Oral Traditions Prior to the Gospels

I'm not sure whether anyone has identified much in the way of oral traditions specifically regarding the sayings of Jesus that can be found in non-gospel literature, but I think it's probably a fruitful study.

While detouring a bit from Acts on Sunday, we read some in 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter.  In it, Paul writes

2 [I]f I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians is usually dated ca. AD 54, well before the gospel of Matthew (generally dated ca. 80–100), in which this famous saying of Jesus is recorded:

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

(Mt 17.20, cp Mt 21.21)

I would probably reject the hypothesis that Matthew's story somehow relies on the circulation of the letter of Paul to the Corinthians: the provenance of the letter and its distribution seem unlikely to me to have influenced the writing of the Matthew.

It seems rather more likely that the gospel narrative and Paul's almost off-hand reference are part of a broader oral tradition that undergirded the nascent Christian church.

Acts records another such instance, this time without a corresponding gospel passage, when Luke quotes Paul in his final address to the Ephesian church (probably somewhere around AD 60, maybe AD 61):

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

(Acts 20.35)

I think it would be an interesting study to look at these pregospel letters to try to piece together some other examples of oral testimony, and perhaps I'll take that on as a project this year.

Glory in the Sky

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  (Ps 19.1-2)

The Triumph of God's Glory

The triumph is taking you now in.  [Christ] was buried, and he resurrected.  What does that do?  The death overcame the sin and the guilt and separation.  What did the resurrection do?  My goodness!  It delivers.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ...what happened?  The last enemy of mankind is death.  It makes men tremble.  It makes clever men weep.  It is the point of despair, the point of depature.... In the grip with that terrible enemy of mankind, he killed death, disarmed it, opened the grave....Jesus came out of the grave triumphant, glorious.

Do you think he came alone?  Not a bit!  He came with you!  The head came out, and so the limbs came with him.   You are there!  I know you despite yourself.  You say, "Bishop, look, I am not that type." I know you are not that type!  God knows you are not that type!  But Jesus knows very well he died for that type!  The kind of you, with all the things which make you tremble, with all your limitations of the human being, with all your repeated failures. Jesus took you when he rose from the dead, because when he died, he gripped you.  And so now you are in him as a limb, part of the body.

–Festo Kivengeri, in an address at Urbana 1976.

This is probably the most important sermon you've never heard.

Just Give me the Gospel

In the final analysis, what I really need is the gospel.  I enjoy fellowship with believers, and their insight into situations in my life can be useful and helpful.  But there is nothing for me but the gospel.  When I am faced with my own sin, I need the gospel.  When I am tempted to be proud of my accomplishments, I need the gospel.  When I am unsure of where to go or what to do, I need the gospel.  When I make poor choices or suffer the consequences of decisions, I need the gospel.

So often it seems like people—myself included—are bent on giving solutions instead of simply preaching the gospel.  It is my every need.

The Ungospel in Exodus 33

We're in Exodus 33 in church—one of the most anticipated passages in awhile for me.  It's a great gospel passage, at least in the sense that it sets us up for the gospel so nicely.

I will send an angel, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people (Ex. 33:2,3).

God safeguards the people of Israel by refusing to go among them:  his presence would consume them.  There is an echo of the role of Jesus here in the person of the angel (the LXX is more personal here, saying, "I will send at the same time My angel"), who serves as God's representative and in a way shields them from his devastating presence.

The people mourn, and for two reasons, I think:  the first is the fear of God's presence, and the second is their desire for his presence.  In verse four, the NKJV puts it nicely:

When the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.

It is this bad news that is the "ungospel," and the same news that sets the stage for  the cataclysm of 33.18–20:

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And [God] said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

The glory of God is terrifying, and this is a terrible truth.  God has just told Moses that no one is permitted to enjoy the most intimate access to himself.

This is controverted in the person of Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate in human flesh.  God must no longer refrain from walking among his people:  he walks freely among them.  He no longer hides his face because his glory would consume:  now we see the image of the invisible God (Co 1.15).  Indeed, in Jesus we behold the glory of God (Jn 1.14, He 1.3).

It is this glory that makes us live:  "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17.3; it's no accident this verse is sandwiched by verses about the glory of God). It is in God's presence that we are truly alive.

We are all beggars

When we present the gospel to others, it is never as a bread seller handing free bread to a beggar. It is as beggars to beggars, telling others where the bread of life may be found.

The Gospel and the Trinity

A recent blog posting over at Theologica corresponded with some thoughts I've had in the past few weeks on the necessities of Orthodoxy (right opinions) and Orthopraxy (right practice) in evangelism. One is often tempted to ask, "Is it more important what I believe, or what I do?" with respect to spreading the gospel.

I think in the main this is a false dichotomy. Legalism abounds on both sides of this question: those who value correct doctrine are sometimes so rigid that they fail to see how it impacts the way they live their lives; those who value right living sometimes fail to see the need for right doctrine at all. Properly speaking, correct doctrine and correct living are two sides of the same coin; they belong together and should inform each other.

I learned this by experience only within the last few years, when I had the opportunity to speak with two individuals about the Trinity in a gospel context. The doctrine is essential to Christianity (we are not Christians without it), but I think it's fair to say that many would find it trivial. Christianity is supposed to be about ethics and morals and how you live, not about ivory tower obscurities. How can one preach the gospel by talking about the Trinity? How does one approach faith in Christ from the Deity of Christ?

My experiences were unexpected. You sometimes run into theologically literate people on the street, and three were avowed anti-trinitarians: a Jehovah's Witness and two Muslims. In the former case, we discussed the humanity of Christ in the light of his deity. The hypostatic union is hard to unpack and to do well, but I think the ideas were sufficiently communicated. He suffered from a number of addictions and evinced no motivation to overcome them. That Jesus Christ could reveal God to him because he was in fact God, and that he could reveal True Man was good news in his state: mankind isn't doomed to the worst.

