A Recommendation and a Question about the Gospel Kerfuffle

I’m old enough to remember when theological tiffs took their time.  Without the benefit (or curse) of social media, Bible nerds like myself had to wait months for a scholar to respond to another scholar via a paper or by way of a panel discussion at a conference.  Oh, but with Twitter the Body of Christ can lob holy hand grenades at will. 

The latest kerfuffle features the Neo-reformed led by pastor Greg Gilbert sparring with scholars Scot McKnight and Matthew Bates over the Biblical definition of the Gospel.  In short, Gilbert primarily defines the good news of Jesus Christ in terms of salvation for the elect while McKnight and Bates emphasize the Lordship of Christ.  Both sides agree that Jesus is Lord and both sides believe that salvation is through Christ alone, so the argument comes down to what is at the center of the Gospel and what is a product of it.  

I admire all of these men as well as those who have weighed in such as Michael Bird (who sides with McKnight and Bates).  I have read McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel (in fact, I picked it as my favorite book of 2012 on my old blog) and I have read Gilbert’s What is the Gospel? I recommend both.  I have also recently ordered Matthew Bates’ work Salvation by Allegiance Alone and will review later. 

I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet and I work for non-profit, but I humbly would encourage those following this back and forth to keep a few things in mind: (1) Does the New Testament use diverse ways to speak about the Gospel? If so, have both sides minimized it? (2) Practically, if McKnight and Bates (as well as Bird, N.T. Wright, etc.) are correct, how do you share the Gospel? What would a Gospel presentation from these gents look like? Is it possible to encapsulate it into something as short as an elevator speech?  

I’m typically snarky but I don’t mean this to be, I’m deadly serious when I ask (and it is an authentic question…see how social media has mades us all have to qualify everything!!!), what would a Gospel presentation by McKnight or Bates to a person interested in the faith look like? Especially if that person has little or no background in the grand narrative of the Scriptures? Heck, I’ve had to explain to people what the numbers mean in their first Bible.  

I plan on re-reading The King Jesus Gospel very soon as well as other relevant works and recording a podcast on the controversy because I am genuinely interested in where this all goes.  I wish had more time (and that Covid-19 wasn’t preventing my Amazon orders from arriving quickly) to truly dig into this debate but Sunday’s coming and I’ve got a sermon to prepare.  

Tune back in tomorrow as I am tentatively thinking about writing on what every evangelical can learn from the Young, Restless & Reformed Movement unless the questions above haunt me enough today to write on it again.