gospel

Is the Gospel News, or a New Way of Life?

Is “the gospel” just shorthand for the daily life of a Christian? If not, how does the gospel shape our daily Christian life? Tim Keller offers biblical insights in this excerpt from his new book Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City. If you like what you read here, get the book 38% off: Buy Center Church (Special offer good through Sept. 18, 2012). -Adam Forrest

Faith vs. Works?

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The gospel is not about something we do but about what has been done for us, and yet the gospel results in a whole new way of life…

One of Martin Luther’s dicta was that we are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that remains alone. His point is that true gospel belief will always and necessarily lead to good works, but salvation in no way comes through or because of good works. Faith and works must never be confused for one another, nor may they be separated (Eph 2:8–10; Jas 2:14, 17–18, 20, 22, 24, 26).

I am convinced that belief in the gospel leads us to care for the poor and participate actively in our culture, as surely as Luther said true faith leads to good works…

What is the gospel and what does it do?

I have often heard people preach this way: “The good news is that God is healing and will heal the world of all its hurts; therefore, the work of the gospel is to work for justice and peace in the world.”

The danger in this line of thought is not that the particulars are untrue (they are not) but that it mistakes effects for causes. It confuses what the gospel is with what the gospel does.

When Paul speaks of the renewed material creation, he states that the new heavens and new earth are guaranteed to us because on the cross Jesus restored our relationship with God as his true sons and daughters. Romans 8:1–25 teaches, remarkably, that the redemption of our bodies and of the entire physical world occurs when we receive “our adoption.” As his children, we are guaranteed our future inheritance (Eph 1:13–14, 18; Col 1:12; 3:24; Heb 9:15; 1 Pet 1:4), and because of that inheritance, the world is renewed. The future is ours because of Christ’s work finished in the past.

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The “Great Proposal” of the Gospel [Excerpt]

Chuck Colson sketches the joy at the heart of the Gospel in this excerpt from The Faith: Given Once for All by Colson and Harold Fickett.

God is. And He’s told us how His world works. He is the ultimate reality. Why then is there suffering? Because God gave humans free will. We chose not to obey, so evil came to the world.

God invaded earth in His Son… The Holy Spirit was sent to finish the invasion, establishing Christ’s Kingdom through His body, the Church.

Satan’s control didn’t stand, however. God invaded earth in His Son. The battle raged, and the Son was arrested and executed, as the payment for evil. But the stone was rolled away, and God raised Him from the dead, and with His resurrection guaranteed our own new life. The Holy Spirit was sent to finish the invasion, establishing Christ’s Kingdom through His body, the Church.

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Failure’s Not Fatal: The Latest Chapter in God’s Good News [Excerpt by David Garland]

 

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(Excerpt from NIV Application Commentary: Mark [eBook] by David E. Garland.)

 

God is a God of beginnings. The good news of Mark is that God begins again with the chosen people by sending his Son.

At the end of the Gospel … things look far more gloomy. The women slink away from the empty tomb and are mute from fear [See Mark 16].

 

The empty tomb

They thought the story was over. Instead they found an empty tomb, and a new part to play. See Mark 16.

Failure, denial, and fear are not the end of the story, however. When things seem to end, there is a new beginning. The gospel is good news because one can begin again.

 

God is the one who consistently makes something out of nothing.

One may wonder how these discredited disciples could ever emerge as leaders of a growing church and fulfill their mission, but we know that their failure was not fatal. Neither is ours. God is the one who consistently makes something out of nothing. What seems like the end, and a pathetic one at that, is only a new beginning. God will continue to work with and revive the people.

 

Mark makes it clear that "the church exists because of what God has done in Christ, not because of any outstanding abilities in its first members." The gospel proclaims that the one "who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6)…

 

How will we continue the story?

Christianity is not a closed book, and Christian readers are the latest chapter in a continuing story of God's good news. The question for us is … the same as it was for those early disciples, "Where do we go from here?" The next stage is up to us. How will we continue the story? Will we cower in fear or boldly proclaim the glad tidings of Jesus to the world?

 

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Learn more about NIV Application Commentary: Mark eBook

 

Question for Discussion: Did the first disciples have any advantages over us in sharing the gospel? Do we have any advantages over them? Leave your comments on this post.

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan


(Images & some styling above are web-exclusive features not included in the text of NIVAC Mark eBook. Image attribution: From "An Illustrated Commentary on the Gospel of Mark" by Phillip Medhurst. Section Z. the empty tomb. Mark 16:1-8. By Philip Devere [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

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King Jesus, His Gospel, and Us: Recap of N.T. Wright’s January Series Message

 

Yesterday the venerable N.T. Wright concluded the 2012 January Series of Calvin College with a message on Christ's kingship, and its import for the daily life of his followers. I couldn't attend the event, but Press reporter Matt Vande Bunte offers a pithy recap of Wright's presentation.