My sample size for the Muslims is pretty small, and certainly not of the African or Arabian stripe. But interestingly, they had no answer when I asked why being in the presence of God would not blow them to smithereens. Basic questions about the holiness of God and the nature of man were met in a manner that would be theologically acceptable to a Christian, but no reconciliation was offered except that of works. It is trite to reduce their theology to such a conflict, and I don't intend to oversimplify here.

But strikingly, Christianity offers a resolution that is completely outside the one who comes to God. Because Jesus is God and man, he presents God to us in a way that does not actually smash us to little bits. I have before said that Elihu's words to Job as his intercessor prefigure Christ: "I, too, am pinched off from a piece of clay. No fear of me need terrify you" (somewhat paraphrased, I think). This is a confidence absent from the Islamic conception of God, at least near as I understand it. While the Christian is not encouraged to take God's holiness lightly (that is, after all, one of the lessons of the cross), he is likewise not discouraged from seeking God.

If we were to eliminate the Trinity from the repertoire of Christian theology by some means (like indifference to matters of doctrine, for example), we would lose a significant part of our means of evangelizing the lost. This is not merely an academic concern, nor is it of trifling importance to the average person on the street (despite my rather unique examples).

The gospel is one of restoration. It speaks to the restoration of man's relationship to God, and therefore his relationship to himself.

I'm stuck in an airport finishing this, and I'm not sure how well I'm making the point...but I suppose in the end what I'd like to communicate is that doctrinal precision is helpful to the gospel and immediately practical for it.

On the Gospel, Part II

Given the number of electrons harmed in the writing of the preceding posts, I thought it worth a few more for sake of summary. It may be tempting to assume that my 10-word summary of the gospel (that it reveals God to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ) is a aphorism used to read the Bible in a particular way; but my experience has largely gone the other way round.

I first remember looking at the gospel in the Old Testament in 1997 or 1998 in a Sunday School class on Luke. It is to this class that I owe the basis for these posts and the rewriting of my transactional understanding of the gospel into something rather broader and more devoted to the revelation of God. While I at that point did not have any substantial opinions on the Trinity (those would wait almost ten years to really develop), it formed a solid foundation for seeing the gospel in the context of the revelation of God's divine and eternal attributes: his righteousness, mercy, faithfulness, and so on.

Between the time of this view of the gospel and a renewed interest in Trinitarian theology, the Psalms opened a new way of seeing Christ. While I occasionally strain to read Christ into the Psalms in a way that is familiar to me, even the few that I have been able to read from his perspective provide insight into his own life and role. It was in these intervening years that I could see Jesus not only as Savior, but also as the great Worship Leader (viz. Psalm 34) who directs our praise to God for his vindication (ultimately evidenced by the resurrection). Here, finally, in my own introverted narcissism, I found Jesus Christ waiting: he took from me the grief of Psalm 88 to return to me the rejoicings of Psalm 89. In the Psalms more than other books (though they are all thus directed), I was able to see Jesus in ways that are not so explicitly shown in the gospels, thus clarifying some of the opaqueness of the New Testament narrative.

When I happened upon Irenaeus (via, it must be said, Sara Groves), it struck me immediately that his perspectives were largely Christological. It is fair to say that man fully alive is the glory of God precisely because Jesus is God, and he is the one man of whom we may say, "In him was life." My thoughts on the Trinity had mostly settled by then, at least in the large, but here was a new revelation about the humanity of Jesus Christ. I suppose in my own heresies I tend more toward docetism than to Arianism, yet Irenaeus seemed somehow to have understood the humanity of Jesus in a way that I didn't. He confirmed in my thinking that Jesus really was more human than I. (It was only after this that I read On the Incarnation by Athanasius.)

It is in this that I found a strange loop in my understanding of the gospel itself. I was confronted with the divine person of Jesus Christ, one who can say that having seen him, we have seen the Father. Irenaeus connects this explicitly to Exodus 33:20, that to look on God was to die. He arrives at the terrible conclusion that even though God's glory gives life, it is paired with God's inexhaustible holiness in whose presence none can stand. The only solution to this problem is the person of Jesus Christ. He is God Incarnate, and must be (I finally understood the bedrock reason for the necessity of the Trinity, at least from my human perspective), or else it were impossible for me to know God. And that is eternal life.

The revelation of God in the gospel consists in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He shows us who the Father is by making him accessible to us; God is finally someone we can reach out and hold onto. Yet we see also in Christ the terror of his righteousness and extent of his wrath. The hypostatic union not only unifies the nature of man and God, yet also reconciles what we might see as conflicting attributes of God.

This, therefore, is why the gospel begins with the terror of God, for to persuade men. It is not because these other things are unimportant. Far from it! It is that God made a special point of condescending to man; he became man, as Irenaeus says, to bring man to God. It is with man that he is chiefly concerned, and in the True Man that he is chiefly glorified. It is therefore quite reasonable, in my opinion, to bring the gospel to man in this fashion.

It is why I have stated that the gospel must begin with the hiddenness of God from man, with sin as the chief problem. We may begin with nature, to which all must pay a final due, or with the Law, to which all our consciences assent. The idolatry of our hearts, that God is somehow fallen like us, is dealt with finally in the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. It is this historical narrative understood in the light of our universal problem that forces our hand. Properly spoken, the message of grace divides; it separates us from who we were into who we are and shall be in Christ. Its warning cannot be ignored, only accepted or refused.

