Michael Jensen on Grace

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (August 2021) it’s Is forgiveness really free? And other questions about grace, the law and being saved by Michael Jensen, available in exchange for an email address here.

Credo 9, 4 (2019) on ‘Will All Be Saved?’

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the question: ‘Will all be saved?’

Here’s the blurb:

‘Will all be saved? There are few questions as sensitive as this one. It is sure to provoke an emotional response. For many, to answer “no” is to compromise the very character of God. A God who does not save everyone cannot be a God of love. In response, sometimes evangelicals rattle off texts that say Jesus is the only way or texts that teach the doctrine of hell, all the while neglecting the heart of the matter: the character of God himself. In this issue, pastors and professors alike look at the claims of universalism and show that the reason they fumble is first and foremost because they compromise attributes of God like justice and, yes, even love. Whether you are a churchgoer, pastor, or theologian yourself, it is only a matter of time before someone you love wrestles with universalism. It might even be you. So, prepare now.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

In Christ Alone

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Romans 5:17-19

As he does elsewhere, Paul places the account of salvation on a big stage – nothing less than the story stretching from the first Adam to the second Adam.

He puts it even more succinctly in 1 Corinthians 15:22: ‘For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive.’ It’s by virtue of our union with Adam that we die, and by virtue of our union with Christ that we’re made alive. God fulfils not merely his promise of descendants for Abraham, but creates a new humanity in Christ.

And that little word ‘in’ is all-important.

What’s the central thought of Paul’s letters? Is it justification? Reconciliation? Adoption? Those are certainly important to Paul. But what’s most central is Jesus. The prior, primary, central, fundamental reality for Paul is our union with Christ, being in Christ. And all the benefits of salvation flow from that union – our justification, adoption, redemption, sanctification, preservation and glorification, and our being joined to each other in the church, the body of Christ.

Knowing who we are in Christ has all sorts of implications, as Paul will go on to explain: ‘count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (6:11); ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (8:1); ‘in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others’ (12:5).

All this could sound ever so abstract were it not for our all-consuming interest in identity. Who am I, really? We can spend a lot of time wondering. For some of us, the answer depends to a large extent on what others think and say about us – our parents, our peers, our colleagues. What conclusions about me are reflected back in the way they treat me? Who am I – the joker, the trouble-maker, the failure, the helper?

In Christ, we can know who we are. I may be a son, a husband, a father, a colleague – those things make me who I am. And they are not suppressed, but gloriously redefined in the light of my being in Christ, as I bring that identity into my everyday work, my relationship with my spouse, my conversations with my children, my handling of money, my use of time.

In our union with Christ – and Christ alone – our humanity is not obliterated but restored.

3D Salvation

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly... God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:6-11

The story is told of Brooke Foss Westcott, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge and Church of England bishop, being approached by a zealous evangelist. (Accounts differ as to whether it was a member of the Salvation Army or an undergraduate student, but don’t let that get in the way of a good story.) ‘Are you saved?’, Westcott was asked. To which he apparently replied, ‘Ah, a very good question. But tell me: do you mean…?’ – and went on to cite three forms of the Greek verb ‘to save’, indicating that his answer would depend on which of the three was in mind. ‘I know I have been saved,’ he said, ‘I believe I am being saved, and I hope by the grace of God that I shall be saved.’

There’s a temporal span to our salvation, which embraces past, present, and future.

Having just written of God’s love being ‘poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 5:5), Paul reminds us where that love was so clearly demonstrated in the past – in Christ’s death on our behalf, when we were powerless to save ourselves. If God went to such cost to reconcile us to himself, even when we were his enemies, we can be confident he’ll finish what he has started. All this is grounds for assurance in the present, encouraging us to rejoice for what God has done in Christ.

Paul moves with ease from the past to the future to the present. And it’s helpful that he does. Some of us may be certain that God worked in us in the past, but find it difficult to see his hand on our lives right now. Or we might worry whether things we have done in the past disqualify us from his service in the present. Or our current struggles and suffering can make it hard to see the certainty of our future hope. But Jesus has the whole of our redemption wrapped up – then, now, and forever more.

