The second section of The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler with Jared Wilsom addresses the “gospel in the air”. If the gospel on the ground is the still photo of justification, the gospel on the ground is the movie that provides the context for the gospel. It addresses the meta-narrative of the Bible. What this meta-narrative does is help us see our personal salvation in a larger context of God’s glory and plan for the universe.
This is not a new idea. He quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones as stressing the need for both the personal and cosmic sides of the gospel. We are to live in the tension instead of focusing exclusively on one. Fundamentalists live in the personal while liberals tend to live in the cosmic. Both are true. Both are in Scripture. So we must hold one in each hand. Chandler does a great job of balancing the two instead of affirming one at the expense of the other. This is something Greg Gilbert struggled to do in What is the Gospel?.
As a result, they display a good theological method. The chapters run thru Creation-Fall- Reconciliation- Consummation. They spend a lot of time in Romans 8 and Revelation 21-22.
“The bottom line is that science is in a constant state of subjectivity and do-overs.”
In the chapter on Creation, Chandler lays some cards on the table. He’s a scientific agnostic. I like the phrase and found this section interesting as he criticizes those who want to place science above Scripture and embrace theistic evolution. He is critical of BioLogos. He looks at some articles about the scientific process as well as how the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics are incompatible with (macro) evolutionary theory.
He also discuss “historical creationism”, which is a new term for me. He is dependent on John Sailhamer in this regard. Essentially the position is rooted in the word”reshit” which is translated “beginning” which is also found in Genesis 10:10; Job 8:7 and Jeremiah 28:1. This means that the beginning is an undetermined amount of time. At some point God then spent 6 days shaping creation. One problem I see is that on Day Four God placed the lights in the sky- sun, moon, stars, planets. This implies they didn’t exist prior to that during that undetermined amount of time. So, the age of the earth in this view is unknown but about 6 thousand years ago God shaped it to make it habitable for humankind. This view, in his opinion, is faithful to Scripture and allows some accommodation to science without handing them the reins.
“Life is more like the film Groundhog Day than anyone wants to admit.”
The chapter on the Fall has a more expansive, and biblical, view of sin than the earlier chapter which focused almost exclusively on idolatry. He also brings in the idea of brokenness, and how life is meaningless from Ecclesiastes. The meaning we try to find in the world just doesn’t work because all of the world is broken, not just us. The sin of Adam affected the entire cosmos, not just Adam and Eve. Not just humanity. We continue to deny this when we think that the right political system will solve things. Or the green energy solution. Or the right marriage partner. Or…
“One of the dangers of a gospel that stays on the ground too long is man-centeredness. … The explicit gospel, then, magnifies God’s glory as it heralds the supremacy of his Son.”
In Reconciliation, the focus is on the cosmic design and implication of the work of Christ. This is not a denial of Jesus dying in the place of sinners to save them from the wrath of God. But he also brings in the cosmic dimensions of the cross that are found in Scripture. He’s talking about Christus Victor, but not as if it was the whole deal. We can’t deny that all things were made by and for him and that thru the cross Christ reconciled all things to himself (Col. 1:15-20; 2:15).
“We have found that acquiring information outside of rooted relationships turns immature Christians into the theology police.”
He moves from reconciled people to reconciling people. We have the ministry of reconciliation. Chandler then affirms the balance between attractional and incarnational ministry. They need one another, but churches tend to move into extremes. We need to bring people into the church to be instructed, discipled, admonished and corrected. We also need to move out into the world to live as Christ’s ambassadors in all the places we go. We live in the broken places, meeting physical and emotional needs while we also offer to meet their deeper spiritual needs through the gospel.
“It is the gospel on the ground that opens up restoration for the problems we see from the air.”
The final section in this chapter essentially focuses on eschatology. But not on the features that most books on eschatology focus on. He points us to the consummation, when the heavens and earth are renewed. It is always nice to see people quote Anthony Hoekema’s The Bible and the Future. The curse will be completely lifted and we will serve God with an imperishable body in an imperishable world. He’s arguing against the quasi-gnostic versions of the afterlife that corrupt much Christian thought and imagination.
“The first thing we should see is that the Old Testament views future redemption as a restoration of life in creation.”
As a whole, this section was much better than the first section. It is evidently his wheelhouse. There none of the factual errors or sloppy thinking that affected the first section. This is a helpful corrective for those who spend too much time on the ground- which comprises far more of those who read this book than those who spend too much time in the air.
There was some irony when talking about the new heavens and earth. He notes that the world used is kainos instead of neos.
“Now, kainos means “new in nature or in quality,” while neos means ” new in time or origin.” In other words, when these passages employ the phrase “new heaven and new earth,” they are positing a world renewed, not a world-brand new.”
The irony is that this is also true when Jesus speaks of the New Covenant, and Hebrews does as well. Baptists, like Chandler and Wilson, stress “new” as in “brand new instead of renewed. Sorry, I couldn’t pass that up.
Cavman Considers 
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