Yet the gospel does not stop here. It is not something that we are to grow out of, but rather to grow in to. It is for this reason that the gospel cannot simply stop at a transaction or switch in destiny, significant as it may be. It is for this reason I would argue that we can explore the gospel endlessly (indeed the reason we shall evangelize each other in heaven). It is in the gospel that we see the revelation of God, and it is through the gospel that our relationship with him grows and matures.

I think Lewis would not take too much umbrage if I were to co-opt his famous phrase "Further up and further in" to describe just this purpose. It is as unbelievers that we are outside the gospel; but as believers, we are always moving further up and further into the gospel. (I would be remiss not to say that I find Lewis' inside-bigger-than-the-outside also poignant and utterly necessary to the metaphor also. The gospel always seems small until you get inside of it, and every layer you expose is larger still.)

And thus one finds in the gospel not just empty forgiveness, as though the cosmic ledger is finally balanced and we can go off on our own debt-free. It is more than this. It is a journey to travel, and one I hope I can share more of, Lord-willing.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ (Part II)

We begin yet again with the 10-word summary of the gospel: God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The previous post mentioned some passages from the Old Testament that explicitly describe the content of the gospel. I wanted to look at some of them in this post; the others are left as an exercise for the reader. It's a long but profitable study.

Psalm 40 and some of the chapters of Isaiah prove fertile grounds for a gospel discussion. They contain common elements from different perspectives and are thematically well-represented throughout the New Testament.

I'll not quote the passages much, although I would encourage the interested to read them carefully. If we look at Psalm 40 we can discern a structure in which elements at the beginning and end are related to each other—a rhyming of thought, as it were, rather than a rhyming of words.

Jesus says in 40:5, "You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; ... I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told." His message, then, is a message about what God has done. He identifies himself with "us" here: he is not ashamed to call us brothers. He identifies himself later with our iniquities (v12), a strong and incidental indication, I think, of the imputation of our sin to Jesus Christ. His message discloses:

• God's righteousness (9)
• God's salvation (10)
• God's faithfulness and truth (10; the words are related here, though different)
• God's steadfast love (10, our friend chesed: חסד)

So then, Jesus reveals four or five key attributes of God: his salvation, his faithfulness (and truth), his righteousness, and his steadfast love.


Isaiah 40 is also a notably Messianic passage. It begins with a call to comfort and peace and a message of pardoned iniquity (40:1,2). It promises the revelation of the glory of God: "Behold your God!" (v9). We've said this several times, but it's so critical to connect this with Exodus 33:20. The gospel truly is the revelation of God to man. Lest this fill us with terror, we see the message prefaced with peace and comfort, and the assurance of pardoned sin. (It is no accident that when announcing the gospel the angels begin with, "Stop being afraid.")


Isaiah 52 begins with the theme of Israel's redemption: "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money" (52:3). It continues with a declaration that the people would know the name of the LORD: "Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I" (52:6).

This verse fits tidily with our thematic review of "X shall know that I am the LORD." God is here revealed in his redemptive work. He has given the people to oppressors and will now redeem them back. It is in the context of his revelation that the gospel comes:

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."

The themes exposed here are:

• Peace
• Happiness
• Salvation
• God's reign

If we continue reading, we will find:

• comfort (52:9; cf 40:1)
• redemption (52:9)
• God's strength (symbolized by the baring of his arm, 52:10)
• God's salvation (52:10)

How will this be accomplished? By the glorification of the servant (cf Is 42). The glory of the servant is preceded by his humiliation, and the picture that we have of God Incarnate is not one that would fill us with fear. He is instead a man with no form of beauty, one who was despised and rejected of men. There is, as I have said before, an echo of Elihu's words in the Incarnation: "Behold, I am toward God as you are. I too was pinched off from a piece of clay" (Job 33:6).


If we assemble a list of gospel keywords, then, we'll find the following attributes of God:

• Righteousness
• Salvation
• Faithfulness
• Truth
• Steadfast love (i.e., lovingkindness or mercy)
• Power / reign

We can find all of these elements in some form or another in the written gospels. Luke is practically bursting with them:

• 1:19: "And the angel answered him, 'I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.'" The good news to Zechariah is that he would be the father of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. The message is one of reconciliation between Israel and her God, and between fathers and children. You will note his first words to Zechariah are, "Fear not."
• 1:46ff: The Magnificat begins with the magnification of God for his salvation (1:47), his might and holiness (1:49), his mercy (1:50,54), his strength (1:51; note the use of his "right arm" here, cp. Isaiah), his provision (1:53).
• 1:68ff: Zechariah's prophecy contains references to God's visitation (cp "Behold your God!") and his redemption (1:68), his salvation (1:69,71), his mercy and covenant (1:72, 78), forgiveness (1:77), peace (1:79).
• 2:10ff: The angel announces the gospel beginning with no fear and great joy (2:10), referencing salvation (2:11), and praising God (2:14). The shepherds also praise (2:20).
• 2:30ff: Simeon see Christ and speaks immediately of salvation (2:30) and the light to the Gentiles (2:31). Anna speaks of the redemption of Jerusalem (2:38).
• 3:2–6: John's message is also the gospel (see 3:16), and his preaching is the preparation for all flesh to see God's salvation.
• 4:18ff: Jesus here reads from one of our gospel passages (Isaiah 61), and so obviously ties in liberty to the captives and oppressed, sight to the blind, and the year of the Lord's favor.

It is interesting in Luke that the first recorded words of Jesus preaching the gospel are these from Isaiah 61. It is likewise interesting that he almost immediately directs the people to consider that God blessed the Gentile widow and leper during times of apostasy in Israel, and not the Jewish one.

