The Gospel Coalition

Bobby and Kristen Gilles (Sojourn Church) have a new website filled with great resources and new music. Check it out here:

The church is called to sing, shout, walk and talk the gospel everyday, testifying of the salvation Christ won for us and the care he shows for us each day. At this new website, pastors, songwriters, church communications professionals and all Christians – mature and new – can read about how to testify more effectively from Sojourn Church’s Director of Communications and songwriter Bobby Gilles and his wife, worship leader Kristen Gilles. And you can download their new song “My Song In The Night,” recorded with the Sojourn Music band, for free.

James Emery White asks: Whatever Happened to Evangelism?

In 1973, psychiatrist Karl Menninger published a book with the provocative title, Whatever Became of Sin?  His point was that sociology and psychology tend to avoid terms like “evil,” or “immorality,” and “wrongdoing.” Menninger detailed how the theological notion of sin became the legal idea of crime and then slid further from its true meaning when it was relegated to the psychological category of sickness. It’s time someone wrote a book for the church titled Whatever  Became of Evangelism?

If Netflix is smart, they’ll treat these recently announced changes as a gag – kind of like New Coke.

If you missed the news, Qwikster will replace Netflix’s mail-order service and will show up as a separate bill for customers who want both services. The DVD service will no longer have ties to Netflix streaming, so you won’t be able to place a DVD in your Qwikster queue from Netflix, or start watching a streaming Netflix movie from Qwikster. This is Netflix’s attempt to draw a clear line between the two services after raising prices by 60% for people who wanted both.

Donald Miller on the best writing advice he ever received:

I’ve a shelf at home devoted to books about writing. I’d say I might even have two shelves devoted to those books now. I’ve read most of them and some are better than others. But the best writing advice I’ve ever received didn’t come from a book. It actually occurred to me one morning when I was lying in bed, not wanting to get up and do my job. Maybe it came from heaven, I don’t know. But the advice was this: Love your reader.

Tullian Tchividjian is bringing together a great line-up of speakers this winter for an event called Liberate: The Grace Works Conference. Details here.

Notes on two books I’ve read recently:

 Not a Fan:
Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus
Kyle Idleman (Zondervan)
***1/2

In Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman, teaching pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, critiques a nominal Christianity that distorts the historic faith, focusing on the benefits of salvation while ignoring what it costs to follow Christ.

Idleman contrasts “fans of Jesus” (those content to remain passive spectators with a Christian label) with “followers of Jesus” (those who seek a life of submission to Christ’s lordship). His book is a restatement of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s emphasis on dying to oneself in order to live for Christ.

 With:
Reimagining the Way You Relate to God
Skye Jethani
**** 1/2

We were made to live with God; sin cuts us off from Him. Unfortunately, many in the church adopt a posture toward God that only exacerbates the severed relationship. We try life over God, under God, from God, or for God – each posture offering a different way to manipulate God out of fear.

Skye Jethani calls Christians back to a life of intimate communion with God, made possible only by Christ’s work on the cross. In treasuring God for who He is, we are offered an enthralling vision of life with the only One who can satisfy the deepest longings of our souls.

- These reviews were first published in Christianity Today (August-September 2011). 

Saved Sex: Loving Our Young People Enough to Tell Them the Truth

Make each other wait. That phrase, which concedes that discipline will be required, brings me back to Jeannie’s question, Do you really think teens will practice abstinence? This question implies that young people are incapable of self-control, and I disagree with that premise. Making each other wait may mean going against the post-sexual-revolution norm, but people, unlike animals, have the capacity to rise above herd ­mentality. (HT)

Michael Hyatt on “How to Coach Your Boss”:

The best bosses welcome criticism, knowing that the shortest distance between where they are and where they want to go is the truth. They create a “safe environment,” where people can freely speak their mind.

But what if you are not sure about your boss? What if you are afraid you will jeopardize your career by speaking up? Here are a few things to consider when attempting to offer advice to your supervisor.

