The Explicit Gospel

The “gospel” is a hot topic in evangelicalism today yet Matt Chandler is concerned, and rightly so, that Christians are not always using the word to mean the same thing (p. 13). Chandler wants to sharpen our definition under the heading “The Explicit Gospel,” however he seems to use the term in at least two ways. First, he fears that too many church goers have assumed they understand the good news but have never been taught explicitly what the gospel entails. They have confused the true gospel with “Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (pp. 13, 203). Such people need a clear, “explicit” presentation of the good news. This leads to the second use of the “explicit” gospel, that of the “full gospel” (p. 111) (not to be confused with the full gospel of Pentecostalism). The full gospel has two prongs, the first of which the author calls “the gospel on the ground” and the second he terms “the gospel in the air.” The book is then divided into three parts, the first devoted to the gospel on the ground, the second to the gospel in the air and the third to implications and applications.

In the first section, the “gospel on the ground” is described as what evangelicals traditionally have understood the gospel to mean – the gospel of redemption involving God, man (sin), Christ and response. Chandler’s understanding of this prong of the gospel is solid and helpful. Despite a couple of crude remarks (pp. 28, 41) he richly points the reader to a God-centered approach to the Lord, the Bible and a godly life instead of a man-centered one (pp. 32-35). We must be careful to not worship God’s good gifts but the Giver Himself (p. 36). Chandler emphasizes the horribleness of sin, man’s depravity and God’s wrath (pp. 40-51), and demonstrates that the law can diagnose our sin problem but not cure it; only the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ can appease God’s wrath, atone for our sins and make us right before a Holy God. But this good news demands the response of faith (pp. 84-85). Chandler makes clear that the preaching of the gospel on the ground will not always awaken hearts – more often it hardens hearts (pp. 63-82) and thus our ministries will be judged by God on our faithfulness, not on numbers (pp. 72-77). Chandler exposes the modern mistake of some who avoid presenting the explicit gospel, choosing rather to just “hang out” and live incarnationally. He states, “We are never, ever, ever going to make Christianity so cool that everybody wants it. That is a fool’s errand” (p. 80). Amen! The gospel must be verbally presented or people will never understand the message (pp. 80-82).   Continue at Gary Gilley

Dealing with Grief

I once asked Matt Chandler about the unhelpful things people said to him in his fight against cancer. He refused to give examples but explained, “I think people can get a little weirded out by pain, suffering, and death. They don’t know what to do so they end up saying things that are hurtful to people who have experienced loss.”

For those of us self-aware of the propensity for foot-in-mouth disease, we sometimes choose simply to ignore those who are hurting so that we don’t make things worse.

Jill Sullivan, who lost a 16-year-old daughter to a highly aggressive form of brain cancer, explains why it can be so hard to return to church after the death of a loved one. She writes:

Our churches are full of people who are hurting, many of whom have lost children or other loved ones. For me personally, returning to church was one of the most difficult things to do after my loss, and I’ve talked to many other bereaved parents who have expressed the same thing.

She offers some reasons why this might be the case:

•Families tend to sit together at church, and when your family is missing someone, their absence is particularly acute in the pew. Looking around and seeing other intact families worshiping beside you can also be very painful.
•The songs we sing in church can bring up very strong emotions. Songs about heaven can conjure up an almost unbearable longing in our hearts, and songs of praise can be difficult to sing when your heart is broken.  Continue at Justin Taylor

 

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