My posts tend to generate discussion in other
contexts. A friend took the time to
respond to my previous post by noting that he and his wife each received Christ
for different reasons. I think I want to
say that there are many reasons why we receive Christ - in my case, I grew up
in a home where Jesus was as real as mummy and daddy, and I know of no time
when I did not know him - and that, of course, it makes no point claiming some
reasons are more valid than others. But
what does matter, I think, is who we receive Jesus as - again, there is a list,
but I’m not sure the soterian gospel Jesus presents him well. The version I come across most often is
holding out to extremely vulnerable people the benefit-focused ‘gospel’ “receive
Jesus and he will take all your problems away, and your life will be wonderful”...
But
my friend also made another observation: that “the Gospel has many facets, and as
culture changes the Gospel can rotate a fresh facet to confound that culture...” I think this is an important insight. I think we need what is being called the
Story gospel at this time to confound the soterian gospel, because the soterian
gospel has shaped church culture in a way that distorts the gospel. But I have no doubt that the Story gospel,
while recovering much, will itself distort the gospel in its own ways; will
itself create a new culture; and will itself need to be confounded, as the
many-faceted Gospel rotates afresh.
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