the only way in which the writers of Scripture “zoom in” on the gospel). This has served as a foil for my thoughts.

At its core I suggest the gospel is actually a story—THE story—of what God has done in this world in and through Jesus Christ, “the descendent of David according to the flesh and who was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3-4). Even when Paul described the Gospel in terms of Christ dying for our sins he always did so within the context of the story of God revealed in the Scriptures, tying this event to the historical work of God and the historical reality of Jesus life, death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The gospel is the story of how God reconciled all things to himself through the cross (Colossians 1:20). In what has become popular parlance, the gospel is the climax of the misseo dei, the fulcrum upon which everything rests and everything turns. The gospel expands from the cross, and it never excludes the cross.

Bringing this back to Newbigin, while we need to make this gospel understandable for the people to whom we proclaim it, we must be ever vigilant that we do not become guilty of syncretism, merging western philosophy and western cultural proclivities into the essence of the gospel. Toward that end I have a few distinctions I suggest are worth pondering when we focus on “zoomed-in” gospel—distinctions that I hope will help us avoid the pitfalls of a truncated gospel that leads to so much emphasis on eliciting a response that we miss the call of the Great Commission: to make disciples.

1. The Gospel is not primarily about establishing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

THOUGH...

When you respond to the Gospel the Holy Spirit works in you to encounter the living God and experience him personally. Could it be that the use of catch-phrases like “personal saviour” and “inviting Jesus into my heart” leads us to a human-centred gospel? Beware turning the blessing of the gospel into the essence of the gospel!

2. The Gospel is not primarily about you being forgiven for your sins

THOUGH...

Responding to the gospel necessarily requires facing the cross, seeing one’s sinfulness and receiving forgiveness. Contrary to DeYoung and Gilbert, I suggest that forgiveness of sins is not only the entry point to receiving the blessings of the gospel; it is also the entry point of participating in the gospel and an ongoing experience of the gospel as we seek to follow God and live out the full implications of the gospel. Forgiveness is not the ending point, as if one could simply pray a prayer for forgiveness and move on without any call being heard and obeyed.

3. The Gospel is not primarily about fixing your life

THOUGH...

You will experience inner healing and equilibrium as you submit your life to God as he is revealed in the Gospel. It is even possible some may also experience physical healing. I contend, however, that such experiences function as a sign of God’s ultimate purpose for creation and, just as with the healings of Jesus in the New Testament, point beyond the individual to the God who is restoring all things in and through Christ. We in the west would do well to rediscover a theology of suffering and the power of embracing our brokenness to be what Henri Nouwen called “The Wounded Healer.”

Finally,

4. The Gospel is not an abstract set of truths

THOUGH...

You will unlearn much and discover much as you engage the gospel and how it manifests in and speaks to your culture and context. It is little wonder that one of the hallmarks of Christianity through the centuries is a reflection on all of life in light of the gospel. But to boil the gospel down to a set of propositional truths is to run the risk of creating a modern version Gnosticism where knowledge is divorced from praxis and can ultimately be isolated from the whole of life. If it is anything, the gospel is a radical call to a whole new approach to life under and in conscious awareness of God and his work in and through Christ.

The Gospel is the story of the true ruler of all who, though Jesus Christ, is bringing all his purposes for humanity and creativity into being. He has done this (and is completing his work) in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a call to embrace a new meaning for life, a new set of values, and in many ways, embracing and refining those aspects of your life that reflected God’s purposes even before you encountered the Gospel. In many ways, then, the gospel calls us in the west to move beyond our self-focus to center our lives on Christ and the purposes of God in this world.