It should go without saying to those of orthodox faith that Jesus is the revelation of God to mankind (see, i.a., Jo 1:18, 6:46, 14:7,9!, 15:24!; He 1:3,8!). Up until Jesus Christ, the primary revelations of God were mixed and confusing. Creation revealed God's majesty and power, his beauty and wonder; but it is a realm of violence and upheaval, one that suggests judgment without mercy. Likewise the Law confirms what nature teaches us by explicitly revealing the holiness and character of God. When we read the law, it teaches us a good and right way to live. When we look at ourselves in the mirror of the law, however, it teaches us that we do not live in a good and right way.

We are therefore betwixt and between, suspended in the knowledge that God truly is good, and has provided good things for us. Yet we are not good and cannot stand in his presence.

The Old Testament provides this knowledge, yet also clues for a gracious and free future. God will abundantly pardon; he will bury our sins in the deepest sea and throw them behind his back; he will look for them and not find them and search for them as far as the east is from the west. (Can you see what happens here? The vastness of his creation no longer terrifies, but comforts! He will search the breadth of the universe for our sin and not find it!)

This is revealed poignantly and perfectly in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The gospel is that God is Jesus, that he condescends to those who cannot be exalted to himself, that he assumes not just our form, but our real being and essence and takes our sin and guilt upon himself. The problem revealed by the light of the revelation of God—our sin—is solved in the person and work of Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ (Part I)

The gospel: God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The recap: unpacking the revelation of God. The first posts dealt primarily with creation and the law, loose proxies for general and special revelation. The next posts dealt more carefully with general revelation, in particular highlighting the memorial name of God (Yahweh or Jehovah) and how Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, is the revelation of God to man. There are therefore three primary means of God's revelation to man.

I've dedicated most of the posts heretofore on the revelation of God in the Old Testament because of the obvious starting point in Psalm 19. It is sometimes tempting to begin with the New Testament when looking at the gospel and work our way backwards, but I have found it rewarding to look carefully at the Old Testament as well. I think this approach helps to clarify the gospel and unify the themes of the Scriptures.

The way we'll proceed here is to look at some of the passages in which the Septuagint speaks of good news. The rule of first use is not very helpful here. Ironically, most of the initial occurrences of the word "gospel" in the Septuagint are bad or bittersweet news. The first use of the gospel in the Old Testament is actually the news of Saul's death (1 Samuel 31:9, followed by 2 Samuel 1:20, 4:10), and the second use is the death of Absalom.

We are primarily concerned with the uses of the word as they relate to the New Testament. The main passages are:

• Psalm 40:9, "I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
  
• Psalm 68:11, "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it."
  
• Psalm 96:2, "Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day."
  
• Isaiah 40:9, "Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God!'"
  
• Isaiah 52:7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"
  
• Isaiah 60:6, "A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD."
  
• Isaiah 61:1, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;"
  

Some of these passages are a bit different in the Greek reading than the Hebrew, but in the main they provide a good context for investigating elements of the gospel. For sake of space (and reader patience), I won't look at all of them. But I'd recommend that you consider them all when you have opportunity.

"I AM" and the Revelation of God (Part II)

Again, the ten-word summary: God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The past several posts have dealt with the revelation of God, noting two principal ways he is revealed: through creation and his personal self-disclosure. We looked at the latter in the previous post, examining the commonly-used Old Testament phrase, "X shall know that I am the LORD." We see that God reveals himself by this covenant or memorial name and invests it with his personal and unique character.

In his high priestly prayer, Jesus implies that one of the purposes of his coming was to reveal God's name, to make it manifest:

I have manifested your name to the people you gave me out of the world. (John 17:6)

This little phrase carries the freight of the great many passages we have seen in the Old Testament. It is an astonishing thing to say and one of the incidental indications of the deity of Jesus Christ. Essential to the revelation of God by his name is the identification of Jesus Christ as the I AM. We see him make an explicit claim in John 8:58, of course, but others also exist.¹

The Incarnation therefore controverts Exodus 33:20. When Moses asks to see God, he is told that none may see him and live. Yet we have beheld the face of God in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 14:9; Hebrews 1:3,8). This revelation of God does not destroy us, neither does it crush us with the weight of our failure (cf. Isaiah 42:3).

This is our solution to the estrangement we find in nature and the antagonism of the law. While creation can tell us that God exists, and the law can tell us what God's standards are, neither one can bridge the insurmountable gap of human error and sin. All they do is reveal to us a God who is separate and other, one too holy for us to approach. They hold a mirror to our failure and devastate our hopes.

But Jesus Christ is also God revealed; he is the I AM. His life unifies God's justice and mercy and reveals God for who he is. His death, burial, and resurrection reconcile man and God, putting the question of sin to rest forever and guaranteeing the promises God has made to his people.

---

[1] I'm not really concerned with defending the Trinity here, but those interested may want to look at another somewhat more obscure proof in Revelation 1:8.

"I AM" and the Revelation of God (Part I)

(The 10-word summary of the gospel: God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.)

Having seen, then, that creation and the law reveal God to be judge and ourselves worthy of judgment, we are without hope. In both nature and the law, we have found no good news—only bad news.

I think it's important enough to say it again: the revelation of God provided by nature and our conscience is not good news for us. It offers no security and no consolation: the law is inflexible. Even those who are motivated to please God are bereft. They have no recourse but to cast themselves on God's mercy.

Now, then, once more, the ten-word summary of the gospel: God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

I want to take a moment to look at the name of God. It sets the theme for the next posts nicely, and I think it will help develop some undergirding supports in the Old Testament.

There is a key phrase involved in the revelation of God that we can highlight throughout the Old Testament: "X shall know that I am the LORD." I think perhaps our familiarity with the statement costs us a bit in understanding it, because this is not merely a phrase that says, "You'll know that I'm God," or "You'll know that I'm in charge." It is also not a bare statement of the sovereignty of God. It is rather a statement of distinction: you will know that I am the LORD, and not some other god; you will know that I am the LORD, and that there are no other gods but me; you will know that I am the LORD, and that this is my character. In other words, I will be revealed to you as I am.

