Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was a 1989 American science fiction family film produced by Walt Disney Pictdures. It tells the story of an inventor who accidentally shrinks his and his neighbor’s kids to a quarter of an inch with his electromagnetic shrinking machine. It is a whimsical adventure built around the law of unintended consequences.
Today I believe we are experiencing the unintended consequences of “shrinking” the gospel message as evidenced by the disparity between the normal Christian life presented in the New Testament and what is being demonstrated in our culture today. Polls consistently reflect that a high percentage of Americans self-claim to be “born again”, but they show little statistical difference in values, morals, and behavior from those who don’t. This embarrassing contradiction has been true for so long that it is accepted as the new normal.
One cause is certainly the lack of spiritual training and discipleship, but I wonder if there is not a more systemic issue. I wonder if the epidemic of spiritual complacency regarding living a kingdom lifestyle goes back to our concept and presentation of the gospel message.
The term “gospel” simply means “good news”, but good news about what? Gospel is a headline in search of a story (content). There are a lot of gospels out there, but what is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation that requires faith and sets us free to live the eternal kind of life found in his kingdom?
When the New Testament writers use the term gospel they normally follow it with a prepositional phrase that gives it content (a story). The most common one is some variation of “the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.
The book of Romans is the most complete presentation of the gospel in the New Testament. In his introduction to the book, Paul makes the claim that he is an apostle set apart for the gospel. But the gospel of what? To Paul the gospel was not just a headline, it was a message, a story…about Someone.
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…concerning His Son… Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 1:1-3). Paul continues in verse 16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation” (KJV).
In Paul’s opening presentation of the Gospel, he identifies three core aspects of the identity (story) of the Son of God:
Jesus: The incarnate Son of God: a real flesh and blood person in the lineage of David
Christ: The anointed Deliverer: the One to bring redemption to a broken world
The Lord: The final Authority: King, Master, Ruler
The New Testament gospel is the good news about the Son of God who is called Jesus, the Christ, the Lord: the one who has made life in his kingdom accessible. It is about him. It is more than a doctrine, it is his story…the whole story.
The first four books of the New Testament are called “Gospels”, each giving a portrait of the incarnate Son of God. Together they present a composite picture of who he is from before creation to the final judgment.
In his book, Darwin’s Black Box, Michael Behe (biochemical researcher and professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania) introduced the concept he calls “irreducible complexity.” In simple terms, this idea applies to any system of interacting parts in which the removal of any one part destroys the functionality of the entire system. An irreducibly complex system requires each and every component to be in place before it will function. The mouse trap is a simple example of irreducible complexity. The mouse trap has five working parts each of which must be present for the system to work at all. Remove one part and the whole mechanism is inoperable.
So what is the “irreducible complexity” of the gospel? If the gospel is the good news about Jesus, the Son of God, then what about Jesus do we need to present (or believe) for the gospel to be operable? Could it be that in our attempt to make the gospel marketable and simple in a soundbite world, we have actually “shrunk” it beyond its critical complexity, resulting in unintentional consequences?
What about Christ is optional to know, believe, or present? Most of us would quickly react to a “liberal” gospel that presents Jesus as simply a good Teacher. However, what is our response to a gospel that presents him as a good Teacher plus the sacrifice for sin? Is that enough?
The gospel of Christ on the resurrection side of the cross is a composite of all that is true about him from Creator to final Judge. When we shrink the gospel message to a few concepts, however important they are, we create a dichotomy between evangelism and discipleship that was never intended. The result is discipleship becomes an elective and kingdom living an option.
Question for reflection:
How should the current cultural drift from a Judaic/Christian world view affect how we present the gospel of Christ?