"Doing the Gospel"
A Discussion
The discussion begins here: Chuck Colson's The Faith Blog Tour - Rebecca Writes - Rebecca Writes
Rebecca wrote to Chuck Colson:
On page 117 you write this: “True faith means putting the cause of Christ and the needs of others ahead of self and doing the gospel.” Can you explain what you mean by the phrase “doing the gospel”? What is included in doing the gospel?
Colson didn't understand the question. Rebecca responded anyway. I submitted some comments on her blog in response to her comment on Chuck Colson's answer (see link above).
Here are further comments (right-hand column) to her original comments (left-hand column):
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[Colson] seems to be saying that making the cause of Christ and the needs of others primary in importance is in some way “doing the gospel.” |
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You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I’m not very fond of the phrase “doing the gospel.” I think it conveys a view of the gospel that is, at the very least, focused on things that are not at the center of the gospel. It gives the idea that the gospel is a set of ethical teachings or commandments—in this case, the two great commandments—and that is an idea that quite misses the mark, actually, when it comes to conveying what is the good news we call the gospel. |
I like the phrase "doing the Gospel." I don't like the phrase "believe the gospel" when the word "believe" is hermetically separated from every aspect of "doing," "repenting," or "obeying."
(Why only the two commandments?) |
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The gospel is the historical truth of what Christ did for sinners in accordance with God’s saving plan. It is news—good news. People can preach and teach the gospel; they can believe, receive, and confess the gospel; they can advance the cause of the gospel. |
It seems to me that the vast majority of occurrences of the word "gospel" are not historical, but forward-looking, and call for obedience, not mere assent to a historical proposition. |
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But can they “do the gospel”? If by that someone means that the gospel—the good news—proclaimed and confessed, transforms lives, so that those whose lives are changed by the truth of the gospel live in a way that puts the cause of Christ and the needs of others ahead of their own selfish interests, then I’m prepared to give a pass to the use of the phrase. I’d argue that the phrase itself, however, used without careful definition, is much more likely to lead to a distorted view of the gospel than it is to enlighten us about the gospel or advance the cause of the gospel. |
It is a historical fact that Jesus died for the elect. That fact, by itself, changes no one. Hearing that Jesus died for the elect, by itself, does not change the hearer. Sincerely believing that "Jesus died for me" does not, by itself, change the hearer/believer.
The hearer must be transformed (regenerated, born again) by the power of the Holy Spirit from a disobedient hearer into a doer -- an obedient hearer. Romans 2:13 James 1:21-26 The good news of the Bible is that the Spirit transforms people from rebels into servants, and as more and more people are transformed, culture will be transformed. |
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Having read all of The Faith, I will say that I do believe that Charles Colson, personally, has this more fully orbed view of the gospel that I outlined in the paragraph above. But I wonder if statements like the one I quoted and the phrase “doing the gospel” might not cause some readers to understand the gospel as merely duty or religiousity, and not something propositional that rightly taught, understood, and believed, changes people from the inside and works outward from there. |
There is no such thing as "merely duty," and no fair reading of Colson could lead to the conclusion that Colson endorses or promotes "religiosity." |
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What say you all? |
Rebecca quotes my comments in italics in the column below, followed by Rebecca's response, and my next-round response to Rebecca is in the right-hand column
| Justification by Belief" is a misunderstanding of the Christian message, and that "doing the Gospel" is more Biblical. The problem with this is that "doing the gospel" is a phrase that is never used in scripture. The phrase "obey the gospel" is indeed a biblical one, but look at the three passages that actually use the phrase "obey the gospel." Contextually, "obey the gospel" is used synonymously with "believing our testimony" or "believing what is heard from us." In other words, if we use the phrase as it is used biblically, the gospel is propositional. It contains information that can be testified to, or told to someone, and heard from someone. Obeying the gospel is believing the propositions testified to or told to us. |
"Trinity" is a phrase that is never used in Scripture. I think it's Biblical nonetheless. Is there any way to measure or define "believe" apart from "doing" and "obeying?" The gospel is a proposition, and therefore not an imperative? "Obeying" the gospel is only believing? "The devils believe" -- James 2 |
| Hebrews 11, often called "The Faith Chapter," turns out on closer inspection to be "the doing chapter," or "the obedience chapter." Hebrews 11:8 | |
| Hebrews 11 is off-topic. Hebrews 11 isn't specifically defining the gospel. And I'm not arguing that true faith doesn't lead to obedience, anyway. | But you are apparently arguing that true faith can exist without (that is, before it has led to) obedience. Hebrews 11 and James 2 both define saving faith as obedience, or as I like to call it, allegiance. |
| I'm simply arguing that the gospel, as the word is used biblically (and why would we want to use it other than how it is used biblically?), is about what God has done in Christ: "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was raised...." That's a historical statement. Those who understand the significance of that historical statement and earnestly trust in the truths contained in it are "obeying the gospel". |
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| That sort of earnest trust in this propositional truth of the gospel—the good news about what Christ has done—always leads to obedient works, since trust in the gospel saves, and being saved is transformative. Believing the gospel transforms lives. | "earnest trust" sounds like "working real hard to believe a whole lot" -- as though our great work of earnest trusting will save us, and becoming saved will in turn (later on) transform us.
