Monthly Archives: March 2021

The Gospels

The Biblical Gospel vs. the Evangelical Gospel

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Many years ago a friend asked me why the Gospels don’t teach the basic gospel message, and at the time I didn’t know how to respond. After studying the Bible more and more, I’ve realized that the problem is in us, not in the Bible. If you ask Christians today, “What is the gospel,” they will likely say something about heaven and hell and what happens when you die.[1] For most of us, the “good news” is primarily about salvation and specifically salvation from hell. But if you look in the Bible, the gospel is much bigger than this. Sometimes the gospel is tied with salvation, but more often the gospel is tied with the message of the kingdom.

Look at how the Gospel of Mark summarizes Jesus’ preaching: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’” (Mark 1:14-15, NRSV). The gospel, or “good news,” is about God’s kingdom coming to earth and about us repenting and exercising faith in it to change the world. Did you know that the Gospel of Mark never once talks about what happens when you die? There is one passage that talks about hell (Mark 9:43-48), but it is not in an appeal to believe in Jesus. It is in a warning not to cause someone to stumble. The Gospel of Mark also never talks about going to heaven when you die. There is one passage that talks about having treasure in heaven and about having eternal life in the age to come (Mark 10:17-31), but the age to come is when Jesus sets up his reign on earth and we live in resurrected bodies on the new earth. Those treasures are stored in heaven, but are brought out for us here![2] And Mark 12:18-27 speaks about the resurrection, but again, this is about what happens on earth after Jesus returns. No passage in the Gospel of Mark speaks of going to heaven when you die. For Mark, that is not the gospel. The gospel is the message that Jesus is now taking the throne to bring God’s reign on earth. The very first verse of Mark says this much: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.” Both the terms “Christ” and “Son of God” are royal terms. The emperors of Rome claimed to be able to rule as the son of God, but Mark says, no, Jesus is the one with authority to rule as the Son of God. “Christ” (or “Messiah”) is not Jesus’ last name; it is the Greek word for “anointed one,” meaning the one who has been anointed as the Jewish king. That’s why when Jesus is on the cross at the end of the Gospel of Mark, the charge against him is that he is “the king of the Jews.” The gospel, for Mark, is ultimately the gospel of the kingdom.

But it is not just Mark who views the gospel differently than we do today. After the birth narrative, the Gospel of Matthew starts with these words: “In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matt 3:1-2, NRSV). John the Baptist’s preaching is centered not on personal salvation, but on the invasion of God’s kingdom. One chapter later Matthew introduces Jesus’ preaching with these words: “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matt 4:17, NRSV). And in chapter 10, when Jesus sends the twelve apostles out, he says, “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matt 10:7, NRSV). In three other passages Matthew refers to the gospel as “the gospel of the kingdom” (Matt 4:23; 9:35; 24:14). That’s what the gospel is: it is more about God reigning through Jesus than about what happens when you die. Matthew devotes an entire chapter at the center of his gospel to telling seven parables about the kingdom (Matt 13).

Now it might be tempting to think that because Matthew talks about “the kingdom of heaven” what he means is the place you go when you die, but a look more closely reveals that this is not what he is thinking about. In fact, Matthew uses “kingdom of heaven” in the same places where Mark says “kingdom of God.” “Kingdom of heaven” is just another way of referring to God’s rule from heaven. That’s why Jesus can say, “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” God’s reign is coming to earth. That’s why we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom of heaven is about heaven having its way with the earth. That’s why Jesus says when he casts out demons that Satan’s kingdom cannot stand and that “the kingdom of God has come to you” (Matt 12:25-28). That’s why Jesus could say to those around him that some of them “will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matt 16:28). That’s why Jesus can say to the Pharisees that “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matt 21:31). Or “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matt 21:43). The kingdom of heaven is something that Jesus and his disciples are bringing to earth!

We find the same thing in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus again uses the phrase “gospel of the kingdom” three times (Luke 4:43; 8:1; 16:16) and associates the good news with the message that the poor, hungry, mournful and persecuted are blessed (Luke 6:20-26). And we find the same thing in the Gospel of John, where Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless he is born from above he will not see the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5).

There are a handful of references to hell in the Gospels (Matt 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5), but none of them talks about Jesus saving us from hell. And there are many more references to heaven in the Gospels, but only once in the four gospels do we find the idea that you can go to heaven when you die (Luke 23:43, assuming Paradise is in heaven, which is debated). Paul also talks a couple times about going to heaven upon death (Php 1:23; 2 Cor 8), but both Paul and Jesus are far more concerned with the breaking in of the kingdom of God than they are with where you will go when you die. Where you go when you die is important, but far more important is the fact that in Jesus God has begun changing the world! This is what “the gospel of the kingdom” is about. In order to understand this better, we should look at the Old Testament background of the concept of the kingdom of God.

