I want to continue looking at the concept that the Word is not flat. Certain teachings in the Bible take priority over other teachings, they are the “more important matters” in God’s Word. One way you can tell is to look for what the Bible says is important. Another is to look for what the Bible emphasizes through repetition. A third way that I’ve mentioned is to see if the Bible relates the issue to salvation.

As we look at “things of first importance,” we can’t help but be drawn to what Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15: the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Now, I’m one of those rare birds that doesn’t think that Paul is giving us a complete definition of the gospel here. I think the gospel is broader than just Jesus’ sacrifice… but I guess that’s another topic. I do think, however, that things that are related to what Jesus did by coming to earth and giving himself for us, those things are especially important.

Fourth clue to identifying important biblical teachings: The Bible directly connects some teachings with the gospel of Jesus.

That’s why I think the Lord’s Supper is so special. Following some of the guidelines that I’ve set out, it might not seem to be that important. Yet I think it has a central place in our worship to God because of its direct connection to what Jesus did for us. We directly remember the new covenant established through Jesus’ sacrifice when we “partake” (I love that word) of the Lord’s Supper.

Another obvious teaching is baptism. We would already see baptism as vitally important because of it’s connection with salvation and because of the number of references to it in the New Testament. But when we see that this is how we identify ourselves with Christ’s sacrifice, we can no longer deny its centrality. My study of what is truly important in scripture has made me even more unashamed of strongly emphasizing Christian baptism.

Other teachings flow from the gospel. Paul relates unity and service to one another to the cross. Humility. Repentance. We live transformed, holy lives because of the cross.

So, a fourth guideline for discovering “the weightier matters” of Scripture is to look for that which is connected with the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

What is the gospel? I’ve heard people point to 1 Corinthians 15 to get a definition of the gospel: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-5) The death, burial and resurrection are often signaled as the totality of the gospel, with some merely writing DBR when they want to refer to this concept.

But was Paul offering a complete definition of the gospel? I’m not so sure. For one thing, the apostles preached the gospel before they even understood that there would be a death, burial and resurrection (Luke 9:1-6) Seems like the gospel they proclaimed was the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist preached the gospel (Luke 3:18), as did Jesus (Matt 4:23; 9:35; Mark 1:14; Luke 20:1).

Paul also talks about judgment being a part of the gospel (Romans 2:16), which fits well with the “eternal gospel” proclaimed in Revelation 14:6-7. In writing to Timothy, Paul speaks of Jesus’ descent from David as being part of the gospel (2 Timothy 2:8). To the Galatians, Paul says that the gospel was preached to Abraham when God promised to bless all nations through him.

So what do you think? Is it just DBR or do we need to broaden our definition of “gospel”?

(And is there any significance to the fact that the image above, found via Google, comes from a Church of Christ website, or is that just coincidence?)

As we talk to people about the good news of salvation, it’s important that we remember what we have to share. What we have that our world needs is the good news about Jesus. It’s easy to get distracted with other things. We can be tempted to go out preaching the church, preaching a certain doctrine, preaching a certain form of morality. All of those things are important, but they must take second place. People must be converted to God, then other things will be taken care of. God will add them to the church. They will learn doctrine and morality from studying God’s Word. If we convert people to the Lord, making disciples, they will change their lives as they learn to follow him. If we focus on the behavior and the doctrinal understanding, they may never understand the need to be under the Lordship of Jesus.

As we go out to share the gospel, we must do just that: share the gospel, the good news of salvation, the news that Jesus came to this earth, lived among us, died, was buried, rose again, ascended to his father and will one day come again to judge the living and the dead. That’s the message the world needs to hear. That’s the unique message we have to share. That’s the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s post spurred some interesting conversation about just what it is we teach people as they are coming to God. Let me state plainly that I believe that people need to hear the good news about Jesus. I prefer to begin a study by going through one of the gospels, just to make sure that the person knows the good news. If the person is not a Christian, there will come a “what shall I do” moment, and then I might use a presentation like that of Acts 2.

People need to be converted to a relationship with God. They need “doctrine,” but doctrine won’t save them. They need to become part of the church, but teaching about the church won’t save them. Salvation is about being in a right relationship with God. People need Jesus Christ.

