A word about Penal Substitutionary Atonement

 I like this piece on Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA), by Michael F. Bird.

I too get a cringy feeling from some of the language around this topic, when it gets to talking about God pouring out his wrath on Jesus. Bird's piece is useful to me, because it kind of helps to differentiate the baby from the bathwater, if you know what I mean. 

Bird's piece returns PSA to its rightful place in the mosaic. Does it sometimes feel like it has been taken from that rightful place and magnified, even made to be the center, the main thing, in the great mosaic of Biblical theology?

Sometimes it's even made to seem like the Gospel itself. While the cross is certainly a central element of the Gospel, that doesn't make PSA the Gospel. The lineaments of the Gospel and of PSA are not the same.

This is a theme I'm probably going to come back to from time to time. Bird's point that PSA is not a feature element of any of the early-church preaching found in Acts is telling, I think. The Gospel is much bigger than PSA, and if we seem to highlight atonement we often thereby seem to demote the life of Jesus, hiss resurrection, and his current ministry, along with the grand purpose of our trinitarian God that arches over all of this. Instead we get, believe in PSA and you'll go to heaven!

Btw, I'm currently reading and enjoying Bird's commentary on Romans. Recommended.

Day 28: Telling the Gospel

[Note: I want to rehearse the gospel, tell it to myself from time to time. I think that's a useful practice. I also know that one might find a certain inadequacy in each and every telling, because after all the truth of the gospel is hard to encompass in brief. So from one "telling" to another one might emphasize a piece this time that one failed to mention, perhaps, in the previous telling. So anyway, here's one telling. My previous attempt is here.[

What is the gospel?

I would put it this way. God, the creator all that is, has always had a plan for his creation, and that plan was to make it a place in which he might dwell with those whom he created, men and women. The creation, though, is not at present and never has been, not since Adam & Ever were expelled from the garden. So the plan of God for creation is a restorative plan, a plan to perfect something that at present falls far short of perfection.

The gospel, the good news, is really that God has enacted the crucial work of accomplishing what he has intended all along. That work is embodied in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The work of Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, represent the very linchpin of the plan, without which nothing can go forward.

The crucial thing is that the people whom God created as the pinnacle of his creation must be restored, and this restoration begins with forgiveness. All of the Old and New Testaments comes back time and to this theme of forgiveness. It is utterly necessary if God's plan is to go forward.

And we all need it. This is because we all have sinned, as the Bible says, and fallen short of the glory of God. The cross of Christ, which you can read about in the four NT accounts known as gospels (the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), is the key to forgiveness. The standard way of talking about this is, Christ died for our sins. Those who put their faith in Jesus, who trust in the efficacy of what he accomplished by going to the cross, can be assured of their part in that ultimate plan of God for creation.

What we are talking about here is salvation (we are saved from a terrible fate), eternal life. What could be better news than that? Not only eternal, but eternally good. Eternally with God, who is love. Eternally satisfied. Eternally at peace. Eternally free of all that had once bound us. One could go on and on.

So there are things worth pondering in this story. The glory and goodness of God, the profound love displayed by Jesus through his life and especially at the cross, the nature of self-giving love, the awesome wonder in store for the world when the "new creation" is accomplished (we often say, when the kingdom comes). And something I have not mentioned: the Holy Spirit!

These things and so much more reward our contemplation. Our way into this story is to believe Jesus, to love him, and to want to follow him. The work of restoration has begun, God is on the move, the long-laid plan is afoot, and Jesus is both the means and the end of it all. For in that new world, that "kingdom," Jesus will be "all in all."

To conclude, it's really good news that we don't have to do anything more than to know our need and to trust in God's plan to meet our need in Jesus. We don't have to try to deserve it, we don't have to pretend to be better than we are. We just need to stand at the foot of the cross and recognize what is happening, and that it is happening for us. On our behalf. That what is happening is the key to everything.

Day 21: The Wholistic Gospel

I said yesterday that the gospel is not coterminous with the doctrine of Christ's substitutionary atonement and justification by faith alone. The reason I emphasize this point is because, to hear many renditions of the gospel, you'd just assume that those doctrines represent the full extent of the good news. That's how it often sounds.

