The solution is not to change the gospel
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 4:57PM Tim Keller on the temptation to move away from a gospel that deals with individual sin (from the 2007 Gospel Coalition conference):
Why is it we don't have people living the lives they ought to live? Why do we see people over here culturally withdrawn and being really negative and narrow? "The solution is, let's change the gospel." No! But that's what's happening.
Almost every month in evangelical publications and publishing houses you'll see people who say, "The gospel is no longer 'You're saved through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ appeasing the wrath of God.' The gospel is just the kingdom. The gospel is that God is renewing the world, and he's going to reweave the world in peace and justice. And now you need to join this community and be agents of peace and justice. You need to change your life. You need to be a disciple. It's both faith and obedience. That's what connects you to God."
I can't imagine with that gospel that anybody's going to write a hymn that goes like this: "My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee." It's just not going to happen. It's actually another kind of legalism.
The problem is that the gospel is individualistic. it is! It does say, "You are an individual sinner. You've opposed a holy God. You've personally offended him. Here's the provision for it."
Keller goes on to explain how the gospel leads to engagement with the culture. If you haven't listened to this message, it's worth it. You can find the MP3 here.
Reader Comments (3)
I do a lot of reading, and, frankly, I haven't read statements from evangelicals who are abandoning that part of the Good News that deals with God's response through the cross of Christ to our fundamental sin problem. I do see evangelicals abandoning the unbalanced and unbiblical view that says that the Gospel is only about an individual being reconciled to God so that he/she can go to heaven.
Steve: I have heard statements like what you describe, but more on blogs and in conversations than in print. I think you're right in your second statement.
Hi. I don't know of any Christians who don't say that God responds to our sin problem through the cross. Of course they do. What I am seeing is evangelicals moving away from the classic evangelical concept that the cross effects God, that it takes away a barrier between human beings and God. The new approach is that the cross mainly effects the world and us, it confronts the world's violence and power and shows another way, or even that it 'absorbs' the world's violence in some way. I've seen many younger evangelical leaders change their statements of faith in that direction. The cross doesn't mainly absorb God's wrath, but it mainly absorbs the world's wrath. I'm not saying that you can't integrate substitutionary atonement with over-coming-the powers atonement. John Stott does a fine job in his book on the cross. But I see a fair number of evangelicals not following Stott.