I suspect that if you are reading this blog, written by a
pastor of a Bible-believing church, you are probably familiar with the
gospel. The gospel, of course, is the
good news of Jesus Christ – his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection,
his ascension, and his return some day.
The gospel is the story of what God has graciously done for us in Christ
in response to our rebellion against Him.
A common temptation is for Christians to shunt the gospel
into a “past tense” status in our lives.
We look back at that moment in time when we came to the recognition that
we had placed our trust in the good news of Jesus Christ. And while it is true that faith has a
beginning in our lives, the work of the gospel is not merely in the past. Rather, the work of the gospel in us is a
reality now and will continue on throughout eternity.
In light of that, it is good idea to remind ourselves of the
truths of the gospel and how those truths can change our lives completely. That is the purpose of Matt Chandler’s book The
Explicit Gospel. In a world where
far too many things are explicit – language, sexual content, violence –
Chandler does a good job of reminding us of the raw truths of the gospel and
how those truths should provide direction for our lives.
The Explicit Gospel is divided into three main
sections. The first two deal with “The Gospel
on the Ground” and “The Gospel in the Air.”
“The Gospel on the Ground” unpacks the personal truths of the
gospel. It reminds us who God is, who
we are as sinners, who Christ is, what He has done, and how we should respond
to these truths. It is personal
invitation to allow the truths of the gospel to penetrate our lives.
The section entitled “The Gospel in the Air” deals with the
truths of the gospel on a cosmic level.
Chandler takes the same gospel, flies up into orbit around the earth, and
looks at it from the perspective of creation, fall, reconciliation and consummation. He shows how the gospel fits in with the
great plan of God to restore the world to its once perfect condition.
Both these perspectives are necessary, because there are
dangers in holding too closely to one perspective or the other. In the last section of the book, the author
takes a look at the implications of grounding our lives and teaching in one
perspective only. For example, if our
gospel stays exclusively on the ground, we face the danger of being blind to
the big picture purpose of God and we are tempted to make faith a self-centered
exercise. If our gospel stays
exclusively in the air, other dangers lurk.
We can fall prey to removing Christ from our gospel or making culture,
rather than the Scripture, the arbiter of truth. As in so many things in life, the challenge
it so balance both aspects of the gospel.
The author ends the book with a wonderful chapter on the
dangers of Christian moralism. If we are
not careful, it is easy for forsake the truths of the cross for a moralism that
focuses on doing good without a true, heart-centered work of grace in our lives. This chapter alone is almost worth the price
of the book.
I found this book to be a great reminder that in my
thinking, my preaching and my teaching, I need to have an eye on both of these
facets of the gospel truth. It is indeed
personal as much as it is cosmic. The
gospel gets down to the ground level in our lives; it also displays the wonders
of God’s purpose. We need both
perspectives in order to a full understanding of the wondrous grace God has
poured out into our lives in Christ Jesus.
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