But the good news is really much bigger than that. It might be said to contain four significant concepts (or chapters): creation, fall, redemption, new creation. This is the big picture that encompasses the whole Bible story. Somewhere along the line, though, American evangelicals got the very American idea that the most effective way to win people to Christ was to play on their fear of death and the hereafter by offering them 's the bit about justification). And the way he saves you is by taking your place on the cross, receiving the just punishment for your sin on himself, thus winning your pardon (and there's the substitutionary atonement bit).

But you can see what's left out of that: creation and new creation. Which is to say, they're leaving out the magnificent story of God's plan for the world. That plan, which was attested to my many prophets of the OT, may have seemed dormant in Jesus' day. Or perhaps God had changed his mind! But the good news of Jesus Christ was the plan had been set in motion in the life and ministry (and the very being) of Jesus himself. 

Jesus is the way, but specifically, he is the way to life with God in the new and spotless creation. That's the gospel. Any telling that leaves all this out is going to mislead.

An article at Together for the Gospel makes the point well.

If our mission is to be holistic, then we have to position the central climax of the narrative within the revealed beginning and end. We can’t skip the first and final acts.

 I think there are many entry points to this story. You don't have to simply start with Genesis. Some of the wonderful prophecies of the new creation found in Isaiah and elsewhere could be a starting point. The book of Revelation, too, with its picture of a redeemed creation inhabited by God and the blood-bought children of God.

Another entry-point might be the NT concept of the kingdom of God (that's where Jesus started his telling of the story). And I think it might also be interesting to start the tale with the Holy Spirit. Or of course you can begin at the foot of the cross and show how that event stands at the fulcrum-point of the whole plan of God for his creation.

Needless to say, this kind of conversation is not likely to happen at work or in passing. It takes a little time, it invites dialogue, and it works based within an established relationship. I have the idea that it might useful to rehearse some of these different starting points, telling the gospel to myself over and over, using different entry-points. Say it, say again, and say succinctly, so that you might be prepared, in season and out, to share with others.

Day 20: What is the gospel?

We Christians tell ourselves we ought to share the gospel more often. It's our mission to do so, we ay, and we really ought to seek out the opportunities wherever we go.

I'm not going to argue against this, but the opportunities like the one that Christ had with Nicodemus (someone actually seeking you out to ask you about your spiritual beliefs) are rather few and far between. What happens more often is that someone will engage you in conversation about some difficulty they're going through. That's a perfect opportunity to share some Biblical wisdom and the hope that is available in Jesus Christ. I know I've missed many such opportunities in my time.

And then there's the question of content. When we say, "share the gospel," what do we actually mean? What would we actually be telling them? We should all the answer to this question don pat, right? But do we?

I have been at pains to say, here at A Stranger Here, that the gospel, contrary to the way we often hear it presented, is not coterminous with the doctrines of substitutionary atonement and justification by faith alone.

I think the gospel has to include these things: 1) who God is, what he's like, and what his purpose is for creation; 2) who we are, the nature of the problem we face, and our need for a rescuer; 3) who Jesus is, how he lived and what he did, and why he did it; and 4) where it all leads in the end.

I think the following presentation does a pretty good job of putting all this together. It's interesting and helpful that they start with a brief explanation of the trinity (which would fall under number 1 above.

Day 17: The Gospel of the Kingdom

Sometimes you will hear preachers, while explicating a passage, explain the Gospel in a way that the passage just won't support. This usually happens when the passage comes from one of the Gospels and mentions the word "gospel" (or "good news"). For example, Luke 16:16.

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it."

Now, the "good news" Jesus is referring to here is not the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, though many preachers, in a kind of knee jerk, explain the good news by recourse to that doctrine. But the good news that was being preached since John was obviously some form of, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is has come near." {Matt. 3:2] Or, sticking with Luke, what did the angel say to Mary?

“Do not be afraid,Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Note: the angel did not say, "he will be a sacrifice for the sins of the world, turning away the wrath of God." But instead he spoke of Jesus' reign as king over an everlasting kingdom. That, as I've said before, is the big picture good news.

