Emergent Gospel

Tim Challies has a great preview / review on Brian McClaren's upcoming book over at his blog.

In particular, I'm interested in the way McClaren summarizes the two understandings he has of the gospel.

The ORTHODOX / TRADITIONAL view of the gospel:

Purpose of Jesus: Why is Jesus Important? Jesus came to solve the problem of “original sin,” meaning that he helps qualified individuals not to be sent to hell for their sin or imperfection. In a sense, Jesus saves these people from God, or more specifically, from the righteous wrath of God which sinful human beings deserve because they have not perfectly fulfilled God’s just expectations, expressed in God’s moral laws. This escape from punishment is not something they earn or achieve, but rather a free gift they receive as an expression of God’s grace and love. Those who receive it enjoy a personal relationship with God and seek to serve and obey God, which produces a happier life on earth and more rewards in heaven.

Amazingly, McClaren pretty much gets it right. He misses the awesome and amazing wonder of the gospel and makes it sound pretty flat, but he at least gets the heart of it. We have rebelled against God, stand condemned for our sin and must face his wrath, and Jesus dies to save us from the wrath of God against sin. Jesus suffered God's hatred of sin for us on the cross, and we receive forgiveness by trusting in the grace of God offered through Jesus. Not bad... Not perfect, but not too bad.

But he doesn't like this view of the gospel. So we have, to replace it, the NEW, IMPROVED, EMERGENT view of the gospel:

Purpose of Jesus: Why is Jesus Important? Jesus came to become the savior of the world, meaning he came to save the earth and all it contains from its ongoing destruction because of human evil. Through his life and teaching, through his suffering, death, and resurrection, he inserted into human history a seed of grace, truth, and hope that can never be defeated. This seed will, against all opposition and odds, prevail over the evil and injustice of humanity and lead to the world’s ongoing transformation into the world God dreams of. All who find in Jesus God’s truth and hope discover the privilege of participating in his ongoing work of personal and global transformation and liberation from evil and injustice. As part of his transforming community, they experience liberation from the fear of death and condemnation. This is not something they earn or achieve, but rather a free gift they receive as an expression of God’s grace and love.

I sometimes wonder if McClaren is aware of the fact that this gospel isn't really that new or emergent. It's basically repackaged liberal theology. Jesus came to save us by giving us truth. He shows us what grace, truth, and hope really are. Through his work on this earth and the work God does through it, we can change the world and make it a better place. "The world God dreams of..."? The problem isn't that the second version is blatantly wrong. It's just so vague as to be almost meaningless.

Anyway...more than ever before, we need to recover a biblical understanding of the gospel, in a day when there are many who "preach a gospel" that is different than the one the apostles taught.

SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS:

About a half hour after posting, I thought of one more thing. It seems like one of the key differences between the traditional understanding of the gospel and the emergent gospel is in answering the question: What are we saved from? For McClaren, the answer is that we are saved from the evil EFFECTS of sin. Because of human evil, this world has been trashed. Bad things happen. People die. Lots of nasty stuff goes on. There is racism, genocide, all sorts of things that are wrong. And Jesus came to change all that.

Which is true. But incomplete. It misses the root cause. The true problem with sin is not the evil that we see in this world, but the offense it is against God. Sin is, first and foremost, a rejection of God--it is rebellion and disobedience...the breaking of God's law.

So saving us from the effects of sin to make the world a better place misses our real problem--God.

A verse that helped me think about the difference is from Matthew10:28. Jesus says: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

In other words...yes...there is great evil in this world. People are mean and nasty and there are lots of bad things they do. But that's not the biggest problem. That's not what we really need to be saved from. Our big problem is a holy God who hates our sin. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God.

Notice what Paul says in Romans 5:9: "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" What are we saved from? God's wrath, his righteous anger against sin.

And in Colossians 3:5-6 we seek to live holy lives because we know that God is coming again someday to judge all sin: "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming."

The gospel is good news because it tells us that when we put our faith in Christ, God credits our sin to Jesus and the goodness of Jesus to us. We become acceptable to God, not because we are good and perfect, but because Jesus died for us and all of God's hatred of me and his hatred of the evil that I do was directed at his only Son, Jesus. The horrors of hell that I should be sent to someday were experienced and embraced by Jesus--he literally took my punishment. And now I am truly forgiven. And loved.

McClaren has criticized the traditional gospel for being too narrow. For focusing only on sin and wrath and the cross. For ignoring the kingdom of God...the global dynamic of God's work.

But in my opinion, the emergent gospel is just too small. It only deals with the horizontal issues of human evil, of life in this world, of broken relationships and human suffering. It tries to fix these things with human effort.

The gospel of Jesus Christ shows us the glory of God. A God who is just and holy, merciful and loving. The gospel points us to God, and it leads us to put our hope in God, not in our own efforts. Is there salvation from the effects of sin? Yes. Is there a challenge to be a light and witness in this world? Yes. But if you miss the cross, if you minimize God...you miss the gospel. And the gospel is our only hope to change this world.

So again...we come back to the question: What am I saved from? The effects of human evil? Or the wrath of a holy God?