05.12.07

McKnight – Getting the Gospel right

Posted in formation, gospel, theology at 7:00 am by len

Last year in reflecting on the church in our culture and ithe nature of the gospel I read somewhere that “the gospel Jesus preached has the effect that God intended.” When we see bad effects or little local impact we have to ask questions about the version of the gospel being preached.

Dallas Willard wrote about three popular versions of the gospel.

1.) YOUR SINS WILL BE FORGIVEN and you will be in heaven in the afterlife if you believed that Jesus suffered for your sins
2.) JESUS DIED TO LIBERATE THE OPPRESSED and you can stand with him in that battle.
3.) DO WHAT YOUR CHURCH SAYS and it will see to it you are received by God.

Dallas compared these 3 gospels with the following:

4.) Put your confidence and trust in Jesus and live with him as his disciple now in the present Kingdom of God (Matt 6.33; Rom 8.1-14; Col 1.13; 3. 1-4; John 3.1-8).
Scot McKnight writes at Out of Ur,

“Because of some research I did on the “gospel” in the Bible, leading to a book called Embracing Grace, I have come to a conclusion [that] when I see “problems” or “issues” in the Church, I often say to myself, “What kind of gospel would have been preached and responded to that would give rise to this kind of practice, problem, or theology?” At the bottom of lots of our problems is a “gospel” problem.

Example #1: We often hear pastors today wondering why Christians are not more committed to the local church and seem to have so little time for anything extra?

Example #2: We routinely are reminded that 11am on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of America’s week.

Example #3: We often observe that there are far too many Christians who “have it together” with God but are “relationally a mess.”

More..

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