Scot McKnight delivered an interesting lecture on the gospel at an InterVarsity gathering. McKnight’s lecture is available as an mp3 download. I just finished listening on the audio recording. Some of the highlights follow.
According to a recent Barna survey, there are as many as 20 million American Christians who simply do not see involvement with the local church as being the primary source of spiritual formation. A European poll reports that 125 million Christians worldwide are not connected to any particular local church. That number is expected to double in upcoming years.
In many cases these individuals are deeply committed to prayer, Bible study and knowing God. Many of these people are not the stereotypical carnal, secular Christian. The exact numbers may be disputed but anyone who has been around the church for any length of time knows the reality is true. There is a growing body of Christians who simply don’t feel any need to be part of a church. They are perfectly comfortable living out their own spirituality alone, or in the context of whatever small group or fellowship they happen to connect with for a limited time.
McKnight argues that the Christian community needs better evangelism or a better gospel articulation. McKnight suggests that the sort of Christians we have is a result of the gospel message we gave them. That assertion might be hard to argue with. According to McKnight, the gospel we are now preaching is deconstructing the church. We have developed a gospel that is so personal that there is no need for community. We therefore need to change how we preach the gospel if we intend to change the type of Christians we are producing.
We are all eikons (image bearers) of God, according to the Scriptures. As eikons we are representatives of God to rule in this world. We become functioning eikons when we mimic God’s activities in the world. McKnight argues that, as eikons, we relate in four different directions:
- Related to God
- Related to self
- Related to others
- Related to the world
We glow with the glory of God in this world when we are relating properly.
Genesis chapters 1-2 details eikons being created. Genesis chapter 3 details eikons being cracked. The following chapters detail eikon community being created.
McKnight goes on to explain that, since eikons were created to relate in four directions, eikons also cracked in four directions.
- Cracked in relationship to self (no shame before sin vs. shame after sin)
- Cracked in relationship to God (alienated and hiding)
- Cracked in relationship to one another (alienated and blaming)
- Cracked in relationship to the world (alienated from the world)
According to McKnight, our individualistic gospel jumps straight from Genesis 3 to Romans 3. This approach ignores everything between and focuses exclusively on our individual relationship to God. The result is that we forget or overlook the other cracks. We tend to preach a gospel centered around healing eikons relationship with God but forget the need for restoration in the areas of self, one another and the world.
The solution to cracked eikons is not to leave them alone, but to draw them into community, in order to become a missionally shaped people.
The purpose of the gospel is to do this very thing. It is to take cracked eikons, restore them in all four directions, so that they become fully functioning eikons bringing glory to God as God’s representative rulers in proper relationship as they create in this world.
Scot McKnight
Christ, of course, is the perfect eikon, the perfect image bearer of God. Romans contrasts Christ as an eikon with Adam as an eikon.
McKnight also makes an interesting observation about an underlying assumption relating to sharing the gospel. Somewhere and somehow we developed the notion that the gospel must be simple and that we must reduce the gospel to very simple terms to share it. McKnight argues that this idea is not found in the Scriptures. Jesus did not preach a simple gospel. Jesus preached an overwhelmingly complex gospel. Jesus’ explanation seemed to change with each audience and continually confused his own disciples. I am certain that not all will agree with this assertion, but McKnight raises some valid questions here that we would be remiss to not consider.
McKnight notes in conclusion that a simple gospel produces simple Christians. A fully eikonic gospel produces fully eikonic Christians. Our proclamation of the gospel must include not only Jesus’ death, but also his resurrection, pentecost, and the Holy Spirit.
Take a few minutes to listen to the lecture and then feel free to share your thoughts. I would specifically like to hear feedback on the following three questions:
- Has our gospel presentation become overly simplistic and individualistic?
- Have we tried to simplify too much and failed to present a fully eikonic gospel?
- Is this individualization of the gospel at the root of the increasing number of Christians who don’t think they need church?
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