The Three Legged Gospel

This is a week of travel and all day meetings.  I am looking forward to seeing folks at my denominational meeting that comes only twice a year.  Yet, it will make writing difficult since my mornings are going to be full!  This week we will be discussing the gospel.  To help with the task, I will be looking at Trevin Wax's fairly new book called Counterfeit Gospels.  I have found this book interesting and well worth the time of reading even though he does not exactly express himself as I do on the subject.

Wax begins with a helpful illustration of the gospel.  He describes it as a three legged stool.  He uses this analogy because with a three legged stool, if you remove one leg the stool fails!  Similarly, each element of the gospel is important for the entire structure to stand.  Wax argues that each of the six counterfeit gospels he identifies strikes at one of the legs of the stool.  

As a counterfeit, it looks good.  It might even be orthodox about all five of the other legs of the stool.  The problem is that by rejecting one important element of the gospel, they cause the entire structure to fall.

So, what is the gospel?  According to Wax it has three components.

"First, there is the gospel story, the overarching grand narrative found in the Scriptures." (16)  This grand narrative is what I call the foundation for a biblical and Christian worldview.  It states that God created the universe out of nothing, and all of creation was declared good.  It further argues that through willful disobedience, sin entered the good creation causing all of creation to be less than its created good.  Into this fallen state, God enters to redeem the fallen world in the person of Jesus, the second member of the Trinity who is fully God and fully man.  Jesus' death and resurrection end the reign of sin and death, and from that moment until He returns to set all things aright, God's Kingdom is growing.  As Wax states, "The gospel story is the scriptural narrative that takes us from creation to new creation, climaxing with the death and resurrection of Jesus." (16)

The second leg of the gospel is the gospel announcement.  This message is the classic definition of substitutionary atonement.  In other words, "God- in the person of Jesus Christ- lived a perfect life in our place, bore the penalty for our sin through His death on the cross, was raised from the dead to launch God's new creation, and is now exalted as Lord of the world." (16)  In response to this message, and individual should walk in repentance and faith.

The third leg of the gospel is that of gospel community.  The message of redemption, what Wax calls the gospel announcement is not a "one-time" commitment of Jesus nor is it a commitment lived in isolation from others.  Instead, through the Church, we live as a community that embodies the message of the gospel.  We live a message of repentance and faith.  We live in community centered around the redemptive work of Jesus.  We live a life reflecting the reality of the gospel story.

In upcoming posts, I will explain how each of these legs of the gospel are denied or warped by movements within contemporary church culture.  I will also make Wax speak my language, as his expressions don't always match the way I think and write!  

Overall, this is a helpful book and I would recommend it.