Gospel is a very “church-y” word. Yes, it sometimes finds its way into every day conversations. For instance, people occasionally talk about the “gospel truth”, meaning something rock-solid, trustworthy. But the term is ubiquitous in the church. Most Christians know that the word gospel means “good news.” But gospel doesn’t just allude to common, generic, garden-variety good news, as in “Hey, good news! The weather looks nice tomorrow for our picnic.” or “Good news honey, my boss gave me a raise!” or “Good news! I caught that pesky mouse in the basement.” No: the gospel in the Christian world has a much more precise, technical sense. The gospel is basically understood as follows: 1) Our sin has separated us from a holy and righteous God. 2) In order to remedy this situation, God sent forth Jesus, his only Son, to die upon the cross as the sacrifice for our sins. 3) By placing our faith in the work of Jesus on the cross, we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. 4) Having accepted Jesus as our savior, Christians gain assurance that when we die, we will go to heaven where we will dwell in eternal joy in God’s presence.
Most Christians have seen this gospel in picture form. On one side there is a sinful person. On the other side, the holy and righteous God. Between the sinful person and the holy God there is a canyon, representing the separation between the two. This canyon can only be bridged by the cross of Jesus, which is sketched into the picture so that it spans the gap between God and sinful people. This simple diagram powerfully portrays the amazing truth that by the sacrifice of Jesus, sinful and rebellious human beings can be forgiven and thereby reconciled to God. Perhaps, dear reader, you’ve used this little illustration to share your faith with a friend. Or perhaps you even recall a spiritual mentor using this tool to help you understand the good news about Jesus Christ!
In 1952, Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ (now CRU), published his famous tract, “The Four Spiritual Laws.” Bright’s four spiritual laws essentially sum up the gospel just laid out above in slightly different terms:
Now I must say that Bill Bright was an astonishingly faithful and fruitful Christian man. Through his efforts, and through the ongoing work of Campus Crusade, countless people around the world have come to know and follow Jesus. And his four spiritual laws have been an amazing tool in this work. Nothing I am about to say in this blog takes away from these achievements by one bit.
But I do wish to place the nearly universal evangelical understanding of the gospel under the microscope, so to speak. It’s not so much that I disagree with the gospel elements presented above, although I do believe that some of the key terms, such as “faith” and “salvation”, need close examination. But the main thrust of my proposal is that the entire framework for understanding the gospel is just too small. Please be patient! This thesis will take some time (multiple blogs) to develop. My approach will be to start from the ground up. Using the scriptures and the historical record, let’s try and reconstruct an understanding of the gospel consistent with how the first Christians used the term. Then we can compare our results with the common understanding noted above, and see what we find.
As Julie Andrews (as Maria von Trapp) sang in “The Sound of Music”, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” The book of Genesis declares, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” On the sixth day, God reaches the zenith of his work: the creation of mankind. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'” If we are going to fully understand the gospel, we must first have a solid grasp of God’s original intentions. Here the scriptures state the fundamental purpose of mankind: “let them rule…over all the earth.”
This might sound strange to many Christians. Perhaps they’ve been taught that the chief end of mankind is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever”, as in the Westminster Catechism. Other Christians have put the emphasis on establishing a personal relationship with Jesus. I would heartily agree that both of these concepts are very near the heart of the Christian faith. But the book of Genesis is quite clear: God made humans to rule over his creation. Sometimes this fundamental purpose can be stated in slightly different terms. We could say that humans are made to govern the world. Or humans exercise dominion over the world. (The word dominion comes from the Latin dominus, meaning lord or master. In other words, God has given humans lordship over creation.) We could also say that humans are meant to be God’s regents. When a nation is governed by a king or a queen, we of course call this form of government a monarchy. The ruling king or queen we refer to as the monarch. If the ruling sovereign (the king say) is traveling, or sick, or fighting against his enemies abroad, or even too young to yet govern the nation, a person might be appointed to govern in place of the king. This person is referred to as the regent. Thus, in this scheme of thought, God is the monarch, the king who rules over all creation. And God has appointed human beings as his regents, charged with exercising his rule and reign over creation.
