Ashamed of the Gospel

First of all, I apologize to all those who thought I should have been blogging more consistently. You're right, and I'll try to be better.

I've watched with great satisfaction as "the Gospel" has become a hot topic in the church over the past few years. Many books and pamphlets have surfaced attempting to define the Gospel, explain the Gospel, and re-set the Gospel as the core of the church's mission. We've been counseled - and rightly so! - to get into the daily habit of preaching the Gospel to ourselves in order to stay focused on God's grace as we run the race of faith. All of this is beyond good. It is outstanding and I am much the richer spiritually for the work that has been done.

But at the same time, in my pastoral role I am watching more and more evangelicals becoming ashamed of the Gospel. Yes, they are trying to be "gospel-centered" but by leaving out essential parts of the Gospel they are demonstrating a grave reticence to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ in an unashamed manner. This is true in the pulpit, and as a consequence, in the lives of the church as well. What we are seeing is the proliferation of a Gospel that is so diluted that it contains nothing of which one would ever be ashamed. This ought to make us sit up and take notice.

Paul sets the standard in Romans 1:16 when he says "For  I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is  the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew  first and also to  the Greek. " It is clear that Paul understood that the Gospel is an affront to the pride and sin-hardened heart of man. The Gospel presupposes the utter sinfulness of man and the infinite perfection of God, and then shows the power of God in bringing God and man together in Christ. But this reconciling Gospel story is not just another fad or therapy. It is the royal pronouncement of the King that must be believed, and responded to in sincere repentance and life-changing faith. 

Just what is the Gospel?  Very simply it is God's declarative story concerning the redemption of sinners through his Son, Jesus Christ. Did you catch that? The Gospel is God's story. It belongs to him because it is his work, accomplished as only he can accomplish it, for the purpose of his glory.

The road to being ashamed of the Gospel begins by thinking that the Gospel is really about us, and our happiness, and our eternal joy. Of course the effects of God's redemptive plan are wonderful! But when we turn the Gospel from being God-centered to being man-centered, we too often leave out the core of the message.

Here are 6 areas where I see evangelicals becoming ashamed in their understanding and proclamation of the Gospel:

1) The Sin of Man: We are increasingly ashamed to recognize sin as sin, and declare that sin renders us all guilty before God.

What the Bible calls sin our society now calls challenges, mistakes, or poor choices. And this therapeutic perspective dilutes the nature of sin as rebellion against a holy God. These "sins" don't require repentance and forgiveness, only correction and the promise to try and do better. After all, mankind is basically good, and in need of help, and love, and acceptance, not critique, condemnation, and redemption.

But this is not the Gospel. The Gospel is radically good news simply because the bad news is so bad. Paul again makes the point in Romans 3:23. Everyone has sinned. The bad news is that sin has not only rendered s guilty before God but sin has also permeated every part of our humanity, blinding our eyes to the truth, setting our focus on pleasuring self, and putting our feet to run away from God. Sin is real, but we are increasingly ashamed to tell people about this horrible toxin that has taken hold of them spiritually.

If we are true to the Gospel, we can't be ashamed to call sin sin, and declare its disastrous effects on the human soul.

2) The Son of God: We are increasingly afraid to portray Jesus Christ as suffering Savior and risen Lord.

When Paul began his letter to the Romans he let them know right away that the theme would be the Gospel. In verses 1-4 he states that he was "set apart for the Gospel ... concerning his Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord ..." He makes it clear that the Gospel is centered on Jesus. He is the one the prophets looked for, and the one declared to be Son of God in power through the resurrection. The hero of the Gospel is Jesus Christ.

Jesus made his priority clear when he announced "If any would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). The Gospel calls us to turn from self to follow and depend completely on Jesus Christ.

But this message falls hard on human pride in our day. The idea that we are in need of a Savior to whom we must submit everything doesn't play well. And flowing from the redefining of "sin" as poor choice or mistake, it only follows that the reality of Jesus as Savior and Lord is being re-imagined into something much less shameful today.

We have turned the Son of God into a cosmic life coach who is available to help us make better choices. Do you want a better life, with better relationships, and more purpose and satisfaction? Then follow the pattern of Jesus' life. Let him show you how to navigate through the tough times and take advantage of the opportunities that face you. Just like the disciples in Mark 4, with Jesus in your boat you can sail through the storms of life!