In other words, the "good news of the kingdom of God" is something different than, Christ died for your sins, in your place, taking upon himself the wrath of God that you deserved. We have absolutely no indication that that is what Jesus is talking about when he refers to the good news of the kingdom of God.

In my opinion, we ought to work hard at getting this straight. Now, Jesus told his disciples much more than this, as time went on (Luke 8:10). But do a word-search for "kingdom" in the Gospel accounts and you will see that it is probably the most important word associated with his "good news." The fact is, we should never pass the word "kingdom" without stopping to think about all that it means and implies, for the story of the kingdom of God (or in Matthew's account, the kingdom of heaven) is bigger even than the story of the cross. The cross is absolutely integral, absolutely essential, in the grand sweep of the kingdom story, but the cross has a purpose, and that purpose is to make the reign and rule of God available, his presence available, and to reclaim creation as the place where his will is done completely. 

Through Jesus, all this is available to those who believe, which is surely very good news.
Perhaps this is why, when he taught his disciples to pray, he did not teach them to say, "thank you, Jesus, for atoning for my sins," but he taught them to say, "may your kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

* * *

See Darrell Bock's Recovering the Real Lost Gospel for a well-written explanation of the Gospel.

Day 15: More thoughts on Spiritual Joy

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. If we have the Spirit, which is for us a downpayment of the life to come, then we ought to bear the fruit of joy in our lives.

But who's joy? Is it ours, or someone else's?

Well, I think it's both, but it's worth thinking about that question a bit.

For believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit who turns their hearts toward God and the things of God; and one of the fruits to come of all this is "the joy of the Lord." To walk humbly with the Lord (Micah 6:8) is to reap joy in season.

So the Spiritual fruit of joy is the joy within our own soul that only deepens as we grow in sanctification. In theory, at least, old saints ought to be abiding in deep joy.

But I think the fruits of the Spirit are brought forth in us, over time, for the benefit of others, as well. The fruit of joy much more than simply a pleasant sensation or feeling. It's the sense of having been rescued, the sense of having a savior. It's the feeling that you were once blind, but now see; once enchained, now free.

For this reason, joy is closely associated with the Good News, with receiving it, and with sharing it also. In much the same way that, when one receives a gift, both the recipient of the giver and the giver are joyful. Joy is a foretaste of Eternal Life!

None of which answers the question, why am I not joyful? Why do I more often feel burdened, stressed, depressed, and lonely than joyful?

In the next post, I want to think about the positive steps we can take to regain a little joy in our lives.

Day 12; Wondering about Joy

I keep wondering about joy.

What is it?
Is it the same things as happiness?

The Bible says it's a fruit of the Spirit, but the Bible also says that the word typically translated "blessed" in the Beatitudes can also be translated "happy." Happy=blessded. Is that right? Happiness is a response to a blessing?

But joy . . . joy is a related and yet different thing. Perhaps it's a deeper and more consistent thing, not dependent on circumstances. Happiness is like the froth on a wave, while joy is the deep current, running under the surface. Not necessarily showing itself at all times, but simply there. One of the deep things. Like that other fruit of the Spirit, peace. When you find someone for whom joy is a lived reality, hang out with that person. Maybe joy is catching!

But then you can't help but notice, there aren't many. Not many people with this routine, daily-life kind of joy, the undercurrent, never far from the surface. If joy is a fruit of the Spirit, why don't we see more of it in our church communities? Just wondering.

I mentioned this in an earlier post about the Gospel. There's a way of talking about the Gospel that makes a Christian appear to be a contrite-hearted criminal who has just had his fine paid. He's thankful, sure, but a little ashamed too. But I have this notion that if we're preaching the Gospel, to ourselves or to others, and it's not producing joy, we may be preaching a fragment of the Gospel, but maybe not the whole thing.

We have a lot of burdened people in our churches. Life as hard, and just about everybody has been through some kind of trauma or another. People are lonely, they have fears, even addiction issues. Then there's that demon, regret, which seems to grow stronger as we grow older. The world, death, the Devil, they all conspire to kill our joy before it's even had time to sprout. We begin to think joy is a dream that will only be fulfilled when the Kingdom comes.

