Monday, April 03, 2006
A Problem Of Vocabulary
Two posts have come together saying similar things, but with a mixed vocabulary. The whole thing starts with CJ Mahaney's call to define "the gospel".
One post is from GospelDrivenLife and attempts to define the seven basic propositions that virtually all Christians hold in common.
But then I ran into this post from Joe Carter and I think it said it the best.
Our doctrine, our creeds are necessary, but they are our efforts to describe the indescribable, understand the unfathomable - they will never be sufficient, not even adequate. When we place our faith in them instead in that which they attempt to define, we hold to ourselves instead of our Lord. That understanding is what will hold us together.
Related Tags: creeds, the gospel, unity, Christ, Jesus, Christianity
One post is from GospelDrivenLife and attempts to define the seven basic propositions that virtually all Christians hold in common.
But there is something unusual afoot. One of the amazing works of God in our day is that leaders are uniting across barriers formerly uncrossable. They are uniting around the Gospel. And I think here is the place to define and to determine who is for Christ and who is against him. It was called the "rule of faith" by Tertullian.I have to admit my first reaction to the post was why put forth those propositions when we have such things already defined in the creeds, particularly the nearly universally accepted Apostle's Creed and the universally accpeted Nicene Creed.
But then I ran into this post from Joe Carter and I think it said it the best.
Indeed, the entire universe is not large enough to contain the good news about Jesus! The gospel is more than just news for fallen man. Even if there were no anthropos or no cosmos the seraphim would still proclaim the good news about Christ. The gospel is greater than just the redemption of fallen human nature, greater than the redemption of all creation. The gospel is not about me and it is not about you. The gospel is the news in toto about the Savior, Redeemer, and Sustainer of creation: Jesus Christ.Both men are working to find that which unites us, not that which divides us and that is a very good thing, but I think Joe is who really hits things on the head.
The most serious threat to the gospel is, therefore, the attempts to limit the gospel about Jesus to a propositional truth, to a narrative, to a story, to a verse, a book, to a Bible, or to a million other "nutshells." True, the gospel is contained in all of those forms. But any attempt to share the gospel that does not proceed from "the gospel is?" to "but the gospel is also?" is simply inadequate. Even if we were able to proclaim all the news that is contained in those nutshells, though, it would not exhaust the good news about Christ.
Our doctrine, our creeds are necessary, but they are our efforts to describe the indescribable, understand the unfathomable - they will never be sufficient, not even adequate. When we place our faith in them instead in that which they attempt to define, we hold to ourselves instead of our Lord. That understanding is what will hold us together.
Related Tags: creeds, the gospel, unity, Christ, Jesus, Christianity