In the Old Testament, Israel was established as a theocracy, which means it was a nation directly ruled by God. God shows himself to be king over all the gods of Egypt in the exodus. God acts as king to give the people their laws. God leads the Israelites through the wilderness as their king. God anoints judges to deliver the tribes of Israel under his kingship. But in 1 Samuel 8 we read the following:

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the LORD, and the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” [1 Sam 8:4-9, NRSV]

Samuel goes on to warn them that the king will only look out for himself and will oppress the people and start wars and tax them heavily. Sure enough, the king they choose does this very thing. Eventually God gives them David, who is a man after God’s own heart, but his reign does not last, and the later kings oppress the people and lead them astray. This is why Ezekiel prophesies against the shepherds of Israel:

Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd. [Ezek 34:2-5, NRSV]

Ezekiel continues:

For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.… I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; … I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. [Ezek 34:11-16, NRSV]

This promise, that God would shepherd his own sheep, is the promise of the kingdom. Isaiah prophesied:

Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep. [Isa 40:9-11]

This chapter of Isaiah is important for the New Testament. It announces the change in Israel’s fortune, and John the Baptist gets identified as the voice crying out in the wilderness from earlier in this chapter. The word “good news” (twice in verse 9) is the same word that gets translated as “gospel” in the New Testament. And notice what the good news is: “Here is your God,” “his arm rules for him,” “he will feed his flock [and] gather the lambs.” It is a gospel of the kingdom. Later Isaiah uses the word “gospel” or “good news” again, and again it is in terms of God’s kingship:

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” [Isa 52:7, NRSV]

Here we have a message of salvation, but that salvation comes in the form of God reigning, that is, in the kingship or kingdom of God.

The Old Testament prophets knew that God intended to rule the world as its king and that his people had rejected his rule. And they announced that God eventually would rule as king, and what would this look like? Feeding the flock, gathering the lambs in his arms, carrying them in his bosom, and gently leading the mother sheep (Isa 40:11). Or in the words of Ezekiel: seeking the lost, bringing back the strayed, binding up the injured, strengthening the weak, and feeding them all with justice (Ezek 34:16). And so when Jesus came, what did he do? Matthew summarizes it this way:

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [Matt 9:35-36, NRSV]

When Jesus preaches the gospel of the kingdom, he heals the sick. As he says later in a summary of his activity: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matt 11:5, NRSV]. The gospel sets people free right here, right now. Jesus sees the sheep. He knows they are harassed and helpless. And he gently leads and cares for them. This is the kingdom of God.

But that is not all. Look at the next verse in Matthew:

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” [Matt 9:37-38, NRSV]

If the gospel is the good news that God is taking charge of the world and making it right, then discipleship is being the hands and feet of Jesus in carrying that out. The gospel is not about you. It’s not a purchase of fire insurance. It’s seeking God’s kingdom on earth, seeking God’s righteousness being realized on earth. It’s making God’s name hallowed, God’s will done. It is making sure people have their daily bread. It is forgiving those who trespass against us. It is helping people escape temptation.

Do you see the crowds? Can you tell that they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd? Do you have compassion on them? Will you work with Jesus to feed the flock? In the very next verse it says, “Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness” (Matt 10:1, NRSV). And before they go, Jesus tells them, “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Matt 10:7-8, NRSV). Many of us don’t have the faith to cure the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse lepers, and to cast out demons, but start small. Do you see someone who is lonely and needs a friend? Be that friend! Do you see someone struggling financially? Give them whatever help you can offer. Do you see someone struggling with their health? Pray for a breakthrough. Do you see a troubled teen in need of an adult who cares? Take them under your wing. Do you see someone who doesn’t know if God cares about their situation? Show them that God cares through your actions. Let your actions prove Jesus’ words true: The kingdom of heaven has come near!

[1] A Google search for “What is the gospel” returned the following as the top three results: “the gospel is the good news concerning Christ and the way of salvation” (gotquestions.org); “Good news! Here is how you can be saved from my judgment!” (Crossway.org); and “sometimes the term gospel refers broadly to Jesus’ work of justification and sanctification for and in His people, and sometimes it refers narrowly to Jesus’ work of justification” (Ligonier.org).

[2] Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007), 164, notes that the language of treasure being stored suggests that the treasure will later be brought out of that storehouse. He says, “If I say to a friend ‘I’ve kept some beer in the fridge for you’, that doesn’t mean that he has to get into the fridge in order to drink the beer. God’s future inheritance, the incorruptible new world and the new bodies that are to inhabit that world, are already kept safe, waiting for us, not so that we can go to heaven and put them on there, but so that they can be brought to birth in this world, or rather in the new heavens and new earth, the renewed world.