But joy ought to be more familiar to us, I think. Yes, even in our hard times (and it seems most of our times are hard times). Mainly because it is the evidence of salvation to a world in need. Sure, we can't manufacture it or conjure it out of thin air. Joy has to be real, it has to be authentic. Which leads to the question, how do I get to that point? Or, why is joy so rare, so unfamiliar?

My hunch is that it has to do with the misunderstandings, some confusion, with regard to the Gospel. I'll speak more on this in a future post. In the meantime, look up joy in your handy concordance, why don't you. The Bible has a lot ot say about it!

This notion, that the Gospel and joy are intrinsically related, is something I'm going to look at more closely in future posts. 

Day 5: What is the gospel? (part 2)

As I suggested yesterday, there are multiple ways of framing the gospel. Christians want to be succinct and to the point about it. John 3:16 seems to be the go-to verse as far as succinctness is concerned. Here we see that the gospel hinges on Jesus (God's "one and only Son") and the consequence is the gift of eternal life for those who believe in him.

I also mentioned yesterday that many Christians, when they think about the "good news," think about their guilt of sin, the wrath of God the Father toward that sin, and the substitution of Jesus, the Son, in our place on the cross. God inflicts the punishment for our sin on His own Son. This substitution atones for our sin, or as we like to say so graphically, we are washed in the blood of Jesus.

I am not going to argue against any of this, only question whether it is the best presentation of the gospel that we can have. I don't really believe that there is any brief passage of the New Testament that summarizes the Gospel completely. John 3:16 is helpful because it mentions "eternal life." Whereas nothing of that sort is mentioned in Paul's description of his gospel at 1Cor 15:1-8, where he speaks of "the gospel that I preached," over against other gospels.

So what I mean to say is, no brief rendering of the Gospel is really adequate, because the gospel turns out to incredibly large and encompassing. And has been my feeling for a long time, as I try to preach the gospel to myself each day, that we ought to begin with the big picture. We might think of the gospel as a beautiful landscape in which there are many details to admire, but it the whole picture that needs to be in view.

Here's one place we might start:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-3

Okay, that's a big-picture gospel if ever there was one. Of course like any other rendering of the gospel it will lead to many questions. Any relatively succinct passage that is used to explain the gospel will in reality only be a doorway to the great landscape that is the good news of Jesus Christ. You have to start somewhere, but the starting place is only that. Start, and then let the puzzling questions come. The gospel isn't so much revealed in a flash as unfolded progressively in dialogue.

So me, I would begin there at the start of John, or perhaps I'd begin with Jesus' own words concerning all this:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17

 Or in the passage where Jesus reads from Isaiah in the synagogue:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and revoering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

After he read that passage (Isaiah 61:1-2), he said, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:21)

There again, we've got a very big picture here, a landscape, and somewhere in that landscape, as we look more closely, we will find Christ on his cross, but also an empty tomb, and also a scene from The Revelation of John where the wounded Lamb sits on a throne, and all the hosts of heaven sing hallelujah!

What's the difference? Well, I think when you limit the gospel almost incessantly to a depiction of Christ's atoning death for sin, you leave out so much that is wondrous, beautiful, and hope-inducing. I think that's what John Piper is getting at in this article. I will quote the opening points:

The gospel is not just a sequence of steps (say, the "Four Laws" of Campus Crusade or the "Six Biblical Truths" of Quest for Joy ). Those are essential. But what makes the gospel "good news" is that it connects a person with the "unsearchable riches of Christ."

There is nothing in itself that makes "forgiveness of sins" good news. Whether being forgiven is good news depends on what it leads to. You could walk out of a courtroom innocent of a crime and get killed on the street. Forgiveness may or may not lead to joy. Even escaping hell is not in itself the good news we long for - not if we find heaven to be massively boring.

Nor is justification in itself good news. Where does it lead? That is the question. Whether justification will be good news, depends on the award we receive because of our imputed righteousness. What do we receive because we are counted righteous in Christ? The answer is fellowship with Jesus.