But this just isn't the Gospel. If all that is needed is for Jesus to show us a better way to live, then he didn't need to die. If sin is just a poor choice, and Jesus can help us make better choices, then we weren't broken and guilty, only in need of some assistance. And if all we needed were wise counsel and a good model, then the cross was a huge waste of a good man's life, and the Resurrection was just God's way of correcting a massive miscalculation.

But, again, while this kind of man-centered, Jesus-altering "gospel" may shave off some of the embarrassing elements from the biblical Gospel, it simply isn't the tool God promises to use to transform sinners into forgiven sons and daughters of the Kingdom. It might play well in the arena of human pride, but it turns out to be the most insidious kind of placebo. You think it's helping, but it never heals.

Jesus Christ, God the Son, entered our world in human flesh in order to take the penalty of our sin on himself. He lived a sinless life, fulfilling the demands of the law perfectly. Then he went to the cross and bore the unobstructed wrath of God, fully paying the penalty the law demanded of sinners. As a result, God has declared him to be both Lord and Christ, and the one before whom all must bow. And while Jesus certainly is the best life coach available, it is only because he is the one through whom we can be transferred from the domain of darkness into his kingdom of glorious light.

If we are true to the Gospel, we can't be ashamed to show Jesus Christ as God the Son, the crucified Savior whose death and life are the only reasons we can be reconciled to God.

3) The Wrath of God: We are increasingly afraid to declare that God's wrath hangs over everyone who is not following Christ, and awaits all those who end their lives in rebellion against him.

My thinking on this crystallized last week when I read the article explaining how a Presbyterian hymn book committee had "disqualified" the Townend/Getty tune In Christ Alone due to a line in the second verse. That line reads "Till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied." The committee asked the composers if they could change it to read "the love of God was magnified." The composers responded with a resounding No, and the song was left off the list for the new hymn book. Seems they had decided the church should never be singing about the wrath of God.

The trend away from the wrath of God is all too evident. Preaching on sin and wrath and eternal punishment is greatly diminished in our day. We seem embarrassed that our God gets mad at sin and sinners, and has declared that sin will be punished to the full extent of the law.

Our embarrassment starts in the Old Testament with the stories of God's judgment. The flood, in which everybody dies except Noah's family offends our modern sensibilities. Why did God kill all those innocent people? And our embarrassment only increases as we read of God's order for Israel to annihilate the inhabitants of Canaan. What are we to do with such a God?

Theologically, the answer lies in an understanding of God's sovereign rule and reign over his creation. As creator he has set the rules. All creation owes him praise, adoration, and obedience. We call this worship. As creator God has the right to punish every act of disobedience to the fullest extent. The fact that he puts up with transgressions longer than he would have to only demonstrates that he is longsuffering and patient with his erring creatures. Yet, he will not put up with sin forever. The flood and other examples of his just judgment demonstrate both his right and his ability to judge sin swiftly and fully. While demonstrations of God's wrath may be embarrassing to the modern mind, they are consistent with his infinite justice and power.

Face it, the wrath of God is a modern embarrassment to many who claim to follow Christ. The result has been an almost complete removal of any mention of wrath, or death, or judgment from the modern proclamation of the Gospel. Today's "gospel" begins with love, speaks of love, and ends with love.

But Jesus understood that the wrath of God on sin was real. We are all familiar with John 3:16 and its emphatic declaration that God's love for his creation motivated the redemptive mission of Jesus. Yet, we act as if vss. 18 and 36 don't exist. As seen below, these verses form an inclusio explaining that, as life awaits belief, wrath and judgment await those who do not believe. The parallels between the two verses are hard to miss, and demonstrate John's intent that vs. 16 be understood in light of God's determination to save as well as to judge eternally:

John 3.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3.36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

To declare a "gospel" that eliminates the wrath of God is to give the world a half-truth. After all, the "good news" is only good if the bad news is really bad. If we fail to recognize and declare that the wrath of God is hovering over everyone who rejects Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we are misdiagnosing the disease that has infected the human heart. And it is this misdiagnosis that leads to an improper remedy.