The first time that God is revealed by his covenant name is Exodus 3:14: "And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."'" This covenant name is shortened to the tetragrammaton, usually rendered "LORD" in most everyone's Bible and anglicized in a few places as Jehovah or Yahweh. God marks this as a special occurrence in history: "I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty {{ Heb. El Shaddai }}, but by my name the LORD {{ Heb. YHWH }} I did not make myself known to them" (Ex 6:3). (It is worth pointing out that El was a common name for God and apparently did not connote a specifically Jewish notion of God.)

This at first glance seems like a rather pointless observation, but it's a continuing theme in Exodus and the rest of the Old Testament. Pharaoh says, for example, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD" (Ex 5:2). This would quickly change. Two pertinent references follow almost immediately in Exodus 7: "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt..." (7:5), and, "By this you {{ Pharaoh }} shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood" (7:17).

God is, in other words, being revealed to Egypt by his judgments against her and her gods. "Who is the LORD," Pharaoh asks. He is the one who judges your idolatry—an idolatry it must be noted that is focused very much on worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. (We may follow this in Romans one. While I'm developing this specifically and purposefully from the Old Testament, we shouldn't miss that this idea receives due exposure in the New Testament.)

The phrase "X shall know that I am the LORD" appears many, many times in the Old Testament and in a variety of situations. What follows is a brief list:

• to speak of deliverance and redemption (Ex 6:7, 10:2, 29:46; Nu 15:41; De 5:6; 1Ki 20:13,28; Ps 81:10; Is 43:3,11, 44:24, 48:17, 49:23,26, 60:62; Ez 12:16, 16:62, 20:5,42–44, 28:24,26, 29:16,21, 34:24–30, 36:11,38, 37:1–14, 39:28; Ho 12:9, 13:4; Jo 2:27, 3:17; Zec 10:6)
  
• to declare judgment on Israel's enemies (Ex 7:5,17, 10:2, 12:12, 14:4,18; 1Ki 20:28; Is 49:26; Ez 25 against Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia 26 against Tyre, 28:22,23 against Sidon, 28:26, 29:6,9, ch30, 32:15 against Egypt, 35 against Edom/Seir)
  
• to declare judgment on Israel, and reveal himself by judgment (Ex 16:12; Ez 5:13–17, 6:7–14, 7:4,9,27, 11:10–12, 12:15–20, 15:7, 20:26,38, 21:5, 22:16,22, 23:49, 24:14,24–27, 33:29, 39:6)
  
• to declare judgment on Israel's allies (Ez 17:21,24)
  
• to declare judgment on Israel's enemies' allies (Ez 30:8)
  
• to declare judgment on the false prophets (Ez 13:9–23; 14:8)
  
• to distinguish God from idols (Exodus in many cases; injunctions in Leviticus; Ju 6:10; Is 42:8, 45:5–7)
  
• to confirm God's sovereignty, including his role as Creator (Is 43:15, 44:24, 45:5–7,18, 51:15)
  
• to distinguish Israel from her enemies (Ex 8:22)
  
• to distinguish Israel as a covenant people (Is 42:6, 44:5; 16:62)
  
• to confirm the giving of the law (most uses in Leviticus, esp. 22:31; Ez 20:7–20)
  
• to demonstrate Israel's total dependence on God (De 29:6)
  
• to reveal God to the nations (Ez 36:23,36, 37:28, 38:23)
  
• to reveal God to Israel by his actions among the Gentiles (Ez 39:22)
  

This was not a quick list to assemble and explains some of the delay in writing this.

There are a few observations I'd make here. First, that God is revealed by his direct actions in the lives of those he discloses himself to. Second, nearly all of these actions are related to judgment (if they are not judgment themselves, they follow on the heels of his judgment). Third, they are concerned with eliminating any notion of alternatives to God: there is a sense in here of ignorant worship, as when the Israelites worship the golden calf and name it Jehovah (Ex 32:5). Their history is littered with examples of profaning the name of the LORD—that is, by misrepresenting the character of God.

This revelation of God is freighted almost always with judgment in the Old Testament. The promises of redemption and salvation are connected most often with the return of Israel to the land from which they were driven. Driven, it must be said, in judgment for their sins. The very notion of God's salvation, as I've noted before, is rooted in his judgment. He is powerful to save because he also is powerful to judge.

The character of God revealed in these statements is one of otherness, separation, and judgment. Only after he judges is it possible for him to restore, redeem, and deliver.

I don't want to conclude this without noting that this particular theme of the Old Testament (knowing that Jehovah is God—cf. 1Ki 18:21) is again a theme of the separateness of God. In his revelation to his people in the Law, he demonstrates to them that he is not reachable. The people persist in worshiping a god of their own devising, that is, in pursuing idols and calling them by the hallowed name of the Lord.

The themes of deliverance promise hope, though, in the face of this judgment, a restoration of the relationship between God and his people, and the promise of a changed character.

The Gospel and the Revelation of God

We begin, again, with the ten-word summary of the gospel: God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.


The first two words, "God revealed." I think the most natural place to explore this is in Psalm 19, which I quote here to pad my word stats; if you're one of those who have memorized it, then by all means skip ahead; the pertinent verses (1, 7, 12) start the paragraphs quoted:

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

There are three paragraphs here, and so three observations.

First, "The heavens declare." That is to say, the heavens reveal. It is worth noting that they reveal God's glory. This is, I think, very nearly the same as saying that they reveal God himself. When Moses is on the Mountain, he says to God: show me your glory. God interprets this as a request to see his face, and says, "No man shall see my face and live."

