The Gospel of the Gospel Coalition 2

Last updated on: April 9, 2012 at 5:53 am by Scot McKnight

The Gospel of the Gospel Coalition 2 2012-04-09T05:53:12-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Last week I interacted with Bryan Chapell’s exposition of the gospel in the officially produced book by Gospel Coalition leaders, D.A. Carson and Tim Keller. The church stands or falls — not with justification (as Luther said it) but with the gospel (and justification is a potent impact of the gospel). In fact, the church is created by the gospel because before there was a church there was the gospel.

And many are saying today that gospel is not the threshold we cross as we enter the church but threshold and floor on which the whole superstructure is built. One might even say it is the foundation — but under the gospel is our Triune God. So, let’s abandon the analogy to say this: The gospel must be seen as at the heart of our faith and our ministries. Any organization that wants to root everything in gospel, as TGC does, has my interest and my support — to the degree that its gospel is the gospel of Jesus and the apostles.

Today I want to look at the gospel statement in TGC’s official statement because, as I observed in that previous post, Chapell’s and the TGC statement had some tension for me — with Chapell’s pushing the impact or benefits of the gospel more than the framing of the gospel in the New Testament. Here is the TGC statement:

The Gospel We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is: “Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).

Some observations:

1. We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom: I like this. The gospel but I’d probably first say the gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ, and that is perhaps what TGC means. Anyway, this is the way to begin a gospel statement — with Jesus.

2. Alluding to Paul’s observations in 1 Corinthians about folly and power is fine by me, but it might be more confrontational than we need to be. Still it is true: the gospel offends human pride.

Then this TGC statement breaks the gospel into separable attributes:

3. Christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is: “Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). Perfect. The gospel is first and foremost christology and it has to begin here or it becomes about us and not about God. And I agree that gospeling sees the whole through the lens of death, burial, resurrection and exaltation.

There is here however a severe Pauline reduction in this TGC: to be sure, Paul has a focus on the death and burial (not mentioned here) and resurrection and exaltation (not mentioned either), but surely to use “Jesus Christ” implies his life and teachings — that is, the incarnation as revelation.

Not only that, we know this is how the apostles preached the gospel because this is found in Acts, so once again we are onto method: how do we define gospel? I contend by looking at 1 Cor 15, at the sermons in Acts (both for Jews and Gentiles), and to the Gospels themselves. This TGC statement needs some lines on the gospel’s inclusion of the life of Christ. I can agree on the centering, as long as it is not ignoring the incarnational life, teachings, vision, etc, of Jesus.

A point consider: Tom Wright is making this very point in his book How God Became King, namely, that too many today are ignoring the life of Jesus in gospel and creed. I don’t go all the way with Tom on this, but this TGC statement illustrates what Tom is pointing out.

4. This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures). On this TGC is dead right: it is biblical and by biblical I’d want to clarify “according to the Scriptures” as the Story of Israel — the plan of God in history through Israel and Christ and the church and the kingdom — coming to fulfillment in Christ. I hear a little sola scriptura here and would like to see some Story — the plot of the Bible — come to the surface. But “biblical” is exactly the points of the gospel in 1 Cor 15, in the sermons in Acts and throughout the Gospels themselves.

5. Theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God): this double-pronged statement is articulate, succinct and I like it. The gospel is about God — from God, through God and for God’s glory — and the impact of the gospel is that it saves, understood here as reconciliation. That’s how I would read “for our sins” in 1 Cor 15 and that is how Peter and Paul preach the impact of the gospel in Acts and saving/reconciling/table-fellowshiping is all over the Gospels.

6. Historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others): if Jesus didn’t die, this gospel is useless; if Jesus wasn’t raised — bodily — it is useless. I agree.

7. Apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events). I agree on this but I find this statement bland and going nowhere. Well, I say, draw it out: if it is apostolic, that means we look to their witness in 1 Cor 15, in the gospeling sermons in Acts and in their literary deposits — namely, the NT canon, which begins with the Gospels and explicates gospel in Acts and the letters through Revelation. This statement — apostolic — implicates us in canon and that implicates in creed.

8. And intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved). I like the word “intensely” here: Yes, the gospel makes a claim on each of us, and it means we have to articulate just what that means. Here’s what it means in the gospeling sermons of Acts and more or less in the Gospels: we are to repent, we are to believe, we are to be baptized, we are to confess, we are to follow. As I read this “personal” statement at TGC there’s more emphasis on theological substance — “believed” and “held firmly” and we could use some more of the angles of personal response that involve repentance, baptism and confession that leads into following Jesus.

Gospel

Previous Post

April 8, 2012

Outdoor with Kids

Next Post

April 9, 2012 Jesus and Theocracy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was promised descendants as numerous as the stars?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Moses Abraham Jacob