Vlady Fresh

As part of the follow-up from the “Rediscovering a Holistic Gospel” consultation that I participated in this past July, a group of CRM staff were assigned the task of defining the Gospel and evangelism in succinct terms. I appreciated the challenge and below have posted my tentative definitions. I invite anyone to critique, challenge, affirm or comment upon these statements. They are a work in progress and I would appreciate having my thinking clarified through discussion with others.

Note that this is not supposed to be an evangelism tool but rather a help to Christians (myself primarily, and CRM secondarily) in better wrapping our minds and hearts around the core of our faith. I’ll leave it to those more gifted than myself to figure out how this relates to evangelism. A good friend of mine, James Choung, has just written a book called True Story which does exactly that. If you pick up a copy, please let me know what you think.

Here it goes …

Gospel Definition:
The Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom of God, that has been uniquely revealed and advanced through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This Kingdom of God is God’s perfect reign and rule which is being extended over the entirety of creation. Humanity, as the pinnacle of God’s creation, has the unique ability, through submission to the Way of Jesus, to actively participate with God in demonstrating and proclaiming his loving reign over all of creation. This extension of God’s rule will attain fulfillment in reach and depth at the “restoration of all things”, when the heavens and the earth are renewed. In that day, all relationships will be set right: God:man, God:creation, man:man, and man:creation.

Gospel Definition Notes:

• For the Gospel being fundamentally about the Kingdom: The majority of Jesus’ teachings in the gospels, Matthew 24:14; Acts 1:3, 8:12, 19:8, 28:23 and many others.
• For the Kingdom of God being uniquely revealed and advanced in Jesus: Matthew 12:28.
• For the Kingdom being all consuming: Daniel 2:44
• For humanity being the pinnacle of God’s creation: Genesis 1:26
• For the renewal of all things: Isaiah 65:17, 66:22; Matthew 19:28; Romans 8:19-22; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1-4
• Regarding the restoration of right relationships: this is a bit theological, but I believe that the entirety of the scriptures are hearkening back to Genesis, only without the possibility of sin. There, in the beginning, we see a series of right relationships: 1) God:Man exemplified in God and Adam, 2) Man:Man exemplified with Adam and Eve, 3) God:creation when God declares all that he had made “good”, and 4) Man: creation with Adam being called to steward the creation in God’s stead. The rest of the scriptures, especially the temple/tabernacle structure and décor continually call attention back to Eden as the ideal. Then, at the end, in Revelation, we return to Eden with God and man together again in pristine creation (including the tree of life) and without a need for a temple (just as in Eden). I’m not sure how I developed this framework, but some credit must be given to Meredith Kline, Greg Beale, and NT Wright.

Evangelism Definition:
Evangelism is conscientiously demonstrating and proclaiming the Kingdom of God along with a clear invitation for the community or individual to repent and submit to lovingly and wholeheartedly follow Jesus, in order to become an agent of the Kingdom.

Evangelism Definition Notes:

• On repentance: Matthew 3:2; Acts 2:38
• On the necessity of following Jesus wholeheartedly: Matthew 10:38
• On becoming an agent of the Kingdom: Luke 10:1-22; Ephesians 2:10