Rethinking Bible Verses in Context, The Gospels, Worship Songs

Wouldn’t Any Shepherd Leave the Ninety-Nine?

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As modern (or postmodern) Westerners, we often misread passages of the Bible. This is not surprising; it is hard to read a text written in a vastly different language from a different time and a different culture and make sense of it. God knows this and is patient with us. He also calls us to study and to get better at reading this ancient, inspired text. The benefits of doing so are tremendous and sometimes the cost of not doing so is great. This is true with regard to the parable of the lost sheep.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Jesus tells three parables in a row: the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10), and the lost son (Luke 15:11-32). The reason for telling these parables is given in verses 1-2:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” [Luke 15:1-2, NIV]

The Pharisees and the scribes had a problem with Jesus’s acceptance of sinners. This should give us a hint off-the-bat that these parables are about the way we view sinners. And yet we tend to view them as a commentary on God’s love. Consider the song “Reckless Love” by Cory Asbury:

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God;
Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the 99;
And I couldn’t earn it,
I don’t deserve it, still You give yourself away;
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.

We often sing about how undeserving the sinner is of God’s love, but the problem is that in doing so, we make Luke 15 say the opposite of what it says! It was the Pharisees that saw sinners as unworthy of God’s love. Jesus was opposing that view! Consider Jesus’ opening question:

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? [Luke 15:4, NIV]

Modern readers who have never cared for sheep might not know what a shepherd would do if one sheep disappears. Would he stay with the 99 so as not to lose another or would he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one. Jesus expected his hearers to know: any shepherd is going to go find that sheep!

We know this not just because shepherds will attest to it, but also because of the way Jesus asks the question. We see rhetorical questions formatted in exactly the same way throughout the Gospel of Luke:

  1. Which of you if a friend comes at midnight would say, “Don’t bother me. I cannot get up and give you anything” (Luke 11:5-8). In a world where hospitality is highly valued, everyone knows the answer: none of us would do that. In the same way, God’s not going to do that regarding our prayers.
  2. What father among you if his son asks for a fish or an egg would give him a serpent or a scorpion (Luke 11:11-12)? Even today we know the answer: none of us would do that. In the same way the Father is going to give us what we need (Luke 11:13).
  3. Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his life (Luke 12:25)? None of us. Then don’t be anxious (Luke 12:26).
  4. Which of you has a son or an ox fall in a well on the Sabbath and says, “I can’t do anything about it; it’s the Sabbath” (Luke 14:5). No one would do that. In the same way, it is right for Jesus to free a man from bondage on the Sabbath.
  5. Which of you would start building a tower without first determining if he has the ability to complete it (Luke 14:28-30), or what king would go to war without first determining if he has the power to win the battle (Luke 14:31-32)? No one would. In the same way, don’t approach discipleship without counting the cost.
  6. Which of you who has a servant plowing or taking care of the sheep then serves the servant dinner (Luke 17:7-10)? No one. In the same way we as God’s servants shouldn’t think that God is suddenly indebted to us.

In each of these examples, the answer is clear (or at least it would have been to the original audience): none of us would do that, and the implication is that we shouldn’t expect God to be like that. These rhetorical questions work because everyone knows that Jesus is giving absurd scenarios. It is the same with the parable of the sheep:

Which of you having 100 sheep would choose not to go after one that is lost? None of us, Jesus. None of us would let even one slip away.

The point is that every shepherd values the lost sheep. In fact, we could say that the one sheep is suddenly of more value to the shepherd than the ninety-nine that have no need of being found. This is made clear in the next two verses:

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ [Luke 15:5-6, NIV]

This is not surprising at all. It is not about God’s love in particular. It is about what every shepherd would do. Every shepherd is relieved and overjoyed to find a lost sheep. So is God:

I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. [Luke 15:7, NIV]

The message is clear. Don’t you value what you have lost? So sinners are of great value to God!

The parable of the lost coin makes the same point:

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ [Luke 15:8-10, NIV]

These are not surprising activities. No one says, “Well that coin doesn’t deserve to be found!” Deserving or earning is not the question. The question is one of value. A sheep and a coin (valued at a day’s wages) have value! And in the same way, a lost soul has value to God. This is the point of these parables. These parables do not imply that the sheep and the coin are undeserving, nor do they imply that God’s love for sinners is surprising.

The third parable makes the point again, and this time introduces another character, the older brother, representing the Pharisees and scribes who cannot see the occasion as worth celebrating. The father who has lost a son knows that the son’s return is worth celebrating, because the son has value. If the older brother cannot see that, the older brother is not thinking rightly about the situation, much as the Pharisees are not thinking rightly about the value of sinners.