God is hidden from us by our sin. God is inaccessible to us. Eternal life is inaccessible to us. (Why? Because eternal life as defined in the gospels is to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Separation from God is therefore tantamount to eternal death.) Irenaeus picks this up in his famous argument.

Against the hiddenness of God, however, "The heavens declare." They reveal. So God is not entirely hidden from us. The question, of course, is precisely what is revealed of God in the heavens, here I think a synecdoche for all creation.

Romans tells us that creation reveals God's "eternal power and Godhead" (1:20) and his wrath (1:18), but nothing is mentioned of solutions to this problem. The heavens daily tell us of God's power, but also proclaim his judgment. They are the vast expanse of Damocles' sword, suspended by gossamer threads of who knows what.

The second stanza in Psalm 19, and therefore my second observation, begins with "The Law of the LORD." At first glance, we may be tempted to assume that it is somehow disconnected from the first stanza in point of view. In fact, it continues the same thought: the revelation of God.

The second stanza is a hymn of praise to the law: a complete, exhaustive, desirable tool for warning and making wise. It completely discloses the righteousness of God and prescribes a right way of living, a purported solution to the wrath of God. It warns of judgment, the punishment for failing to live this standard.

One might think that this special disclosure from God—one that is not provided by the heavens—would be sufficient to answer the underlying question of how one is supposed to avoid God's wrath. Yet we find that the law, while true and good, does not actually provoke in us the good it intends. Rather than bringing us closer to God, it separates us further from him by showing the depth of our sin and even inciting us to do worse. Rather than justifying, the law condemns. Indeed, a law was never given that could give life (Galatians 3:21).

It is for this reason that the Psalmist finishes with the third stanza, and with it comes the third observation. His prayer is that God keep him from presumptuous sins (for which the only penalty under the Law was death; there was no sacrifice for willful sin) and an admission that none can understand his secret faults. He admits first that even if one were to follow the law, he could not know the extent of his own sin. He admits second that apart from God's help, it is impossible to avoid willful sin. He, too, is under wrath, and has no recourse the hope that God will find his prayers acceptable.

We are left with the uncomfortable, nay terrifying, realization that both natural and special revelation are insufficient to avoid the wrath of God. (Compare with Hebrews 2:15.) Creation testifies to God's righteousness, and the law makes it explicit.

In whatever capacity we approach the gospel, we cannot avoid this. From an outward-looking perspective we may be stunned by the beauty of creation; we may be thrilled by the execution of justice (the end of A Few Good Men always gives me goose bumps). But as soon as we look inside ourselves, we know that we are worthy of punishment. The brutality of nature will overwhelm its beauty, and meeting justice for ourselves is not as nice as meting it out for others.

No presentation of the gospel can get around this. The gospel begins with the admission that God is hidden away from us and will judge us, and that we have no solution. We cannot and must not begin any other way.

On the Gospel

This post presents a small break in the action, an interruption in a set of scheduled postings I've written over the past month or so. It has been a pretty prolific month here, as I'm sure any consistent reader has noticed. I'm usually a post-a-month kind of guy, and to be honest, it's hard for me to write much at all because of my work and teaching schedule. Grace in Practice provided a great deal of impetus to write a few posts on a favorite subject, and there are yet a couple posts written and in queue.

I expect my comments on the gospel itself to be relatively lengthy. They are inspired in part by a couple of recent blog posts by Scott at Theologica. He wrote a five-part series of blog posts entitled "What is the Gospel?" that summarize his position on the gospel. If I can summarize his summary, it is that the central theme of the gospel is the kingdom of God.

I am not very interested in polemics, although I recognize their value in discussion. I avoid engaging in them when writing blogs as a general rule, though I have done so occasionally. I make mention of Scott's writings because they are basically the inspiration of my own. I make no apologies for disagreeing with him in his basic premise, though I hope and pray that these are not received as an indictment of Scott as much as a positive reinforcement of what I believe the Scriptures say about the gospel.

I am not a scholar, or even a pretend scholar. I provide this kind of caveat on most blog postings, but here it is even more relevant, since we are treating the essential foundation of Christianity and the most important facts of history. I expect some scholars would agree with me, and others disagree. You are free, of course, to draw your own conclusions.


With these introductory comments aside, let me provide the ten-word summary of the gospel:

God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Naturally, all formulations of the gospel are subject to clarification. This is why I hate ten-word summaries of anything. But I think this gives us a starting point to build on. The brief phrase "God revealed" speaks to how we know God, the relationship that we share. The final phrase, "person and work of Jesus Christ" comprehends not only the ultimate revelation of God in Christ but also his death, burial, and resurrection, the Old Old Story of our redemption. It does not treat the gospel as a Get-Out-Of-Hell-Free card we play in the Monopoly game of our existence.

With this summary in mind, I expect really to develop these thoughts primarily in two or three posts. In the first and (possibly) second, I'd like to develop the ideas behind the revelation of God. In the last posting, I'd like to look at the Old Testament gospel to see how it is fulfilled in the New.

Idolatry and Salvation

When it rains it pours, I guess.

Intervening these paragraphs is the span of about ten days. So at least in this case, it's not quite pouring posts here.

To be honest, I'm recycling a few thoughts that I've had in the past, anyway, so there is not much in the way of original thought. It was prompted by my recent sprint through the major and minor prophets (I'm nearing the end of the Bible in a Year program!).

It is somewhat ironic that the Israelites seek freedom in their worship practices, and that this freedom leads them to cast off the law and to ignore the prophets. They eschew the judgment of the law to choose that which is no law and carries no judgment.

