Jesus Plus Zilch, Nada, Nothing

The gospel isn't about me, it isn't about you, it isn't about our church, our cool productions, or our hipster pastor. The gospel isn't about 10 steps to a happy life and it isn't about 7 secrets to a successful "Christian" business. The gospel isn't God's way of helping us be better people. The gospel isn't about how to make our kids behave more and it isn't about what not to say if we want to make our spouses do what we want them to do.

Hell will be full of people who used to be happy. Better people will line the halls of hell. And even so-called "successful Christians" will spend eternity in a lake of fire seperated from God.

The gospel is all about Jesus. He is exclusively the good news and he is the only way to God. He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the kit and caboodle, the icing and the cake.

The gospel is Jesus plus zilch, nada, nothing.

Clever Myths

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ~2 Peter 1:16, ESV

With a casual glance at the best-selling "Christian" book list spanning the last how many years you'd sure wonder. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ that the writers of the new testament contended for, why do we insist on promoting myths?

Forget Jesus?

16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ~1 Corinthians 9:16, ESV

Do we preach the gospel with the kind of passion and urgency with which Paul did, or are we more concerned with making a favorable impression and larger crowds when given the opportunity to proclaim Jesus? Paul reminds his young protege to Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal (2 Timothy 2:8-9a, ESV).

How prone we are to forget Jesus when he should be the cornerstone of any gospel presentation since he is essentially the gospel.

The reality is that we haven't preached the gospel if we have treated Jesus merely as a side bar—that is, preaching Jesus as a clever get rich quick scheme, a role model on steroids, a perfect big brother, or a hip dude. Jesus must be the way, the truth, and the life—otherwise we haven't preached the gospel (John 14:6). Now, I am aware of what we might call the social gospel. I'm all for acts of compassion, mercy ministries, and causes which promote and protect justice, but that isn't to replace the preaching of the gospel which Paul was willing to suffer for. Only Jesus can save a man's soul. And to be sure, we haven't preached Jesus if we have preached condemnation either (John 3:17).

If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Paul advising us to go and join the circus or to take up a career in marketing if we are not committed to preaching the gospel, no matter how popular we are.

The Value of My Life

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. ~Paul the Apostle (Acts 20:24, ESV)

If only I can say the same.

D.A. Carson: Making the Cross Peripheral

This one gospel, this message of news that was simultaneously threatening and promising, concerned the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the long-awaited King, and included something about his origins, the ministry of his forerunner, his brief ministry of teaching and miraculous transformation, climaxing in his death and resurrection. These elements are not independent pearls on a string that constitutes the life and times of Jesus the Messiah. Rather, they are elements tightly tied together. Accounts of Jesus’ teaching cannot be rightly understood unless we discern how they flow toward and point toward Jesus’ death and resurrection. All of this together is the one gospel of Jesus Christ, to which the canonical Gospels bear witness. To study the teaching of Jesus without simultaneously reflecting on his passion and resurrection is far worse than assessing the life and times of George Washington without reflecting on the American Revolution, or than evaluating Hitler’s Mein Kampf without thinking about what he did and how he died. Second, we shall soon see that to focus on Jesus’ teaching while making the cross peripheral reduces the glorious good news to mere religion, the joy of forgiveness to mere ethical conformity, the highest motives for obedience to mere duty. The price is catastrophic. ~D.A. Carson

Carson strikes a chord for me, ...to focus on Jesus’ teaching while making the cross peripheral reduces the glorious good news to mere religion, the joy of forgiveness to mere ethical conformity, the highest motives for obedience to mere duty. The price is catastrophic.

And yet, we continue to make the cross peripheral.

A Full Strength Gospel

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ~1 Corinthians 1:17-18, ESV

If we are going to recover a full strength gospel we have to be willing to start talking about the cross as if it were life or death (because it is), and quit talking about everything else peripheral as if it were central. Others of us might just do better shutting up altogether and let the cross do the talking.

You may wonder what I mean by a full strength gospel? First of all, it's important that we understand that there is a diluted gospel that is emptied of its power and then there is the undiluted gospel which is mighty to save (which Paul clearly speaks of here). And secondly, when the cross is presented as the gospel's centerpiece it should be noted that it will become a stumbling block of unparalleled proportions for those who refuse it—last I checked the words of Jesus, there was a narrow gate and a wide one (see Matthew 7:13-14 if you have any questions, judging by much of the content of what passes as modern preaching today, you might just get the opposite impression if you aren't careful). The cross is like a needle delivering a cure to those who are terminal, not a bunny rabbit passing out goodies to all takers.

