One of the primary problems with doctrinal statements is what they do to the gospel. Usually, we believe that creeds and confessions protect the gospel, defending it against heresy, keeping at bay those who teach a false gospel, and leading people toward central truths of gospel, such as God’s holiness, our sinfulness, and the person and work of Jesus Christ.
What is the Gospel?
If the gospel was nothing more than a set of propositions to believe, or a series of doctrines to defend, then I would agree that creeds and confessions do a good job protecting gospel. The problem is that while the gospel does contain doctrine, the gospel is not primarily about doctrine. The gospel is not simply about what we must believe. The gospel is way more than a set of Christian ideas.
When understood from Scripture, the gospel is closer to a way of life than a set of ideas. Yes, it contains ideas, but the real good news in the gospel is that the ideas of the gospel will lead to a whole new way of living and thinking and acting. The gospel contains a new worldview which changes how we think about others and how we view life. The gospel not only contains ideas to believe, but also items to do.
What the Gospel is
The gospel is about loving others like Jesus. It is about showing others what Jesus looks and acts like through our own life and actions. It is about living here on earth according to the rules of heaven. It is about freedom from trying to live up to the standards of men, and instead, showing to the whole world a new way of life and liberty in Jesus Christ. The gospel is about knowing peace, feeling loved, experiencing contentment, and having a purpose.
These are the exciting and invigorating elements of the gospel, and it is these that you will never find in any doctrinal statement. Without these life-transforming truths, the gospel is nothing but a lifeless document which we pull out for membership classes and when the pastor preaches his annual “What we Believe” sermon. Other than that, it has very little impact on our daily lives.
If the life transforming ideas of the gospel are not flowing through our lives into our words and actions toward others people, we are getting the gospel wrong.
Doctrin. A wonderful servant but a horrible master.
That is a good way of looking at it.
Yes. The Gospel is not a formula – a 5 step program for being right with God. The good news is the restoration of relationship….
Nor is it summarized in four spiritual laws….
Paul says it best about what the gospel is.
1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep ;
7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles ;
8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
The gospel is about Jesus death on the cross for our sins, his burial, and his resurrection confirmed to be true by the many witnesses.
If one believes in love without what Paul has stated here there is no salvation.
Dad,
Yes, that is a good passage about some of the truths of the gospel. I had a journal article published several years back where I discuss several other passages that define the gospel:
The Gospel is More than Faith Alone in Christ Alone.
For example, the Greek word for “gospel” (euangelizo) which Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 is also used in Luke 1:19 by Gabriel to summarize the message he had just spoken to Zacharias. The points in his gospel are this:
1. Elizabeth will have a son.
2. Many will have joy at his birth.
3. He will be great and will be filled with the Holy Spirit.
4. He will turn many people to God.
5. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children.
6. The disobedient will become just.
7. A people will be prepared for the Lord.
This is not a gospel message we have ever been taught to tell others in our evangelism, but according to Scripture, it is part of the gospel.
So also with Luke 4:18-19. The gospel that Jesus lived included healing the brokenhearted, giving liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. And we cannot spiritualize these things and say they all refer to spiritual bondage, and spiritual captivity, and spiritual blindness. So the gospel that Jesus lived includes these sorts of actions.
I could go on and on. There are dozens of passages in Scripture which shows that the gospel is not just a few ideas from Romans, Galatians, and 1 Corinthians that people must believe to escape hell and go to heaven when they die. Sure, those truths are part of the gospel, but they are not the entire biblical gospel.
Showing love to others is indeed a PART of “living out the gospel”, but without verbal testimoney of the meaning of the gospel (ie doctrine)and a sinner’s acceptance of the WRITTEN DOCTRINE OF THE BIBLE, a “loving” christian is simply seen as a really nice guy. I’ve known a lot of “really nice guys” that are going to hell.
p.s. and WHY are some “really nice people” going to hell? Mostly because they’ve never heard or read the doctrine of salavation by faith alone, apart from works (including acts of “love”??). Christians need to be verbally sharing the doctrine of salvation, not just living it by showing love.
Mom,
Great comment, and I pretty much agree.
I think that the trap of “justification by faith alone apart from works” is that we get so concerned with the “apart from works” idea that we go overboard and live almost completely “apart from works.”
