Which elements of the
gospel, as the word is used by Paul, are neglected in
today's church? What can we do to bring them back into focus? If the
essence of the gospel is “good news”, how can it be heard in our community as truly good news?
6 uses of Gospel:
- the gospel is the story of Jesus in the light of the scriptures.
- the gospel is a new redeemed humanity, a single family of God
- the gospel is a message to be communicated to the whole world
- the gospel is ethical transformation
- The gospel is truth to be defended
- The gospel is the power of God transforming the universe
Today,
in the church as a whole, none of Paul's 6 uses of the gospel are
used, or enacted, to their fullest potential. This being the case, I
believe all the elements of the gospel, as Paul describes them, are
neglected, and certainly misinterpreted/misunderstood, to a certain
extent in every church. This is also true for the church of Christ as
a community, and a nation.
The
church understands that the gospel is the story of Jesus in the light
of the scriptures. I agree with that statement. However, where that
statement and truth is neglected, is in the fact that churches
usually only recognize Jesus in the light of the New Testament
Scripture, with brief reference to Him being mentioned in
the Old Testament. This is neglect by way of incomplete
interpretation and understanding. When we only see Jesus in light of
the New Testament we cannot begin to comprehend the entirety of Jesus
being good news! Yes, what Jesus did is good news, it is fantastic
news. However, if we only look at the New Testament, we miss a huge
part of the depth of how wonderful this news was and is.
The
Jews already knew of the redeemer, and they were eagerly awaiting His
arrival. They knew because
of the Old Testament. All throughout the Old Testament, God made
promises to redeem His people and to bring them a Messiah. These
people were now desperately waiting to see the Messiah.
Luke 2:25-32 “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”
Luke 2:25-32 “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”
Simeon saw the Messiah, and responded with joy, and blessing. The
Messiah had come, what they were waiting for had finally come, and he
had seen the Messiah with his own eyes. That is wonderful news. When
we as a church merely look at the New Testament of what Jesus did;
died on the cross, we miss such a crucial part of the good news; the
Messiah, God, came, and was seen, and
He was known.
Luke
2: 36 – 38”
“And there was one Anna, a
prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of
a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her
virginity;
And she was a widow of about fourscore and
four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with
fastings and prayers night and day.
And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise
unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for
redemption in Jerusalem.”
This woman essentially never left the temple, and yet when Jesus came
there as a baby, she knew it was the Messiah, and went and proclaimed
Him as the Messiah. This is wonderful news. The Messiah had finally
come, and in coming and being
witnessed, part of the
Old Testament gospel was fulfilled.
When
we as a church only focus on the Old Testament works
we miss the fulfilling of the Old Testament gospel; the coming of the
Messiah. The gospel does not begin with the NewTestament, and the
works of Jesus. It begins in the Old Testament when God promises a
redeemer.
Genesis
12:2-3 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless
those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;and all
peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” The New Testament is
the fulfilling of the
gospel. If we only focus on the New Testament, we're only getting the
fulfillment of the gospel, not the whole gospel.
Wright
defines another of Paul's usage of “gospel”, as; “the gospel is
a new redeemed humanity, a single family of God”.1
This means that the Jews and the gentiles will no longer be
separated, there will be peace between them, because God has
literally torn the veil between the sinners and the presence of the
Holy God. Now, not only the chosen can be sanctified, but all
people can choose
to be sanctified. “Jesus is our
peace, made peace, and
preached peace.”2
There is no longer has to be enmity, or separation between the
different people of the world because God has bridged that gap, and
now we get to choose
whether we cross that bridge or not.
The
church neglects this by forgetting that we are not a people borne of
dissension, arguing, and bitterness. We are a people borne of love,
sacrifice, and peace. We as Christians stand so far on opposing views
that we get on our soap box, stay there, and refuse to come down.
This often costs people friendship, and always
causes hurt, and sometimes even splits a church. How can we say we
are living as a single family of God, if we decide to hold to our
opinions so hard, it leads to resentment and brokenness; the opposite
of who God is and what He intended.
