Monday, August 9, 2010

To get the ball rolling...

I think a common difference here might very well be what the message of the gospel is, and how it is to be preached.  I will start and sum up the gospel message from my perspective.  Given I think it is always proper to shape the delivery to the audience you're speaking to, but here is the gospel message as I understand it, with a bit more detail in areas I believe will have particularities to my tradition.  Feel free to probe by understanding, and also present your own.

Man was created in the presence of God, and was given freedom in paradise to do as he wanted and have perfect communion with God with one stipulation.  Do not eat of the tree of Good and Evil.  Through temptation Satan deceived man and they broke the only commandment they had.  They were cursed from that point on with death and pains from all their toil.  All of creation was cursed by their sin, and all of their offspring were now born affected by their sin.  All of man has become corrupted tainted and perverted  We are here now, born into death and bondage to sin.  We are dead in sin because we have no spiritual life or goodness in our natural state.  We are slaves to sin because we have no freedom apart from our sinful nature and can do nothing but sin.  This is the natural state of all mankind on this side of the garden.  God saw his creation and loved his creation enough to orchestrate a plan of redemption predominantly to save mankind from their sin, but also redeem and restore creation to its perfect state.  Since sin is an infinite trespass against an infinitely holy God who demands infinite perfection, there is a demand for infinite punishment and infinite recompense.  No man who has but one sin in his life can not stand under the weight of a holy God.  There is no amount of goodness in us, nor good works we can do, to merit salvation.  In order to save men God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live the life we should have lived and die the death we should have died in order that he might be the substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf, and also have the righteousness required to enter heaven.  Anyone and everyone who hears the call of God and responds in repentance of their sins and acceptance of the free grace offered by God will be saved and has their sins atoned for and will continue being made wholly righteous by the power of God's sanctifying grace.

Key points of the gospel presentation:

  • Fall of man from perfection
  • Condition of man is being spiritually dead and a slave to sin unable to save themselves.
  • Saving work of Christ on the cross as the sinners substitute.
  • Offer of salvation is free and offered before the entire world.
  • Necessity of human repentance and confession of guilt/acceptance of grace.
  • Perseverance of holiness in the saved life.


Yes I am a calvinist and I think there are spiritual mechanisms behind the gospel that believer's benefit greatly from when they fight through and believe in, but those issues (predestination, definite (limited) atonement, and other doctrines of this sort) are not necessary to salvation, and I believe are to be understood secondarily to the primary truths of the gospel.  One must understand basic arithmetic before they move onto more advanced forms of mathematics, the same is true in any area of study.

It is late and I may have not represented this to the best of my abilities, but I wanted to do this before I went to sleep so we could start the conversation.  So here we go...

4 comments:

  1. This is good. I will post what I think about the topic after I go back and read a paper I wrote on it a while back. I think we're going to be pretty much in agreement. I like that you brought the restoration of creation, i.e. the setting things right, motif since that is a major part of Pauline theology that many people overlook. Of course, I will have some differences to post since I think that there is no salvation outside of the Church as institutional as well as spiritual. But I can draw that line of thinking out more later.

    Anyway, I'm working on my "About Me" section but it's becoming The Seven Story Mountain so I need to do some revision and editing. It should be up by the end of the week.

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  2. The gospel is the best place to start, and your presentation is good, I agree. The only nitpick I have is with your somewhat-to-be-expected focus on how mankind is no good whatsoever. There's a difference between "none" and "insufficient" or "rotten" goodness.

    And of course there are further issues around whether or not our shortage of inherent ability to do good implies a lack of worth in God's eyes, or even a subsequent arbitrariness to the question of whom He decides to save. I imagine you guys will get into all that later, though.

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  3. I would comment but are you also a traditionalist/ complementarian? Hehe I tease.

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  4. Nicole. I'm reasonable. If you bring me a beer I'll let stuff slide under the rug. :)

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