Among people who focus on the blood of Jesus and the cross I find often that the most they have to be thankful for is that they're sins no longer condemn them. That's a fine thing, but that's the condition that God has provided for us so that we could enter into the profound joys of the kingdom. So often I have heard, in church "share times," people stand up and testify with a kind of sorrowful thankfulness that their sins are forgiven, and I am led to wonder, where then is the joy? Where is the promise of "all things"? Where then is the kingdom?

So, to conclude, I'm for cultivating spiritual joy, which is of course a fruit of the Spirit. I believe we have to work on this some, because much that is in the world conspires to rob us of this fruit. When I share the gospel, I want it to be like offering a beautifully wrapped Christmas present, where the receiver getts a light in her eyes, a thrill of excitement, just like a kid at Christmas, or like a child in an orphanage who has just found out he's been adopted by a loving family.

So my final word to myself is this: share the gospel, because when you do, you're sharing eternal joy.

Day 4: What is the Gospel?

We Christians are always talking about the Gospel. Well, some of us are, anyway. We say that preaching ought to be "Gospel-centered" or perhaps even "Gospel-driven." We tell ourselves that Christians ought to preach the Gospel to themselves daily, and some of us put a great deal of importance on "sharing the Gospel" with others.

And I agree with all that. The problem arises when we ask the simple question, "What gospel?"

In my experience among Evangelical Christians, the gospel is often reduced to a brief statement summarizing the doctrine of substitutionary atonement or the doctrine of justification. Christ died for our sins, in our place, assuaging the wrath of God, and winning for all who believe forgiveness and everlasting life. We ourselves can do nothing to save ourselves (good works won't cut it). No, it had to be Jesus, the Son of God.

Something like this message is what Billy Graham focused on, and perhaps it is as much his fault as anyone else's that people default to this understanding. And of course it is not without Biblical warrant.

But I believe there is much more to the gospel than that. Bible.org does a fair job of answering the question, "What is the Gospel?" At least they get around to some of the other Biblical passages that indicate a broader definition of "gospel" than just the doctrine of justification.

Now, of course, there is much to be said on this topic, and it's not my intention to attempt to say it all. In brief, I think we ought to use and understand the term "gospel" more broadly than we do. I think that by limiting the term (in practice) to the doctrine of justification we incur unnecessary consequences.

It is the nature of those consequences that has been intriguing me lately. In a future post, I want to talk more about a broader understanding of the Gospel, and why it's important. I also want to talk about those pesky consequences of a too justification-centric understanding of the "good news."

Sinclair Ferguson on Emotional Intelligence

From Sinclair Ferguson's Devoted to God:

[T]hinking through the logic of the gospel corrects, cleanses, recalibrates, transforms, and sancitifies us emotionally as well as intellectually. It leads us to responding as whole people to the situations in which we find ourselves. Instead of being captivated emotionally, our emotions are mastered by the gospel and begin to express its truth and power. We thus develop an integrated and healthy emotional life. This is the true and valuable 'emotional intelligence' the gospel produces.

3 (ok, 4) things

John Bunyan: This great and Strange Expression (found at Strawberry Rhubarb Theology)

* * *

Psalm 119:11 "Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against you." I have found this to be an effective strategy in fighting sin and temptation.

* * *

I've been listening to the music of Mississippi John Hurt this morning, and what a pleasure it is. A blues singer who sang a lot of classic gospel numbers in a blues style, like this:

And this:

3 things

1. Jesus is a person, not a system. Theology has its place, but he is not encompassed by any theology. I fear that in many of our churches we lead people down a road marked doctrine instead of in the way of Jesus.
2. Sean MacDowell: "All religions (including atheism) claim to present a true depiction of reality. And this includes Christianity. But there is a key fact that makes Christianity distinct from other world religions — Christianity does not present truth merely as an abstract idea, but as a person who can be known."
3. May the gospel totally rearrange all the price tags, schedule, and trajectory of my life. 

