King Jesus Gospel The HB [Hardcover]

Some books just give words to those ideas that have been floating around in your brain and suddenly you have a way to express what you were not previously able to express. The King Jesus Gospel is one of those books.

Over the past months, I have been struggling through understanding scripture and the church and the gospel and how it all relates. Of course, not all of my questions are answered and of course, I am not sure about all of McKnight's answers, but his basic thesis, that we need to re-orient the way we talk about the gospel I am convinced is one of the most important messages I have heard.

Early in the book McKnight summarized his thesis (which he does a number of times throughout the book).

"Perhaps the most important thing I can say about what this book will argue boils down to these points:

A salvation culture and a gospel culture are not the same.
In thinking our salvation culture is identical to a gospel culture, we betray a profound lack of awareness of what gospel means and what a gospel culture might mean for our world today.
We are in need of going back to the Bible to discover the gospel culture all over again and making that gospel culture the center of the church."

McKnight is quite provocative in this book. He clearly knows what he is trying to say, but he also knows that he will likely be misunderstood, and bends over backward to try and clarify to minimize any confusion. Frankly, my main complaint is probably that he spends too much time refocusing, repeating his point and clarifying that he is in complete support of personal salvation. The repetition is probably important to maintain the antagonistic reader, but for friendly reader it can be a bit draining. As draining as the repetition can be, the fact that he is trying to keep the reader on board is very important. So I want to give McKnight a pass on the repetition.

I am not going to draw out McKnight's argument. He makes it carefully and over 176 pages, but I will quote one of his definitions of the gospel (he defines it several times in several different ways, but this seems to be the most complete to me.)

"...the gospel is, first of all, framed by Israel's Story: the narration of the saving Story of Jesus -- his life, his death, his resurrection, his exaltation, and his coming again -- as the completion of the Story of Israel. Second, the gospel centers on the lordship of Jesus. In ways that anticipate the Nicene Creed, the gospel of Peter and Paul is anchored in an exalted view of Jesus. Jesus is seen as suffering, saving, ruling, and judging because he is the Messiah and the Lord and the Davidic Savior. He is now exalted at the right hand of God. Third, gospeling involves summoning people to respond. Apostolic gospeling is incomplete until it lovingly but firmly summons those who hear the gospel to repentance, to faith in Jesus Christ, and to baptism. Fourth, the gospel saves and redeems. The apostolic gospel promises forgiveness, the gift of God's Holy Spirit, and justification."

McKnight in no ways is minimizing the need for salvation as an individual. Christ came so that we could be saved, personally, from our sin. McKnight's point is that the gospel message is not about personal salvation (although salvation is important), the gospel message is about the Lordship of Christ and Christ's fulfillment of the story of Israel.

Personally, the implications of this book are important. One, focusing on the Lordship of Christ clarifies the evangelism/social gospel problem that has been around for the last 150 years. Two, it completely redefines Baptism and Eucharist for me. I have strongly felt that we Evangelicals are not giving adequate due to the power of the sacraments. McKnight spends some time talking about Baptism as submission to Christ as Lord (joining into Christ kingdom and the body-the church). Even more important for me is that the Eucharist is even more emphasized because regardless of what you think theologically about the eucharist, all views can see that it is about participating in the body of Christ (universal) and that it is a physical ways of seeing that we are empowered to live out the kingdom. Third, McKnight's approach gives meaning to focusing more on discipleship as a process than on evangelism as an event. I have focused on this for a while, but this really inspires me to continue. Fourth, and maybe most importantly, this again gives even more amunition to the idea that we as Evangelicals need to be spending more time reading scripture, reading it completely, reading it as a complete story, and absorbing it in a way that the Holy Spirit can really use it to change us.

I have to admit I was primed to read this book. I have been talking about some of the themes for months now. So you might not be as enthused about it as I am. But I do think that the central message, that the church should be about the gospel, that the gospel is primarily about the Lordship of Christ and Christ's completion of the story of Israel and that as important as personal salvation is, it should never be placed before the central place of Christ.

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An ebook was provided by the publisher through Netgalley for purposes of review. This review was written for my blog Bookwi.se

Scot McKnight likes to stir the pot. I appreciate his willingness to say hard things with good reasons for saying those hard things. He has recently published The King Jesus Gospel in order to address a central issue for Evangelicals: the gospel. He wants to contend that "we evangelicals (as a whole) are not really "evangelical' in the sense of the apostolic gospel, but instead we are soterians...we evangelicals (mistakenly) equate the word gospel with the word salvation" (29). He wants to argue that the gospel is more than a plan of salvation.

The problem with a myopic, soterian church culture is that it creates "The Decided" (McKnight's term) rather than "The Discipled". This is not a problem of church programs or structures, it's an inherent problem with a soterian culture (30-31).

After laying the groundwork McKnight moves on to consider how the gospel moved from the message of God's meta-narrative (story of all stories) to a plea for a decision. He contends that evangelical soterians have proclaim the plan of salvation divorced from the story of God. This results in an immature and declining church. He then focuses on the gospel message as contained in the gospels and in Peter's epistles. Finally, he considers how his emphasis on the narrative of the gospel affects evangelism and ways to return to a gospel culture from our soterian culture.

