Circling the Gospel
Define a circle. Ok, you say. It’s a… uh… you know, a round line. Is it? Circles are an interesting phenomenon. Circles are by nature perfect. No matter where you start, when you pass through the centre, the diameter is the same. If at any time, the diameter at one point increases or decreases, you cease to have a circle and you then have an oval or an ellipse. Ovals often look just like circles until you measure them. If a circular shape is at all elongated anywhere, it cannot bear the name: Circle. Remember trying to draw one of those with a compass? As soon as you switch hands you’re toast. In the hands of a master, a compass can produce a perfect circle, which is a redundant thing to say because circles are perfect.
I read a “discussion” which was really a debate over the Gospel. It was entitled, “What Is The Gospel?” and a couple of experts were present to define it. There was hair-splitting, subtle name-calling, and straw-man arguments, but the two gentlemen were actually pretty graceful about the whole thing. The thing that struck me, was that at the end, the one guy said that the other guy was preaching a false gospel. He said that by nature, the gospel is something that if deviated from even slightly, ceases to be the gospel. It’s like a circle, really. If it is stretched in any direction, it ceases to be the good news.
I’m thankful for what the apostle Paul called “the simplicity which is in Christ.” While theologians are debating whether or not justification is declaring or making one righteous, four year olds are getting saved because they know that they know that Jesus died for them. Jesus died for you. That is a circle. It is a perfectly continuous shape without beginning or end. In 1st Peter it says, “the just died for the unjust.” The only circle died for the ovals of the world.
Part of the problem we have with defining the Gospel is that we don’t see Jesus as a circle. We elongate him. We stretch him at various points to be the Jesus we want him to be. When we distort Christ, we get a distorted gospel. He begins to take on this elliptical shape and it’s like we see him in a funhouse mirror. But who sees Jesus perfectly? Is he not either exaggerated or underrated at one point or another by us all? How are we then to preach the good news? Thank the Lord for his Word! It is a true circle, just like the Lord Jesus. It is balanced and sound and whole and perfect. It says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” and it does NOT go on to say – that whosoever has their soteriology perfect will be saved. I was saved and thought I could “fall away.” I’m glad the Lord saved me in spite of me.
I think we have a hard time letting God be as gracious as he really is. We are afraid of “easy-believism” and so we add things to Jesus’ simple declaration of “whosoever believes…” At the same time, we don’t let God be as just as he really is. We don’t ponder long enough on the truth that Jesus was made “to BE sin for us.” We all suffer from “oval-vision” but by God’s grace we can fix our eyes on Jesus, the perfect circle and allow him to correct those places we distort him. We can then proclaim the good news with simplicity and clarity. The Perfect One died for the imperfect. Let’s not get bent out of shape trying to make the Gospel out to be something that it is not. Stay on a tight orbit around the Lord Jesus.
BJ
I read a “discussion” which was really a debate over the Gospel. It was entitled, “What Is The Gospel?” and a couple of experts were present to define it. There was hair-splitting, subtle name-calling, and straw-man arguments, but the two gentlemen were actually pretty graceful about the whole thing. The thing that struck me, was that at the end, the one guy said that the other guy was preaching a false gospel. He said that by nature, the gospel is something that if deviated from even slightly, ceases to be the gospel. It’s like a circle, really. If it is stretched in any direction, it ceases to be the good news.
I’m thankful for what the apostle Paul called “the simplicity which is in Christ.” While theologians are debating whether or not justification is declaring or making one righteous, four year olds are getting saved because they know that they know that Jesus died for them. Jesus died for you. That is a circle. It is a perfectly continuous shape without beginning or end. In 1st Peter it says, “the just died for the unjust.” The only circle died for the ovals of the world.
Part of the problem we have with defining the Gospel is that we don’t see Jesus as a circle. We elongate him. We stretch him at various points to be the Jesus we want him to be. When we distort Christ, we get a distorted gospel. He begins to take on this elliptical shape and it’s like we see him in a funhouse mirror. But who sees Jesus perfectly? Is he not either exaggerated or underrated at one point or another by us all? How are we then to preach the good news? Thank the Lord for his Word! It is a true circle, just like the Lord Jesus. It is balanced and sound and whole and perfect. It says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” and it does NOT go on to say – that whosoever has their soteriology perfect will be saved. I was saved and thought I could “fall away.” I’m glad the Lord saved me in spite of me.
I think we have a hard time letting God be as gracious as he really is. We are afraid of “easy-believism” and so we add things to Jesus’ simple declaration of “whosoever believes…” At the same time, we don’t let God be as just as he really is. We don’t ponder long enough on the truth that Jesus was made “to BE sin for us.” We all suffer from “oval-vision” but by God’s grace we can fix our eyes on Jesus, the perfect circle and allow him to correct those places we distort him. We can then proclaim the good news with simplicity and clarity. The Perfect One died for the imperfect. Let’s not get bent out of shape trying to make the Gospel out to be something that it is not. Stay on a tight orbit around the Lord Jesus.
BJ
posted by BJ at 8:34 a.m.
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