The Love Thing

In this recent string of Saturday entries we've been talking about love, one way or another. There's no grand plan to all this (it's only blogging, after all), but love has been the item, the fruit of the Spirit, that I've been focused on lately.

We were sitting in a cirle in the basement of the church talking about the second chapter of Peter's first letter, about eight of us. I asked the group for their thoughts on Peter's phrase, “Spiritual sacrifice.” What is a spiritual sacrifice?

A couple of people spoke up, drawing on Romans 12. I don't remember what they said, but I do remember what a third person said. She's a new believer and trying hard to understand things. She's a little unsure of herself and seems afraid sometimes that her words will not be quite right, not have the proper ring or nuance, and often apologizes for what she has said after she says it. This time she said, “I think spiritual sacrifice refers to love. It's loving people, that's all.”

Yup, that rings true. It's a deceptively simple answer, but it's the Gospel truth. Love is the fundamental quality of Kingdom living. Even as the Kingdom has not yet fully come into its own, we are not yet fully lovers. Not, as anyone can see, by a longshot. We have not even begun to fathom the depths of this challenge to love, and more often than not we're distracting ourselves with lesser things.

We have a prayer and share time in our church. People share prayer needs, or praise God for what He has been doing in their lives during the past week. I really like the prayer and share time. I look forward to it. This week someone shared something that was a little different than the usual. He was with his wife, only making his second visit (I think) to our church. The husband raised his hand and said, “I'd like to ask that we pray that the Church as a whole would repent of associating itself with a particular political alignment in here in America.”

Whoa, wait a minute! That the church should repent! That's not what we normally here in our prayer and share time, and most of us in this particular church are fairly comfortable with the political alignment of the Evangelical church at large.

After the service I walked over to thank him for what he'd shared. We talked a little about the Christian culture's attitude toward homosexuals, and also its ringing silence on the subject of war-making. Somewhere along the way he said, “Love is really the main thing, isn't it? I mean, should we be trying to figure out this love thing? What kind of testimony is it that we seem to be more about a political agenda than about loving people?”

Yup, that also rings true.

It often seems to me that Christians fall into two basic categories: you have the Love Christians, and the Obedience Christians. It's a matter of where they focus, I guess. Obedience Christians quote all the relevant Scriptures and in the end focus on not sinning. Love Christians, citing just as much Scripture, focus on walking out the love of Christ. Obedience Christians talk about striving and doing. Love Christians talk about abiding. Obedience Christians, in my opinion, always seem to have all their ducks in a row. They make sound and orderly arguments from Scripture and they often rail against emotionalism. Love Christians seem more humble, more prone to repent of their hard-heartedness and to ask for soft-hearts. Obedience Christians speak much of the Law and of righteousness, and the doctrine of justification is never far from their lips. Love Christians speak much of the Kingdom, and of the Spirit of Holiness, and of being filled with the Spirit.

I guess you can tell which one I'm trying to be. The Christian struggle is the struggle to fully love. In the end the Obedience Christians and the Love Christians get to the same place of course, because obedience to God, when you see it walked out, looks exactly like love. The reason is right there in Romans: love fulfills the Law.

Paul said it, but Jesus showed it to us. The command is, walk in love. We have not so mastered this that we should move on now to other things.

Recovering the Real Lost Gospel

Just started reading Recovering the Lost Gospel by Darrell Bock. The book is about what the gospel is, and what it is not. In the introduction he states:

[The gospel's] central proclamation is the good news of God's love and initiative not only to save us from hell, but also to bring us into healthy relationship with Himself.

 Bock goes on to state that the core of the gospel is "a restored relationship with God."

All that may seem pretty evident to people who have been around the church for a while, but then again maybe not. Bock goes on to say this:

Yet when I hear the gospel preached today, I am not sure I hear the presentation as good news. Sometimes, I hear a therapeutic call--that God makes us feel better or prosper more. Other times, I hear so much about Jesus paying for sin that the gospel seems limited to a transaction--the removal of a debt.... Still other times, I hear a presentation that makes the gospel seem more about avoiding something from God versus experiencing something from Him. Other presentations make me think Jesus came to change politics in the world. Such political presentations make me wonder why God did not send Jesus to Rome rather than Jerusalem.

