Tim Keller is one of my favourite preachers, and he brings the gospel
into every sermon. The key to the gospel, according to Keller, is grace – it is
something God does for us, not something we do.[3] The
gospel is “not just divine rehabilitation program, but rather that it
accomplishes substitutionary work”. In other words, the Good News is not
(primarily) about making us into better people, but that Christ has taken our
place by dying on the cross for our sins, and that Jesus’ perfect record is
credited to us. As he describes elsewhere,[4] the
gospel is not a moral mandate or a self-discovery program.
When I was in Thailand and had the opportunity to talk about “Good
News”, I would often ask people if they thought religion was good news. They
always laughed, as they should if we think of religion as our self-efforts to
build good karma or earn some sort of salvation. They instinctively recognized
that any of our efforts to “be saved” based on our own goodness was actually
bad news, or at best mixed.
What about “self-discovery”? Surely, that can’t be a bad thing? Agreed:
It is good to “know thyself” (Socrates). However, if we are brutally honest in
that self-discovery, we are bound to come across what is known in theological
circles as “icky stuff”.[5] Yes,
we will also discover some pretty cool things, not surprising since we are
created in God’s image, but we are all fallen. So, neither “religion”
(morality) nor self-discovery are at the heart of the gospel.
Keller also recognizes that different people need a different
presentation of the gospel, citing Paul’s distinction between the “gospel for
the circumcised” and the “gospel for the uncircumcised”. This is born out in
the record of various presentations of the gospel in the book of Acts – there
is lots of overlap, but he does not give a “canned” presentation of the Good
News.
One common feature in my research was how many theologians said that we
lose a lot in our efforts to distill the gospel into “the least we need to say”
or a 5-minute presentation. D.A. Carson said it well when he stated that 50
years ago we could assume certain foundations (in North America and even
Europe), but not so anymore.[6]
“Basic fundamental things have to be put in place.” N.T. Wright cites John
Stott’s response when asked for “the basic gospel”: “I don’t want the
irreducible, minimum gospel; I want the whole gospel!”[7]
Keller does not recommend “put[ting] all the gospel points into any one gospel
presentation,” though over time the whole message does need to be proclaimed.
A basic summary
In the end, I would like to suggest the following framework, consisting
of background, the coming of the King, our response, and Gospel implications.
·
Essential background:
o
Who is God?[8]
o
Creation: God is the author of Creation and His
Creation is good.[9]
o
The Fall: We need to communicate the nature and consequences of man turning his back on God and
trying to run the show himself.[10]
o
God promises that a Saviour would come to deliver
us from this broken world, to reverse the curse.[11]
·
The Coming of the King (Jesus):
o
There are many references to the “Gospel of the Kingdom” and “Gospel of Jesus
Christ” throughout the New Testament.
o Jesus' life, teachings and works demonstrated his authority (especially clear in the Gospel according to Matthew); Rom. 5:10 indicates that his whole
life was essential to our salvation;
o
The atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and his
resurrection is of the utmost importance in communicating the gospel.[12] This is common to almost
every proclamation of the gospel in the book of Acts. The cross and the
resurrection may be seen as the victory confirming the reign of Jesus, with the
proclamation, “Jesus is Lord.”
·
Our response:
o
We are called to “repent”, that is, turn around, away from the life of
rebellion to a life of “faith”, of putting our trust in Jesus and His ways.
Repentance is not “works” that earn us a standing with God, but surrendering
the rule of our lives over to God. It is a humble act, trusting in the
righteousness of Christ, not our own goodness or intellect or strength or
ability to turn our own lives around.[13]
Because Jesus has fulfilled the righteous requirements of Torah, those who
repent can be saved. Salvation is only by grace through faith.
o
Those who do not turn away from sin but assert their own dominion over
and against God’s reign are condemned to punishment.[14]
· Implications: God’s Transforming Work and the Ultimate Restoration
o
Gift of the Holy Spirit to all who believe (God’s transforming power and
presence with us).
o
The full establishment of God’s Kingdom (Mark 1:15). The defining
characteristic of the Kingdom will be Shalom[15] –
all things flourishing in wholeness, righteousness, justice and love. It is the
healing of all that was broken in the Fall, including the spiritual brokenness
between God and us, the social brokenness between ourselves and others, the
physical brokenness in creation, and the psychological brokenness within
ourselves.
o
New Creation (Rev. 21-22; Rom. 8:19-21; Is. 61:1-2).