We so desperately want to avoid any appearance of trying to earn justification by works, that we ignore most of the works which the gospel in Scripture calls us to perform. And I don’t mean reading the Bible, praying, tithing 10%, and attending church. These are the ones that get the most attention in our churches, but get relatively little attention in Scripture in comparison to biblical calls for justice, love, and mercy to the poor, needy, outcast, rejected, and oppressed.
In the end, when it comes to justification, I’m rather radical. I am so confident in the free grace of God, that I think that if someone believes in Jesus for eternal life, God gives it to them. No strings attached. No ongoing requirements. No small print. No proof of purchase needed. No returns allowed. What I am arguing in this post is that while justification by faith alone is true, if this is as far as a person goes, while they may be justified, they have not understood the gospel.
Jeremy, Good challenging thoughts. But I am wondering. It appears to me you are saying that salvation
[when it comes to justification, I’m rather radical. I am so confident in the free grace of God, that I think that if someone believes in Jesus for eternal life, God gives it to them. No strings attached. No ongoing requirements. No small print. No proof of purchase needed. No returns allowed]
and the gospel [while they may be justified, they have not understood the gospel] are 2 different things.
If I am understanding you correctly you are saying salvation is by faith alone but the gospel demands a changed life of love.
I don’t see in I Corinthians 15 where Paul declares the gospel where he is saying believe in the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus plus have a life of love. I do see in Ephesians 2 where justification demands a life of love.
Seems to me we are talking about 2 different issues.
Salvation and the results of salvation.
You say that the gospel and justification are different. I agree justification is by faith alone. But you also are also saying that justification demands a life of love.
So the conclusion could be drawn we have a lot of people who are calling themselves Christians who aren’t. How can it be both ways? By faith alone and then ask people to demonstrate love to one another.
Isn’t this verging on doctrine?
By being so detailed in what justification and the gospel are, aren’t you establishing your own doctrine. From Webster: Doctrine: a principle or position or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief.
If I believe in “my doctrine” that the gospel is simply justification by faith alone you should accept that in me.
But as soon as you tell me I am wrong aren’t you telling me my “doctrine” or system of belief is wrong.
Just trying to understand your discussion about why doctrine is wrong. This is really the main point of your post showing the problems with doctrinal statements. Seems to me like you are establishing your own doctrinal statement. Not trying to be difficult just understand.
Good questions.
Numerous things are going on here.
First, I do not equate “salvation” with “justification.” Neither does Scripture. 99% of the time the Bible refers to “salvation” or being “saved” it is referring to something other than justification.
Second, I view “justification” not as something different than the gospel, but a subset, or a subcategory of the gospel. As I make clear in the journal article referred to above, the gospel is a full-orbed story about Jesus, His death and resurrection, His eschatological fulfillment of all the promises made to Israel, and all of the blessings and benefits that come to both believers and unbelievers.
One critical part of this gospel story (but still only a part), is that unbelievers can receive eternal life by believing in Jesus for it.
So it’s somewhat like this:
Story of the Gospel
Creation
Fall
Flood
Noah
Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Joseph
Israel
Egypt
Moses
Joshua
Judges
Kings
Prophets
JESUS JESUS JESUS!
believe in Jesus for eternal life
justification
sanctification
church
Holy Spirit
Paul
Peter
John
love, serve, and help others
kingdom of God
eternity
This is a terrible oversimplification, but it illustrates my thinking.
Regarding doctrine, of course I have doctrine. And you do too. I am not against doctrine, nor am I against developing it or debating it. I love doing both.
What I am against is churches and individuals using doctrine to condemn and control others. This, I think, is a misuse and abuse of doctrine, and places us and our doctrine in the position of God. If I say that I am right, and everyone who agrees with me is going to heaven, and everyone who disagrees with me is going to hell, I have just placed my interpretation of Scripture above Scripture itself, and placed myself in the role of God as the judge over all humanity.
We can and should debate theology and doctrine, but we must never think that we are the infallible interpreters of Scripture and determiners of people’s destiny, and should also remember that doctrine, as important as it is, becomes evil when debates and discussions about theology keep us from living out the loving gospel in tangible ways to a hurting and dying world.
I really appreciate you clarifying in this post your position on doctrinal statements. (finally back to check comments on this post – gone for a few days)
From this previous post, I felt you were against them
[So in general, doctrinal statements lead people to think that if they just believe the right things, and sign on the dotted line, then they can live any way they want. In such a way, doctrinal statements have gutted the gospel of any real importance or significance in our lives.]
but in this post, you say they are ok are good and have a place.. if you have one then, I assume you would agree they are good
[Regarding doctrine, of course I have doctrine. And you do too. I am not against doctrine, nor am I against developing it or debating it. I love doing both.]
