Considering the Gospel

9Marks ministries has a number of short books out that address important issues in ministry. There is no greater issue in ministry than the gospel. Even those calling themselves Evangelicals, can’t seem to agree on what the gospel is. So, Greg Gilbert was tasked with writing the book on this subject called What is the Gospel? (here are some sample pages).

This is no simple task. Greg tries to do this in 8 relatively short chapters. This makes the book easy to read. The downside is that he really can’t explore important threads. Sometimes clarity loses in the quest for brevity.

This is a good book, but not a great book. He starts with illustrations that help him make the point of each chapter. He uses some solid methodology in communicating the gospel.

But I was not blown away by anything I found here. There was nothing here that helped me grasp it in a way I had not before. In some ways this is good. He’s not trying to peddle some innovative views. He’s faithful to the historic Reformed understanding of the gospel. But I didn’t put it down going “you need to read this!”.  Does that make sense?

It sounds like I was not moved by the gospel. That is not what I’m saying. It just wasn’t one of those books that strikes you deep (I’m reading one of those right now).  And I found a few things that made me pause, that were mildly disconcerting.

He rightly starts with Finding the Gospel in the Bible. Part of what was disconcerting to this Reformed and Covenantal pastor was starting in the New Testament. I find this disconcerting more for what he doesn’t say than what he does. Mostly. He implies that it is not found in the Old Testament. Paul, the Apostle, thought it was there. He repeatedly brought his readers back to the Old Testament (see Romans 4). The author of Hebrews says that the gospel was preached to the Israelites in the wilderness, but it was not met with faith (Hebrews 4). You don’t get the sense, from what he does write, that God’s people have always had the gospel (though progressively revealed). So the brevity creates some lack of clarity here.

Another place was in Keeping the Cross at the Center. He tries to identify some attempts to substitute implications of the gospel for the gospel itself. But he isn’t as clear about this as I’d hoped.  The gospel brings us under the Lordship of Jesus. That Jesus is Lord is not good news unless you’ve been redeemed. Gilbert says that, which is good. But I’m not in circles where people are removing the Lordship of Jesus from the context of redemption.  So I’m tracking here.

But in his discussion of the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation he sort of loses me. Redemption is part of the formulation. This is a great way to understand the narrative of the Scriptures (he’s on board with this part) which moves beyond the individual aspect of salvation. The gospel includes individual salvation. But Christ also died, the heart of the gospel, for more than individuals. He died for the Church. He died to remove the curse from creation. There is no consummation without redemption. The consummation itself is not the gospel. But no one who would remotely be called a conservative would say this. Perhaps that is my frustration- who are these people saying these things.

Likewise, transformation (sanctification) is a necessary implication of the gospel that rests on the gospel. That sanctification is both personal and corporate. Gospel-saturated cultures are transformed because gospel-believing people make the gospel known, and act justly. Conservative transformationalists recognize that society won’t be perfected. But neither should we reject our identity as salt and light. His qualifications are too few since he spends far more time criticizing.

Sometimes he is fighting unclear battles. He knows, but we don’t. And what he says suffers from a lack of clarity. Perhaps he could have stated the positive clearly before talking about the unbiblical substitute.

Remember, I stated this is a good book. There are just a few spots that rubbed me the wrong way. And if we sat down and had a beer, or some Chai, we’d probably find we are in agreement on 98% of them. It is more a matter of emphasis and brevity.

If you want to think through the gospel, and gain some clarity, this book can be of help to you. And so can A Gospel Primer.