More Context

On this past Tuesday, in response to reflecting upon my recent 20th year high school reunion, I mentioned that a subject, removed from its original context, has a much higher possibility of being misunderstood. This whole concept of a proper comprehension of context leading to a proper understanding of reality eventually got me to thinking about Western evangelicalism's representation of “the gospel”. (Completely logical tie-in, don’t you think?)

While I have linked a brief discussion on this subject before, it bears repeating that “the gospel” which many well-meaning, faithful saints define as “Jesus Christ died for my sins”, is in fact a statement removed from its larger, Biblical context. Because this statement of Gospel has been removed and separated from its greater context, a complete understanding of its proper interpretation and application runs the unnecessary risk of being hindered.

Tullian Tchividjian, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, speaks to this idea of a larger context in a 2009 Christianity Today article where he states that,

"The gospel is not simply the story of Christ dying on the cross for sinners. It also involves Christ rising again as the first fruits that will eventually make all things new. There is a universal dimension to the gospel."

A similar sentiment is repeated from another corner of the Evangelical world by Soong-Chan Rah in his challenging book, “The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity”. In his chapter on individualism Rah says that,

“Our understanding of salvation is contingent upon how we view what we are being saved from, namely sin and it’s consequences. When sin is limited to the individual realm and does not extend to the corporate realm, our understanding of salvation is also limited to the individual realm. Sin, therefore, is found only in the individual, not in structures and systems. The possibility of redemption, therefore, is also limited exclusively to the individual. A relationship with God limited to the private and individual realm ultimately limits our experience with God.”

In other words, we need to look at a context much larger than the individual in order to properly understand the subject of the gospel. Again, a subject, removed from its original context, has a much higher possibility of being misunderstood.

The Gospel is not a “get out of Hell free” card lying upon the grand Monopoly board of life. As long as you pick up the card, you can then go on living however you want. If you ever do get into trouble, just whip out your handy card and all is good.

The Gospel is not simply something that sinful heathens need so that they can become “good Christians” like the rest of us “upstanding church folk”.

No, the Gospel is a story, with implications both for the believer as well as the non-believer. That is not to say that it is merely a story, in some diminutive sense, but it is a story nonetheless.

Michael Williams, author, theologian and Professor of Systematic Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary says it this way in his 2005 publication entitled “Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption”.

“The Bible as a whole is best understood as a story or drama. To be sure, the Bible does more than tell a story. Scripture includes psalms, proverbs, songs, prayers, moral instruction and doctrinal reflection. But what holds all of it together, what makes it a unified revelation is the storyline, what theologians often call the drama of redemption. The nonnarrative pieces fit into and make sense only within their appropriate contexts in the biblical storyline.”

What we are talking about is an amazing, mind-blowing, borderline absurd grand narrative beginning in eternity past when God, within the wisdom of his own counsel and at the initiation of his own sovereign will decided to speak creation into being. He created all things in a set period of time and then pronounced over what he had created that it was good, very good even.

It was into this good creation that an Evil came and fractured what was good and right. In Genesis 3 we read the historical account of perfect creation, lost; perfect relational connection, lost; between man and woman, between humanity and its God.

Lost. Broken. Fallen.

Yet immediately following, we are introduced to the coming next chapter. In Genesis 3:15 we see the announced coming of One, referred to as the offspring or seed of the woman who will come and bruise the head of the serpent. Far beyond a mythical back story explaining why humans and snakes haven’t historically gotten along, what we witness here is the iron clad promise of One who is coming, this seed of the woman, who will ultimately defeat the serpent. This language of “offspring” is picked up again within a few short verses in Genesis 4:25 referring to the birth of Eve’s son, Seth.

Have you ever wondered why all of those genealogies are in the Bible? For example, you have Genesis 5, tracing the line of Adam and Seth through to Noah and his son Shem. Then picking up in Genesis 11 we trace Shem through to Terah, who was the father of Abram. Arriving much later at the New Testament, the very first thing we read in Matthew 1 is another genealogy! This time Matthew picks up with Abraham, who has had his name changed from Abram, and traces a direct link through 16 verses to Joseph, the husband of Mary.

So what’s the point? The point is that from the very beginning, we are heading towards Matthew 1:18, the birth of the long ago promised offspring of the woman as the cure for a disease which began in Genesis 3:15. The story we get from Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch through the historical books, prophets and poetry of the Old Testament, point us towards that which is clearly articulated in the Gospels and subsequent pages of the New Testament. This Promised One is coming, not simply to give people a game board piece or to enable individuals who need a little extra push towards morality in order to be made fully whole. Rather, He is coming to defeat the serpent and to reverse, ultimately in its totality, the effects of that which was lost in the Fall.

This is a message far greater than the self help, Oprah spiritualism that masquerades as gospel in some communities of faith today.

What is God doing? He is telling us a story with one repetitive plotline. Things, people, creation, it’s all broken and He is about the business of restoring broken things to their proper, pre-fall places. Rather than an individualistic story of therapeutic feel-good, we are talking about nothing short of God’s reconciliation of all things to Himself through Jesus Christ.

In the next post in this series on context, we will seek to look at the “so what” implications of all of this and why it makes any difference at all in the way we live our lives.