NT Wright

Image via MLive Media Group. View Original

In one of his more provocative points, Wright suggests that Christians inadvertently water down the gospel if they fixate on the death-and-resurrection part of the story. Here Vande Bunte quotes Wright:

 *While some [secular thinkers] downplay Christ's divinity [by imagining] Jesus as a great social worker "being kind to old ladies, small dogs and little children," orthodox Christianity "has not wanted Jesus to have a political message." Christians have turned off parts of the gospel, like turning down the volume on a song. But the biblical gospels must be listened to in symphony, "like a musical score that demands to be played."

*Heard in full sound, the gospels tell about the establishment of a theocracy, and portray what theocracy looks like with Jesus as king. The body of the texts – the parts between Jesus' birth and death – present "an entire agenda for renewed humanity. When God wants to reign, he doesn't send in the tanks. He sends in the meek, the broken-hearted, the crushed in spirit. We've all got it horribly wrong in all sorts of ways."

In other words, Wright says that to limit our gospel proclamation to the death-and-resurrection story would be like fast-forwarding through Handel's Messiah to the Hallelujah Chorus, then playing that part over, and over, and over again. As we limit our study and consumption of the gospel in this way, we truncate the gospel's power in our lives and in our world.

Wright's call to a more full, symphonic view of the gospel reminds me of Scot McKnight's latest book, The King Jesus Gospel, to which Wright actually contributed a foreword. You can read Wright's foreword in this excerpt of The King Jesus Gospel.

If you read Matt Van Bunte's full report of Wright's January Series appearance, I would be very interested in hearing your reaction to Wright's message. Leave your comments on this post.

 

Also of Interest

Learn more about Surprised by Hope DVD Study
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1. Watch Session One from Wright's Surprised by Hope DVD Study. Discussed: The source of Christian hope; Jesus as king; the church as people of hope.

2. Watch N.T. Wright's presentation How God Became King at Moody Bible Institute in November 2011.

3. Interested in Scot McKnight's The King Jesus Gospel? Read this unconventional yet appropriate review,  Interview with a Christian Vampire. (Full disclosure: I wrote the review.)

4. Update 1/26/12 – Find comprehensive coverage & commentary on Wright's appearance in So, who's up for a little theocracy?, a fine blog post by Ben Irwin (@benirwin).

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

 

(This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's opinions are their own, and are shared for information purposes only. To receive new blogposts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

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Hear Margaret Feinberg’s “Pursuing God’s Beauty” Bible Study on Midday Connection

Last Tuesday (Sept. 20, 2011), Moody Radio's Midday Connection kicked off their Fall Bible Study with the first session of Margaret Feinberg's Pursuing God's Beauty: Stories from the Gospel of John. Midday Connection will go through the remaining sessions each Tuesday over the next five weeks. You can listen to the the first session now, and visit  www.middayconnection.org to hear the other sessions as they're posted.

 

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In the show's discussion of Pursuing God's Beauty Session 1, host Anita Lustrea asks Margaret Feinberg (@mafeinberg) why pursuing God is important. Margaret responds,  "I think that there are times when we hit that dry canyon, and we have to make a choice. Do [I] sit? … Or do I keep on going … keep on reading, keep on studying, keep on praying. [Do I say] I'm going to keep on talking to You, even through this difficult and dry season."

It's no coincidence that Margaret's study on pursuing God's beauty is centered on the Gospel of John. "I believe the beauty of God radiates in the person of Jesus Christ," Margaret says, and of all the Gospel writers, John "makes Jesus the most real to me." After Margaret discusses why she loves the Gospel of John, the discussion of Session 1 begins earnest (at 14:50 in the show).

I was especially interested in the hosts' contrast between inviting someone to chuch and inviting someone to meet Jesus. This also elicited a thought-provoking disagreement about Margaret's favorite spiritual conversation starter, "What do you love about Jesus?" Some of the hosts found this a compelling question, but others found it threatening.

 

Find Margaret Feinberg on Facebook
Find Margaret on Facebook

Midday Connection's discussion of Session 2 is coming up on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, and you can hear it at www.middayconnection.org. Margaret Feinberg will join the show again to dig into John chapters 4-8, and to discuss the facades we present to others; what it's like for God to see through to the real us; and how this can change the way we live.


Learn more about the Pursuing God's Beauty Bible Study.


Does the Gospel of John make Jesus "the most real" for you, as it does for Margaret? I'm also curious, would you feel comfortable asking a new acquaintance "What do you love about Jesus?"