The irony in this is that while the idols promise no judgment—the Israelites may live as they please if they fulfill whatever cult rituals seem appropriate—they cannot save, either. God chides them for this:

They have no knowledge
who carry about their wooden idols,
and keep on praying to a god
that cannot save (Is 45.20).

It is God alone who is the Savior (43.11), and these idols cannot save. The connection that is made here is that God's ability to save is intrinsically related to his ability to judge. He is both Savior and Judge, and we cannot have one without the other.

This is common sense, of course. If God is to save us, from whom does he save us? Who is more powerful than he? Whom should we fear but him (cf Ps 27.1)?

This is, in fact, a big theme of the gospel passages in Isaiah. God promises to save Israel. In the context of the prophecies, it is salvation from the wrath of their enemies and redemption from the lands to which they were consigned, but all of these are God's judgment on Israel.

The message, then, is clear: idols promise no judgment, but they cannot save either. The ability to save is intimately related to the ability to judge. We cannot have a God who does not judge, but somehow saves. It is simply nonsense; but of course this is what the gospel has told us all along.

Gospel Sermons in Acts

In the past couple weeks at church, the pastor has inexplicably raised questions about the effectiveness of Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, noting that his time in Athens was apparently limited and that there were relatively few conversions noted. He attributed this to the absence in Paul's sermon of Jesus as the Messiah and his crucifixion.

Ignoring for the moment that it seems unlikely that we have the entire contents of Paul's sermon (I would think we have a summary of the main points instead), I have to ask by what criteria we're judging the sermon. These days we consider a sermon incomplete if it doesn't contain an altar call, even though this was virtually unknown prior to Charles Finney (whose exposition of theology seems a bit suspect to me). How are we to judge the effectiveness of any particular sermon, nonetheless Paul's?

He noted other features that seem strange: no letter to the Athenians is extant (by which I think he assumed that no church was planted at this time), there is no mention of Paul being driven from the city (as happened in Thessalonika, Berea, and Philippi), and no other special commentary is made concerning the church there.

To these points I would note that no letter is extant to the Bereans, despite the evident working of the Holy Spirit in that community. Neither was Paul driven from every single place he went to preach, notably Corinth. Regarding the church, it's clear that a church certainly did exist in Athens. Dionysius' name is mentioned as among the converts, and he is reportedly one of the first bishops of that church.


As to the initial arguments regarding the invocation of Christ's name and the crucifixion, we might note that the audience were primarily Gentiles, not Jews. The idea of a Messiah was known to the Jews, but by and large an alien thing to the Greek community. (Even if there were parallels, the expectations for the Messiah to the Jew were likely different than for the Greeks.)

It makes more sense to start with a natural theology, which is essentially what we see in Paul's sermon. God is introduced as the creator and sustainer of all life. The resurrection testifies to the necessity of judgment, and so the warning is sounded. (One wonders if Paul really didn't talk about the crucifixion when he talked about the resurrection of the dead. The resurrection pervaded his discussion with Jews, too.)

Far from being "ineffective," it seems more likely that Paul tailored the sermon to the audience. He preached the gospel full well (we can see correlations from Romans in what is recorded in Acts), and it had the intended result.


I confess I'm mystified by the motivation to cast doubt on the effectiveness of this sermon. I can only speculate, and I don't really want to do that without more information; but I can't explain why a discussion concerning the audience and the likely abbreviation of the sermon as recorded in Luke wasn't even mentioned.

Evangelism

I am still fighting the busy bug. It has been an extremely hectic week, and it's only Wednesday; I don't think I've talked to anyone that I usually do outside of church folks and family since Sunday.

The good news—no pun intended, I promise—is that my unexpected time with them has provided some worthwhile conversation about the gospel. One of our number remarked on her dissatisfaction with the apparent apathy that her current fellowship seems to have towards spreading the gospel and asked about suggestions to widen their horizons, so to speak.

The discussion served to highlight some important things about the gospel for me, and I think about the movements to evangelize. Much of my frustration with the "Go" crowd is how often it seems that they misunderstand the nature of the word "go." The emphasis in the Great Commission is not on "go," but rather on "disciple."

I think the error of the "Go" mentality is that we lose sight of the real imperative of evangelism: discipleship. While I don't evangelize terribly often—in the sense of running out to the unchurched or the street corner—the gospel is nonetheless pervasive in my life and governs my interactions with others. I have always felt more inclined to evangelize Christians¹ than the unchurched, since it seems like a lot of us don't really know the gospel that well.

At the root of the "go" mentality is, I think, the idea that if we don't Go, people will burn forever in hell, as though God is incapable of saving apart from us. I thoroughly disagree with this idea, though I disagree equally with those who would argue against evangelism on the basis of God's election. (Lest anyone get the wrong idea, that is not what I'm promoting here at all!)

I know a Lutheran who said once that God elects by means of evangelism. While I don't agree with that as it's stated, I would heartily agree with the argument that God regenerates using evangelism. The Spirit works through the gospel to regenerate the hearer.

I hear so much about the method of evangelism that I wonder sometimes if we have missed the message of the gospel. I hear so much about going that I wonder if we have somehow forgotten that we have local responsibilities, too. We are not all called to foreign fields, and that's okay. The gospel is not for sale; it is not meant to be introduced with bait (why do you think we see the use of nets in the gospels instead of rods with bait?). It seems like simple honesty would suffice.

Ultimately, we share the gospel because it is good news—like the high marks we received on a test, the birth of a new child, the weekend, rediscovering a good book or CD, and so on. (I was struck by the latter at this gathering, since I found out I share a preference for Eisley with one of the other members of the group; being able to borrow the CDs from me made her pretty happy.) It is natural to share and evidence our joys. We are hardly worried about the how in these cases.

