| What is the gospel? |
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| God—in Other Words |
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Strange question, perhaps. After all, surely we know what the gospel is. We are Christians, God’s people, and we have the Truth. It’s as though we have a divine warrant for our product: By appointment to His Eternal Majesty The Church Purveyor of Pure Unadulterated Truth But even though we claim so much about Truth and our possession of it, that most basic essential of the Truth—the good news—remains elusive! No, you say. Can’t be! Surely we preach the gospel all the time. Not according to one friend of mine who says that the gospel is no longer preached from the pulpit, and he has the tapes to prove it… And if you ask for definitions of the gospel, it does seem that some of us are getting a bit “off beam.” The health/wealth gospel maybe. (And yes, surely God wants us to be healthy, and he wants to bless us. But this is not the gospel, or the way of salvation.) Or perhaps yours is the Gospel According to Saul. That’s Paul before his conversion. Zealous for the faith. Charging ahead in the name of the Lord. As strict in the Law as a Pharisee of the Pharisees could be. Giving his all so he could destroy the pernicious heretics. But wrong, oh so wrong! (And in this context, what about those who claim to be for Apollos or Paul, or *****? Fill in appropriate names! Is that the gospel—all blindly playing follow-my-leader?) Or maybe you follow the Gospel of the Elect. That gospel that is the prized possession of the elite minority, a set of eclectic ideas and creedal formulas that (like those held by the Essenes at Qumran) are jealously guarded since they must be enshrined and preserved. But like bread that’s kept stored up, this type of bread of life tends to go a bit moldy... And if it is the special possession of the Elect, it’s hard to share...especially with just anybody! Then there’s the Gospel According to Me. That specially personalized version that moulds itself to your own particular obsessions--and makes salvation dependent on everyone doing and being just like you. (And if you don’t see that version yet, just look around you. Bees busy buzzing in bonnets, all manner of crankiness about to burst loose...) Not forgetting, of course, the “Go With The Times” version. The version that says (in line with contemporary philosophy, to be sure) you must adopt the ways of the world and endorse any technique in order to communicate. Communication is desperately important--but not every vehicle is suitable. But then if the gospel can be explained as social ethics or psychological compensations or whatever other contemporary theory, is there any point in preaching it anyway? One particular “gospel” favourite is the “Dustshaking” approach. This parallels a smash-and-grab raid—or is a hit-and-run driver more appropriate? Whatever, this scheme involves giving all the articles of doctrine as fast as possible, crashing through any possible objections, and then zooming on to a demand for decision. When the poor bewildered victim shakes his head in disbelief, the speeding converter says “Well, you’ve had your chance. I gave you the gospel and you’ve rejected it. I’m off.” And consigning the woe-begotten unfortunate to the end-time flames, our gospel-proclaiming hero zooms off in a cloud of dust shaken from his speeding feet. All these are minority gospel versions. Sadly the majority version is probably a lot less interesting! We may not say it with our lips, but our actions describe the gospel we believe. It’s the gospel of making sure you get to church every week—making sure you’re counted and included in. The gospel of observing the rules, giving offerings, and being careful not to be caught doing anything you shouldn’t. Or maybe it’s even worse than that—the gospel of having nothing to say at all. The “I’m a Christian but please don’t ask me why” approach. The gospel of apathy and indifference, of uncaring, boring, nothingness. What was that about having a message to give to the world? What were we meant to be saying? Have we become like actors who’ve forgotten their lines? What is the gospel? We can all mouth the words about telling others about Jesus, even quote texts like “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” But if we don’t mean it, if it doesn’t change us, if our lives don’t show God, we haven’t got the gospel and the truth is not in us. We are tongue-tied with nothing to say. All the other versions of the gospel are frauds because they replace the essential truth with something different. The gospel is about a person—a God who loves you, and the one you love in return, and who wants to love all his misguided, floundering children. It’s about this God who continues to care, who is answering the charges brought against him through demonstration, who desperately wants to end this time of sin and suffering and to take us home to be with him forever. This is the God who answers our questions, ends our fears, and is our salvation. The good news is not to be equated to healthy living or a caring community or anything else, however laudable. It’s not about the church. It’s not about ourselves. It’s about God. We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. © Jonathan Gallagher |