If we are true to the Gospel, we can't be ashamed that God's righteous wrath hovers over all those whose penalty has not been removed through faith in Christ.

4) The Love of God: We are increasingly prone to overstate the love of God as though his electing, redeeming love is indiscriminately applied. 

When we start with a downplaying of sin, followed by a mis-characterization of Jesus as a mere life coach, and follow that up with an almost complete denial of the wrath of God, we are left with the theologically misguided idea that God's love is equally applied to all. The "gospel" of today is almost entirely fueled by the declaration that "God loves you, no matter what you are or what you do." Preachers regularly declare the love of God to those who are in the throes of intentional rebellion against God, and even declare that this demonstrates just how amazing God's love is.

 In today's "gospel" wrath and judgment have been removed, and in their place we have substituted the love of God. Why follow Christ? Well, he really, really loves you, and it would be really, really insensitive not to love him back. And, by the way, he's a great life coach too!

But God does not love everyone in the same way, or to the same extent. It is self-evident that those who are "under wrath" are not the recipients of the same level of love as those who are "chosen and beloved" (Colossians 3:12).

As stated before, God's love for creation (John 3:16) is displayed in his providential care and superintendency over all that he has brought into existence. It is further seen in the fact that he determined not to let sin win, and from Genesis 3:15 on has set about to redeem creation from futility (Romans 8:18-24). This love is rightly understood as mediated to all creation through God's common grace. He continues the seasons, gives life and breath to all, and causes the rain to fall on the just and unjust. In addition, he holds back the depravity of the human heart through conscience and government. These are manifestations of his general love for his own creation.

Yet, the love of God is more powerfully extended to those who are in Christ, who have entrusted their eternal well being to him on the basis of his promises in Christ Jesus. They have been caused to be born again into his own family, are heirs along with Jesus, have been granted the indwelling Spirit, and make up the church today -  the Temple of the living God through whom his grace and glory are being displayed to the world.

God's discriminating, electing, redeeming love for his children, and his general, common love for his creation are not the same thing. In fact, those who deny Christ's right to their lives exist under the wrath of God. Psalm 5:5 states The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. This is, of course, quite an embarrassing verse to those who want the Gospel to be about a God who loves everyone the same. Consequently, we eliminate wrath from our message, and overplay love. And all along we are demonstrating our embarrassment of the Gospel the Scriptures proclaim.

If we are true to the Gospel, we can't be ashamed to say that the redeeming love of God is available only in Christ, to those who come in sincere repentance and faith.

5) The Righteousness of God: We are increasingly ashamed of a God who chooses to save some while passing by others because we mistakenly think the righteousness of God means that he has to act according to human standards of fairness.

In Romans 1:16, 17 Paul boldly declares he is not "ashamed of the Gospel" because "in it the righteousness of God is revealed ..."

Today it is common to believe that God's righteousness means he is duty bound to make the same provision of salvation available to everyone. Otherwise he isn't being fair. For God to be the kind of God we want, he has to live up to our expectations. And we expect equality in everything.

But when Paul speaks of the righteousness of God he is dealing with the question of how a perfectly just God could ever "justify" the guilty. How can a just Judge forgive a sinner whose crimes have tallied up an eternal sentence of death?

Imagine if a judge in our day decided to let a convicted serial murderer go free. "Son, I know you've killed several people, but I'm really feeling loving today and ... well ... I'm just going to forgive you and set you free!" The public outrage would be immediate, and the judge would be summarily dismissed. We just can't put up with a judge being unrighteous. The penalty of the law must be paid.

Paul understands it this way as well. In Romans 3 he explains that the wisdom of God in planning redemption is seen in that Jesus willingly offered himself as a substitute for sinners. He took our place, enduring our penalty on the cross. What the law demanded of us, he satisfied fully. Thus, God - the righteous judge - could now be seen as "just" since the penalty has been paid. And, most importantly, he can now justly "justify" those who are in Christ. Paul explains it fully:

Rom. 3.21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (emphasis added).

The Gospel demonstrates the righteousness of God by declaring that our sin and its penalty  - the wrath of God we deserved - were fully discharged by our dying Savior Jesus Christ who died in our place as our substitute so that God could justly declare us righteous before him.

