Our Message

Ministry > Letters :: September 2011

What do you and I really mean when we talk about “the gospel?” Perhaps we’re referring to good old John 3:16, or maybe the Roman Road or Four Spiritual Laws. We might use “gospel” as shorthand for believing the Jesus died and rose again so that we can be forgiven and go to heaven. None of these things are wrong, but none are really “the good news.”

In the Great Commission, Jesus instructs his followers to make disciples by teaching all that he had commanded. We read in Acts 2:42 that after Pentecost, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…” But what did they teach? First century Jerusalem didn’t have a Christian bookstore filled with Bible study guides, theology texts, or inspirational books. The disciples taught what they knew from three years of  firsthand experience with the truth-speaking, miracle-making, cross-suffering, alive-again Son of God. For them, and for us, the good news is not simply the knowledge of Jesus; the gospel is the person of Jesus.

As we studied the first eight chapter of Romans last summer with our interns, it occurred to me how our faith was not centered on the knowledge of Jesus but it was Jesus himself.  In Romans 6:5, we read, “For if we have been united with him [Christ] in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” [emphasis mine].  To borrow from Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola in The Jesus Manifesto, Jesus is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end, of the Christian life.

Colossians 1:15-20 declares the supremacy of Christ, the maker and sustainer of all things. The words of verse 19 are mind-boggling: “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.” But then in verse 27 we find something that would seem heretical were it not written by God himself — “Christ lives in you.” This comes together in 2:9-10, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ… All the fullness of God is in Christ, and all the fullness of Christ is in us!

The call to “receive Christ into your life” is a inaccurate statement; in Christ the, old life dies and a new one takes it’s place (2 Corinthians 5:17). More accurately, we should say that Christ brings us into His life. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” This is a statement of identify, not knowledge  — He didn’t say “I know…” but rather “I am…”  The good news is not about theology, morality, or worldview — no human understanding could adequately capture the infinite Christ. And the gospel not even escaping the punishment of sin and getting into heaven. The good news is Jesus, through whom we are given the uncaused life of God Himself. We share in all that is Christ’s to share.

The Spirit has challenge me lately to reclaim the person of Christ — and not just the understanding of Him — as central to my life and mission. Any action or message, personal or corporate, that is not centered in the person of Jesus Christ cannot be called “Christian.”

In the introduction to Jesus Manifesto, the authors noted that each great awakening has been marked by three re-discoveries in the church: the authority of the “living word” (which is Christ), the supremacy of the living Christ, and the Holy Spirit’s role in manifesting Christ in our world through us. From here, my mind immediately leaps to the need for this understanding in our mission.

Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” (John 12:32)  I am convinced that the opportunity presented in the internet age of the Great Commission can only be realized if our message is simply and completely the person of Jesus Christ. And like the first disciples, we can only truly share the One that we know ourselves.

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