Defining the gospel
May 27, 2009
Recently I listened to Steve Timmis speaking at mars hill church on gospel communities. Well worth a listen, in fact we have begun using the talks In one of our community groups.
Importantly he shares what he understand the gospel is, because it is this that will centre shape and direct our understaning of community ( which in turn holds up and lives out God’s message – 1 tim 3:16).
So what is the gospel?
Steve puts it this way:
The gospel is…
Jesus, God’s promised rescuer and ruler,
lived our life, died our death,
raised again in victorious triumphant vindication
as the first fruits of the new creation
to bring forgiven sinners together under his gracious reign.
So what do you think? Do he capture it, and if so why?
And if anything, what’s missing?
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1. Anna | June 20, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Yes, he leaves out lots of things – but there is no abstract “gospel” which we can name apart from a context, and without knowing his context you can’t know how suitable that little “gospel” is. For example, if he was trying to use that on a Buddhist I would say it is entirely deficient. For me, it works nicely.
Dean Flemming’s book on contextualisation is a must-read, very compelling stuff on “what is the gospel” and why it is allowed to look different in different contexts.
For our local church/area I think an attempt at a gospel summary should include something on Jesus giving up his riches; on him taking away shame; and probably something on his defeat of spiritual darkness and oppression. Something about God doing a lovely job of creating, and re-creating, too.