Here’s the question I heard Dallas Willard put to a roomful of church leaders that led to this post:
Does the gospel you preach naturally lead people to become disciples of Jesus?
Meaning, is there a natural connection between the gospel I proclaim and a life of being with Jesus to learn from him how to be like him? Does the latter flow from the former in an obvious, natural way, or does discipleship feel like an “add-on” or extra-curricular activity for those who are into that kind of thing?
I think this question cuts right to the heart of a problem I’ve seen with some popular definitions of the gospel. Many people claim the gospel has to do mainly with forgiveness of sins; that in its essence the message is “You are a sinner and are headed for hell, but because of Jesus’ death on the cross in your place, you can go to heaven when you die instead of hell.” This is the gospel-as-forgiveness.
But I am convinced it’s not the whole gospel. It certainly is an essential part of the gospel; sin needs to be dealt with. But in speaking as though it were the whole thing, we’re taking one (essential) part of it, claiming it is the whole gospel, and ignoring the rest of it. A host of issues result from this, including the church’s massive discipleship problem.
Here’s Willard again:
“People who are taught that salvation is forgiveness do not make the natural connection to Christ as teacher, and so they don’t become disciples… If you look at congregations that have been told that forgiveness is salvation, you do not see and natural development into discipleship. I’m not being theological about that, just observe and see. And there’s one line [of thinking] that goes with the more Calvinistic side of things that says, ‘Well, gratitude will make you a disciple.’ Well again, you just have to look: it isn’t doing it.”
The proclamation of this gospel makes it damnably difficult to move people into daily interactive relationship with God, because they believe they only need Jesus for his blood (“Vampire Christians” as Willard has called them). They can’t fathom a reason to follow him now, because they think the deal is simply a contract to stay out of the bad place, payable-upon-death. Discipleship to Jesus simply doesn’t make any sense on this understanding of the gospel.
“We’ve gotten ourselves in this odd position where we believe that we can trust Jesus for forgiveness of sins but not for the next sandwich, not for guidance today, not for the power to minister to this individual that I’m with right now.”
And it’s because it’s a deficient understanding of the gospel! When justification is proclaimed as the end-all be-all of the gospel, it almost never leads to discipleship, because it isn’t the gospel the New Testament preaches. There is one gospel in the New Testament: the present availability of life in the kingdom of God through trusting Jesus. That’s what Jesus preached. That’s what Peter preached. That’s what Paul preached. That’s what John preached. That’s the good news, and it includes forgiveness of sins, but also so much more than that.
We respond to the gospel of the kingdom by trusting Jesus, not just for forgiveness for sins, but for everything. We enter into an apprenticeship with him: being with him to learn from him how to do the thing he was “good at:” living abundantly in the kingdom of God.
There’s way more to this than can be said in a blog post, so if you’d like to explore further, here are a few things you can do:
- Read Gary Moon’s interview with Dallas Willard: “Getting the Elephant out of the Sanctuary.” See especially his comments on the atonement.
- Watch these two videos from Greg Boyd, where he talks about the impotence of mere forgiveness without transformation:
Thoughts? Questions? Does this observation resonate with your experience?
Dude, you're going after it today!! LOVE this post.
One of the practical questions I've posed to people who are wrestling through a Gospel of forgiveness is this: "Let's hypothetically say eternal life was off the table. When you die, that's the end of it. You're done. Would you still be a Christian in this life?"
I mean, do we honestly believe that following Jesus, his teachings and his Spirit really is the best way to live NOW or are we looking for fire insurance?! For me personally, it was this reductionist gospel that made me leave faith altogether. I remember reading Willard for the first time and thinking, "Wait…why has no one ever told me this was the Gospel before?"
Sure, it really is all throughout scripture, but since I was in the nursery a different lens was given to me to read it and interpret it. The availability of the Kingdom went in one ear and out the other. Had no clue what that meant.
Great post. One I'll definitely refer friends to.
Thanks for your thoughts, Doug. It's an intriguing question.
Ben, thanks for starting bringing this conversation again…I know I need to keep coming back to this. I've been thinking about this for awhile, especially after reading Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee….trying to get some perspective on the cross and becoming a disciple from outside the West.
One thing I've been wrestling with (and forgive if I'm getting into controversial "waters" :)…is baptism itself. What folks know when they are first become a disciple is the seed for much of their later theology. And I wonder if the forgiveness-only thing starts with our practices in baptism.