Early Christians on Abortion:  (HT)

It’s important to note that the Jewish and Christian attitudes toward pregnancy, contraception (it existed in the ancient world), abortion, infanticide, marriage, family and sex conflicted with Greco-Roman perspectives. Abortion and infanticide were common (remember the Spartan baby inspector in the movie 300 debating whether or not to throw the baby Leonidas down the cliff with the other discarded babies?). It is a great triumph of Christianity that we stamped these practices out of western society.

The Great Pop vs. Soda Page:

Using the World Wide Web to gather and process data from across English-speaking North America, I intend to plot the regional variations in the use of the terms “Pop” and “Soda” to describe carbonated soft drinks.

O God, be Thou exalted over my possessions.
Nothing of earth’s treasures shall seem dear unto me
if only Thou art glorified in my life.

Be Thou exalted over my friendships.
I am determined that Thou shalt be above all,
though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth.

Be Thou exalted above my comforts.
Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses
I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee.

Be Thou exalted over my reputation.
Make me ambitious to please Thee
even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream.

Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor,
above my ambitions,
above my likes and dislikes,
above my family,
my health and even my life itself.

Let me decrease that Thou mayest increase,
let me sink that Thou mayest rise above.

- A.W. Tozer

“When modern sociologists talk of the necessity of accommodating one’s self to the trend of the time, they forget that the trend of the time at its best consists entirely of people who will not accommodate themselves to anything. At its worst it consists of many millions of frightened creatures all accommodating themselves to a trend that is not there.”

- G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Some lighthearted fun from the Holy Observer today. (This post was written in 2004, and the movie mentioned is The Passion of the Christ.)

God to Intercessors: Just Stop Saying “Just”
Linguistic grace no longer applicable to mutually exclusive prayer requests

For decades, God has lavished his followers with linguistic grace regarding what could be considered an epidemic in the prayer world – the use of the word “just.” Usually found in a pattern similar to “God, please just [insert petition] and just [insert another petition],” the word “just” has made answering prayers a confusing and tedious process for the Almighty. In response, God declared earlier this month that Christians everywhere may no longer use the word “just” during intercessory prayer, effective immediately.

In an AIM interview with The Holy Observer, an official from Heaven explained, “This has been a huge frustration for everyone up here. For ages our gracious Father has put up with the grouping of mutually exclusive prayer requests, on each occasion taking extra time trying to decipher what the intercessor probably wanted the most. You see, the prayer queue was getting quite backed up but it was usually manageable. That is, until last month when the queue was flooded with hundreds of millions of contradictory requests. They were like, ‘Lord, just use this movie as an evangelistic tool,’ ‘God, just help us to grow spiritually as we watch this movie,’ ‘God, just let everyone understand that this movie is about Your love,’ and the one God answered, ‘Father, please just let this movie make box office history.’”

That debacle last month was apparently the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. It is reported that God, in His perfect frustration, echoed throughout Heaven yelling, “I can only JUST do one thing!” Thus, we have the aforementioned decree.

One official, obviously becoming irritated by the topic, continued, “And that’s not even the end of it! Not only do humans continually ask God to ‘just’ do 47 things, but then they add another 85 things that they’re‘just’ doing! ‘I just want to thank You for Your grace,’ ‘I just want to lift up my mom to You,’ ‘I just praise You today.’ No! See if you just wanted to praise Him today you’d be done now! But you’re NOT, are you!?”

Officials also explained some of the details of this decree, which will be released in its final form to church leaders worldwide on April 1st. “Not only is God demanding an end to the use of the word ‘just’ during intercession, but he also is going to reject every incoming prayer request that includes it. This, of course, excludes the use of the words ‘adjust,’ ‘justice,’ ‘justly,’ ‘Justin,’ ‘Justine,’ ‘justness,’ ‘unjust,’ the adjective ‘just,’ and all their forms.”

Many congregations across the country seem confused as to why this holy mandate is necessary. “I just don’t understand what the big deal is,” began Quinton Hainsley, an intercessor at the Fire Spirit House of Prayer in Atlanta, GA. “I think this is just directed at a few Christians who just don’t think before they speak. They also just don’t let the Spirit guide them.”

