Currently reading @scotmcknight's The King Jesus Gospel, and I'm pretty much convinced that the infighting within various U.S. denominations can be mapped along the lines of "Plan of Salvation = gospel" folks versus "kingdom gospel" folks.
"Stick to the gospel" is a common response to Christians speaking out for racial justice (among other things). The statement betrays a shallow and narrow understanding of what the gospel is -- that it only pertains to salvation from the spiritual penalty for sin, hell.
But a gospel that announces Jesus as king and his kingdom as imminent necessarily transforms our here and now. It puts the onus on those who believe and proclaim such a message to embody God's way of doing things in our everyday lives, thus transforming present-day systems.
This second gospel rightly encompasses salvation but it doesn't stop there. It gives our lives multi-faceted missions that don't call us away from the world but *into* the world (Jn. 17:15) to show how a kingdom governed by the creator of the universe works.
The infighting distracts from that mission and harms our overall witness.
What an opportunity we miss by reducing the gospel to a "get out of hell free" card, when the story set forth in scripture is so much more beautiful and compelling than that.
What an opportunity we miss by reducing the gospel to a "get out of hell free" card, when the story set forth in scripture is so much more beautiful and compelling than that.
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