Now I grew up in a baptisty bible church which did the whole immersion thing. I've been in a Reformed church for 10 years that does sprinkling thing. (We're still in transition about what is next…) For awhile, I just was apathetic toward what we do….But I"m starting to wonder about it.
From Nee and Willard and others, I saw that there is more happening at the cross than just forgiveness of sin. It's one thing,a core thing, but there's also much more. (death to old nature, union with Christ, defeat of Satan, new nature, etc.) Do our practices in baptism also reflect the fullness, or just forgiveness of sin?
Luke, I think you're right about that being an important issue. When you think about what it "enacts," according to Romans 6, it is a "dying" and "rising" with Christ, not just a "cleansing." Another quote from Willard that really hit me was something like this (I'm paraphrasing):
"Jesus didn't go to the cross so we wouldn't have to. He went to the cross so we could join him there. His death enables ours, which is the beginning of our freedom."
Great post Ben. I saw Willard when he came to my seminary, Northeastern, here in upstate NY. I recall him talking about the gospel of sin management instead of discipleship. His ideas combined with NT Wright's Surprised by Hope were the turning points in my faith. And that's after growing up as a pastor's kid, 13 years of Christian school, and 4 years of Bible college. Like Doug, I wondered where this had been my whole life.
It's posts like this that make me grateful for like-minded people and the reminder that they are out there. This is why having an understanding and embodying of the entire story of God centers on becoming the people of God through discipleship.
Great to hear a bit of your story, Scott. He talks extensively about that "gospel of sin management" in The Divine Conspiracy, which was a watershed book for me when I read it in 1998. Another paraphrased quote from some Willard audio I've been listening to lately:
"The gospel is not just about sin and what to do with it. It's about life in all its dimensions. Listening to gospels of sin management, one sometimes gets the impression that if we hadn't sinned, we wouldn't need God."
Ben, where did you get audio of Willard? I'm always looking for good driving and exercising listening material 🙂
Luke, I've collected it from various places (including last year's Ecclesia National Gathering). Since all of it was free, I'll email you with links to the audio. Driving and exercising is exactly where I listen to stuff, too.
Ben, feel free to email me the links as well. 😉
Certainly!
Well, I might as well ask for them too.
Done!
Interesting food for thought. I also study the old testament because in it I learn about human nature; I learn about myself. In it I learned that Saul ruled by his will (head), David by his heart, and Solomon by his Will (head) and His heart. I learned that all the Kings in the old Testament ruled by their dominate traits. Is not this how each and everyone of us rule our lives? We have a king in our head that takes dominion and we rule our life in that way. The Gospel of Jesus teaches us how to treat those around us; it teaches us to Love one another. Forgiveness is a vital part of loving. It teaches us to rule our lives with love and wisdom from both our heart and our head. So as we live according to the gospel of Christ Jesus we are transforming ourselves from the ways of the world to the ways of eternal life. So when Christ returns and the shifting of the wheat from the tares take place; we find ourselves with the wheat. Is this not salvation? We are sinners because we live in a fleshly body. Christ did not tell us to worship him; but rather live by his perfest example. As we live as sincerely as possible to His example we will be saved. That is my take. And I feel good about it.
I do think that Christ gave us an example to live by, but I also believe that we need his grace to perform even the smallest measure of righteousness.
So forgiveness is definitely part of the gospel, it's just not the whole thing. But neither is simply living by his example. A gospel is a message, a proclamation of good news, not just a command to live a certain way. The good news is that by trusting Christ we can learn to live in God's kingdom.
"I also believe that we need his grace to perform even the smallest measure of righteousness." Why is that? Why not do righteousness because it is right to do so? Why is grace needed to do right? We live in the world of sense confusion (Babylon) This is a world of carnal and personal selfish desires.
Have you ever thought what it would be like to live in the Kingdom when established by the second coming of Christ? I do. I think it would be a world of love and sharing; where no one will go without. There would be no governments or borders. It would be a world of new discovery. But this would only happen with a massive change in the consciousness of the people. This is how I believe it will happen; a massive change in consciousness. We are saved by grace as I understand it. But this grace does not imply that we continue without working on rising above our sinful ways. We must always remember that we are in this world; not of it. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us to live by the standards that give us eternal life. Am I perfect while living in this body? No. I live by grace striving for perfection. Is this living by the gospel?
We need grace to live in the kingdom because of indwelling and institutional sin, I think.
And it's a wonderful exercise to imagine what it will be like when the kingdom of Christ comes in its fullness. And the massive change needed is something that we cannot accomplish in our own strength, but only by submitting to the grace of God in the work of the Spirit.
Amen! Thanks!