Others are responding with repentance and lamentation for all the prayers that may have gone unanswered due to their self-contradictory phrasings. Genesis Kun, music director at Open Gate Assembly of God in Nashville, began worship this past Sunday, “Dear Jesus, we ask merely one thing of you this morning: please pour out Your wisdom on us and give us the words to speak, as we have faltered in the past. And be our foundation during these times and send Your Spirit in a mighty way. Our single prayer to You this morning is for forgiveness. If You could just…..ly give us grace we might honor You as we continue to think about these things.”

Regardless of their levels of understanding as to why God’s directive is necessary, most Christians are hopeful that this will help God expedite their prayer requests so they might receive answers sooner. We will have to wait and see about that, but one thing is certain. God, in his perfect timing, has asked us all to give up “just” during this Lenten season and beyond.

Seven links for your weekend reading:

1. Christ, the Church, and Pat Robertson

2. “All pastoral ministry has gone the way of youth ministry.”

3. The Enduring Significance of Francis Schaeffer

4. Census Poverty Numbers Grim, But Measures Misleading

5. Interesting new research. A majority of pastors with denominational affiliation believe it is vital to be part of a denomination, but a majority also believe that the importance of identifying with a denomination will diminish over the next 10 years.

6. Evangelical Self-Identity and the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy

7. Twitter is the Fastest Growing Social Network

I like to read memoirs, but I rarely review them on the blog. (Dick Van Dyke’s was a notable exception.) But a recent book that caught my attention is Surprised by Oxford, a memoir written by Carolyn Weber, who came to faith in Christ during her time at Oxford University. The book is one part romance, one part Christian apologetic, yet all parts beautifully written, with prose that sings and paragraphs that beg to be read a second time. Carolyn was gracious enough to join me for a blog conversation based on her book, which I highly recommend.

Trevin Wax: Carolyn, what will probably ‘surprise’ the reader of Surprised by Oxford is the idea that one would attend this university and find a Christian witness powerful enough to break through the armor of an agnostic or skeptic. Was it the seriousness of the Christianity you encountered there or the vacuity of relativism that led you to deeper reflection about God and the world? (Or if it’s both, what was the role of each?)

Carolyn Weber: I think whenever seriousness bumps up against vacuity, a storm necessarily ensues. C.S. Lewis identified joy as the “serious business of heaven.” At Oxford, I was struck not only by the intellectual rigor of many Christians I came to meet but also by their deep joy. This combination intrigued me – taking one’s faith seriously but not oneself too much so.

Oxford is a fascinating place because many forms of dialogue about faith issues (among other things) coexist. So while there is certainly hostility toward the Christian faith (as there is everywhere, especially in much of secular academia), at Oxford there are also pockets of strategic Christian thinkers, activists, or at least curious and open-minded individuals willing to consider faith at face value and as a viable form of truth.

Trevin Wax: Your mentioning joy reminds me of the way G.K. Chesterton wrote – provocative, but funny, even when discussing serious matters. I thought your memoir did a great job of capturing the wonder you felt as you slowly stumbled closer to the Christian faith. Sometimes it’s easy for people raised in church who came to faith at young ages to lose that sense of wonder. How would you counsel someone who believes the gospel but has lost some of the joy associated with a rich Christian faith?

Carolyn Weber: This is a great question, and I think you are right to use the word “joy.” I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this topic lately (and was about to publish a new post on it), so your question is also timely.

Joy is not the same thing as happiness, nor is it contentment either. Rather, I think, joy runs so deep and clear, or blazes so bold and bright, precisely because it is purely a gift of God to His people. There is nothing we alone, without God, can do to generate, orchestrate, predict, secure, or micromanage it.

Without having a relationship with Christ, experiencing joy can certainly throw into relief our ache for such redemption through unspeakably immense mercy and love. It is even a means by which we are drawn closer to God. But for believers, joy not only reminds us of the eternal glory of God, it also re-members us into the body of Christ, in terms of communion and community. And so for Christians, I think it is possible to experience intense joy even in the midst of great sadness, loss, or isolation, perhaps even more so at times because of them. As a result, these spots of joy help us love and encourage – our only language for it, really, as joy is hard to “speak.”