I believe we must be transformed ("born again") before we can be saved. |
| But I think it's confusing language (and frankly, a little muddleheaded) to speak of "doing the gospel", since the gospel, as defined biblically, is historical and propositional. "Doing the gospel" makes it sound like the gospel is a set of commands and it isn't. | When men asked Peter, "What must we do to be saved?" they were asking, "What commands must we obey to be saved?" (Acts 2:37; 16:30) This is what those who have been born again always ask (Luke 3:10; Acts 9:6) Peter didn't tell them that their very question was "muddleheaded." He answered them, telling them what they must do: "repent." |
| (Which is not to say there are no commands for us to obey. But those commands are never called the gospel.) | The Bible talks about a "way of salvation" (Acts 16:17), but never a "propositional truth about salvation." |
Rebecca quotes my comments in italics in the column below, followed by Rebecca's response, and my next-round response to Rebecca is in the right-hand column
The word "gospel" in Galatians 3:8 is not historical:
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| What do you mean, it's not historical? | I mean it's not an event that occurred in the past, in history, but a promise about the future (in the space-time continuum. I did not mean it was "a-historical" in some Bultmannian sense.)
In Galatians 3:8, the word "gospel" does not refer to a past event to which mental assent to its historicity must be given. |
| It's the promise of a future historical event and a future historical person. | The gospel in Galatians 3:8 is the promise of future global obedience. |
| Who is the fulfillment of that promise? It's the historical person Jesus. | In some sense it's Christ, true, but in the more direct sense, "the gospel" that was preached to Abraham is the future world of every man dwelling safely under his vine & fig tree (Micah 4:1-5). "The Gospel" preached to Abraham -- and for us -- is a promise of a reformed culture in the future. |
| "In thee all the nations shall be blessed" points forward to a historical event: the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ. | "The Gospel" -- the future period revealed to Abraham when all nations would be "blessed" -- is simply NOT the events that took place in 30-33 AD. It's just not. "The gospel" is the result of those events. It's the world described by Micah (4:1-5). |
| With the death and resurrection of Christ, people of all nations can be Abraham's offspring, heirs of promise, through faith. Same chapter you quoted, keep reading. | This might be said to be the basis of the "good news," but it's not, by itself, the "good news" preached to Abraham in Galatians 3:8. The Gospel in Gal. 3:8 is "the reformation of manners," to quote Wilberforce. |
| God preached the gospel to Abraham and as a result, Abraham looked forward to a historical event: Abraham "saw Christ's day and was glad." | After hearing the preaching of the gospel, Abraham looked forward to "all nations being blessed," since that's the content of what the text in Galatians says the Scripture preached to Abraham. Galatians 3:8 does not say Abraham looked forward to the historical events of Christ's life on earth (as necessary as those events were to the gospel which was preached to Abraham). |
| "Blessing" -- as Abraham knew very well -- comes as a result of obedience (Deut. 28, Lev 26, etc.). | |
| But we're defining the gospel. How do those passages help define the gospel? | The Gospel in Galatians 3:8 is "all nations blessed." What is "blessing" and how does it happen? Answer: "doing." Not just "believing." The "Good News" -- the gospel -- is an obedient planet, blessed by God for obeying. |
| The Gospel is the good news that God will make the whole world obedient (Ezekiel 36:25-27; Jeremiah 31:31-34, quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12) | |
| Once again, none of those passages speak directly to the definition of the gospel. | They speak to "the Gospel" as defined in Galatians 3:8 as "all nations blessed." |
| Those passages are speaking of the coming of the New Covenant, and the New Covenant to which they refer was instituted by the historical death and resurrection of Christ and comes to those who are united with Christ by faith. The obedience of those under the New Covenant comes because of God's inner work: He gives new hearts and puts his Spirit within them and in that way causes them to be obedient. But nowhere is this obedience called "the gospel." (Read the whole of the passages you've given and on into Hebews 9 and 10.) |
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| "Doing the Gospel" means obeying God's Commandments, so that God's blessings can be poured out. | |
| What you've done with this statement is prove the original posts point about the phrase "doing the gospel": it gives the impression that the gospel is a set of commandments. | More specifically, the gospel is a set of God's Commandments. Nothing could be clearer than that God's Commandments bring blessing, mending the torn fabric of life. The Gospel -- the "good news" preached to Abraham -- is a world of obedience to God's Commandments and the blessing and life that follows. |