In Argentina, we once examined the different tracts that we had brought with us from the States. Out of about 15-20 tracts that we had, only one was about Jesus. We realized that those pamphlets didn’t represent what it was we wanted to teach people.

People need the good news about Jesus Christ. That’s what we need to teach them.

I’ve been thinking about the gospel. The good news of Jesus. I’m wondering how much bad news is an inherent part of the good news.

There has to be some. For Jesus to be the answer, there has to be a problem that needs a solution. But what is the problem?

Is it sin? Is it personal sin or universal sin?

Is it the powers of evil? Is that the problem? Satan and his minions that have rebelled against God, deceived mankind, and sown seeds of death and destruction; is that what Jesus came to fix?

Why did Jesus have to die? Is his death part of the good news or the bad news? Some would argue that his death is the bad news and his resurrection the good. Is that it?

Why do people need to be Christians? To be saved from eternal damnation? To be part of God’s Kingdom? To find purpose and community? What’s the point?

I guess here’s what I’d like to hear your thoughts on:

• What did Jesus accomplish with his death that couldn’t be accomplished any other way?
• If Jesus is our Savior, what is he saving us from?
• What do we gain by becoming a Christian that we couldn’t have otherwise?

How would you answer?

To promote this year’s Summer Blog Tour, we’re giving away one set of Church Inside Out, both book and workbook. Just leave a comment below then enter over HERE.

The Gospel Inside Out

I’m afraid the title is more ambitious than my few paragraphs offer. To make my task more manageable, I offer a few idea-starters about the gospel as taught by Jesus, Paul, and the early church bishop, Athanasius.

The gospel Jesus taught
In contrast to Matthew’s and Mark’s summary of Jesus’s “gospel of God” (Mark 1:14), Luke 4:18–19 depicts Jesus preaching selectively from Isaiah 61:1–2:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because
He has anointed me
to evangelize the poor.
He has sent me
to declare liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the broke(n) with a full release,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (my translation).

When Jesus omits “and the day of our God’s vengeance” (Isa 61:2b) and rehearses God’s blessing of a foreign widow and an enemy general, he turns the gospel of God his hearers expect inside out. “He isn’t just our God and he blesses our enemies,” Jesus reveals. Their reaction, like their “God,” is one of deadly vengeance.

Perhaps this is why Jesus begins his evangelizing with the word “repent.” Apparently, even John the Baptist missed it, as Matthew 11:1–15 makes clear. Jesus says those who even barely grasp his message have far greater insight than John. John’s gospel of violent, fiery judgment, it seems, put him at odds with Jesus’s view of the nature of the kingdom of the heavens. “Repent,” then, as Jesus uses it, retains its core meaning of “shift your paradigm” with reference to God and God’s kingdom. For John, repentance focused on the personal sacrifices required for holiness; for Jesus, repentance kept its eyes on the merciful nature of God toward all persons (Exod. 34:5–7; Jonah 4:2b). “For I delight in mercy but not sacrifice; and in knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6, my translation).

Jesus’s gospel is about his Father and his Father’s nature. The Father’s nature was so misunderstood, Jesus claims no one but he knows the Father (Matt. 11:27). He then immediately invites those wearied and burdened by compromised gospels of God to come to him for rest, to take on the easy, restful yoke of learning as a disciple of his gentle humility and light burden. “No one knows the Father except the Son”: not John the Baptist, not the Pharisees or the scribes, not Moses or Elijah, not Jesus’s disciples, no one except he … and his post-resurrection disciples. The Father is known rightly and fully only through his Son (Heb. 1:1–3b).

The gospel Paul taught
Jesus’s gospel reframed a self-serving view of his Father’s compassion; Paul’s gospel applied Jesus’s message more widely. Two passages are especially rich: 2 Cor. 5:11–21 and Eph. 2:1–10.

In 2 Cor. 5:14, Paul claims that Christ’s death universally incorporates humanity. In his death, all died. When this insight becomes clear, a whole new world comes into focus. Paul knows this from his own experience: before he embraced it, he viewed Jesus as a renegade false prophet whose death was just. Once the scales fell from Saul’s eyes, he saw the new creation. He no longer saw through Adam’s blind, fearful, ashamed, sin-focused eyes. Jesus Messiah incarnated into the old, blinded, fearful, ashamed, sin-wracked Adamic humanity, embraced it and us fully and carried it and us into Death. And by God’s own unilateral act of cosmic justice, Jesus (and it and us) were raised to newness.