To recap: God’s love for sinners should not be surprising to us. It surprised the Pharisees, but only because they undervalued human beings. Jesus told three parables to help everyone realize that God feels about lost human beings the way we feel about important things we have lost. To make the parable of the lost sheep about the recklessness of God’s love is to misunderstand not only the parable, but the value of human beings.

Popular Theology Today

So why do we gravitate toward the Pharisaic view? Probably for the same reason the Pharisees did. It starts with two seemingly noble desires: (1) to magnify God’s love and (2) to humble ourselves. These desires, wrongly applied, lead us to a bad theology and a bad anthropology, and in the end we feel like we have glorified God, when in reality we have misrepresented him and denigrated his creation.

The Bible is clear that humanity was created in the image of God and therefore has inherent value. This image has been marred by sin, but it is still there, and so is the value that comes with it. It is simply not true to say that there was nothing of value within us before we were saved. We had the image of God. It is simply not true to say, “I am just a sinner saved by grace.” We were never just sinners; we have always also been image-bearers and the object of God’s affection. What does Jesus say about the way God feels about sinners? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16, NIV).

Why? Why did God love the world? Because it is his creation! Why does any of us love our rebellious sons and daughters? It comes naturally. Even when we have been hurt by those we love, there is still a warm place in our hearts for them. Again, just as the shepherd values the lost sheep and the woman values the lost coin and the father values the lost son, so God really, truly values humanity!

But what is the harm in having an overly humble view of our past selves? Simply this: we will extend that view to others who are where we were. But it is the view of the Pharisees, not the view of Jesus.

Sure, we can combat it with a theology of a God who loves sinners despite their worthlessness, but does that help us to love our neighbors as ourselves? It might help us share a message about Jesus with them or even to treat them as we would want to be treated, but does it help us to truly love and appreciate them the way Jesus loved and appreciated sinners?

Look at the way Jesus loves the sinful woman who wets his feet with her tears and dries them with her hair and kisses them (Luke 7:36-50). Everyone else thinks the worst of her actions. Jesus sees her actions in a positive light because he values her! Look at how Jesus is “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34). It is easy to be a witness to sinners; much harder to be a friend. Look at how Jesus is able to be entertained by a tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). Or how he sees a crippled woman as a “daughter of Abraham” long overdue for healing (Luke 13:10-17). The examples go on and on. Jesus didn’t just selflessly love people; he valued them.

So What?

So what does this mean for us? I think we need to make some adjustments. I come from a Calvinist background, and many years ago I would have spoken of the “total depravity” of humans apart from Jesus. Reading Scripture helped me to shed this worldview. But even Christians who do not identify as Calvinist are taught that there was nothing in us deserving God’s love. We need to replace that narrative with one in which no one is totally depraved, no one is “just a sinner,” everyone has value as an image-bearer, and the lost among us have a special value to God. That value is not just a kinetic energy that gets activated only when God changes the person. That value is already there. God looks at the sinner and loves who that sinner is apart from whether or not that sinner will get saved. We should do the same.

Changing our view of humanity in this way will produce two results:

  1. People will no longer be projects. When we think of people as unworthy of God’s love, we have trouble valuing them, and they can easily become projects. I am trying to lead so-and-so to Jesus, and that is the only value I see in them. If instead we see value in sinners, we will love them and appreciate them for who they are, just as Jesus loved and appreciated the sinners he encountered. Our ministry to them will become a two-way street as we learn from them and receive blessings from them while sharing what we have to offer.
  2. We will no longer be crippled by low self-esteem. Many Christians have a healthy self-esteem, but those who don’t are hindered all the more by their theology. They see their true self as the one that walked in sin, and they long to be freed from themselves, which is something God will never do. They struggle to see the image of God in themselves, even though it was there long before they came to know Jesus. They hate themselves and don’t believe that God really loved who they were even while they were in rebellion against God. Singing, “I couldn’t earn it; I don’t deserve it,” is not helping them. Singing about a “wretch like me” is not helping them. If we replace our Pharisaic view of humanity with Jesus’ view of humanity, we will love who God made us to be when he knitted us in the womb, and we will love who God made others to be even while they are lost.

If you feel like you are merely a saved sinner, a wretch, or a person having no value, know that this is not what God thinks! This is the Pharisees’ view. Jesus has always felt differently, and so he naturally left the ninety-nine behind to find you. He swept the house and searched carefully until he found you. He ran to greet you while you were still at a distance. Even for the God who can create whatever he needs, something was lacking as long as you were lost. God genuinely longed for you, and when you were found there was much rejoicing in heaven (Luke 15:7, 10)! This is the message of the parable. It’s not that you don’t deserve this; it is that you were worth seeking after and celebrating!

lost sheep