King First - Chapter 1 of "Why the Gospel?"
As I wrote last week, I wanted to share some thoughts on the book "Why the Gospel?", as I read through it. Below is a summary of Chapter 1.
The initial chapter of Why the Gospel? confronts the popular belief within the church that the gospel is primarily about Jesus as Saviour. Bates argues in this chapter, laying the foundation for the rest of his book, that the best summary of the gospel is instead Jesus is the Christ.
He addresses the issue that we have become so familiar with hearing Jesus Christ that we tend to miss that Christ is a title meaning King or Messiah. Christ is not his surname. Substituting Messiah, King or even the Christ is offered as a means for us to begin to think differently about how we see Jesus.
The author makes it abundantly clear that in no way is he attempting to negate the importance of trusting in Jesus' death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin as an essential aspect of the gospel.
He does make it clear that if salvation is the primary lens through which we see and understand the gospel, we have minimized it because, again, the gospel is King first.
He raises the same issue I mentioned last week when he wrote, "Any valid explanation of the gospel's content and purposes must be able to explain how and why Jesus announced the gospel prior to his death for sins".
As Jesus himself said, "I must proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God to the other towns also because that is why I was sent" (Luke 4:43).
There is no way to read the gospels and not see that Jesus understood the gospel to be about the coming of God's kingdom...the kingdom in which Jesus himself would be King.
Saved by...
An important point as to how this works itself out practically is when Bates writes that "A person is saved not simply by trusting in Jesus as saviour but by pledging "faith" (allegiance) to the Christ-King".
It struck me when I read that quote about how different discipleship will look when we see ourselves giving our allegiance (ongoing) to a king rather than simply believing that what Jesus did on the cross took care of our salvation issue.
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The big reason I have never written too many book reviews or summaries is that I feel if I have not captured every point and nuance, I've done a disservice. And at that point, you should just read the book anyway (which I’d recommend).
So, I've tried to keep my recap brief and hit only on the central idea. But Bates does a great job in demonstrating that the gospel is not salvation first but king first. This would be a great place to jump in if you'd like to explore the topic.