Trevin Wax: I like how you are connecting joy to the body of Christ. One of the interesting aspects of your memoir is how you moved from being resistant to and even repelled by evangelical Christians at the beginning to being open to believers and their worship services, even before you came to Christ. How central was Christian friendship and Christian worship in your journey from agnosticism to faith? How might you encourage others to see these two pillars as a means of evangelism?

Carolyn Weber: Christian friendship and worship are indeed two pillars of sharing the gospel, and they were certainly key components in my journey to faith. I had the blessing of meeting many engaging, dynamic believers early in my quest and then being led to churches that were intelligently, sensitively, and unapologetically evangelical.

For many of us living in mainstream culture, maybe even because of mainstream culture, Jesus can seem remote, unknowable, even irrelevant. But when you meet and begin to engage with thoughtful followers of Christ, folks who not only purposely examine and grow in their faith but who also model it in a myriad of ways, well, that’s a powerful testimony. You can see the eternal life-giving water of Scripture at work in “real time”; you can put your hand in the wound, so to speak, and be transformed.

Christians should never underestimate the power of their priesthood among nonbelievers. I was hooked, and drawn deeper into the faith, by the character of various believers and how it spoke of their God: by their humility, humor, compassion, perspective, even priorities.

Christian worship echoes this, so that liturgy, or tradition, becomes alive, a deeply reverent relevance to our own lives. I tried to capture it in my chapter titled “Church Going.” Worship can be an alienating experience at first for a seeker or new believer; I think the savvier a church can be about creating a comfort zone in which people feel safe to explore and ask questions, the better. And yet a balance must be struck, and Biblical truths must not only be taught but upheld by the Church itself as an extension of Christian friendship and fellowship, even when this makes people uncomfortable in the face of what the world says.

Trevin Wax: Was there any particular doctrine or Christian teaching that you had difficulty accepting?

Carolyn Weber: Eternal damnation is not one of my personal favorites, though I do think of not having a personal relationship with Christ as pretty hellish in the very here and now. I have been haunted by the old arguments, such as what happens to the person who hasn’t “heard” the gospel, when babies die, etc., etc. As I ask in my book, how can heaven be heaven without those I love in it?

Since becoming a believer, scholarship such as Randy Alcorn’s or John Piper’s or Dallas Willard’s has helped me with such hauntings. In the end, however, I have to ultimately trust in God’s goodness and that His judgment and design and plans therefore must be more perfect and just than I could ever conceive. So, as I like to say, and truly mean, thank God I’m not God!

Trevin Wax: What do you hope your book will accomplish?

Carolyn Weber: I pray that the book touches hearts as readers come through the looking glass with me into Oxford. I hope that some will be startled – or at the very least, invited – into the abundant-life-everlasting of Christ, and I hope that others will deepen an already existing relationship and be encouraged to help others toward and along the path.

I pray, too, that the reading net is cast wide. This may seem obvious, but when I look back at my own educational experience in mainstream North American society, I am shocked and saddened at the lack of opportunities our schools and other forums of “ideas” offer for the young in particular to learn about faith, to even consider it a place from which to make informed decisions about their lives. Given my own experiences and varied relationships, I don’t feel particularly pigeonholed in my life; I tried to include characters and scenes that reflected this reality for me in the book.

I hope this way of trying to live in the world but not of it also speaks of how greatly I admire Jesus’ preference for discernment over discrimination. All we need to do is open the Bible to find identification with ourselves and reconciliation with God. We can find every single facet of our beings there, literally, I believe, every single one. So when God, the great Author Himself, enters the story as a character crucified to save the very reader, He not only makes the Word flesh but reconciles the dissatisfactions and satisfactions of being human with the perfect Holy Spirit moving among us, breathing within us. “The kingdom of God is within you,” He whispers, shouts, signs, teaches, reminds: “you know the way to the place where I am going.” When we have the courage, trust, or enough beseechment of wisdom to look (whether long and hard or short and clear) into our hearts, we do know the way. Absolutely.

