Why the Gospel? : Living the Good News of King Jesus with Purpose
by Matthew W. Bates, Scot McKnight (Foreword)
After 38 years in sales and marketing, a good friend once told me that whenever he met with customers/clients, he would imagine the words, "So what?" stamped onto their foreheads. This technique allowed him to map his customers’ needs with his product line, resulting in a considerably successful career. In many ways, Why the Gospel? answers the “So What?” question.
Many have undertaken to explain what the gospel is (see my attempt here), but none (to my knowledge) have written on why the gospel is. Building on previous work, Bates addresses this gap with skill and keen insights offering a host of theological and biblical reasons for why God gives us the good news of the Christian faith. Regardless of background or education, readers will come away surprised, informed, and encouraged. There is something here for everyone and I highly commend it to you.
A theme that runs throughout the book is that gospel presentations confuse means with ends. Too often, for example, the focus is only on sin, the cross, forgiveness, or, with any luck, the resurrection and the promise of eternal life. However, events after the resurrection are hardly mentioned. Instead, Bates insists that Jesus’s kingship is the key to bringing all these elements together, if the gospel is to make sense that is. In fact, Bates makes it clear that any gospel message that leaves out Jesus’s Kingship is short sighted. He writes:
“We can't pretend as if the cross and resurrection work in isolation. Their power depends on Jesus’s attainment of full sovereignty. There is no forgiveness for ultimate salvation apart from the establishment and reality of Jesus’s kingship first. It was necessary that Jesus be exalted to God's right hand, his position as the head of new creation — King of kings and High Priest — for the forgiveness of final salvation to issue forth” (p 24, emphasis original).
Chapter 2 outlines “malformed gospels” that have some truth to them but fall short in an important way. When siloed or chunked out of the larger narrative, each malformed gospel presentation is deficient when divorced from the larger biblical storyline. A couple of examples will suffice.
The “stop-striving-and-rest” gospel seeks to free us of the performance trap. No need to earn God’s approval by doing. The main idea here is to “get you to realize that if you truly trust in Jesus, you are accepted for his sake, rather than your achievements, so you can finally relax.” (p 33).
The “reunion-with-god” gospel claims our own righteousness does not matter because we now have Christ’s righteousness credited to our account.
All of these gospels ring true as far as they go but are missing one thing: the message that Jesus is the Christ/King. A truncated gospel misses the mark. Bates instead contends that “the biblical gospel has a specific, narrative shape, a storyline” that includes elements of “incarnation, death for sins, resurrection, enthronement as everlasting King, Spirit–sending, and royal return” (p 36).
A gospel that only advances ideas like “release from hell, attainment of heaven, righteousness, forgiveness, freedom from striving, improvement of society, reunion with God, or an approved salvation procedure” but do not include allegiance to Jesus as King falls short.
Chapter 4 is the “centerpiece” of the entire book (p 73) although I would offer that chapters 3 and 4 play this role. Chapter 3, “Glory’s Two Faces,” outlines what Bates calls the “Glory Cycle,” which explains six distinct stages of glory. Essentially, God is in the business of recovering his glory through humans, who experience a deficit of glory and who need King Jesus to stand in their place and help recover the glory God intended all along. A quick glance at the image below makes this clear (see p 57).
Chapter 4, then, explains how the recovery project is executed through King Jesus as “the paradigm for humanity” (p 75). Going back to confusing means with ends, the focal point of God’s recovery project is the incarnation through Jesus’s royal status.
When considered in isolation, it is easy to treat the cross as if it is exclusively about salvation from guilt, sin, and death. It truly is about those things. But when we follow Scripture’s lead by starting the gospel with the incarnation, we see why the gospel’s framework is royal. The incarnation teaches us that the cross is also for the recovery of glory, since it expresses and leads to perfect human rule. Salvation is not just rescue from negative consequences, but is rescue for restoration to full health. (p 78, author emphases)
Bates does a nice job introducing various atonement theories in this chapter, all of which he finds of some value (as do I). There is so much in this chapter, but I do want to point out one thing that struck me as vital in reference to the penal theory of atonement.
Much of the critique with this theory has to do with God pouring out his wrath on his Son at the cross, which many find problematic (After all, how could God be “just” if he punishes an innocent person!?). Bates challenges this notion by appealing to what Adonis Vidu calls the “inseparable operations of the Trinity” (see his brilliant book here). Basically, Bates makes a strong case by leaning in on a key aspect of trinitarian theology noting that:
The Son, since he is fully God, too, has the exact same standard of justice and love as the Father—as does the Spirit. Because the Father, eternal, Son, and Spirit are all one—and their actions directed toward the created order are ultimately inseparable—on the deepest, theological level, it is not the Father's wrath alone that is justly poured out against human sin, but the eternal Son’s and the Spirit’s wrath, too. The persons of the Trinity work together for our salvation, by allowing Jesus the Son to carry our sins as a substitute. (p 84, emphasis mine)
This has much merit and could easily be teased out further. The main takeaway is that the persons of the Trinity are all in full alignment and fully participate in all that the cross of Christ is and does. All. Therefore, it is hardly the case that God the Father is punishing Jesus unjustly, since the activities of the triune God are inseparable.
The final three chapters outline the practical significance of the glory recovery project and make a strong case for presenting Jesus as King first whenever the gospel story is shared. This is because the saving benefits of the good news can only be imparted and experienced through the One crucified, raised, and ascended as King of kings.
Most importantly, it is allegiance to the King that seals the deal. Forgiveness of sin, eternal life, avoidance of punishment, etc. are all important but secondary. Moved by love, God has begun restoring his glory through renewing ours. Bates connects all the dots at the close of the final chapter:
Why the gospel? Because of his love for all creation, God is rescuing it through the gracious gift of a King. Allegiance to King Jesus results in life now and forever more. When transformed humans forever reign gloriously with the King, then creation, humans, and above all God, are appropriately honored as God intended. (p 172, author emphases)
I recognize these remarks do not begin to do justice to the breadth of this book nor its practical import. Still, Why the Gospel? deserves an extensive read by everyone who calls on the name of Jesus and it would make a great group study! Tolle lege!