I do think this issue is critical for all of us who call ourselves followers of Christ. I find that for many of us the choice seems to be between a therapeutic message, a go-to-heaven message, or (if you go to one of those self-styled conservative Bible-preaching churches) a transaction -- the paying of my sin debt.

I'm enthused about Bock's message here. More on this in the coming days.

Not the benefits, but the benefactor

Here's another helpful take on the gospel. Note the difference between the fundamental definition given here and Tim Keller's, as quoted by Victor Kalinowski in the previous video.

The gospel is about Jesus

The gospel is about Jesus. It seems odd that we should have to say this. I think Scott McKnight gets the emphasis right.

Beginning with the Gospel

The point of this blog is to begin with the gospel, and see where that leads. This of course begs the question, what exactly do you mean by that overused and under-defined word, gospel? And that too, I hope, will be something that I myself will come to understand better as we go along.

I thought I'd make the Gospel of Mark my ground of operation. No particular reason, except that of the four books called “gospels” in the New Testament, it's the one I love the best. But of course I've been reading the Bible for a long time, and, well, I do know how it ends. The Bible is in fact one of those books that people almost never read from start to finish, following the story and eager to see how it all comes out, the way we would read any good novel. Most of us start somewhere in the middle – with John 3:16, or Psalm 23, or the Ten Commandments – and these things seem strange indeed when ripped from their places in the story. If we're persistent (and many are) we carry on. Right at first we probably don't even realize there's a story in the midst of it all.

The story, yes. Summarized incredibly inadequately: Fall, Redemption, Restoration. The latter two, Redemption and Restoration, make up the gospel, which of course means “good news.” But that doesn't equate to two-thirds of the story being all sweetness and light. The part that comes in under that first heading, “Fall,” is big and complex and the Bible gives it a lot of “fleshing out.” In fact, the extremity of the Fall is something that the Bible wants us to understand. And I should say, to understand not just about the story, but about ourselves.

That's a key point. The Bible is about us. It's a kind of portrait of the world and of the human race, and what has happened to it and to us. We've made a mess of things, because we're mess-makers to our very core. That's something the portrait tells us about ourselves. The Fall, you see, runs deep. We're infected it seems with a genetic predisposition to make a mess of things. When we have some sort of inkling of the depth of this truth as it applies not simply to the story but to ourselves, to our own lives, we will begin to understand, or at least have an inkling of, the goodness of the good news. Thus, the second two parts of the story: Redemption, Restoration.

As I said, most of us enter this story somewhere in the middle. And I'm all for that unusual reading strategy (although it's not going to hurt, sooner or later, to read the book from start to finish at least once). It seems to work, I think, because that's where we find ourselves: in the middle of a story. As soon as we begin to thing of ourselves as having a life that is enmeshed with other lives that together form a kind of story or family history – comic or tragic or, usually, both – we quickly understand that we are somewhere in one of the middle chapters of the story. Our sense of the story starts from somewhere in the middle, in other words, and our understanding, if it is to progress at all, progresses backward and forward from that point in a quite non-linear fashion.

Anyway, our understanding of the Bible story progresses that way also. As our career as Bible readers progresses, we get to understand the delineations of the big story and to see our place in it, but there's always a feeling that we need to read it again, and to understand it again. We get sidetracked a lot, for one thing. We forget much that we learn and need to relearn it, or we are misled or mislead ourselves . . . the reasons abound. Point being, from time to time we need to start over, and that's what I'm hoping to do here. Start over, but this time beginning with the gospel.

That's all for now. This is going to be a slow process, with maybe one post per week. We're going to ask obvious questions often, just in case the answers aren't as obvious as they may at first seem. And starting in the midst of the story, we're also starting somewhere very close to the turning point. In the life of Jesus much of the story comes clear. But even in this book, the Gospel of Mark, we won't be starting at the beginning. We'll be starting on a spring day in Galilee, when Jesus from Nazareth walked on water. It's as good a place as any to start.

See you next week.