I recently read a book that makes Christianity make a lot of sense and is an active and dynamic faith. This book fits my lived experience and studies over the past five and a half years.
This book is
“Challenging popular misconceptions about the biblical gospel, Matthew Bates shows that it is different, wider, and more beautiful than we have been led to believe.”
I was given a hard copy by my fellow nerd friend, Brian, since he had two. Then I marked it up. I have so many I don’t know where to start. So I will quote the Gospel Allegiance Summary in Appendix 1.
“The point of this summary is to disentangle the gospel itself from closely related concepts.
The Gospel
The gospel is that Jesus, the king
- preexisted as God the Son,
- was sent by the Father,
- took on human flesh in fulfillment of God’s promises to David,
- died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
- was buried,
- was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
- appeared to many witnesses,
- is enthroned at the right hand of God as the ruling Christ,
- has sent the Holy Spirit to his people to effect his rule, and
- will come again as final judge to rule.
Short Gospel Summary
Jesus is the saving king.
Expanded Gospel Summary
The gospel is the true story of how Jesus the Son was sent by God the Father to become the saving king who now rules forever at his right hand through the sending of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling God’s promises in Scripture.
The Purpose of the Gospel
The purpose of the gospel is allegiance to Jesus the king in all the nations.
Our Response to the Gospel
Allegiance Alone. Allegiance is expressed in repentance, trusting loyalty, and baptism. Repentance from sins means revoking other allegiances so as to live as in the way Jesus commands. Saving faith is loyalty to Jesus as the forgiving king and includes good deeds done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Baptism embodies allegiance.
Benefits of the Gospel
We must not confuse the gospel itself with its saving benefits. The gospel proper announces possible saving benefits. But only those who respond to the gospel by giving allegiance actualize these special benefits. These include forgiveness of sins, righteousness (justification), adoption, glory, and so on. Special saving benefits are received personally only when we give allegiance and receive the Holy Spirit. This unites us to others who already possess these benefits-the true church. There are also general social and political gospel benefits-for example, healing, liberation from oppression, and poverty relief that will be experienced even by the nonallegiant when the gospel is proclaimed.
Backdrop of the Gospel
The gospel assumes God’s creation of the world, human disobedience with cosmic consequences, and the rest of the Old Testament story. There is a special emphasis on God’s promises to Israel via the covenants with Abraham and David. These backstories are not the gospel proper. Select portions of the Old Testament story become gospel when fulfilled and brought to a climax in Jesus the saving king.”
That’s the TL;DR version summed up. It’s worth reading as Matthew goes through the meaning of faith, grace, the different faith tradition’s perspectives, and what part do works play.
The book lines up with the term I like to use that I got from Dr. Heiser, “believing loyalty.” That’s a big part of my testimony.
I cried out to God for help when I was at my most broken and lowest point. Then over the course of a year, things fell into place in a way that I can say “only God.” (I’ll finish the book chronicling that one day. One kid and another on the way, plus blog posting schedule is my latest excuse for derailing that.)
It was after the realization that He had come through that I said, “Okay, you got me, I’m Yours. I believe and will follow you.”
I began walking away from allegiances that would conflict with following Jesus, both good and bad. He has my loyalty.
This book gets 5 stars.
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