[1] I am not sure why exactly, but it seems like there is some resistance to the idea that the gospel is intended for believers. At the very end, we see that the gospel is itself eternal, and we will evangelize each other in heaven.

No More Sea

Last month was a fairly slow month here, largely due to the holidays and other pressures that took me away from blogging regularly. Since it's the new year, I figured it was about time to pick things back up.

We are nearing the end of our study in Revelation at church. This has occasioned a couple thoughts for me in the past few weeks, and I thought I'd briefly share them.


The first relates to chapter 21, where we read that there is no sea in the new heaven and new earth. This occasioned little comment during the sermon, but I thought it would be properly linked with the end of Micah:

19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

It's thrilling to me to connect these two passages because it represents the absolute removal of sin in the new heavens and new earth.

The second thought is occasioned by a comment during the end of a fairly good sermon two Sundays before Christmas. The pastor said something to the effect of, "You were hoping for gospel at Christmas, but we're going to get judgment."

It was striking to me that he set the two in opposition, because judgment really is a part of the good news. We see it, for example, in Psalm one, where the wicked will not stand in judgment. For the righteous, judgment holds no fear, and instead is intended to vindicate. More apropos the text, judgment is cause for good news (cf Re14.6) because we are witnessing the final end of sin.

It is appropriate and right to use judgment to exhort—our God is a refining fire—but God's judgment is not to be divorced from his gospel. It is not merely intended to frighten man to conversion (though it very well does, I suppose), but also to encourage believers that God will cleanse not just the world of sin, but our bodies of their sinful nature.

Christmas Verses

Since most of my three readers will not be receiving a Christmas card from me this month, I thought it would be good to post the verses I have included in my cards this year. There's a PDF available if you'd like something to print out.

The texts follow:

The angel said to him, "Fear not, Zacharias!" And the angel said to her, "Fear not, Mary!" And the angel said to shepherds, "Fear not! For behold, I bring you the gospel of great joy: unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest!" (Luke 1.13,30; 2.10,13)

Who is this King of Glory? He is the LORD, strong and mighty. We beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father. And his name is called "The Mighty God." (Psalm 24.8, John 1.14, Isaiah 6.9)

This mighty God has done great things for you that you might serve him without fear. Many, O LORD my God, are your wonderful works that you have done, and your thoughts toward us. If I could declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered:

You forgive all our iniquities and heal all our diseases.
You redeem our life from destruction, and crown us with lovingkindness and tender mercies.
You satisfy us with good things, and renew our youth like the eagle’s.
You execute righteousness and judgment.

(Luke 1.49,74; Psalm 40.5, 103.3-5)

Now Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared, committing himself to the one who judges righteously:

I will declare thy name to my brethren, and in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee. Ye that fear the LORD praise him! O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together; for I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears; he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has he hid his face from him—but when he cried unto him, he heard.

(Hebrews 5.7; 2 Peter 2.23; Psalm 22.22,23; 34.3,4; 22.24)

I wanted to connect some central themes of the gospel ("fear not," God's glory and might, his works for us) to the person and the work of Christ. I limited myself to a page (including footnotes for the references). It was difficult to put everything together as I wanted.

I think it came out well, though, and it really does highlight so many important pieces of the gospel. Glory to God in the Highest, indeed. We have so much to be thankful for.

The Content of the Gospel

I'm sure my fascination with the Psalms will someday wane, but for now it's still going strong. The recent readings from the one year Bible plan (now linked at left) have been in Psalms 93-100. I had the privilege of sitting in a Sunday school class on the gospel of Luke one year, and we began by looking at the gospel as it was revealed in the Old Testament, identifying key themes and passages.

As soon as we had done this, it really opened up a new avenue of studying the OT to me. I was suddenly able to see the same gospel themes exposed in a great many places, and among them the Psalms.

My initial forays into the Psalms were borne, I think, of my own introspection and the comfort they brought to a naïve eighth-grader who felt like he was picked on more than his due in school. My second shot into the Psalms was more mature, guided by the realization that many of them provide glimpses into the nature of Jesus Christ and the Godhead. Many of the Psalms still remained a mystery to me, at least in the sense that I was looking for something in the white spaces, the background of the story.

(As an aside, this is a sometimes destructive tendency for me and has certainly put me into some rather poor doctrinal positions in the past. Ockham's Razor is certainly not the best thing to happen to Christianity, but it's a rather useful tool when dealing with difficult passages.)

The key was the content of the gospel, elements identified by their presence in obvious gospel passages (Isaiah 40-45, 53, and many others). They consist mainly of God's attributes:

• righteousness, judgment (94.1,15; 96.10,13; 97.2,6,8; 98.2,9; 99.4)
• power, might (93.4; 95.4,6; 96.3-5; 98.1)
• reign (93.1; 95.3; 96.10; 97.1; 99.1)
• mercy, lovingkindness (98.3)
• faithfulness
• salvation (96.2; 98.2,3)
• truth

Man's response to these attributes is uniformly supposed to be praise (a fact I find interesting, considering all of the emphasis we place on belief). See (95.1,2; 96.1-3; 97.8,12; 98.1,4-9; 99.3,5,9).

Not surprisingly, each of these occurs in great quanity in the Psalms. I've provided some references from our latest readings in the bulleted list.

If we chart these themes throughout Scripture, we'll find them in some measure in the almost spontaneous doxologies in the Pauline epistles and other letters, and in equal measure in the songs in Revelation (cp Re 14.6—"eternal gospel"). And they figure quite prominently in Mary and Elizabeth's songs in Luke 1, and in Simeon and Zarachrias' proclamations, also.

While the Psalms sometimes get a bit repetitive, it has been one of my constant delights to find them such a well of incredible depth. We so often shrink the gospel into a formula that it's difficult to keep in mind what it's really about.