And it’s all of grace. At every stage – past, present, and future – we come with empty hands, seeking mercy from our heavenly father, recognising as Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13 that we ‘work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling’, knowing that ‘it is God who works in [us] to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose’.

3D Salvation

I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly... God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:6-11

The story is told of Brooke Foss Westcott, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge and Church of England bishop, being approached by a zealous evangelist. (Accounts differ as to whether it was a member of the Salvation Army or an undergraduate student, but don’t let that get in the way of a good story.) ‘Are you saved?’, Westcott was asked. To which he apparently replied, ‘Ah, a very good question. But tell me: do you mean…?’ – and went on to cite three forms of the Greek verb ‘to save’, indicating that his answer would depend on which of the three was in mind. ‘I know I have been saved,’ he said, ‘I believe I am being saved, and I hope by the grace of God that I shall be saved.’

There’s a temporal span to our salvation, which embraces past, present, and future.

Having just written of God’s love being ‘poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 5:5), Paul reminds us where that love was so clearly demonstrated in the past – in Christ’s death on our behalf, when we were powerless to save ourselves. If God went to such cost to reconcile us to himself, even when we were his enemies, we can be confident he’ll finish what he has started. All this is grounds for assurance in the present, encouraging us to rejoice for what God has done in Christ.

Paul moves with ease from the past to the future to the present. And it’s helpful that he does. Some of us may be certain that God worked in us in the past, but find it difficult to see his hand on our lives right now. Or we might worry whether things we have done in the past disqualify us from his service in the present. Or our current struggles and suffering can make it hard to see the certainty of our future hope. But Jesus has the whole of our redemption wrapped up – then, now, and forever more.

And it’s all of grace. At every stage – past, present, and future – we come with empty hands, seeking mercy from our heavenly father, recognising as Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13 that we ‘work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling’, knowing that ‘it is God who works in [us] to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose’.

The Whole of Life for Christ (6): Whole-Life Hope

I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. It’s the penultimate in a series introducing themes explored more fully in the book, The Whole of Life for Christ: Enriching Everyday Discipleship, written with Mark Greene.

‘See, I will create

new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered,

nor will they come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice for ever

in what I will create,

for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight

and its people a joy.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem

and take delight in my people;

the sound of weeping and of crying

will be heard in it no more.’

Isaiah 65:17-19

The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

Romans 8:21-24

In words that John will later pick up in Revelation 21, God – through Isaiah – lays out the goal of his redemptive work – nothing less than a new creation. Not an immaterial heaven, but heaven and earth combined in breathtaking renewal. A restored world washed clean of dirt and pollution, where weeping and crying will no longer be heard, where ugliness and scarcity will be overcome by beauty and abundance. Just pause to imagine such a world.

It’s not like that now (in case you hadn’t noticed...). Romans 8 is one of many places where Paul expresses the tension between how things are now and how they will be one day. And that tension between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’ is part and parcel of everyday discipleship.

The new age has broken into the present age, so that we enjoy ‘the firstfruits of the Spirit’ while awaiting the full harvest. The current experience of birth pains will give way to eventual relief. Paul depicts salvation as being set free from bondage, applying the imagery not just to women and men, but to the entire created order – yet one more reminder of the sweeping scope of God’s work in Christ, where such liberation is not simply ‘internal’ or ‘spiritual’, but the ‘redemption of our bodies’, and of creation itself.

The Bible tells the story of God’s work of redemption, which is a gloriously comprehensive rescue – ‘far as the curse is found’, as the old carol puts it. To be sure, biblical passages use figures of speech in their descriptions of what the future looks like, but they all underline not the removal of creation but its renewal, not its ruination but its restoration.

In this time between the times, our discipleship – in keeping with what will be – is all-embracing, as we make known and live out God’s rule over the whole of life. Seeking to avoid both defeatism (claiming too little) and triumphalism (claiming too much), we can testify to the wide-ranging sweep of God’s renewing power in politics and parenting, in economics and education, in art and athletics – being realistic about current ‘bondage’, but all the while looking forward to the complete restoration of what was originally declared ‘good’.

