I find myself pondering certain things throughout my workday, working in a secular job space allows me ample time to interact with some who may or may not be like-minded as me. When I say like-minded, I am referring to terms of faith/religion. I stated in my introductions post that I am a Christian, truly and unapologetically. I do believe Jesus is the Son of God and the one true way to heaven. Also, I do very much believe others need Jesus because he is the only source of true life and fulfillment.
But what is more striking to me currently is how much I myself need Jesus.
I myself am in desperate need of Christ's penetrating, ransoming, redeeming, and saving love.
I myself am in desperate need, probably more then I will ever realize, of an advocate on my behalf before the Father above (1 Jn. 2:1.)
I myself am in desperate need of hearing, repeating to myself, reading, and remembering I have a Savior who loves me with a "furious love," to quote Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel.
I myself am in desperate need of the Gospel.
The question is then, what is the Gospel? Is the Gospel simply "Jesus loves me; this I know, for the Bible tells me so?" Is the Gospel more "turn to Jesus, away from your sins and escape the hellfire of damnation?" Is the Gospel "pray the sinner's pray and receive salvation," or does the Gospel merely boil down to a meal ticket into heaven, a get-out-of-jail-free card? Scot McKnight asked this same question, along with a series of other questions, and his words here might be more insightful then mine, see bottom of post for YouTube link or simply search "Did Jesus Preach the Gospel - Part 1 - Scot McKnight."
I agree with McKnight, which has helped shape my view of the Gospel. To simply put the Gospel of Christ into one of the above phrase seems rather inadequate, lop-sided, gaining We, I, can not know or understand the full Gospel without understanding/remembering what was, what is, and what will be.
According to Holy writ, mankind was originally created by God in a Garden called Eden, paradise on Earth. God created man then women, blessed them, gave them dominion over his creation, and most importantly, man held an intimate, whole relationship with his Creator. The only stipulation was that the man and woman not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
This is what was.
The serpent approached the man and woman, speaking half-truths and whole lies. The fruit will not kill you and will make you like God, knowing good and evil.
Mankind, in an act of rebellion and a declaration of independence, ate from the Tree, declaring himself to be God, in a sense, and setting himself as his own authority on what is good and evil. In this moment, the whole, intimate relationship held between man and God was shattered, ruined, helplessly marred, perpetually stained. Not only that, the world fell into corruption. The poison of sin poured into the Earth, corrupting its very soil, creating disease, war, catastrophe, and virtually every awful thing we see play out in this world, and it can be traced, according to the Bible, back to this event.
God in this moment was freely justified to completely destroy, annihilate, and obliterate everything he created, man and woman, animals on land or sea, the universe and galaxies, everything because it had become corrupt. Even to this day, God still stands in perfect righteous, holy judgement over the universe, and if he wills, God can destroy everything and condemn every single person to eternal hellfire. Some might disagree, protest, or even become angry at the thought of this. Why? We were the ones who sinned. We are truly the source of the problem, historically speaking. We were the ones who flipped God the proverbial bird. We made our bed, and now, we have to lie in it.
This is what is.
However, God did not destroy creation at the moment, thought he was and still could. In fact, something different happened. Instead, the man and woman hear God walking through the Garden, hiding themselves they hear a question called out "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9.) God seeks out man, looking for him.
We see this same action play out in different forms throughout the Old Testament, culminating in the New Testament at the coming of Christ. In Philippians 2:1-11, Paul explains that Christ, being God, surrendered all of his majesty and glory, humbling himself to human form, humbling himself further to death, and humbling himself even further to a humiliating, excruciating death on a cross. Why?
Why would a God who would be justified in destroying us do such a thing? Three simple words, grace and love. See, the interesting thing is this God who could destroy and damn us, does not, and instead, he seeks out and calls man back to himself, taking on flesh and dying a terrible death, cutting a path through the briars, thorns, and brush to himself for man, presenting it to those who would accept it as an act of grace and love. I would argue that is the Gospel. This God who owes man nothing, still owes man nothing, freely chooses man out of grace and love, dying for him to carve a road to himself, and anyone who accepts to gift can return to him, having a whole relationship with him again. It does not end there. The path of following Christ comes at a cost, surrendering our own self-centered, I-am-my-own-god independence for something much better. This path is a difficult path that Jesus warned only few would enter. It is riddled with hardship and suffering, but the end is ultimately worth it.
The end is worth it.
We can rejoin the Father in heaven, experiencing joy everlasting, and when Christ returns all of creation will be completely restored. Sin will be completely destroyed, and wholeness will return.
This is what will be.
I would argue that is the Gospel. We have a God who seeks and calls us out. We have Christ's example of going into the darkness to search for those helplessly ensnared and trapped, freeing them, advocating for them, and returning them. Jesus himself shared a parable about a shepherd leaving his ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that had gone astray. We have a seeking Savior, which brings me to my point and question. Why do we, as followers of this Savior, not seek out the broken and lost with more vigor and determination? More specifically, when a brother or sister becomes ensnared in sin or struggle, why are we not more intentional about seeking them out, advocating on their behalf, and fervently reaching out to them, trying to bring them back into the fold? Have we ever considered this? I understand; we are all busy. We have lives, bills, jobs, and some of us families. However, do this negate our responsibility? Do we have a responsibility? And if so, do we need to rethink, change, or re-prioritize a few things?
I mean, the Savior we profess to follow seems to set a pretty good precedent of earnestly seeking out those who are broken and hurting, loving them, and bringing them back. What if we loved this way? What if we earnestly sought out a brother or sister, reaching out to them, asking them to go for coffee, keeping up with the comings and goings of their life, praying for them, asking them to join us for a meal, seeing a movie together, all with the purpose of redeeming them. Is that the Gospel? I would argue that is what Jesus did for me, and indeed, this is what Jesus still does for me. When I go astray or run from him; his "furious love," to quote Brennan Manning again, refuses to give up on me, pursuing me, and calling me back to himself.
Are we not called to be like our Savior? If Christ loves us in this manner, setting an example for us, are we supposed to follow?
**** Scot McKnight video link: http://youtu.be/1vgkfx1QMqA
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