After my failed attempt yesterday to review Scot McKnight’s new book, The King Jesus Gospel, I am taking a second stab at it today.

Scot McKnight is concerned that that most evangelicals have a very narrow and unbiblical understanding of the Gospel. Most of us, he believes, hold to something which he calls “a soterian Gospel” which is the idea that the Gospel message primarily concerns me and my salvation.

The soterian Gospel is found in most pulpits, pamphlets, and presentations of the Gospel, and usually contains several bullet points about God’s holiness, our sin, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and how we can get to heaven by believing in Him.

While Scot McKnight doesn’t have a problem with this message per se, he contends that this message is not the Gospel.

What is the Gospel?

Instead of a simple message about how to get saved, the Gospel is a story. A very long story. So long, it pretty much takes the entire Bible to tell it. It can be summarized, of course, but not in 4 Spiritual Laws. McKnight’s summary takes just over four full pages in his book (pp. 149-152).

The Gospel story contains details about God, creation, the fall of mankind, the selection of Abraham, the people of Israel, and the prophets. The Gospel story finds fulfillment and a new beginning in the birth, life, miracles, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel story continues with Jesus creating a new people of God in the church, which continues to accomplish the mission of Jesus in bringing God’s Kingdom to earth now, and in eternity to all creation.

McKnight does a masterful job defining and defending this understanding of “Gospel” and includes chapters about the Gospel that Jesus preached, the Gospel that Paul preached, and the Gospel that Peter and the other apostles preach, and how this understanding of “Gospel” shows that they all preached, proclaimed, and lived the same gospel. Their messages were not at odds with each other, but in complete harmony and agreement.

Ultimately, the Gospel is “the Story of Israel as resolved in the Story of Jesus” (p. 79).

[Read more…]

Scot McKnight recently wrote a book called The King Jesus Gospel. I finished reading it yesterday.

I know it is vain, but as I read it, I kept waiting for him to quote from a journal article I wrote back in 2006 called “The Gospel is More than Faith Alone in Christ Alone.”

Of course, Scot McKnight never did quote from it.

So either he plagiarized me, or he never read the article…  Hmmmm… I wonder which one it is?

The Gospel is about more than How to get Saved

In the  2006 journal article, I studied the New Testament usage of the word “gospel” and ended up concluding that

The gospel contains everything related to the person and work of Jesus Christ, including all of the events leading up to His birth, and all the ramifications from Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for unbelievers and believers.

Then, in 2009, in a blog post titled “The Gospel is Full of Good News” I stated that

The full gospel is full-orbed in the claims it makes about our present life and eternal existence, and what Jesus wants to do with both.

Later, I did a whole series on “Gospelism” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6) in which I argue many of the points that Scot McKnight made in his book, but which he referred to as “Gospeling.”

As I was reading Scot’s book, it often felt to me that I was re-reading some of those old posts.

Sure, Scot McKnight and I don’t argue along exactly the same train of thought, and he nuances things differently than I did, but in general, we are in agreement. I found this very comforting, since in 2006, some people blasted me pretty hard for the article I had written. I imagine Scot might be taking flak also. People don’t like their “gospel message” to be challenged.

[Read more…]