The Gospel According To PaulНамуна

How Should Christians Be Proclaiming the Good News to the World?

In the preaching of Christ and the apostles, the gospel was always punctuated by a clarion call to repentant faith. But it is not merely a summons to good behavior. It’s not a liturgy of religious ceremonies and sacraments. It’s not a plea for self-esteem and human dignity. It’s not a manifesto for culture warriors or a rallying-cry for political zealots.

It’s not a mandate for earthly dominion. It’s not a sophisticated moral philosophy seeking to win admiration and approval from the world’s intellectual elite, or a lecture about the evils of cultural and racial division. It’s not an appeal for “social justice.” It’s not a dissertation on gender issues or a prescription for “redeeming culture.” They are all deviations or distractions from the true gospel as proclaimed by Paul.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the sum and the focus of the gospel according to Paul: “We preach Christ crucified. God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And in Pauline theology, the cross is a symbol of atonement. “Christ crucified” is a message about redemption for sinners.

How vital is that truth, and how crucial for the messenger to stay on point? To make the gospel about anything else is to depart from biblical Christianity. Paul’s teaching is not the least bit ambiguous about this. It’s the very definition of what he meant when he spoke of “my gospel.” Quite simply, the gospel is good news for fallen humanity regarding how sins are atoned for, how sinners are forgiven, and how believers are made right with God. And the mission of the church is not to win the world’s admiration.

Many of today’s best-known evangelical strategists and the leading practitioners of “missional” methodology seem not to grasp that simple point. They constantly encourage young evangelicals to “engage the culture” and defer to the rules of political correctness. When they translate that counsel into concrete, practical plans of action, it often turns out to mean little more than trying to stay in step with fashion— as if being perceived as cool were the key to effective ministry.

You won’t find anything like that in Paul’s exhortations to young ministers. On the contrary, Paul candidly acknowledges that the gospel is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”