Paul makes a parallel point in Ephesians 2, but goes farther. In 2:1–3, Paul sets the cosmic stage: we were all dead in our sins, naturally characterized by impulsive anger, like the rest of humanity. The “we” in 2:1–3 is undoubtedly all Adamic humanity. “But,” Paul contrasts, “God, being rich in mercy, because of his abundant love with which he loved us — even while we were dead in our sins — co-enlivened us with Christ: you are rescued by [God’s] favor!” Not only did we all die with Christ, God raised us all up and seated us all with Christ. This rescue from Death is anchored in God’s favor, accomplished by God’s faithfulness, given as unconditional gift, and integral to God’s (new) creation-act.

Paul extends Jesus’s gospel to include Jesus’s cooperation with the Father in rescuing Adamic humanity from its errant view of God and the self-caused alienation “in our own minds” (Col 1:21). The rescue for all humanity has been a fait accompli since Jesus’s resurrection. The message of what God has done in Christ is proclaimed so that, by awakening to its truth, all persons can dwell in the present blessings of the new creation.

The gospel Athanasius taught
Just as Paul authoritatively interpreted Jesus’s gospel in scripture, Athanasius’s views both reflected and influenced the understanding of the early church (ca. 200–400). In contrast, Augustine’s perspectives (post-400) dominated the Latin church and, through it, the Reformers and most of contemporary Evangelicalism.

In his On the Incarnation of the Word, Athanasius explains that humanity, brought to life out of nothing, maintained life by keeping a clear knowledge of God’s nature (i.e., the Logos) within them. Humanity’s existence depended on an uncompromised trust and dependence on God. Once the devil deceived humanity into mistrust, humanity cut itself off from its source of life and knowledge. Thus, by degrees, humanity not only lost its ability for clear reason, it began to disintegrate into physical death and, beyond that, into the corruption of utter nothingness; that is, into Death. Return to nothingness was not a God-imposed punishment, but a God-warned natural consequence of cutting our own umbilical cord.

It was both intolerable to and unworthy of God that he would do nothing to rescue those created in his own likeness, especially because they had been tricked by falsehood, and because a neglect to rescue them would demonstrate weakness. Thus, a rescue by the Logos that had created humanity was needed. The incarnated Logos fully incorporated all humanity into his own body, joining corruptible to incorruptible, and sacrificed himself (and us in him) to death to settle Death’s claim. Since Christ is the incorruptible Logos, Death could not contain him. By Christ’s death, Death died. Because we died his death and he ours, physical death is no punishment and Death-as-annihilation is no possibility. Moreover, once Death died, Christ then offered himself (and us in him) to the Father, who raised him as firstfruits and will raise us-in-him at the final resurrection.

The Gospel inside out
The gospel of God is not an invitation. It has no steps for us to climb to seek and gain God’s favor. It is not an offer that, by accepting, we activate its benefits. No, the gospel is far greater.

The gospel is the astounding declaration that, despite having gotten God all wrong in our thinking, having mischaracterized, misrepresented, maligned, mistreated, and had malice toward him, God has never been against us. To be sure, God has been against all our fearful, ignorant, misguided, vengeful characterizations of him and their effects, but he has endured them to be with us so that we might truly glimpse him and repent. He did not leave the glimpses to chance, but manifested himself entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ and the new creation life in which we participate. The basis of the gospel has always been God’s compassionate nature toward all creation; its benefits have always been active for all persons, but its enjoyment is possible only to those whose eyes see. Repent, and believe the gospel of God!

Peace and all good to all, always.
(©2016, Brandon L. Fredenburg. Permission granted to reprint with the original title and byline. For non-profit use only.)

Brandon L. Fredenburg is a professor of Biblical Studies and assistant dean for the College of Biblical Studies and Behavioral Sciences at Lubbock Christian University. He lives, ministers, and teaches in Lubbock, Texas.