Such is our confidence and expectation – our hope – a hope of the full disclosure of God’s gracious reign that shapes each of us in the here and now.

Reframing New Testament Theology

I recently stumbled across a new series published by Abingdon Press – Reframing New Testament Theology – with Joel B. Green as its general editor. Joel Green has also produced the first volume in the series: Why Salvation? (Nashville: Abingdon, 2013).

In the Foreword, he notes the framing question for books in the series:

‘How do we take seriously that, together with the Old Testament, the New Testament has in the past and should in the present inform, form, and transform the church’s faith and life?’

And later:

‘What holds this series together is not a particular set of methodological commitments but a keen sense that scripture has in the past and should in the present instruct and shape the church’s faith and life. What does it mean to engage the New Testament from within the church and for the church?’

Green’s contribution on salvation is essentially a revision of a 2004 book published by Chalice Press in their ‘Understanding Biblical Themes’ series. I have always thought that series has been generally overlooked, so perhaps the book will get a wider audience in this new format.

Forthcoming volumes are promised on the cross (by Donald Senior), the church (by Robert W. Wall), and mission (by Dean Flemming).

Nijay Gupta has an interview with Joel Green about the series here.

Credo Magazine 4, 1 (January 2014)

The current issue of Credo is out, this one devoted to ‘Justification’.

According to the editorial blurb:

‘With over 2,000 years of church history in our rear view mirror, it appears that sola fide is a doctrine that comes under discussion in every generation. Our generation is no exception. Much dialogue continues over the New Perspective on Paul, Protestant and Catholic statements of agreement, and the relationship between justification and the Christian life.’

Among other items, the issue contains a long piece by Thomas Schreiner on N.T. Wright on justification now that the latter’s two-volume set on Paul has been published.

The magazine is available to read here, from where also a 37 MB pdf of the whole issue can be downloaded.

John Piper on Salvation and Election

John Piper, Does God Desire All to Be Saved? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013).

This short book – freely made available here by Desiring God – is a revised and expanded version of material previously published elsewhere on the relationship between salvation and election, seeking to argue that ‘God’s unconditional election unto salvation is compatible with God’s genuine desire and offer for all to be saved’.

Credo Magazine 3, 3 (July 2013)

The current issue of Credo is now out, this one devoted to ‘Born Again: God’s Sovereign Grace in the Miracle of Regeneration’.

According to the editorial blurb:

‘While doctrines such as election, justification, and sanctification typically receive all of the attention in theological conversations, the doctrine of regeneration is often forgotten. Yet, it is this doctrine that undergirds the entire order of salvation. It is the initiatory change in regeneration that results in everything else, from faith and repentance to justification, sanctification, and perseverance. All of these other doctrines owe their existence to that first moment when God breaths [sic] new spiritual life into the sinner’s dead corpse.’

The magazine is available to read here, from where also a 41.7 MB pdf of the whole issue can be downloaded.

Credo Magazine 2, 3 (May 2012)

The next issue of Credo is now out, this one devoted to the topic of ‘Chosen by Grace’.

According to the editorial blurb:

‘The biblical doctrine of election is offensive. It collides with our demand for human autonomy. It removes our will from the throne. And it exposes our nakedness, revealing us to be the sinners that we truly are, undeserving of divine grace and mercy.

‘But when our eyes are opened to its glory, we begin to see that the doctrine of election leads us to worship, praise, and give thanks to our Sovereign Lord...’

The magazine is available to read here, and can be downloaded as a 20.8 MB pdf from a link on this page.

9Marks eJournal 9, 2 (March-April 2012) on Conversion

The latest issue of the 9Marks eJournal is now available as a pdf here.

In the Editor’s Note, Jonathan Leeman writes:

‘If you were a fan of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, you might remember that Calvin had a transmogrifier machine. The boy Calvin leads his imaginary tiger Hobbes up to a cardboard box with the word “Transmogrifier” handwritten on it, and explains, “You step into this chamber, set the appropriate dials, and it turns you into whatever you’d like to be.” Hobbes wryly observes, “It’s amazing what they do with corrugated cardboard these days.”

‘The promise of true change is a little unbelievable, isn’t it? It’s the stuff of comic strips and childhood daydreams.

