Christianity Today (by Tim Keller | posted 5/23/2008)
I recently received a request to comment on this article by Tim Keller. I created a file to easily read the article here. I very much like Keller’s perspective and I hope that it gets a wide reading. I won’t take the time to go through it point by point. However, I do think that he presents some very compelling remarks about various forms of the gospel and how we can use these forms to help us in our own presentations of the good news. His final paragraph gives a good summary of his reason for writing:
Today there are many who doubt that there is just one gospel. That gives them the warrant to ignore the gospel of atonement and justification. There are others who don’t like to admit that there are different forms to that one gospel. That smacks too much of “contextualization,” a term they dislike. They cling to a single presentation that is often one-dimensional. Neither of these approaches is as true to the biblical material, nor as effective in actual ministry, as that which understands that the Bible presents one gospel in several forms.
I primarily want to make a few simple but important points to expand on what Keller offered:
1) The gospel is always contemporarily good news to those to whom it is announced. To illustrate my point: To say that we in the United States of America are no longer under British rule is good news generally, but would have been even better news to Americans in the late 1700’s. Thus, it (the gospel) has its power in people’s lives when there is something new and applicable in the announcement of the news to them. It changes their situation in the world.
a. People (the Jews and Gentile God-fearers) in the first century AD knew experientially about salvation by grace through faith. They knew that they needed a vicarious sacrificial offering to cover their sin. To be told that this is the gospel would not be such good news – because they already knew these things and felt the power of them.
b. What they didn’t know was the means by which God would fulfill His promises throughout history to that point. To those who lived in the days following the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus – the gospel was good news because all of the biblical and prophetic expectations were met in the person of Jesus. He is the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent. He is the descendent of Abraham through whom the nations of the world would be blessed. He is the son of David who would rule forever at the right hand of God the Father. He is the Messiah, the Son of God, who would bring forth the Kingdom of God, and right the wrongs of the world. Now this was good news indeed! The coming of Jesus changed everything in their world for them.
c. To those (pagans throughout the world) who knew nothing of salvation by grace through faith, or the promises of God, the gospel was good news because it gave to them an understanding of who the one true God is, salvation from sin and death, freedom from oppression (both human and Satanic) by living as servants of Christ, and hope for the future (both in history and eternity). The announcement of the gospel meant an entirely new way of relating to the world around them.
2) Our presentation of the gospel today must have the same sense of relevance that it did to the Jews and to the Gentiles of the first century. It is the answer to all of the problems faced by men today.
3) We live in a time when Christians no longer know how to speak into the world situation in such a way that people for the first time see the solution to their troubles personally and the resolution of the problems of the world. As Keller so well explained, we need to learn to articulate the good news so that it feels like good news to people.
Keller tells us that the one simple gospel can be understood in a three-point outline:
1) That Jesus was the promised Messianic King and Son of God come to earth as a servant, in human form. (Rom. 1:3-4; Phil. 2:4ff.). I would add that Jesus came to reveal the Father (Jn. 1:14, 18).
2) By his death and resurrection, Jesus atoned for our sin and secured our justification by grace, not by our works (1 Cor. 15:3ff.).
3) On the cross Jesus broke the dominion of sin and evil over us (Col. 2:13-15) and at his return he will complete what he began by the renewal of the entire material creation and the resurrection of our bodies (Rom 8:18ff.). I would add that the implications of this point of the gospel extend to all of life that we live in history. Thus, in Christ, humanity will experience over time a renewal of all of life, including culture and the products of culture.
4) I must add a fourth point: Christ is operating in the world through His Body, the Church. However imperfectly she appears, the Church is the Body of Christ, through whom the world is being transformed. There is no salvation apart from Christ or His Church.
How we articulate this good news to our world is informed by the way the New Testament communicates it: by speaking of the gospel in its various forms or manifestations to various people in various ways. Keller does a marvelous job in making clear how applicable these different expressions of the gospel are. May God, by His Spirit, enlighten us individually and corporately as the Church, to learn to present the gospel in such a way that it is truly felt to be good news to our modern world!