| I doubt that Chuck Colson believes that the gospel is a set of commandments to be obeyed, and therefore, it was probably an unwise choice of wording since there are indeed people (you, for one) who believe the gospel is a set of commandments, and who might misinterpret him. | I can't speak for Chuck Colson. |
| And, btw, can you find me one place where scripture equates the gospel with a set of commandments (except, of course, the command to repent and believe)? | The command to repent is, of course, a command to obey all of God's Commandments.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;" I'm not saying that "gospel" consists of a "set of commandments," I'm saying that the gospel is a message about God's Commandments, and our relationship to them. |
| "Believing the Gospel," that is, giving mental assent to a proposition about history, truncates the Biblical Gospel and short-circuits its fulfillment. | |
| Who defined believing the gospel as "giving mental assent to a proposition about history"? Certainly not me. I'd define believing the gospel as wholehearted trust in Christ and his work. |
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| "Easy believism" has given rise to the cultural evils Chuck Colson writes about so passionately. | |
| Who said anything about easy-believism? Certainly not me. Are you reading what I've written? | Yes, of course; and I'm writing what you're arguing against. |
| Faith in Christ and his work (to repeat what I've already written) is transformative. Believing the gospel results in transformed lives. No transformed life, no assurance of true faith in Christ and his work; no transformed life, no assurance of true belief in the gospel. | According to Galatians 3:8, "the gospel" is the "good news" of a transformed world. How can a person truly be said to believe in transformation without "doing" anything about that -- without "doing the gospel?" |
| I'm curious as to why you're working so hard to justify a phrase (doing the gospel) that is never used in scripture? | Same reason I work hard to justify the word "Trinity": the concept is in the Bible. |
| That the gospel is proclaimed, preached, believed, heard, testified to, seen, confessed, distorted, defended, confirmed, declared shows us that the gospel has cognitive content. | The Gospel in Galatians 3:8 certainly has cognitive content; I wouldn't deny that. What is the content, and is it in the imperative mood? |
| The gospel is never said to be "done". It is said to be obeyed, but "obeying the gospel" is defined for us as "believing our testimony" or "believing what is heard from us", which simply reaffirms the cognitive nature of the gospel. | The gospel is never said not to be done, obeyed, acted upon, etc.
By affirming the particle-nature of light, I do not deny the wave-nature of light. I don't deny the cognitive nature of the gospel, but you seem to be denying the imperative nature of the gospel. You seem to reduce "obey the gospel" to "cognitively assent to the gospel." Preaching the gospel creates "disciples" (Acts 14:21), which is more than one who affirms a proposition, like a "student" checks "B" on a multiple choice test, but more like an "apprentice" who is busy doing the work of the Master. Just as often as Jesus said "believe on Me" He said "follow Me" (Matthew 19:21; Mark 8:34; 10:21; John 10:27; 12:26), thus indicating that those who do not follow with their feet do not really "believe" cognitively. |
| If you want to speak about "obeying God's commands" why not just use that phrase instead of using one that is never used in scripture? | cf. argument re: "Trinity" |
Rebecca quotes my comments in italics in the column below, followed by Rebecca's response, and my next-round response to Rebecca is in the right-hand column
| If you put too many links in your comment, it automatically goes to comment moderation, and it seems that that's what happened with your comment. | I have no complaints about that. |
| You seem to reduce "obey the gospel" to "cognitively assent to the gospel." | |
| Nope, because I don't reduce belief to mental assent. It's that and more. It's receiving the gospel, standing in the gospel, holding fast to the gospel. | You're disputing my claim that we have to "do" or "obey" the gospel in the sense that James says we're "justified by works" (James 2). It's obvious to nearly everyone that a person who only "cognitively assents" to the gospel without repenting of sin and committing himself wholeheartedly to obediently "doing the gospel" is not truly saved. You evade this charge by saying you're defending more than mental assent, namely, "receiving," "standing," and "holding fast," all of which are difficult for me to distinguish from "believing," or mere mental assent. |
| But I do define the phrase "obeying the gospel" as it is used scripturally. I do that by looking at the context in which that phrase is used. And it's used synonymously with "believing testimony" or "believing what is heard." | See? For you, "obeying" is a synonym for "believing." That's my point.