How can anyone disagree with this follow up statement of yours?
[What I am against is churches and individuals using doctrine to condemn and control others. This, I think, is a misuse and abuse of doctrine, and places us and our doctrine in the position of God.]
So I can conclude then –
doctrine is good but people misusing doctrine to control others is wrong.
You would agree then that the problem is not with the doctrine but with people who are not being “imitators of God” in how they are using what they believe? Ephesians 5:1
Part of the problem with the way I am writing “Close Your Church for Good” is that these individual blog posts don’t carry the full argument and train of thought the way a chapter in a book does.
I hope that if/when the book comes out, my point will be more clear – Doctrinal Statements are good when used in their proper place, but just as with anything, they can be very dangerous if used improperly.
Good post, Jeremy!
It is so easy to focus on doctrine, like we have to get it exactly right, and forget that believing in Jesus includes trying to live a life like Jesus modeled, which includes loving others, mercy, justice, helping the poor and so on.
Jesus actually says that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. Loosely paraphrased, Jesus is saying that if we believe Him, including His claims to be the Son of God, we will live as He’s telling us to live. If we choose not to live that way, we’re making a pretty clear statement that we don’t believe Him. The idea that only some of Jesus’ followers are “called” to keep His commandments is absurd.
Lots of doctrine by itself is worthless. It may get us a job as a preacher or theology professor, but it doesn’t get us into the Kingdom of God. Loving Jesus and believing Jesus, which includes loving others and trying to do what Jesus says, on the other hand, indicate that we are indeed citizens of the Kingdom.
Yes, living as citizens of the kingdom is done by living and loving like Jesus. Doctrine alone doesn’t cut it.
Jeremy, I have an observation about this post and your website in general. I really enjoy reading it. Sometimes I learn, and at times I see you learning. It just depends on the topic. Everybody’s journey is different, but strangely the same.
This post and your posts overall makes we want to make a prediction, because I am on a very similar road myself.
You will soon be entering phase 3, or barely in it now. I will use baptism as an example.
I define Phase One as the learning stage, where it all looks the same, because you are novice. This could be for any discipline, theology, martial arts (is where I got this from), cooking, etc. Sprinkling, pouring, immersion, what’s the difference?
Phase 2 is the time that you learn tons of tedious information and things that once looked the same are now viewed as vastly different, with each nuance becoming at times a whole new category of learning. When someone asks how they should be baptized you reply, “Which baptism, water, Spirit, Fire, etc?”
Phase 3 is when you realize that all the stuff you learned is pretty much the same. Baptism means immersion, so one is totally engulfed, totally , totally under, but by what?
What I am trying to say is, the journey of pushing the boundaries enables us to grow but we will eventually return to a place where we start to see things through the eyes of the phase 1 person and must be able to relate to them.
“Before I learned martial arts, a punch was just a punch and a kick was just a kick. When I studied martial arts, a punch was no longer just a punch and a kick was no longer just a kick. Now I understand martial arts, and a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.” Bruce Lee
That’s interesting. You could be right.
Or I could fall off the deep end, and find myself in Phase 0 where I realize that there is no spoon.
I am joking somewhat…but I’m reading a book right now (I will write a post about it later this week) which is digging a huge hole underneath most of what I have always believed about the Bible. It’s very troubling.
Just wanted to bring this up because after many years of really pushing the conventions of the church, some of it seems to be okay again.
To put it another way, you will probably end up someday agreeing more with dad than you do now!
Maybe I am tiring and giving in too quickly myself?
I can easily see myself back in a church setting. But I feel that there is no way I could pastor a church right now with some of the questions and issues that I currently have. So you may be right…
Just got done dressing up, preaching a sermon, etc. Tomorrow is going to be “Light Night” were we hand out balloons, candy, etc to the community while the little pagans trick or treat.
I have a feeling that will feel more like the church and living the gospel than what we did today.
But there is something to be said for this core group that just keeps coming, non stop to here more sermons. Yes, I believe the growth is incremental (or at times probably none at all) but this institutional form of church does anchor the gospel in the community, strangely enough.
I’m going to be one of those little pagans tomorrow. We are going with some friends of ours who grew up in the church, but now hate it. We have had several good conversations this past year.
You are right about the Institutional church being a way to form some community. Some of the best friends I have ever had were formed in an institutional church setting.