Thirdly Paul uses gospel to overview the idea of a message to be
communicated to the whole world. Individual church bodies neglect
this in one of two ways: the neglect to spread this in their daily
lives, or the neglect to spread this across cities, nations and the
world. This comes from a misconception of mission. Some churches
focus on “mission trips” to Mexico, the Ukraine, Taiwan, South
Dakota, somewhere away from their home – state or home – town,
while they neglect to live out the good news in the actions and words
of their daily lives.
Other
churches focus on “Evangelizing” their home-town or home-city.
They go about this, usually by brashly walking up to someone and
gently attacking the world they live in with the words “hi I'm a
Christian, can I tell you about Jesus?” Now this may not be so
offensive if the church did not neglect the gospel as ethical
transformation. However, because of the neglect in that area,
evangelism needs to be approached far more eloquently. While it may
get the job done sometimes, often it is based off of attacking the
basic routine, or beliefs of another person and telling them Jesus is
better. While this may be true, it is often not a very good idea if
you want a receptive response from your listener. Evangelism could
be approached better by treating it as an everyday mission trip. On
mission trips the idea behind them is to help a people group in a way
that touches them so deeply with the love of God that they cannot
ignore his presence, and cannot help enjoying, and feeling safe in
your company. If evangelists made this
their mission, instead of verbal debate, I think many more people
would be reached! The churches who focus on cross state/ over-seas
mission trips, they need to be more aware of living in that state of
mission everyday,
reaching out to people in a way that “touches them so deeply with
the love of God that they cannot ignore his presence, and cannot help
enjoying, and feeling safe in your company.”
If
churches as a whole did this, it would affect and possibly resolve
the damage from the neglect of the gospel as ethical transformation.
We have neglected the gospel as ethical transformation and, as I said
before, when we mention God or Christianity, we are stepping onto a
battlefield firing arrows at an unprepared citizen.
The reason this is, is because we have turned ethical transformation
into a dogma. Churches either pound their fists and cause havoc and
pain for non-Christians, or they ignore any and all sin, even among
their own believing body, and excuse it with the phrase God is love.
This all comes from the neglect of ethical transformation, in the
form of misunderstanding.
We
Christians as a body of believers, have failed to understand that in
becoming Christians, we enlist in the army of God, going from citizen
to soldier. We so often fail to understand two things; we are not
warriors, and the un-beleivers are not our enemies! They are citizens
who we are to protect
from our real enemy; Satan.
I
say that we are not warriors because a warrior is someone who goes
into battle for the personal glory and wealth he/she will gain from
it. We should NOT be
warriors. However, I believe that there are several “Christians”
out there who have become that. They have stopped serving as a
soldier under the “Mighty Warrior” (Zeph. 3:17), God, and they
have gone off on their own, choosing and fighting their own battles
for their own profit and glory.
We
as a body can resolve all of this by merely recognizing God as the
Warrior in front of our army, and Satan and his cohorts as the enemy.
Ephesians 6:12
“For
we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil
rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in
this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
Now
this is not to say that there will not be times when we have to
defend the gospel against flesh and blood. “The gospel is truth to
be defended”3
However, the key word is defended.
We are not on the offense, we should never use the gospel to attack a
citizen. We are defending the gospel against a citizen, who has been
mislead by the great deceiver, and sometimes given themselves over to
him. “the
serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the
whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were
thrown down with him.” (Revelation 12:9)
“Whoever
makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been
sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to
destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8) “And no wonder, for
even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians
11:14)
These
people have been deceived by Satan. They have given themselves over
to his power and ideals, whether knowingly or unknowingly. They have
allowed themselves to be defined by the evil of Satan, that they have
allowed to dwell inside them. The church, as a body of Christ,
neglects the gospel as truth to be defended, is either they are
silent about Christ everyday, not acting out of His love, or they are
using the gospel as an offensive tactic against a citizen. Once
again, to prevent not acting out of love, we must treat everyday as a
mission trip, because that is what it is. To resolve attacking
citizens with the gospel we must first separate our understanding of
who this person is, and who they have allowed themselves to become.
This person is a citizen of the God we serve, and we fight
to protect them. However, they have allowed themselves, knowingly or
unknowingly, to be sold into slavery to the devil.