In other words, when you preach the cross, your messages are guaranteed to hurt people's feelings and maybe even rattle their overinflated sense of self-esteem.

So, why do we water it down and try so hard to make it more palatable? Why are we ever trying to smooth out its jagged edges? Why do we do everything on the planet to make everything but the cross paramount? Why do we strip references to the cross out of our conversations? Why do we talk as though the cross were an afterthought? The gospel is powerless when preached as a bubble bath. The cross isn't suppose to be cotton candy to those who are perishing, unless I have totally misunderstood Paul's text here.

Now, I will agree that we can add our own offense to the cross in a variety of ways that ought not be there (2 Cor. 6:3, 1 Cor. 8:9), but we are never to make that a crafty excuse for removing the offense. There will always be offense taken when we preach the cross as it was meant to be preached, it's worth noting that Paul doesn't add as a caveat, "sometimes there will be offense". It's not we who are to be offensive, the message handles that just fine.

I just have to borrow a comment at this juncture that hits the nail on the head from Bill Streger on Jared Wilson's recent post, Preach the Gospel Only When In Season?

From observation, I've noticed that the American church really likes to change "seasons" about every 4-6 weeks. So while it may be acceptable to have a "gospel/cross season", we can't let it last too long. After all, we have to make way for:

* God's plan for your finances season
* How God wants you to have lots of good sex season
* Getting ahead at work season
* Get behind the vision of our church season
* Give more money to our church season
* Why aren't you in a community group yet? season
* Parenting without losing your mind season
* We need more volunteers for the easter egg, drop ipods from the sky season
* Let's dominate the city by elevating our innovation season
and last, but certainly not least...
* Lessons of morality from popular summer blockbuster movies season

I mean, if we just preached about Jesus, the cross, and the Gospel all the time the direct mail postcards would get a little redundant.

Amen.

When we remove the offense of the cross from our preaching we just become a Christian alternative to Oprah and Dr. Phil—no one gets converted and no one's feelings get hurt. Nice. What's the sense? Maybe a paycheck? We certainly can't claim to be doing anything close to what we have been set apart to do. At least they don't claim to be gospel preachers (I know, we like the term communicators better).

I know it's not popular to preach the cross, but when did having more campuses than any other church in a city become the calling of a pastor? My conversations with friends and strangers about Jesus—namely his claim to be God, his crucifixion, his resurrection, (and dare I say it, their sin, which the cross exposes like a naked streaker)—haven’t always been happy pleasant exchanges. No, they are often difficult to spit out and hard for the hearer to swallow. But it's the cross they need most! What kind of person keeps the cure to cancer under wraps?

I won't use the term here.

If our only message is "Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you... and he has a wonderful life for your plan and your best marriage now"—that's not the gospel of the new testament. For all most people care, Santa Claus loves them too, and he bothers to deliver bundles of toys.

We need to see to it that the cross is never secondary in our preaching and refuse to apologize for the offense that follows; and we must be prepared to explain why the cross is absolutely necessary and why it is flawlessly sufficient.

To take the offense of the gospel out of our message isn’t merely diluting the gospel, it is to take out the gospel entirely. There is hope though, and the hope is that we recover a gospel that truly is gospel.

Gospel Stew

11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. ~Galatians 1:11, ESV

Gospel stew continues to remain a favorite dish on the proverbial evangelical menu. Ingredients include: A dash of Gnosticism, a teaspoon of religious pluralism, a pinch of universalism, a sprinkle or two of Pelagianism, a cup of biblical relativism, an ounce of antinomianism, and the kicker—a pound of good old fashioned justification by anything other than faith. Oh, and how could I forget, no meal is complete without the occasional sugar coated reference to the gospel mixed in—we wouldn't have gospel stew without it!

And there you have it, a warm pot of gospel stew.

A perverted gospel is as simple as one, two, three. You can even heat it up in the microwave if need be. Beware though. When you serve the gospel as nothing more than salt and pepper sprinkled over a rancid steak you haven't fed God's people, you have only fooled them until later on of course, when they get sick and vomit.

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:6-9, ESV

I think Paul said the same thing twice there, which might just indicate he's dead serious.

Need I say more?

Stumbling Block

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ~1 Corinthians 1:20-25, ESV

Do we present the stumbling block or dance around him?