‘But make no mistake: this is exactly what Christianity promises – true and real change. Divine pardon. Reconciliation with God. Smashed idols. A new spirit. A new self. A new family.

‘Since this year’s Together for the Gospel theme is the Underestimated Gospel, we thought we’d jump on the bandwagon and devote the pre-T4G Journal to the underestimated doctrine of conversion. Forget Calvin’s transmogrifier machine. How about a whole new creation!’

Credo Magazine 2 (January 2012)

The second issue of Credo is now out, this one devoted to the topic of ‘In Christ Alone’.

According to the blurb:

‘The January issue argues for the exclusivity of the gospel, especially in light of the movement known as inclusivism. This issue will seek to answer questions like: Can those who have never heard the gospel of Christ be saved? Will everyone be saved in the end or will some spend an eternity in hell? Must someone have explicit faith in Christ to be saved? Contributors include David Wells, Robert Peterson, Michael Horton, Gerald Bray, Todd Miles, Todd Borger, Ardel Caneday, Nathan Finn, Trevin Wax, Michael Reeves, and many others.’

The magazine is available to read here, and can be downloaded as a 35.5 MB pdf here.

Scot McKnight on the Gospel

Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, forthcoming 2011), 176pp., ISBN 9780310492986.

The ever-prolific Scot McKnight is at it again, this time with a forthcoming book on the gospel due out later this year (September being the promised month).

Of course, he has already written on the gospel elsewhere in several places, but it will be great to have some of his thoughts on the topic gathered together in one volume.

Here’s the Synopsis:

‘The gospel is the declaration that Jesus is Messiah and Lord and that gospel declares that the Story of Jesus completes the Story of Israel in a way that saves. This gospel counters the shallow and superficial gospeling today that reduces the gospel to four simple points and eliminates the confession that Jesus is Messiah and Lord.

And here’s the Description:

‘Contemporary evangelicals have built a “salvation culture” but not a “gospel culture.” Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. In the Beginning was the Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.

(I’m wondering whether Zondervan left in an old working title for the book in that final sentence...)

I’m looking forward to this one; meanwhile, there’s a pdf excerpt available here.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

For this year’s Good Friday...

Man of Sorrows! what a name

For the Son of God, who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;

Spotless Lamb of God was He;

‘Full atonement!’ can it be?

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Lifted up was He to die;

‘It is finished!’ was His cry;

Now in Heav’n exalted high.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

When He comes, our glorious King,

All His ransomed home to bring,

Then anew His song we’ll sing:

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Philip P. Bliss

Scot McKnight on Jesus vs. Paul

Christianity Today carries a long-ish piece by Scot McKnight (beginning here) on the perennially-vexing question of the relationship between Jesus and Paul on ‘the gospel’

He begins:

‘Many biblical scholars and lay Christians have noted that Jesus preached almost exclusively about the kingdom of heaven, while Paul highlighted justification by faith—and not vice versa. Some conclude that they preached two different gospels. Others argue that really they both preached justification; still others say it's all about the kingdom. What gives?’

He notes that his own early experience of reading the gospels as they are ‘filtered through Paul's theology’ is not unusual for evangelicals, and he also thinks the Reformation and the Great Awakenings and revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries largely led to a ‘Paul-shaped movement through and through’. And yet, increasingly, he says, there is an ‘unmistakeable shift among many evangelicals from a Pauline-centered theology to a Jesus-shaped kingdom vision’.

‘It is not exaggerating to say that evangelicalism is facing a crisis about the relationship of Jesus to Paul, and that many today are choosing sides. I meet many young, thinking evangelicals whose “first language” is Jesus and the kingdom. Yet despite the trend, perhaps in reaction to it, many look to Paul and justification by faith as their first language. Those addicted to kingdom language struggle to make Paul fit, while those addicted to Paul’s theological terms struggle to make Jesus fit.’

According to McKnight, attempts to make the one fit the other only end up reducing the gospel – either it gets equated with the kingdom or it becomes a synonym for justification by faith.

