Original Post
The Gospel Isn’t Offensive, We Are

Series
1. Introduction
2. Creation
3. Rebellion
4. Rescue
5. Re-Creation

This little series is about wondering about the Jesus we are showing to and the message we are telling the world. I guess in large ways, I feel the 21st century Church is not doing a very good job of doing either. And it isn’t necessarily about the Church simply failing at doing something well, but more about our modern expression of Jesus and His good news being down right incomplete and inadequate. And I guess I also think both the showing and the telling just plain miss the mark. No, actually it isn’t about the arrows falling short of a target…we’re aiming the bow in an entirely different directions!

I hope to add a bit to the already large conversation happening within the emerging church and missional conversation on what is the gospel and how can we see what this gospel is through the life and teachings of Jesus. And I contend that the life we see and teachings we hear point to an unoffensive gospel, good news that is wholesome, healing, and attractive rather than unhelpful, unhealing, and repulsive.

So what are we to make of this unoffensive gospel of Jesus? Where do we begin?

Well, if you are like most evangelicals, you begin with Sin and the Fall through Genesis 3 or escaping the Fall and this Fall-marked world by going to Heaven. Have you ever noticed this? One of the most well known tools for sharing the gospel begins with Sin: Romans Road begins at Romans 3:23 and emphasizes our screwed-up-ness. Another well known method is Evangelism Explosion, which starts with Heaven as the point to the gospel: the first 2 questions ask if a person knows for sure if they will go to Heaven when they die and then what they will say to God in Heaven when he asks them why they should be allowed to enter; the rest of the ‘presentation’ begins with Heaven being a free gift that isn’t earned or deserved.

On the one hand the world is so screwed-up that we better be sure were not going to go to a MORE screwed-up place (Hell). On the other hand we are so screwed-up and in need of help that we do not even realize our screwed-upness and need for redemption apart from God, if we are lucky enough to be among the ‘chosen.’ These understandings and articulations of Jesus’ gospel either begin with Sin or Heaven. But do people need to really be told they sin? Do people really not realize they do things which they should not do, that the way they live is not the way it’s suppose to be? Furthermore, are people really wondering where they are going to go when they die? Are they really concerned about some magical world in outer space down the road, or do they instead long to figure-out their life right now? Usually, both of these beginnings transforms Jesus’ good news into a message that’s either drained of love and compassion or completely unappealing. That’s too bad.

While I do believe in eternity and appreciate the concern that individuals understand that they sin in relation to a Holy God, this is where I depart: I do not believe Humans are so screwed up that they do not realize things are not the way they are suppose to be. If Eternity is grafted into the very being of all Humans by the very fact they are crafted after God, wouldn’t it make sense that they would inherently know that there is an Other that is beyond them, a Story that is bigger than them, and another world just waiting–no NEEDING–to burst forth through the seams of this good, but terribly screwed-up one?

People who believe the Human Story starts with Genesis 3 would say no. They can’t. If our story starts with the “Fall” and our screwed-upness, then humans are fundamentally sinful and cannot possibly want or demand or desire anything else but Sin and any other Way but the Rhythm of this World.

But if the Human Story begins in Genesis 2, then its, well, a whole other story! In that story Humans were created good. They were creatures crafted after their Creator and were by nature Eikons, image bearers of the Divine. Genesis 2 paints the picture of how the Human Story began, what that Story is fundamentally, and where God wants to return the Human Story. And if the Human Story begins with Genesis 2, then Humans are not fundamentally sinful nor are we fundamentally sinners. Instead, we are fundamentally Eikons; fundamentally we are Beings that do and are called to reflect and bear the reflection and image of God.

Now to be sure, the Scriptures clearly articulate that humans sin, that they choose they Way of Self over against the Way of God. All Humans are born with the capacity and desire to do sinful things, obviously any front page of the newspaper will attest to this. But humans are also cracked Eikons, meaning they are broken and in need of restoration. They also exist in a world that is controlled by deep magic, a magic that dulls the senses to fully understanding God and His Reality. Jesus said this when He revealed that humans hearts are blinded by the darkness of this world.

So while Humans do things that are sinful, Humans are also affected by the deep magic of the world.

But you ask, “what the heck does any of this have to do with the offensiveness or unoffensiveness of the gospel?!?”

I wont finish the argument in this post, but this is how I see it: the unoffensive gospel of Jesus begins with what God is taking all of Creation back to: Creation; Human nature is not fundamentally sinful, instead we should understand Humans as Eikons that are cracked an in need of reconciliation; and reconciliation means to restore something to the way it was originally intended to be at…the beginning.

And here we come full circle: If Humans were crafted after God as Eikons, then they bear a (albeit faded) reflection of Him. If they bear that (faded) reflection then they deep down know God exists, they know there is a Story bigger than theirs, and a Rhythm that they should step into. While sin distorts all three, God through redemption in Jesus desires to restore all humans to the way they were intended to be at the beginning of Creation: Eikons in complete Shalom (wholeness) that exist in an eternal relationship with God and properly relate to themselves, others, and the world.

What a completely different beginning! Rather than Humans being f-cked (sorry, but that’s the way it usually is portrayed!), God wants to restore all people to the way they were intended to be. There IS a better way of being Human. The way Humans are was not intended, and there is hope. We can be made clean. Wholeness and restoration and Life IS possible because God deep down wants to bring all individuals back to how they were before Rebellion.

Furthermore, throughout the entire ministry of Jesus you see a Man who spent 3 years wading through the cracked stories of Eikons and declaring the “kingdom has invaded your story” through deliberate acts of restoration: the Samaritan woman’s social and human dignity was restored; the blind man’s eyes were restored to how they were created to function; a demon possessed boy found spiritual and physical restoration; the dignity and spiritual worth of those outside religious borders ( “sinners” as the Teachers of the Law would say) were restored as possible participants in relationship with God; the list goes on and on. For three years Jesus restored people to they way they were intended to be as Eikons in relationship with the created order and in relationship with the Creator. For three years Jesus proclaimed the dawn of God’s re-creative movement to bring the whole created order back to Creation, especially cracked Eikons.

And folks, this is where we must BEGIN. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that we have been given the ministry of restoration, we are called to partner with God’s movement to restore Eikons to the way they were intended to be at Creation, NOT get sinners to heaven.

The unoffensive gospel of Jesus begins with Creation, not Sin or Heaven.

Alright, but if Humans are not the way they were intended to be at Creation, if all of us are not the way we are suppose to be, how are we to understand our nature? We’ve sinned and do sin, Jeremy, there’s no way around that, is there?

Yes and no 🙂 While sin and sinning is a part of the human condition, and is described so in God’s Sacred Text to Humans, I believe we need to reunderstand the Sin concept to be Rebellion: Eikons Rebelled against God and His Rhythm and still Rebel against both.

I think this notion of Rebellion is much more proper, because it places the idea of Sin and Sinning squarely in it’s relational reality, rather than simply a legal one. The unoffensive understanding of the gospel of Jesus recognizes Sin as relational rejection, rather than violating a code of conduct. The next post will explore the relational nature of Sin and center on two key words: Dance and Rhythm.