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RSSI grew up in an evangelical church environment. I have always been taught that the message of Jesus is the good news or the gospel. For me, the understanding of what that means goes something like this…
- God is holy. He created the world and humanity to reflect that holiness. Humanity fell from this holiness when they sinned in the garden. This sin separates a fallen humanity from their holy God. This is the bad news.
- Humanity, no matter how heard we work or try, cannot fix its own sin problem. In other words, you can never be good enough on your own to erase the effects of sin or somehow earn your way back into relationship with God. This is worse news.
- But God, looking down on a fallen, helpless humanity, sent his son to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Jesus came, lived a perfect life, and gave his life as payment for our sins. By believing in him, humanity can be forgiven of their sin, and reconnected to God. This is the good news.
This is the good news as it relates to sin and forgiveness. I’d like to affirm the truth of this message, while at the same time suggesting that this is not all the good news is about. The good news is that we can be forgiven of our sin, but it goes beyond that to something even more significant.
In the upcoming days, I hope to blog about this idea and flesh out some more ideas about the good news…how we view it or have been taught to view it, and how Jesus views it. I want to invite you to join the discussion, and I’ll encourage you to do that by asking two or three questions at the end of each post. Respond to these questions in the comment section. Let’s refresh our perspective on the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ…or perhaps see it clearly for the very first time!
Questions:
- What has been your understanding of the bad news of humanity/good news of Jesus?
- How does this typical evangelical understanding of the gospel impact the spiritual journey of a Christian?
- What is missing from this view of the good news?
Oct 26, 2009 @ 14:36:57
1. My understanding has much like yours. Evangelically speaking, the Roman road and 4 spiritual laws remind us of our sin and separation from God. Jesus was perfect. Jesus died on the cross making a “bridge” for man to cross the gulf of sin and be reconciled with God. Because of this, we get to go to heaven while those who reject Jesus get to burn in hell.
2. I think it stunts it. If the gift of Jesus is free. If I can do nothing to earn it. I pray the prayer, get my get out of hell free card and then do nothing…except what I want…and then ask forgiveness if it was bad…while waiting for Jesus to come back so I can get to heaven already…hurry up Jesus, this world is bad.
3. The message of dying to self, following Him, fishing for men, making disciples, being a disciple, being transformed by the renewing of my mind, doing to the least of these, loving my enemies and a litany of other things. In short, the actual journey of faith – with works – letting my light shine so that others will see my good deeds and glorify the Father.
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Oct 28, 2009 @ 02:42:36
Oct 28, 2009 @ 14:32:30
1. Although I believe I know the way, the life, & the truth who is Jesus, my view of how Christianity is portrayed has probably morphed a little over the past ten years. I suppose when I got saved, the way salvation was explained to me was that Jesus was essentially the end-goal to getting into heaven. Understandably the world we live in is not our home, but it was portrayed to me that this world is “bad, evil, & heathen” & not one that Jesus wants to redeem to Himself. “We’re on our way to heaven & that’s good enough for us” is a mindset that I’ve been around since becoming a follower of Christ. And I never understood it. As a young believer, I thought our goal was to reflect Christ to a hurting & broken world – helping those who are poor & lonely, the widows & the orphans as the Bible calls it. The problem is that I believe there is still a breed of Christianity in our world that says: “We must get to heaven as quickly as possible because this world is dying. But it doesn’t matter because I got my Jesus.”
2. I think the one which I described above can really confuse a young believer. Our chief goal is not just to “make it to heaven”, but to bring the Kingdom of God to earth! This doesn’t change the fact that we know Jesus is coming and our world is dying but to me it shifts the focus from “me” to “you” and from my salvation & faith alone to a world that needs to experience the love Christ, who can radically change their lives. I heard today someone say that Jesus was more concerned with those who were humble & those who were proud than He was those who were “good” & those who were “evil”. And I think that has got to be apart of our mindset as we walk through this life. Our role is to serve & to empty ourselves completely into the lives of those who need Jesus.
3. Selflessness. Concern. Care. Compassion. Humility. These are words that come to my mind as I think about what evangelical Christianity has become in our society today. I’m not saying that the church is bad or that we need to reform it. But I do think that these are characteristics of Jesus that we often miss. And we cannot miss them any longer. The stakes are too great. Chris, hopefully you’ll remember saying this in our workshop a few weeks ago, that the heart of Christianity says that your life is greater than mine. This must be our driving passion & attitude, the very core of who Jesus was. We don’t have to try & make Jesus look cool to the world through our programs, our events, our church buildings, our lights & smoke. We must willing to be the Jesus who was rejected, spat on, ridiculed, & died for a world He refused to be separate from because He loved them so much.