Instead, leaning on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (in which, McKnight notes, there is not a word about ‘kingdom’ or ‘justification’), he says:

‘The gospel is first and foremost about Jesus. Or, to put it theologically, it's about Christology. Behind or underneath both kingdom and justification is the gospel, and the gospel is the saving story of Jesus that completes Israel’s story. “To gospel” is to tell a story about Jesus as the Messiah, as the Lord, as the Son of God, as the Savior.’

After some more elaboration of this point, he concludes:

‘My contention, then, is simple: If we begin with kingdom, we have to twist Paul into shape to fit a kingdom vision. If we being with justification, we have to twist Jesus into shape to fit justification. But if we begin with gospel, and if we understand gospel as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, then we will find what unifies Jesus and Paul – that both witness to Jesus as the center of God’s story.’

D.A. Carson on the Gospel

D.A. Carson, ‘What is the Gospel?—Revisited’, in Sam Storms and Justin Taylor (eds.), For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 147-70.

This brand new essay has been made freely available online here.

In the first few footnotes of the essay, Carson refers to other items he has written on the gospel, available elsewhere online. Those familiar with those treatments will not be surprised with the content and conclusions of this new one; but it’s enormously helpful to have this as a way-station to future promised publications. In fact, Carson refers to two larger projects, one showing how the New Testament relates ‘gospel’ words to an array of theological and pastoral themes, and another exploring the significance of the ‘evangel’ for evangelicalism (148). I’m aware this latter is forthcoming as a book sometime next year, all being well.

The opening chunk of this essay is devoted to a survey of the ‘evangel-’ words in the Septuagint and the New Testament (148-54). This is followed by some ‘preliminary observations’ on the ‘gospel’ words, taking in word study fallacies, literary genre, the gospel and the Roman imperial cult, and gospel content and gospel proclamation (155-57).

The closing section offers ‘more probing observations on these gospel words’ (158-70), under the following points:

• The gospel is heraldic proclamation

• The gospel in its wide and narrow senses

• The gospel is not simply important news, but good news

• The gospel is not just for unbelievers, but also for believers

• ‘Evangelists’ in the New Testament are simply proclaimers of the gospel

• The gospel is not only revelation, but also history

• What the gospel rescues us from, and what it saves us for

Carson maintains his emphasis from earlier essays on not confusing the essence of the gospel with the entailments of the gospel (my categories, I think). Hence:

‘The heart of the gospel is what God has done in Jesus, supremely in his death and resurrection. Period. It is not personal testimony about our repentance; it is not a few words about our faith response; it is not obedience; it is not the cultural mandate or any other mandate... The gospel is the good news about what God has done’ (162).

And, on the issue of whether the gospel is ‘purely a matter of individual salvation’ or should be seen ‘essentially in terms of community and social justice’, he comments:

‘That the Bible addresses both of these topics is beyond dispute. What is more doubtful is that the Bible treats either as the gospel. The better question asks the extent to which the Bible insists that there are both individual and communal outcomes to the preaching of the gospel, neither of which is the gospel itself’ (159).

Light on the Gospel

This entry was first published as an article in EG 26 (June 2010), by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
‘Your God reigns!’
Isaiah 52:7

Many religions begin by telling men and women what they should do; Christianity begins with what God has done. The shorthand word for this is ‘gospel’, referring not to a set of good instructions or a piece of good advice, but to the good news of what God himself has achieved – for me, for us, for the world – in Christ.

Good News from God

In the Roman Empire of the first century, the word ‘gospel’ was associated with announcements of imperial decrees. Heralds would visit towns and cities spreading the ‘good news’ of military victories or an emperor’s accession to the throne. In such a context, the announcement of the good news of God’s reign, and the call to confess Christ (not Caesar) as Lord might well have sounded politically subversive.

For the early Christians, however, the use of the term was not just culturally convenient, but arrived theologically soaked in Old Testament promises of salvation. Isaiah, in particular, declares the ‘good tidings’ of God coming in power, exercising his reign, saving his people, and bringing peace (e.g. 40:9-10; 41:27; 52:7; 60:1). The promises here are bound up with the return of the exiles to Jerusalem and the renewal of the formerly devastated city, which finds itself at the centre of a new heavens and a new earth. It becomes apparent in these closing chapters of Isaiah that God’s kingly reign is universal in its scope, embracing the nations, bringing about a new order of peace and righteousness for all peoples. No wonder it’s described as ‘good news’!