In 1 Peter 4, those who do not "obey the gospel" are those who persecute Christians. If a persecutor of Christians stops and says, "I believe Christ died for me as a substitutionary atonement, and I'm receiving, standing, and holding fast to His imputed righteousness as the sole ground of my justification," and then proceeds to continue torturing a believer, is he "doing the gospel," "obeying the gospel," or just plain justified? I don't think so. |
| Preaching the gospel creates "disciples" (Acts 14:21) | |
| Yes, because as I keep repeating, the gospel transforms lives. God is saving people through the gospel! And by saving people, I don't just mean that he's giving them a pass into heaven. I mean that he forgives their sins, declares them righteous, and by the Spirit begins to make them more and more righteous. Belief in the gospel unites us to Christ and through that union with Christ we are transformed. | What if a person refuses to become "more and more righteous?" Is he saved? Can I say to him, "Hey pal, you're not saved if you're just believing the gospel, you gotta be doing the gospel!"? |
| which is more than one who affirms a proposition, like a "student" checks "B" on a multiple choice test | |
| As I keep repeating, belief is not only affirming a proposition. It is not checking a letter on a multiple choice test. It's whole-hearted trust; it's receiving, it's standing, it's holding fast. And the answer on a multiple choice test is not a person and a work with power to save by transforming lives. | "It's not just believing the gospel, it's believing the gospel with your whole heart!"
I think "whole-hearted trust" is inadequate; you have to be "doing the gospel." |
| but more like an "apprentice" who is busy doing the work of the Master. | |
| I agree wholeheartedly that those who are being transformed by the gospel do the work of the Master. But show me, please, where the gospel is defined as or equated with doing the works of the Master. | How about places where the Gospel is equated with doing the works of the King? (Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; Matthew 24:14; Mark 1:14; Mark 1:15). The "good news" -- the gospel -- is that the King reigns, and blesses the obedience of His subjects (Galatians 3:8). When the Bible says the gospel is "preached to the poor," I think that implies a "doing of the gospel" to the poor (the context is healing and active service, not simply communicating propositions). What else could explain why "the poor" need the gospel? |
| Just as often as Jesus said "believe on Me" He said "follow Me" (Matthew 19:21; Mark 8:34; 10:21; John 10:27; 12:26), thus indicating that those who do not follow with their feet do not really "believe" cognitively. | |
| I agree that those who believe will become disciples (or follow with their feet.) But this still tells us nothing about the content of the gospel, and whether, given the correct content, it's possible to "do the gospel."
What is the content of the gospel? When Paul, for instance, preached the gospel, what did he preach? |
The content of the gospel -- the good news preached by Paul -- is world-wide blessing (Galatians 3:8). It's a gospel of the Kingdom, where we obediently submit to the King. If God blesses those who obey and curses those who disobey, then the "good news" -- the gospel -- is a gospel of doing obedience. This promise "made to the fathers" is the content of the "gospel" (Acts 13:32). The content of the gospel preached in Hebrews 4:2,6 was not "believed" because it was not acted upon. "And to whom did He swear
that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?" (Heb 3:18).
The content of the gospel may be inferred from its opposite. 1 Timothy 1:5-11 lists things that are not "according to the gospel": lawlessness, disobedience, ungodliness, profanity, murder, for manslaughter, whoremongering, defiling themselves with mankind, kidnapping, lying, etc. Those who do these things have denied the gospel, and even if they are "believing, receiving, standing, and holding fast" a cognitive proposition that they are saved, they will be turned away. |
| This is why I harmonize "justification by faith" ("believing the gospel") and "justification by works" ("doing the gospel") (both taught in the Bible) as... | "Justification by Allegiance." |
| Before you can say you've proven that "doing the gospel" is taught in the Bible, you'd need to answer the questions above about what the content of the gospel is. |
That's not to say there is no other content to the Gospel, but it can't be wrong to speak of this content ("doing the gospel"), because Galatians 3:8 does, as well as phrases like "Gospel of the Kingdom." |
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