There are many parts of McKnight's book with which I wholeheartedly agree. Yet, there were as many others with which I disagreed or had concerns.

Areas of Disagreement

First, much of McKnight's argument felt like boxing a ghost.. Having been raised an evangelical, attended an evangelical Bible college and now attending an evangelical seminary, I am well acquainted with our strengths and weaknesses. I understood many of the concerns he expressed. But, I still felt his argument was weak because he didn't (couldn't?) engage contemporary evangelicals embodying this soterian gospel. His soterians are ambiguous. It's easier to argue against someone who doesn't exist.

Second, it seemed obvious to me that McKnight was attempting to expose the remnants of Evangelicals' Fundamentalist-Revivalist heritage. Like it or not, Evangelicalism emerged in the 1940's-50's out of disagreement and discontent with the focus and emphasis of previous generations of fundamentalism. It is from the Charles Finney's and D.L. Moody's that we have a decision-based Christianity. Focusing on this heritage would have provided clarity and identity to his argument.

Third, in his chapter titled "Gospeling Today" McKnight attempts to demonstrate "King Jesus Gospel" evangelism. His focus is on the book of Acts and the preaching of the Apostles. McKnight is correct in identifying the emphasis upon the story of Israel and its consummation in Christ. But, that preaching occurs in the context of Jews. If he could demonstrate that apostolic preaching to gentiles was consistently and prominently Israel-focused his argument would carry weight. But, he can't. The classic example of "Gospeling" to a gentile audience is in Acts 17. Paul does not emphasize the story of Israel. He begins with their own metanarrative and brings the story of Yahweh into it. It is not in Zeus that we live, move and have our being, but Yahweh.

The previous three points are points of contention. They are areas of his argument which I found weak. If they were addressed, his thesis would be much more compelling. My above critiques should not be taken as a dismissal of his entire book. I believe that there is much McKnight gets right. But, I think there's just as much he gets wrong.

Areas of Agreement

First, I think the heart of McKnight's book is correct. Evangelicals have overemphasized the decision and failed in the discipling. It is a good and noble desire to see people repent of sin and confess faith in Christ. But, that's not the end it's just the beginning. Contrary to McKnight, I don't believe that we've gotten the gospel wrong. I just believe that we have failed to emphasize the call to discipleship that Jesus gives to any and all who would follow him.

Second, The story of Israel is absolutely essential to understanding the person and work of Jesus. However, in a biblically illiterate, post-Christian world, how many people will even know (let alone understand) a reference to Abraham, Moses or Elijah? Once again, the problem is not in the gospel Evangelicals have preached but in their failure to promote, push and provide discipleship for the people in their church.

Conclusion

We have a discipleship crisis in the church today. I disagree with Scot McKnight's proposal in it's specifics. But, generally I agree with the idea promoted in The King Jesus Gospel. We need to move away from the revivalist remnant of our fundamentalist heritage and actually disciple our people. This is a top-down requirement. It's not the work of pastors alone. It's the work of all people. He is right to call this book the King Jesus Gospel. Christians need to remember that Jesus was not merely a means to a decision. He is the true King. Declaring Jesus to be Lord was an act of treason and sedition in the apostles' day. Let's not forget that when Jesus calls us "he bids us come and die".

Every time I read a new book by Scot McKnight, my wife tells me I say the same thing, "I think this is the most important book he's written." After finishing his newest book, "The King Jesus Gospel", I really believe that to be true for this book.

His argument is essentially that we've replaced the Biblical Gospel with instead a Plan of Salvation, and while the Gospel will indeed lead to salvation, it is far bigger than just that. McKnight defines the Gospel this way, "It is the Story of Israel that comes to completion in the saving Story of Jesus, who is Messiah of Israel, Lord over all, and the Davidic Savior."

For the past few years, I have tried to understand how the methodology of the church has created a culture of consumerism and shallowness. What Scot does with this book is develops theologically how we have gotten to that place - simply by replacing the Gospel with the Plan of Salvation.

This is the first theological book in a long time that I've had a hard time putting down. I found myself reading passages out loud to Allison regularly, scribbling notes and at times just wanting to shout, "yes" as I was reading it. I'd be willing to say that anyone who teaches or preaches the Bible regularly needs to read it. It's that important.

Here's a few of the quotes I underlined:

"Most of evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles, however, were obsessed with making disciples"

"...the gospel itself, strictly speaking, is the narrative proclamation of King Jesus"

"...in those early apostolic sermons, we see the whole life of Jesus. In fact, if they gave an emphasis to one dimension of the life of Jesus, it was the resurrection. The apostolic gospel could not have been signified or sketched with a crucifix. That gospel wanted expression as an empty cross because of the empty tomb."

"The gospeling of the apostles in the book of Acts is bold declaration that leads to a summons while much of evangelism today is crafty persuasion."

"When we reduce the gospel to only personal salvation, as soterians are tempted to do, we tear the fabric out of the Story of the Bible and we cease even needing the Bible"