J.D. Greear’s new book, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, will hit shelves in a couple weeks. Along with the book is a new curriculum for small groups called Gospel Revolution. Both are great resources that I highly recommend. If you pre-order the curriculum, you’ll also receive an HCSB Study Bible. Details here.

Michelle Bachmann’s Dangerous Flirtation with the Anti-Vaccine Movement:

It is right and proper that government requires, as a matter of public health, certain kinds of vaccines. Vaccination has saved millions of lives; it is unquestionably one of the greatest successes of modern medicine. Fortunately, the anti-vaccination movement has remained on the fringes of our public life. Its central claims about the dangers of vaccines — like the claim that vaccines have been responsible for the rising number of autism diagnoses — have been thoroughly, repeatedly, rigorously debunked. With her comments about the HPV vaccine in the past day, Representative Bachmann has associated herself with this irresponsible movement. She should run, not walk, to retract her remarks.

Joe Thorn and Angry (Fake) Calvinists:

I know what you’re talking about, but honestly, I think it has nothing to do with their Calvinism, and everything to do with their faith. I don’t mean the object of their faith– Jesus. And, I don’t mean “the faith once for all delivered to the saints,” but their faith. Of course, it works this way in me as well. When I’m cranky, complaining, or whatever corruption is bubbling to the surface, it’s not my confession or theology that is in error, but my heart. When I am proud or petty it’s my heart that is out of alignment with my theology.

A Friendly Remainder as Campaign Season Gets Into Full Swing:

Let’s not expect that our presidents should right every wrong, solve every problem, fix every pothole, provide health and prosperity for all, and on top of that be a likeable, fatherly, dignified, fun-loving, brilliant, down-home, urbane, humorous, serious, athletic, good looking, poet-warrior-manager man that we all want to be like and hang out with.

Yesterday, we began looking at Scot McKnight’s provocative new book, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Zondervan, 2011), in which he gives us his answer to the important question: “What is the gospel?” I laid out four points of agreement with Scot’s proposal.

1. Evangelicalism has a problem, and the problem goes back to our conception of the evangel itself.
2. Going back to the Bible is the only way forward.
3. The words “gospel” and “salvation” are closely related but do not refer to the same thing.
4. The gospel needs the Old Testament story in order to make sense.

Today, I hope to articulate a few of my concerns regarding The King Jesus Gospel. I agree with Scot that we can’t afford for the church to be “in a fog” about the gospel, which is why I have appreciated books such as What Is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert, Recovering the Real Lost Gospel by Darrell Bock, and why I have attempted to delineate between true and counterfeit gospels myself. But I worry that there are some places where The King Jesus Gospel might lead to increasing fogginess rather than clarity. Here are three concerns:

1. Sharp Distinctions Can Lead to Subtle Distortions

One of my quibbles with the whole “keep the gospel and its implications separate” discussion within the gospel-centered movement is the unfortunate tendency for very important things to get diminished over time. A few months ago, I had a robust dialogue with John Starke on why we should never let the church (gospel community) out of sight when thinking about the gospel announcement of Jesus crucified and raised. I agree that certain distinctions must be made, and yet I want to stay true to the way the Scriptural authors hold the announcement and its purpose (creation of the church) together. Making too sharp a division is more problematic than keeping them too close together.

