ONE GOSPEL, NOT MANY.
20/02/24 14:27
There is one Gospel of the Kingdom. The testimony of Jesus is given by God the Holy Spirit and affirmed within us in our sonship by our Father. There is one way, one truth and one life that is our life every day and in eternity. This is the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the apostles teaching. Any additional ‘gospel’ is at best redundant and at worst spurious, coming under the heading of ‘cunningly devised fables’.
The command of God is ‘Believe My Son’. The testimony of Jesus is ‘I am your life.’ This is the simplicity of our inclusion in God by atonement and incarnation.
THE WAY
The best way to undo misguided teaching and inadequate understandings of Christ and His gospel is to resolve to know Him personally and follow wherever He leads. This means following in an undiluted commitment to Him irrespective of the consequences. Having two master’s and more than one husband is a guarantee of confusion and poor spiritual discernment. We are talking being held captive by a perceived status and identity coming from inherited assumptions and ideas.
APOSTOLIC TEACHING
There are books that undo false doctrine by a forthright presentation of the truth – like Gregory Boyd’s ‘Repenting of Religion.’ Religion can be a most subtle substitute for a genuine relationship with God because it makes religion ‘god’ thereby insulating us from life and revelation. It should not surprise that those most offended by a book like this are the most subjugated to the spirit of religion. Even them some remain befuddled in non-g0spels because of the effect of a life-time of brainwashing.
THE CHRIST LIFE - LIFE
Boyd calls us to move beyond a self-centred, fearful existence to rich, Christ-centered living. Self-centredness and judgment are birthed by the law, which is why religious folks can be so offended by the simple truth that Christ alone is our life. Boyd asserts that the church is to be set apart (sanctified) not by possessing a special religious piety but by participating in and manifesting the perfect eternal love of God. As Bonhoeffer said, "Jesus calls men, not to a new religion, but to life." This life is not something outside us like the law or Christianity. It’s incarnation, meaning CHRIST AS US, expressing the being of God as Jill and Norm and Rachael.
Life/love is everything. This life/love is God and our baptism in it is the Christ of God. Don’t try to live in the dust-bath of the law/knowledge of good and evil.
NO PLURALISM
“Karl Barth argued that there was only one revelation of God, not two (or more) [as some would suppose, even making a religion out of a received adjustment to the gospel of the Kingdom]. It was, however, one revelation that included a diversity of aspects within itself. Everything revealed in other forms was somehow included in Jesus Christ and determined by him. All of the diverse aspects were dependent on Christ as the one revelation at the core. He himself was the revelation of God. The various aspects were always completely — not just relatively — dependent on the absoluteness of revelation in him.” (1)
Jesus Christ is wisdom/discernment. As the compass of real life, love and meaning he is a wall against deranged common sense and futile populism.
Christ and the apostle’s gospel of the kingdom never insulates us or anesthetises us from real life - but is a highway to the adventure of continued revelation of who God is and who we are becoming in Christ. The new and living way that is Christ as us produces increasing life and light – never ignorance or stagnation.
(1) Hunsinger, George. Evangelical, Catholic, and Reformed (p. 90). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