As
Keller, Carson, and Wright say, it is overwhelming to present all of this to a
seeker in one presentation. However, over time all of these things do need to
be taught. For our purposes, we need to consider how the Bible talks about all
of this from different perspectives, such as an honour-shame perspective, a
power-fear perspective, a guilt-justice perspective, or others.
[1] More than 10 passages give an overview of the gospel: Is. 52:7; Is.
61:1-2 (and more?); Mark 1:1-15; Rom. 1:1-6; 1 Cor. 15:3-11 (arguably most of
the chapter); 1 Thess. 1:9-10; 2 Tim. 1:8-10; Acts 10:34-43; Acts 13:16-41;
Acts 17:22-31 (laying foundations in order to declare God’s salvation); Acts
14:15-17; 1 Peter 1:23-25 and more could be considered. Of course, none of
these tell everything that can be said about the gospel, only those aspects
that were relevant to the audience at that point and no more than the audience
could handle at the time.
[2] For a quick summary, skip to the Basic Summary later in this post.
See also post #1: What
is the Good News? for further background to this post, especially informed by the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
[3] http://www.acts29.com/tim-keller-explains-the-gospel/. I highly recommend this
post!!! He also references a summary of the gospel by Simon Gathercole which is
worth noting.
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RImYisUYxM. Carson has written the book, The
God Who is There (2010: Baker Books) to detail the foundations he feels are
important to communicate. It is essentially a chronological presentation of the
story of the Bible, similar to what New Tribes Mission has done (www.goodseed.com).
[8] A particularly good
companion to exploring this is Don Carson’s, The God Who is There. Each
chapter is looks at one aspect of God’s character as revealed through the
Tanakh (Old Testament) narrative. A.W. Tozer’s book, The Knowledge of the Holy
looks at God’s attributes. And we should not neglect the concise description of
who God himself says He is in Exodus 34:6-7.
[9] See Acts 17, for example, where Paul begins his explanation of the identity of “the unknown god”
with Creation. In Acts 14:15-16, Paul points to God as Creator to urge them to
turn from vain idols. The angel in Rev. 14:6 proclaims an “eternal gospel”,
among other things calling us to “worship him who made heaven and earth, the
sea and the springs of water” (v. 8).
Recently, I was teaching a small
group of internationals, sharing about the goodness and harmony of creation,
and one Chinese man spoke up, “Then something terrible must have happened!” He
got it!
[10] See 1 Cor. 15:21-22. Genesis 3:15 is sometimes called the “protoevangelium”,
the first declaration of the Good News. If listeners are to understand the
nature of salvation, then they need to understand the scope of brokenness in
our world due to the Fall. Jesus came to redeem all that was lost in the
Fall (see Rom. 8:19-21 and the description of the restoration in Rev. 21-22).
[11] Almost every instance
of evangelism in the book of Acts includes reference to the promise of the
Messiah in the Law and the Prophets. See also Mark 1:1-3 (the prophecy of a
“messenger”), Rom. 1:2-3; 1 Cor. 15:3; Gal. 3:8; Isaiah 52:7, 13-53:12; Is.
61:1-2; 1 Peter 1:10-12.
[12] N.T. Wright, in his
YouTube explanation of the gospel, says, “Without the resurrection, the cross
is just another dream gone west, you know, forget it.” (Perhaps “gone west” is
the British equivalent of the American “gone south”?)
[13] For example: Mark
1:15; Rom. 1:16 (“faith” is not just an intellectual exercise; it has
implications for response!); 1 Thes. 1:9; Luke 3:8,18; Acts 14:15; Acts 2:38; Acts
3:19; Acts 5:29.
[15] I am indebted to John
Stackhouse in the course I took from him at Regent College for seeing Shalom as
the defining characteristic of God’s Kingdom. His recent book, Why You’re
Here, fleshes out his thoughts on this.