Let’s now examine another key term from Genesis. So what does it mean to say that mankind has been created “in the image of God“? Often times, Christian or Jewish writers approach this concept in terms of the various qualities that human beings uniquely possess among all the creatures of the animal kingdom. We might discuss that fact that human beings have extraordinary intellect. We’re able to solve complicated problems, including abstract mathematical problems (like Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity). Humans also invent tools to help us accomplish work. Moreover, humans have unique hands. Although other primates have opposable thumbs, human hands have amazing fine motor skills, allowing us to utilize even precise, intricate tools. Humans have a much more advanced ability to speak than any other animal, allowing us to communicate in sophisticated ways. We create music by singing, by crafting musical instruments, and by composing musical scores. Think Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, or Handel. And humans create beauty not just through music, but through art and literature. Finally, humans have a strong sense of morality. Our moral sense tells us that certain behaviors are right and ought to be encouraged, and that other behaviors are wrong and should be avoided.
We could go on, but you get the point. Humans are amazing creatures. But a proper understanding of the image of God cannot be reduced to this or that unique quality, or even the sum total of these qualities. The main point is that these qualities equip human beings to fulfill their purpose: to exercise God’s authority over creation. It is well known that in the ancient world, kings would craft statues or images of themselves in order to remind people (to put it bluntly) who was in charge. Such images might be placed at the borders of a king’s realm, so that people entering the realm would know that they had come under the authority of the king. Other images very naturally would be positioned in temples. Ancient kings often thought of themselves as gods, or at least as representatives of the gods. They possessed the authority to tell people what to do, they brought (so they thought) order and justice to the world, and were even worthy of people’s adulation or worship. And of course, the image of the king, or the god that the king represented, is called an idol.
This thought world is the context within which the opening chapter of Genesis should be understood. Genesis chapter one is an ancient Israelite version of a temple dedication. Ancient temples were often dedicated in seven day ceremonies, celebrating the rule of the god(s) over the world. The most important part of the ceremony was when the idol, or image, of the god would be brought into the most sacred part of the temple. Similarly, the writer of Genesis describes the entire cosmos as God’s temple. On the sixth day of creation, the image or idol of the one true God is placed within the temple, and that idol is mankind itself.
In the ancient near east, the temple was thought of as the “house” where a god would “dwell.” This same language is frequently reflected in the Bible. Solomon’s temple is often referred to as the “house of God”; the place where God dwelt among Israel. Once the god had taken up residence in the temple, the temple would then become their place of “rest.” For example, Psalm 132:13-14 says, “For the LORD has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: ‘This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.'” (The word Zion here refers to Jerusalem, and the acropolis where the temple was located.) Note that the term “rest” does not suggest inactivity as we moderns might expect. Instead, when God had come to the temple to rest, it referred to the fact that he had assumed authority over the world. (“Here I will sit enthroned.”)
Thus, when Genesis says that God created mankind in his image, the main idea is that God has delegated his authority to human beings to exercise his reign. This entire train of thought that we’ve been exploring is, of course, called the kingdom of God. If we want to fully understand what the gospel means, it is absolutely crucial that we have a clear understanding of the kingdom of God, because these terms are inextricably intertwined.
In this blog, we have only begun to explore the term gospel. Our first step has been to remind ourselves of God’s fundamental purpose for creating human beings: to exercise his rule and reign over his creation. God has given humanity this key role so that the world can function and flourish in the way God intends. In future blogs, we will continue to develop our understanding of the gospel by further unpacking the ideal of God’s kingdom, the reality of human failure, and God’s secret plan to restore the kingdom.
You make excellent points. In order to thoughtfully discuss these things, we need to define the terms. (“But a proper understanding of the image of God cannot be reduced to this or that unique quality, or even the sum total of these qualities.”) Thanks for the detailed background on some of these terms we so often use but may not always be using as intended.