And no wonder, then, that Paul writes of the ‘gospel of God’ (e.g. Romans 1:1; 15:16; 2 Corinthians 11:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:2, 8-9), reminding his readers that this good news originates in him, and is about his kingly action in saving the world.

Good News about Jesus

How does God bring about this promised salvation? Through the death and resurrection of his Son. If the gospel is the ‘gospel of God’ at one end of Romans (1:1), it is also the ‘gospel of Christ’ at the other end (15:19; cf. 2 Corinthians 2:12; 9:13; 10:14; Galatians 1:7; Philippians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 3:2).

Occasionally, Paul outlines the essence of the gospel more fully. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, for example, provides an early statement. Here Paul reminds the Corinthians of the gospel he had ‘preached’ (literally, ‘gospeled’) to them as something he had himself ‘received’ and ‘passed on’. Describing it as ‘of first importance’, he sums it up in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, ‘according to the Scriptures’. In particular, Paul writes, ‘Christ died for our sins’, emphasising the significance of his sin-bearing death. And he ties Jesus’ death to his resurrection, as the rest of the chapter makes clear. It is as ‘Christ’ – God’s appointed king – that Jesus dies for our sins, is buried and raised to life. Jesus Christ crucified and risen again is the ‘good news’ that Paul preached, on which the Corinthians have taken their stand, and by which they are saved (15:1-2).

In Romans 1:1-6, likewise, Paul makes it clear that the gospel is focused on Christ and rooted in Scripture. It’s about what God has achieved through his Son – Jesus Christ our Lord – the fruition of promises made long ago through the prophets. Small wonder, then, that the gospel defines Paul and his ministry, that he is set aside for it, that he is so eager to preach it. Note what he says of the gospel in Romans 1:16-17: that it is the declaration of God’s saving power through the work of his Son, bringing men and women into a right relationship with himself, which comes about as it always has done – through faith, from first to last – and which is available equally to all who believe, breaking down barriers between ethnic groups in the process. How could he be ashamed of that?

In addition, Paul’s reference to Jesus being born as a royal descendant of David and raised from the dead in the power of God’s Spirit (1:3-4) perhaps draws attention to the significance of the entire story of Jesus, from birth to exaltation (see also 2 Timothy 2:8) – reminding us (by the way) that the gospel can’t float free as a ‘nice idea’ without being rooted in these unique events.

It’s no surprise, then, that the designation ‘gospel’ is used to describe the narratives about Jesus in the New Testament, nor that they share a common focus on what Jesus said and did – and especially on the significance of his final week – not to mention the conviction that what they record is the fulfilment of God’s promises of blessing which reach back to Abraham, that salvation history is brought to its climax in Jesus.

Mark, for instance, begins by saying that his account of the ‘gospel’ is about ‘Jesus Christ, the Son of God’ (1:1), and describes Jesus preaching the ‘good news’ of the arrival of God’s reign (1:14-15) – all as the culmination of a story which reaches back into God’s dealings with his people. Jesus himself understands his ministry as fulfilling the herald of Isaiah, as he reads Isaiah 61:1-2 in the Nazareth synagogue and announces the arrival of the era of salvation and peace promised long ago (Luke 4:18-21). But as the gospel stories move on, it becomes clear that the liberation will come about through Jesus taking on the role of the servant who would suffer and die on behalf of others, as Jesus walks the inexorable path to death and resurrection.

Nor should it come as any surprise that these same emphases form the basis of the proclamation of the early church in Acts (2:22-39; 3:12-26; 10:34-43; 13:23-41), with the gospel as the announcement of God’s victory over sin and death in Jesus Christ.

Good News of Salvation

And it’s a big salvation! We have been reminded by a number of writers in recent years that the gospel must not be reduced to individual justification without also understanding the purpose of God to redeem a people and ultimately remake the world. Of course, the gospel is certainly not less than personal forgiveness, but it is much more, involving not only the rescue of men and women from judgment, but the renewal of God’s relationship with his people, and the restoration of creation itself.

