No not here. Over at Frank’s place. Frank Viola that is, who has done an interview with Scot McKnight.
What I liked in particular was the insistence that the gospel was not about personal salvation but about a Person, or as he put it,
The good news, then, is that Jesus is King/Messiah and Lord and he saves. The gospel is not first about us but about Jesus.
I don’t even want to pretend to be theologically savvy enough to know all the ins and outs about debates about gospel definitions. What I do know, however, is that we are missing something rather significant if our focus is just on personal salvation. I know that because I see the effect it has on how we then are church and consider things like mission and evangelism.
The implications for understanding the gospel as the narrative of the Person I believe has big implications for how we engage with each other in the Body of Christ. It has huge implications for how we do discipleship for starters because it is more about how we do life in Christ as opposed to following statements about effective methods and techniques to get people over a line. (Are they saved yet? Are they saved yet? Have they said the magic words yet? Yes!!! They’ve said the words, they’ve taken a dip, it’s over now, now let’s go fishing for another sucker.)
I could write a lot more on that, but the focus of here is to point you over there to have a read of what the two brothers talk about (forgive Frank for his Anger Management reference, we have all fallen short of God’s glory and Frank for sure must have if he felt Anger Management was a film worth referring to, but that’s why we pray saints!!) Read it, pass it on to a friend, talk about it, pray about it and then read all about it in a Bible near you. Then perhaps after all that test the waters for yourself in seeing how your perspective on the gospel influences the whole of life.
(Note: I must stress, just because I link to another blog doesn’t mean I agree with EVERYTHING that’s said there. I don’t have to. Something worthy of being read is worthy not because it is agreeable, but because it leads one to perk up and pay attention to what really matters and when it comes to Jesus and the gospel errr … I’d struggle to find anything that matters more. Now get reading and enjoy yourself.)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 