It has concerned me for some time that many in the church have a tendency to truncate the gospel. I thought I had resisted this urge. After all, I don’t have a theology of easy believism.The gospel is not about how many people we can get to say the sinners prayer. It is not about how many converts we can report on some statistical report. The gospel is about “Christ in us the hope of glory.” The definition of a Christian is “one in whom Christ dwells.” That happens by grace through faith, not by a formulaic prayer. I doesn’t matter if we have prayed the prayer – if Christ isn’t in us we are not Christians. If Christ is in us, even if we haven’t prayed the “right” prayer we are Christian.
I even understood that having Christ come into our lives was not the sole purpose of the gospel. We in the evangelical church are very good at getting people in the door of the kingdom of God – and then leaving them in the foyer. I have understood that the gospel was about allowing people to journey deep within the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is the place where the rule of the king is submitted to. So we journey into the kingdom by seeing his will done in our lives. On this journey we put off our old nature and we put on our new nature. If I am to use church clichés- we become “Christlike.” We become “spiritually mature.”
I even thought I understood the difference between “means” and “ends.” The way we become spiritual mature is through prayer and through bible study and through other appropriate spiritual disciplines. But those things are not ends in themselves – they are means to an end of building a deep relationship with God.
Out of a life in which Christ dwelt and we were transformed into his image we would love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we would love our world. If we really had Christ’s eyes to see the poor and the hurting then we would naturally engage in what some people have called “the social gospel.”
The Gospel is Bigger yet
I am coming to see that my vision of the gospel is still too small. If I understand Genesis one and two right, God made people in his image to carry on what he began. When God made the world it was not completed. God had intentions for this world that were going to be fulfilled by a humanity that would continue to build and create and steward in the pattern that God had already established.
Of course the fall came and image of God in us was deeply marred. But our power to build and create was never revoked.
To make a long story short, God’s answer to the fall came in the person of Jesus Christ. He dealt with our sin on the cross. But if we believe that he knew what he was doing – he did much more than that.
He created the church which, when it has been at its best, has been instrumental in medicine, education, science, and the arts. He set up a church that, when it has been at its best, has transformed women’s place in society, denounced and abolished slavery, and worked against addictions and poverty. He set up a church that, when it has been at its best, produced great artists and great works of beauty, He set up a church that, when it has been at its best, has transformed families and governments and economies in a way that has caused human life to flourish.
In other words he has called us to promote not only spiritual flourishing but human flourishing. The first two chapters of Genesis tell about this world beginning in a garden, but the last two chapters of Revelation talk about the culmination of creation ending in a city – the city of God. This is a place where creativity and building culminate to bring us the very best of culture. This is human flourishing at its finest. In fact it says the “glory of the Kings” was brought into the city. The very best of what we create is brought to that city.
Now I recognize that people have tried to divorce the concept of human flourishing from the cross – which is wrong. But it is wrong in both directions. It is wrong to try to create human flourishing (The biblical word would be Shalom) without the cross. But it would also be wrong to try to accept the cross – and only make it “spiritual” and about transforming our hearts but not our culture.
It seems that we have been so concerned about getting people into the city that we have not recognized what is in the city – and how what we do now contributes to the city.
The gospel is about “Christ in us the hope of glory.” The gospel is about coming under the rule of Christ and being transformed into his image. The gospel is about sharing love and good deeds with the poor and marginalized. But the gospel is also about human flourishing. It is about releasing us into who we were created to be in the first place. We are people who build, and create and steward in such a way that we fulfill the intentions of God for this earth.
If the church is to be the church, then we need to help people to flourish, not only spiritually, but in every way good.