Here's the deal:

• If our sin isn't really sin, then God's acceptance of us is no big deal. Since we're not really guilty of anything, his justice can't be called into question. If so, then Paul wasted a lot of ink defending the righteousness of God in Romans 3.

• If our sin is real, but only needs a better life coach to help us rectify our poor choices and live better lives, then Jesus didn't need to die to satisfy God's law, and once again, Paul wasted time defending the righteousness of God in Romans 3.

• If God's love for us in our sinful state is the same as his love for those who are "in Christ" then, once again, there is no need for Jesus to be our "substitute" since we were already accepted by God, but just didn't know it. Once again, Paul wasted his time writing Romans.

• But if every soul sins, and the penalty for sin is eternal conscious suffering and separation from God, then God can only be righteous if Jesus Christ bore our penalty in his own body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By this the law was satisfied through the cross, and the righteousness of God demonstrated even as he declares sinners righteous because of Christ.

If we are true to the Gospel, then we can't be ashamed to declare that the righteousness of God means, in part, that he honored his law even while forgiving our sin through the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross.

6) The Sovereignty of God: We are increasingly ashamed to rest in the fact that God saves those whom he chose in Christ from before time, and has sovereignly orchestrated his redemptive plan in Jesus Christ to rescue sinners through the Gospel. 

It is clear that Romans is a missional letter. It begins with a strong declaration that Paul was set apart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in which the righteousness of God is revealed (chpt 1). This is a necessary message since all have sinned - both Jew and Greek (chpt. 2,3). This is a welcomed message since the Gospel of grace has a power missing in the Law (chat 4). This is a powerful message since it alone is the tool the Spirit uses to bring us from death into life, from condemnation into acceptance, from bondage into freedom, and from rebellion into the family of God (chaps 5-8).

When Paul comes to the end of chapter 8 he sums up all we have learned about the powerful plan of redemption extended through the Gospel story. He explains that, when it comes to the salvation of sinners, God is sovereign, and will carry out all that is necessary to their eternal salvation. He states it this way:

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

 It is clear from the "for" in vs. 29 that Paul's intent here is to show the salvation of believers will never be in doubt since God is both the initiator and sovereign superintendent of the redemptive plan by which he will save all those whom he has chosen to save.

It begins with the declaration that God foreknew those who would eventually be glorified. It is clear this cannot mean God merely had cognisance of them, for he is all-knowing and knows all things in one eternal moment. It also cannot mean he knew something about them for the text clearly states that he knew them: for whom he foreknew.

(Note: Even if some insist it was their belief he foreknew (which must be supplied to the text), this would only mean their coming to faith was pre-determined since God already knew they would believe. Even before their birth, their eternal destiny was set, their belief determined.  However, this reading does great damage to the text, and to Paul's intention. It also arises out of an embarrassment over the sovereignty of God in salvation, and ironically doesn't really solve their problem since their salvation is still determined even before they are born.)

Paul goes on to give a golden chain made up of several sets of people. In fact, we can understand Paul's meaning if we just think in terms of set theory. If set A is those who were foreknown then we must also recognize that every succeeding set contains the same people. Those in set A (foreknown) are the same as those in set B (predestined), and in set C(called), and in set D (justified), and set E (glorified). 

This is Paul's summation of the Gospel. God is in charge, and can be trusted to finish what he begins. Nothing can keep those in set A from being in set E. In fact, Paul puts glorified in the past tense even though we have not reached that state yet. He does this to demonstrate the glorious end of the Gospel story is not in doubt. It is guaranteed by Almighty God who is sovereignly superintending all things so that the eternal salvation of his elect is accomplished.

Conclusion

While there is an increasing sense of embarrassment over many elements of the biblical Gospel, there are also encouraging signs that many are rediscovering the power of the biblical story. The recent rise in biblical theology, and particularly the recovery of Reformational thinking, remind us that God is the author and guarantor of the Gospel enterprise. He has always had his people, and has never been without a witness to the power of the Spirit through the Word. Now it is our turn to carry the torch, holding out the Word of Life, and refusing to be ashamed of the Gospel through which the mission of Christ through the church is being joyfully accomplished in the world. Soli deo gloria!