InspiredSample

     The good news is as epic as it gets, with universal theological implications, and   yet the Bible tells it from the perspective of fishermen and farmers, pregnant ladies and squirmy kids. This story about the nature of God and God’s relationship to humanity smells like mud and manger hay, and tastes like salt and wine. It is concerned, not simply with questions of eternity, but with paying taxes and filling bellies and addressing a woman’s chronic   menstrual complications. It is the biggest story and the smallest story all at once—the great quest for The Ring and the quiet friendship of Frodo and Sam.

 

    Much has been made in recent years about the value of rendering the gospel   into a single, digestible aphorism. D.L. Moody claimed he could fit the gospel on a coin; I was once   challenged to sum it up in a tweet. But it strikes me as fruitless to try and turn the gospel into a statement, when God so clearly gave us a story….or,   more precisely, a person.

 

    Indeed, in Scripture, no two people encounter Jesus in exactly the same way. Not once does anyone pray the “Sinner’s Prayer” or ask Jesus into their heart. The good news is good for the whole world, certainly, but what makes it good varies from person to person and community to community. Liberation from sin looks different for the rich young ruler than it does for the woman caught in adultery. The good news that Jesus is the Messiah has a different impact on John the Baptist, a Jewish prophet, than it does the Ethiopian eunuch, a Gentile and outsider. Salvation means one thing for Mary Magdalene, first to witness the resurrection, and another to the thief who died next to Jesus on a cross. The gospel is like a mosaic of stories, each one part of a   larger story, yet beautiful and truthful on their own. There’s no formula, no blueprint. . . .

 

    So when someone asks, “What is the gospel?” the best response is, “Let me   tell you a story.” You might start with Abraham, Isaiah, or Luke. You might start with the Samaritan woman at   the well. . . . At some point, you will get to Jesus, and Jesus will change everything.