When
we have to defend the gospel we have to remember to only defend.
If we attack, then we are defying our mission as inheritors of
Christ's kingdom, as the inherited patriarch of the family of God,
charged with the responsibility of caring for the family, and buying
back any lost, any one sold to slavery, and any land that has been
bought out of the family, and renewing it's fruitfulness. As soon as
we attack this enslaved
citizen
we are essentially violating the prime directive, given to us by God
as His inheriting patriarchs; to bring our family home safe to Beth
Ab. If we violate this then it would be better for us “to be thrown
into the sea with a millstone tied around our neck” Luke 17:2
[paraphrased] The simple way to avoid this; do not neglect the
defense of the gospel, and depart from an fleshly offense of the
gospel. (Use the gospel as an offense against Satan as Jesus did in
His trials in the desert Mathew 4)
The
final usage of the gospel, recognizes the gospel as “the power of
God transforming the universe”4
Creation itself is a witness to the goodness of God and to His
gospel. “ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the
heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they
will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who
among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done
this?” (Job 12: 7 – 9) Merely by looking at creation we should
see the evidence, goodness, and gospel (good news), of God. “For
his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the
world, in the things that have been made. So they are without
excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
We
as Christians do not have an excuse to ignore the glory of creation
in all that it is, because it daily declares the glory of our God!
“The
heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his
hands.” (Psalm 19:1) Yet constantly we walk through the world
daily, not stopping to notice the birds singing, usually grumbling
about the whether, not paying attention to the vibrancy of color,
even when it's dark and dreary out. “Lift
up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out
their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of
his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.”
Isaiah
40: 26
In
spreading the gospel, in teaching the good news, we miss one of our
biggest tools that, through it, every person in the world has
personally witnessed God; creation. How do we as Christians viably
say we don't neglect the gospel as the power of God transforming the
universe, when we take for granted the stars, grumble about the
whether, don't use it as tool to spread the good news, and worst of
all, slowly destroy the witness, creation, God has given us to use.
In
order to resolve this, we need to renew our wonder, and thankfulness
at the beauty and awesomeness of creation. We also need to be more
active in preventing the destruction and pollution of it. Part of why
people take stars for granted is because we have polluted the
atmosphere with so much light at night, that most, if not all, city
people, have never seen the milky way, or even the big and little
dippers. The church as the body of Christ needs to take more care in
protecting and preserving the witness God has given us to testify for
Himself.
The
essence of how we as a body can cease to neglect all of these aspects
of the gospel is by; being more aware of our own ignorance,
preserving our witness, and openly
listening to others, as well as the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We
as a people cannot continue to suffocate ourselves, and the world, in
our own ignorance, pride, and strength, by attempting to be warriors
for Christ. We need to relieve ourselves of the megaphone, and give
it over to God.
Once
we give God the megaphone He will begin to project His
good news
through us, and we will become
the megaphone, instead of a scarred warrior screaming a battle cry.
It is only through becoming the megaphone that our community will
begin to understand
the good news of Christ. In being the megaphone for Christ, we allow
Him to take our hurts, turn them into good. We allow Him take our
despair, and turn it into peace. We allow Him to take our anger, our
fear, our bitterness, our hate, and turn them into compassion,
understanding, and love. When we become the megaphone, we witness and
experience the much needed peace, hope, and love of God that our
world needs. When we witness that and allow God to project that out
of our megaphone lives, then people will know that there is hope for
them. They will know that there is peace. They will begin to see and
experience,
that there is love; unconditional, and abundant love, that they can
know on a daily basis. That is the good news that our broken world
needs so much to know. Our world waits everyday for another disaster
to hit. However, they're looking,
watching
and waiting, in faith, hoping that peace will follow.
1Wright,
The Mission of God's People, (USA,
Langham Partnership International, 2010), pp 191
2Wright,
The Mission of God's People, (USA,
Langham Partnership International, 2010), pp 192
3Wright,
The Mission of God's People, (USA,
Langham Partnership International, 2010), pp 196
4Wright,
The Mission of God's People, (USA,
Langham Partnership International, 2010), pp 197