Romans 16:25-27 provides a doxological summary of the gospel at the end of the letter, coming full circle back to where Paul started – with the gospel as God’s plan for the salvation of humankind in Christ. In between, it’s seen as embracing individuals, Jews and Gentiles together, and the whole cosmos, undoing the consequences of sin – guilt, bondage, and death – all of which reaches back to Old Testament promises to Abraham and David, not to mention God’s own blessing of creation.

Indeed, the comprehensive nature of the salvation God brings is evident when we look at the larger tapestry of the biblical story as a whole – moving from creation to new creation – the overarching plan of redemption of a fallen people and the recreation of a damaged world.

Good News for Life

Since belief in the gospel comes bound up with a particular view of reality – of God, Christ, creation, humanity, sin, redemption – we discover that it provides the perspective from which to view the whole of life. It is the gospel that funds the entirety of our existence as disciples of Christ. There is no place that the gospel does not touch with its implications because of the comprehensive nature of God’s saving work in Christ, his rule over every aspect of life.

There is an appropriate priority here, however. Those who might fall into the trap of thinking the gospel is about what we do, whether in social action or discipleship, need to be reminded that it is foremost the proclamation of what God has done in Christ – which then, however, carries certain entailments, as God works through those of us who believe. Church life, mission, ministries of mercy, as well as our discipleship all flow out of, and take their bearings from, what God has first accomplished – and will accomplish – in Christ for the sake of the world.

Although the notion of an ‘integral gospel’ or ‘holistic gospel’ has gratifyingly become increasingly common parlance, something more than that is at stake here – the working out of the implications of the gospel in all aspects of life – in the home and at work, in the hospital and at school, in the art gallery and the sports arena, in business and in politics, our lives reflecting the scope of his reign, our relationships displaying the arrival of the kingdom and anticipating its future consummation, living to the glory of the God of the gospel.

Further Reading

James V. Brownson et al., Stormfront: The Good News of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
A critique of how individualism and privatisation of religion have led to truncated versions of the gospel.

Ted A. Campbell, The Gospel in Christian Traditions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
An academic work showing that the same ‘basic’ gospel laid out in 1 Corinthians 15 is found in different traditions throughout the history of Christian thought.

Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010).
A concise treatment of the gospel in terms of the God to whom we are accountable, humanity as sinful, Christ as God’s solution, and humanity’s response in repentance and faith.

Chris Green (ed.), God’s Power to Save: One Gospel for a Complex World? (Leicester: Apollos, 2006).
A helpful collection of essays addressing, among other matters, the vexed issue of whether Paul and Jesus preached different gospels.

Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009).
A bracing call for our lives and churches to be shaped by the gospel.

Timothy Keller, Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).
An excellent eight-session course for groups, supported by a DVD and Study Guide, showing how the gospel is lived out in the whole of life – in our heart, in our communities, and in the world.

Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (London: SPCK, 1989).
A classic discussion of how the gospel relates to secular, humanist, pluralist culture.

David Naugle on Kingdom Living: Developing a Biblical View of Life

The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview recently came to the end of a 17-part series by David Naugle on ‘Kingdom Living: Developing a Biblical View of Life’ (see below for the individual entries and his summaries).

Naugle has written more fully on worldview in a number of places, but these 17 short articles provide an uncomplicated introduction to the three essential themes of creation, fall, and redemption that he sees at the heart of the biblical worldview.

Such a worldview, he notes in the first article in the series, takes the whole of Scripture into consideration – from Genesis to Revelation. It also provides a way of tackling the problem of dualism, what Naugle refers to as ‘the tendency to divide life itself up into airtight compartments of the sacred and the secular’, leading to a ‘false, fragmented approach to Christianity’ which ‘hands huge chunks of life over to the kingdom of darkness’.

‘In place of this sinister dualism, a Biblically-based worldview offers a fresh, motivating vision of wholeness. It embraces the entirety of life. It redefines the nature of sacred and secular in terms of obedience and disobedience respectively. It brings the totality of life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Christianity is concerned about the whole person, the whole of life, and the whole world! For God is not a God of dualism, but of unity, integrity, and completeness.’