Now, Scot is essentially taking the “gospel and its implications” discussion one step further, separating even personal salvation from the gospel announcement. To be fair, Scot does not in any way seek to diminish the saving effects of the gospel. He writes:

“The Plan of Salvation flows out of the Story of Israel/Bible and the Story of Jesus. The Bible’s Story from Israel to Jesus is the saving Story. Just as we dare not diminish the importance of this Story if we wish to grasp the gospel, so also with the saving effects of the story.” (37)

So far so good. But then Scot writes this:

“This Plan of Salvation is not the gospel. The Plan of Salvation emerges from the Story of Israel/Bible and from the Story of Jesus, but the plan and the gospel are not the same big idea.” (39)

From an exegetical standpoint, I agree that the gospel can’t be reduced to the Plan of Salvation. The gospel is the saving story of Jesus Christ, which results in salvation. It’s not the order of salvation itself or a plan for sharing the gospel. And yet, in 1 Corinthians 15, it seems clear to me that Paul has in mind Jesus’ work and its application to sinners. It’s both Story and Plan, not either-or.

In short, the Bible doesn’t separate the story from its significance for sinners. Both are included in the apostolic proclamation. Scot’s decision to so sharply distinguish between the gospel and its saving effects is ultimately unhelpful. It seems to set up categories needlessly, and even when we don’t intend to set up false dichotomies, we wind up with them anyway. Case in point:

“When the plan gets separated from the story, the plan almost always becomes abstract, propositional, logical, rational, and philosophical, and most importantly, de-storified and unbiblical. We separate ourselves from Jesus and turn the Christian faith into a System of salvation.” (62)

I don’t think we have to pit a propositional presentation of the gospel against the narrative of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We need the Story so that the gospel doesn’t get reduced to merely a System, yes. But both are important, biblical, and clustered together when it comes to the apostolic thinking about the gospel.

It’s clear that Scot is seeking to avoid reductionism. He writes:

“We are tempted to turn the story of what God is doing in this world through Israel and Jesus Christ into a story about me and my own personal salvation.” (62)

But I fear that he is being reductionistic on the other side of the debate, framing the gospel in such a way that personal salvation is minimized. Like N.T. Wright, Scot is saying that soteriology is not the gospel. But when I examine the sermons in Acts or the letters of Paul or even the preaching of Jesus, I don’t see Story and Soteriology separated. Instead, I see them so deeply intertwined that we can’t grasp one without the other.

Don’t get me wrong. Scot is not denying the saving effects of the gospel. He writes:

“The apostolic gospel, the gospel that Paul ‘received’ and ‘passed on’ to the Corinthians, like every other apostolic church then and forever, is a gospel that has at its center that Jesus died ‘for our sins,’ and this death achieved the forgiveness of sins. As such, this story saves and brings people into the kingdom of God and ushers them into eternal life.” (88)

And he is right to see proper gospel proclamation as calling for a response. He goes so far as to state:

“There is no such thing as gospeling that does not include the summons to respond in faith, repentance, and baptism.” (127)

That’s the heart of an evangelist speaking, for sure! But even in his discussion of evangelism, he pits Jesus as Savior against Jesus as Lord:

“The gospeling of Acts, because it declares the saving significance of Jesus, Messiah and Lord, summons listeners to confess Jesus as Messiah and Lord, while our gospeling seeks to persuade sinners to admit their sin and find Jesus as the Savior.” (133)

Even though he immediately follows up that statement by saying, “We are not creating a false alternative here,” I worry that most people will choose one alternative over the other.

Sharp distinctions can sometimes lead to subtle distortions. Baptists who too sharply distinguish between repentance and baptism can unintentionally minimize the importance of baptism. Christians who too sharply distinguish between the gospel and its purpose (the church) can unintentionally minimize the importance of the church. And too sharply distinguishing between the gospel and personal salvation can lead us to unintentionally minimize the importance of justification by faith alone. That’s my next point.

2. Don’t Neglect the Power of Justification by Faith Alone.

It’s hard to imagine Scot McKnight agreeing with Martin Luther that the article of justification by faith alone is the doctrine by which the Church stands or falls. I am not calling into question Scot’s view of justification or his Protestant credentials. I know that justification is part of his theology. He affirms the penal substitutionary view of the atonement. He even argues for double imputation as a result of union with Christ.

My concern with The King Jesus Gospel is not that justification is denied or distorted but that it’s not as central in Scot’s understanding of the gospel as it was for the Apostle Paul. Granted, I am not equating justification with the gospel. The gospel is what saves. Justification is how one is saved. But surely these things are inseparably connected. Otherwise, how do we interpret Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where a denial of justification by faith is tantamount to denying the gospel itself?