(-Adam Forrest, Zondervan Internet Team)



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Baseball & Other Ways to Live Out the Gospel: Interview with Tom Roy

 

I jumped at the opportunity to interview Tom Roy, former baseball player for the San Francisco Giants, and President of Unlimited Potential Inc. (UPI). UPI is a world-wide ministry that serves Christ through baseball, and Tom has appeared at speaking events and in baseball clinics in over 60 countries.

Tom graciously gave his time to discuss how baseball has informed his view of Christian mission; how we can navigate failures and successes; and how we can make a difference for Christ wherever we work, play, and live.

 

Tom and Carin Roy
Tom Roy & his wife, Carin.

ZBLOG: Tom, I challenge you to tell me about UPI in the time it takes to run to first base.

TOM: (Hmmm…I am a very slow runner!) The purpose of UPI is to Reach, Teach, Train for the purpose of Sending ballplayers onto the mission field in the clubhouse, the community, the church and the entire world.

 

ZBLOG: UPI does a lot of cool things, but what is it about the ministry that gets you most excited? What makes you think, “This is why I do what I do”?

TOM: I get fired up to see God working in the hearts of men to be men and reach their world — to see the light go on about what living an authentic life with Jesus looks like. Jesus said in John 17, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but rather that you protect them from the evil one.” Infiltrating their culture with Jesus gets me excited.

 

ZBLOG: I like how you say “infiltrating” our cultures for Jesus. How would you advise someone who wants to do that, but doesn’t know how to get started? Do you have any tips on being salt and light?

TOM: Yes I do —

  1. Care for people! Ask about them. There is often more power in asking good questions than having the right answers.
  2. Don’t see them as projects, but as people. Develop a genuine relationship. If the timing is appropriate, ask what they think of Jesus. Or ask if they have a spiritual philosophy.
  3. I used to think every soul I met was like the final out of a game. Now I see that God sometimes allows us be a starter, sometimes a middle man, sometimes a set up man and once in a while a closer. HE will bring people to himself.

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Coen Brothers “Gospel” Explored in New Book

Cathleen Falsani"‘The Dude abides.’… I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’  ‘er easy for all us sinners." — The Stranger, “The Big Lebowski”

Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen are the subject of a new book to be published by Zondervan and written by award-winning Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani. 

Scheduled for release in Spring 2009, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers will look at the filmmakers’ presentation of serious existential and theological questions using the dark, intelligent humor and epic storytelling that have been their trademarks in more than a dozen films during the past 25 years.

The Dude Abides will be a chronological examination of the Coen brothers’ oeuvre—every film they have directed together, as well as the films for which they have written original screenplays and those they have adapted from existing material.  Falsani will investigate the theological, mythological, moral, ethical, religious and philosophical content and what their overarching message—their “Gospel”—might be.

Following the tradition of The Gospel According to the Simpsons, The Gospel According to Disney and The Gospel According to Oprah, The Dude Abides will turn a journalist’s eye on the Coen Brothers’ particular brand of popular culture to explore “the moral and existential questions and answers—God-stuff, really—put forth in scenarios and situations where some folks might say God isn’t supposed to show up,” Falsani says. “I see a large audience of avid fans who want to explore the transcendent depths of the Coens’ work, as well as those readers who are simply interested in the intersection between popular culture and spirituality.”

From their 1984 debut, “Blood Simple,” through their most recent work, “No Country for Old Men,” which recently was honored with 4 Oscars, each of the Coen Brothers’ films probes ethical and spiritual quandaries.

• “Blood Simple” is the story of a man with serious doubts, and what happens when he attempts to discover what the “truth” is.
• In “Barton Fink,” the title character, a successful New York playwright turned Hollywood screenwriter, mortgages his soul as he struggles with terminal writers block among the residents of, what may be, hell—fire, demons and all.
• “The Big Lebowski” chronicles the misadventures of the Dude—stoner, pacifist, philosopher —as he attempts to right some wrongs and vanquish the powers of nihilism and moral turpitude.
• “O Brother Where Art Thou” follows the odyssey (spiritual and otherwise) of three convicts, a skeptic searching for his way home and two seeking redemption from their sins.
• “No Country for Old Men” is an epic, prophetic journey that tackles one of theology’s most daunting conundrums, theodicy—if God is good then why doesn’t God intervene to stop unrelenting violence—and surmises that we don’t really know what God is thinking.

Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for GraceCathleen Falsani is the Author of The God Factor and Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace.  She is an award-winning religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.  A graduate of Wheaton College, Falsani holds masters degrees in journalism and theology.  She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and fellow journalist, Maurice Possley.

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