Understanding the Gospel?
Why Christians Should Be Skeptical About Advice From Non-Christians
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” - Matthew 16:181
“but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:23-24
Central to the Christian Faith is the gospel, what I often refer to as the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. The gospel is the story of how God, according to the scriptures, is redeeming and restoring creation in and through Jesus of Nazareth as the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Lord and Christ. This gospel also reveals the particular way God is at work in the world bringing his promise of salvation, forgiving and reconciling people through the power of Jesus Christ suffering death on the cross. This particular way of the cross, how the gospel is revealed, becomes the way of life that the church of Jesus Christ embodies as a living portrayal of the gospel.2
Only don’t expect non-Christians to understand the gospel, much less the particular way in which the gospel is revealed in and through Christ and his church. In fact, expecting non-Christians to understand the gospel is probably unrealistic. Understanding requires more than just acquiring knowledge about the historical claims and doctrines that define Christianity. Understanding the gospel requires faith. By faith, I mean not only believing and obeying Jesus but doing so as people whose allegiance to Jesus as the Lord and Christ.3 Having such faith, we follow Jesus with trust and do so even when we have doubts, and as we continue following Jesus we gain in our understanding of the gospel.
“Christianity in America may be on its way into exile for the foreseeable future but we have resources for learning how to live an exilic faith in the Bible and Christian Tradition.”
So I don’t expect non-Christians to understand the gospel and its claims on the Christian way of life. But I do take notice when people who are not Christians want to try telling Christians how to respond to ongoing civil matters in the world. For example, in the midst of growing political polarization in society, Elon Musk said on X (formerly Twitter) “Unless there is more bravery to stand up for what is fair and right, Christianity will perish.”4 And in the last few days I have seen more than a few Christians sharing this post, as if Musk is right.
And now I wonder if Christians understand the gospel.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, if Elon Musk is saying that Christianity will perish unless Christians take a civil stand for our rights then he is emphatically wrong. It is also a grave misunderstanding of the gospel to read Musk’s statement as good advice for Christians.
What Musk is suggesting seems to tap into the fears that lurk beneath the Christian nationalist movement, which seeks to impose Christianity as the way of life upon society.5 Instead of understanding the power and wisdom of Jesus Christ crucified as a way of serving in the world with self-sacrificial love that trusts God to bring about his redemptive good, worldly power is adopted. Instead of understanding the promise of Jesus that the gates of Hades will never prevail against his church, fear is substituted for faith.
But any Christianity that emerges through the adoption of coercive power and reliance upon the state is a departure from the way of Jesus Christ. What remains is a syncretistic ideology that has co-opted elements of Christianity to serve its own ideological agenda.
The crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ is God’s victory over every adversarial power, including sin and death (1 Cor 15:56). True Christianity will never cease because it is rooted in the new birth in which there is a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that can never perish, spoil, or fade (1 Pet 1:3-4). In Christ, there is nothing to fear and nothing to lose that is worth keeping. By sharing in the sufferings of the crucified Jesus Christ, we share also in his resurrection life (Phil 3:10).
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that living as a Christian will be easy and Jesus never said it would be. But the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ is God’s promise of victory, a victory we know now by faith but will know by sight when Jesus Christ comes again.
If we really understand the gospel, then ploys to make us afraid and embrace any power and wisdom that differs from God’s power and wisdom in the crucified Jesus Christ should be rejected. Christianity in America may be on its way into exile for the foreseeable future but we have resources for learning how to live an exilic faith in the Bible and Christian Tradition. Instead of listening to such ploys of worldly wisdom and power, we need to dig deeper into scripture and learn again how God’s people lived in exile. There’s much to learn in both the Old and New Testament if we have the eyes and ears to see and hear.
We also have the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ as Lord to remind us that living by faith, even in an exilic existence, is more than possible. I suppose the only question we have to ask as Christian is do we understand the gospel?
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition Bible, copyright © 1989, 2021 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
See also K. Rex Butts, Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God, Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2022, where I go into more detail about this point in chapter 4 and explain why embodiment of the gospel means conforming our lives “to Christ, his beliefs, values, and habits” (p. 56).
Matthew W. Bates, Gospel Allegiance: What Faith in Jesus Misses for Salvation in Christ, Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2019, 59.
Elon Musk, X, July 27, 2024 [2;58 p.m.], accessed on July 29, 2024 (https://x.com/elonmusk).
Andrew Torba and Andrew Isker, Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide to Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations, Gab AI, 2022, 27, “No it is time for our nation to be led by wise Christian warriors who fear God, read their Bible, and will not bend the to the wicked Establishment class and ways of the world. In other words: we need Christian men who embrace their God-given masculine energy to conquer and lead.” I’m not sure how widespread the Christian nationalist movement is but I do know its influence is growing. I have even had a couple of Christians tell me that they are Christian nationalists, which is why I disagree with Brad East that we should drop the label “Christian nationalism” (see Dr. Brad East, “Episode 64: Dr. Brad East REALLY doesn't want to talk about Christian nationalism,” The Christian Chronicle Podcast, May 15, 2024, length: 50:26 (https://christianchronicle.org/episode/episode-64-dr-brad-east-really-doesnt-want-to-talk-about-christian-nationalism/).
The Musk quote should say “Unless there's more courage to stand up for what is just and right, Christianity will cease to be Salt and Light in the world.”
The challenge is, based on their behavior/fruit , USAn folks follow Wotan's honor code, and think they are following Yeshua's.