What is the Gospel?

This post follows up some previous posts on evangelism and discussion with Greg Harris and significantly influenced by a series of lectures at Regent College by Scott Mcknight on his new book The King Jesus Gospel.

When talking about Christianity it is common to hear the word "gospel" thrown around: gospel music, the full gospel, gospel centred, gospel coalition, sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel, living the gospel, the power of the gospel... ok so we generally seem pretty clear that its really important but what exactly is it?

What makes me nervous when this word gets thrown around, especially in the context of equipping or encouraging evangelism, is that basically what is being implicitly encouraged, most often is stuffing the four spiritual laws down people's throats... or spoon feeding it to them with sugar... Even if this is not meant or said I would worry that the expectation is the proclamation of the penal substitution theory of atonement in as compelling terms as possible... It is only through the brilliant lectures by Mcknight that I am able to articulate more fully what the problem is with the promotion and perpetuation of these models and what a more Biblical view would be.

What is the Gospel? Mcknight commented that there are two distinct tendencies currently one is the social gospel: the good news of liberation and almost exclusively enacted in real tangible terms... this is of course reacted against by the second who emphasize "justification" as the gospel, this group usually argues that social justice naturally flows out of a response to the good news of justification...(regardless of if this has ever happened in history)... there are also others, like Tim Keller, who brilliantly and even more effectively synthesize these two camps showing their connection and relationship.

However, Mcknight, argues that all of this misses what the gospel is regardless of their validity, goodness or truth...

So what is the Gospel? To answer Mcknight turns to 1 Corinthians 15:

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

So what? Well, Paul presents here the story of Jesus. Note in particular the use of the word Christ, Greek for Messiah, as well as repeated mention of "the Scriptures." Further, this a lengthy and detailed narrative that includes burial, Peter, the twelve, James and Paul himself. Mcknight argues that this is the earliest oral Gospel tradition that we have and emphasizes its narrative quality, which is very similar to the sermons in Acts and dissimilar to the propositional nature of the 4 spiritual laws...

Mcknight very compellingly argues that we have misappropriated the Gospel which is the STORY of Jesus, which is the fulfilment of Israel's STORY. It is a story about Israel's need for a king and the answer found in the life of Jesus and his present ongoing universal reign... We have, however, in the last 50 years, in the course of the revivalist tradition and culminating in Billy Graham and Campus crusade, made the gospel about salvation and in particular, personal salvation. For 50 years we have preached Jesus as saviour, to the point that many if not most would be hard pressed to explain what Jesus as Messiah means... This development rises explicitly in North America due to our obsession and reduction of life to technique, which in turn is born out of our uncontemplative pragmatic primal experience of claiming the continent. Our society is born out of the need for immediate practical measurable results as it forged a new life in the "new world." Because of this technical pragmatism North America has become the most productive and technologically advanced society in the world (George Grant, "In Defense of North America." 1969). This focus on results has led to the reduction of the Gospel to salvation. This has resulted in the reduction of Jesus to saviour. This has resulted in the reduction of disciples to "converts". As we have been enamoured with the result of salvation we have lost hold of the story of Jesus as the fulfilment of Israel and bringer of shalom to the world. This is the Gospel: the story of Jesus, a story we are invited to enter into and live in and participate in. Many modern evangelism techniques, such as the four spiritual laws, or the dimming of the lights for the altar call, are brilliantly moulded to generate a crisis, a crisis which is required for "conversion" (any conversion, to anything, requires a crisis). This is why this form of evangelism feels dirty: it is explicitly psychologically manipulative. In Mcknight's most spectacular rhetorical flourish he compared these manipulated conversions to abortion, that is pre mature birth. Rather than sharing the story of Jesus, rather than sharing ourselves, rather than trusting God, we have created a transactional, crisis inducing, conversion creating Gospel, which has failed to make the disciples we were commissioned for... The "Salvation" Gospel creates converts; the Story Gospel demands followers, because Jesus is King.

Why are the gospels called gospels? because they tell us the story of Jesus. May we, by the grace of God have opportunity to share that story and the story of Israel and restoration it is the culmination of. May we trust God to work in people's lives, growing faith in them, drawing them to himself and prompting the response to the Gospel: "What shall we do?" (Acts 2) May we we trust God, and not in our propositions, or theories... May our theology be generous, filled with both faith and humility, that God's glory be manifest in our love...