Of justification, Scot writes:

“The Plan of Salvation leads to one thing and to one thing only: salvation. Justification leads to a declaration by God that we are in the right, that we are in the people of God; it doesn’t lead inexorably to a life of justice or goodness or loving-kindness. If it did, all Christians would be more just and more filled with goodness and drenched in love.” (40)

It seems that Scot thinks we’ve overemphasized justification at the expense of the broader, all-encompassing good news of Jesus as the climax of the Old Testament story. But I sense that Scot is underestimating the power of justification by faith alone when he says, “it doesn’t lead inexorably to a life of justice or goodness or loving-kindness.” For Scot, the solution is to look elsewhere for results. In my mind, the solution is to be better grounded in the reality of justification by faith alone, which – when properly understood – awakens our affections to the goodness of God shown to us in the face of Jesus Christ in such a way that we are led to a life of goodness. In my opinion, we need more emphasis on justification nowadays, not less.

3. A View of the Story That Is Not Soterian?

One of the central claims of The King Jesus Gospel is that evangelicals have missed the biblical gospel by reducing it to a plan of salvation. We’ve made our own personal salvation so central that we deserve the label “soterians.” Scot wants us to frame the gospel according to the Old Testament storyline rather than according to our need for salvation. He writes:

“The apostles were not like our modern soterians because they did not empty the gospel of its Story, nor did they reduce the gospel to the Plan of Salvation. In fact, the apostles were the original, robust evangelicals. It all has to do with how the gospel is framed.” (117)

Agreed. That’s why I mentioned yesterday that one of my points of agreement with Scot is that we need the Story in order to make sense of the Jesus announcement. But then I read this:

“Gospeling was not driven by the salvation story or the atonement story. It was driven by the Story of Israel, and in fact makes most sense in that story.” (134)

And this:

“Look again at that gospel summary in 1 Corinthians 15: there is nothing direct about being reconciled to God or to others, nothing direct about being declared righteous, nothing about God’s wrath being pacified, and nothing about being liberated from our entrapments to sin, self, the system, and Satan.” (134)

It seems to me that this kind of statement does not take into account Paul’s declaration in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ’s death was “for our sins,” which has Old Testament echoes of Isaiah 53 and which Paul unpacks in more detail in other texts. “For our sins” is freighted with soteriological meaning.

The heart of my differences with Scot’s proposal is not in defining the word “gospel.” It’s not in the gospel announcement’s need for the Story. It’s in the way we read that Story. There’s the rub. The reason I think it’s ultimately unhelpful to distinguish between a story gospel and a soterian gospel is because I think the story is soterian, that is, the grand narrative of Scripture is telling us about God’s glory in saving sinners through the cross and resurrection of His Son. The heart of Israel’s story is hope for salvation delivered by the coming Messiah-King.

When I read the Old Testament narrative, I can’t get through the Pentateuch and not tremble at the thought of standing before God without an animal sacrifice. I can’t read the story of Judges without shuddering at the pervasiveness of sin and the need for a Messiah-King. I can’t read Isaiah and not recognize my need for a righteousness that comes from outside myself.

Scot reads the announcement of 1 Corinthians 15 and wants to emphasize that Jesus is Messiah and Lord. I see the announcement of 1 Corinthians 15 as the gospel presentation by which we are being saved. The big story that the Bible is telling is a story of salvation – its promise and provision through the coming kingdom of a crucified Messiah. And this is why pitting the Old Testament storyline against atonement theology makes little sense to me. It’s not just that I view the gospel as a soterian. I view the story that way as well.

Conclusion

Overall, The King Jesus Gospel has been one of the most thought-provoking, challenging, and stimulating books I’ve read this year. Scot McKnight is prompting some good (sometimes strong) conversations. I hope that this review has been a charitable exercise in encouraging one another along as we seek to be true to the original gospel of the apostles.