1. Introduction to the Christian Worldview
Every human being is shaped by his or her worldview. For Christians, understanding the worldview one holds is especially critical because a biblical worldview is shaped by Jesus Christ himself.

2. Where On Earth Are We?
Every human being is shaped by his or her worldview. One of the critical elements of the biblical worldview is that God created the heavens and the earth. Christians must understand the origins, nature, and purpose of the universe in which they live.

3. Who On Earth Are We?
Every human being is shaped by his or her worldview. Christians cling to a biblical worldview that explains the origin and purpose of the human species.

4. Why Are We Here?
Human beings are shaped by their worldviews. The biblical worldview holds that God created human beings, and that he did so for specific purposes. Understanding these reasons is critical for Christian living.

5. Man, Woman, Marriage
The biblical account of God creating man and woman provides unique and intimate insight concerning the purpose God has ordained for humankind. Humans were created in the image of God, a fact that carries highly significant ramifications for all theaters of life, particularly concerning human understanding of spirituality and marriage.

6. Humpty Dumpty: What’s Gone Wrong?
As in the famous nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, humanity has had a great fall. With the entrance of sin into the world through Adam and Eve, the plans God had for his creations were shattered like poor Humpty Dumpty. Fortunately for humanity, however, God provides a way for us to be put together again.

7. The Spread and Escalation of Sin (Genesis 4-11)
The opening chapters of Genesis provide the framework for understanding the rest of Scripture, and, indeed, the rest of human history. The sin of Adam and Eve resulted in the distortion of a good creation, as demonstrated through the stories found in Genesis 4-11.

8. The Fall in the New Testament: Jesus and Paul
Naugle discusses the New Testament depiction of sin as revealed in the teachings of Jesus and Paul.

9. A Theology of Creation and the Fall
Only through the lens of a biblical worldview can one pursue Kingdom living. In order to develop a biblical worldview, one must first determine an orthodox theology of creation and the fall.

10. Introduction to the Covenants
The overarching story of the Christian Bible is the story of redemption. The book of Genesis describes the creation of the world by God, the fall and distortion of this creation through the sin of mankind, and the subsequent promise God makes to redeem his creation – which he does! The biblical covenants illustrate the gracious, faithful, and loving character of God.

11. The Covenants with Noah and Abraham
Human beings are sinful; the biblical accounts of the flood and the Tower of Babel illustrate this sad fact. In his mercy, however, God has been working since the fall to redeem his creation. Part of how he accomplishes this goal is through covenants formed with Noah and Abraham.

12. Sinai, Davidic, and New Covenants
Since the entrance of sin into the world, God has been working to restore his creation. This process of redemption has been achieved through covenants, such as the ones made at Sinai and with David and culminating with the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.

13. Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God
The Old Testament ends with a note of expectation: the people were waiting for the kingdom of God. Finally, John the Baptist announced the arrival of the Lamb of God and the kingdom of heaven.

14. Redemption in John and Paul
In the books of the New Testament, there is theological diversity. What unifies the theology of the New Testament is the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

15. Ethics and Eschatology
Christian faith is rooted in the belief that Jesus Christ came as a human being and that he will come again as an eschatological judge and king. This belief informs how Christians live their lives.

16. Christianity and Culture
Christians must determine how they are to live in the world, despite the deep divide between the Christian community and the secular world. While Scripture warns against worldliness, it also exhorts believers to engage the culture rather than retreat from it. Different Christian traditions have approached this problem in different ways.

17. Redeeming Vocation
Lay Christian believers often feel as though they are second class citizens in the Kingdom of God compared to those who serve as missionaries or pastors. This spiritual dualism is one of the things that the Protestant Reformers worked to correct, and we must again work to return to a biblical understanding of vocation.

John Coffey on Reclaiming a Biblical Theology of Liberation

John Coffey, ‘“To Release the Oppressed”: Reclaiming a Biblical Theology of Liberation’, Cambridge Papers 18, 4 (December 2009).

The latest news from the Jubilee Centre reports the publication of a new Cambridge Paper by John Coffey on issues related to slavery and freedom.

A summary is available here, and the full paper is available here.