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Aug
25
Presenting the Gospel
I’ve been writing a little book that presents the Christian gospel plainly. The project is stretching me in many ways.
I try to write some books for the academy and some for the “person on the street.” I wrote two books recently -- Defining Love and The Nature of Love -- for those with plenty of education.
I’m coauthoring this new book to persuade readers to become Christians. It’s an evangelistic book, plain and simple. I feel like God is calling me in this direction. I care deeply about the salvation of the world!
This book project is stretching me in several ways. First, I am trying very hard to use understandable words. That means choosing words that may not be as precise but are accessible.
Second, I’m working hard to avoid technical theological extrapolations. For someone like me who thinks carefully about theological details, this is not easy!
Perhaps what stretches me most is choosing how best to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In one sense, of course, the gospel message is easy: I once was blind, but now I see.
In another sense, however, the order and shape of the gospel presentation says something about what I think is important.
For me, the gospel begins with God’s love. So that’s how this book begins.
At present, the book looks like it will be about eight chapters. I offer the first chapter below. I am submitting it as a blog entry so I can get your feedback.
So… here’s how the book begins:
A Father’s Love
A father had two sons he loved very much. One day, the younger son said, “Father, give me today my share of the estate I am to inherit.” The father granted his request. He divided what he possessed between the two sons.
The younger son took his part of the inheritance and set off for a distant country. While there, he squandered the inheritance in wild living. He wasted his money on selfish desires, prostitutes, and foolish ventures.
After all the money was spent, a severe famine came to that country. Without funds for food, the young man became hungry.
In desperation, he asked a citizen of that country for work. He was given the humiliating job of feeding pigs. While doing his work, he longed to fill his own stomach with food he gave the pigs. But he had nothing.
One day, the starving son admitted how bad his life had become. He said to himself, “My father’s hired men have food to spare. But I am living among pigs and starving to death! I will leave this place and return to my father. I will say, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Would you take me as a hired man?’”
The young man left the land and returned home.
While he was still a long way from home, his father saw him. His father was filled with compassion. He ran to his lost son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.
As the father hugged him, the son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Please hire me as one of your workers.”
But the father said to his helpers, “Move quickly and bring the best robe and put it on my son. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and cook it. We are going to have a feast and celebrate! For my young son was once dead and is now alive! My son was lost, but now he is found!”
The helpers did what the Father instructed. A celebration began!
Meanwhile, the older son was out in the fields. When he came near home, he heard music and dancing. He asked one of the helpers, “What’s going on?”
“Your younger brother has returned,” the helper replied. “Your father is cooking the fattened calf to celebrate, because your brother is now home.”
The older brother had been working hard. He grew angry when he heard this news. He refused to return home to celebrate.
When the father heard his oldest son would not return, he went to plead with him.
But the son said, “It’s not fair! All these years I have been working hard for you, and I have never disobeyed. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. Now when this son of yours -- who has squandered his inheritance on prostitutes -- comes home, you cook the fattened calf. You celebrate for him but not for me!”
“My dear son,” the father replied, “I love you too, and you are always with me. Everything that remains is yours. But because your brother was dead and is alive again, and because he was lost and now is found, we had to celebrate and be glad!” (Luke 15:11-32)
What it Means
Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus of Nazareth told this story. He told it to describe God’s love. This story is good news for us. The good news is this: God loves you, me, and everyone!
Sometimes we live like the younger son in the story. We waste our gifts, talents, and resources on wild living. We lived a life of selfishness and unhealthy pleasure.
As a result, we feel like we are feeding pigs. We feel as though we are starving to death. The life of wild living leads to destruction and death!
Sometimes we live like the older son in the story. We are angry that others get more than they deserve. We believe we deserve more. We work hard thinking we must earn approval. We work hard to never disobey but fail to relax in God’s love.
Working in the field to earn the Father’s love leads to resentment and bitterness. This way of living sucks the joy out of life.
The good news is that whether we are selfish or resentful, God loves us. God forgives us and calls us home. God offers us a joyful life of celebration.
Like the father in the story, God wants to embrace us with open arms. When we return from the excess of wild living or the bitter life of trying to earn love, God and others celebrate! God comes out to meet us, because God loves us extravagantly.
This Book is for You
We wrote this book to tell you the best news you will ever hear: God loves you and is calling you home! In fact, God loves everyone and is working to establish the reign of love everywhere.
God has always loved you and always will. Divine love is deeper than the deepest ocean and wider than the universe. God’s love never fails. It constantly seeks to save those who are lost.
God’s love is steadfast, enduring, and everlasting. God is faithful to us and loyal to all creation. His love never fails. We can count on God to love ALWAYS (Psalm 36).
As the authors of this book, we believe God is calling you home. Why? There are many reasons.
One reason we think God is calling you home is we have heard God’s loving call in our lives. We are responding to that call by returning home and living lives of joy in God’s family.
Another reason we think God is calling you home is that we believe the Bible tells us this. In fact, we are convinced of this. This story and others in the Bible describe God’s deep love for you and all creation.
As you read this book, you will discover that we draw from the Bible often to talk about the good news of God’s love.
The Bible is a very old collection of writings that God inspired in a special way. It will be our primary resource for understanding God’s love for us and why we should love others as ourselves.
You will often see names and numbers parentheses at the end of sentences in this book. They will look something like this: (Luke 15:11-32).
The names in parentheses stand for the writings in the Bible called “books.” These books have poetry, letters, teachings, historical accounts, songs, and more. The Bible is a massive collection of writings.
The numbers in parentheses indicate the particular verses in the Bible to which we refer. Long ago, scholars divided the books into small segments called verses. These small segments have numbers to help us locate them.
We encourage you to read the Bible on your own. But you do not need to read the whole Bible to understand the book you are reading right now. We plan to give a concise presentation of the good news. But you will want to study the Bible more in the future.
There is a third reason we think God is calling you home. We believe God quietly stirs within our hearts a desire to come home to love. And we think that while you read this book, we think you will probably feel that stirring.
We think that God is already “talking” to you. God’s way of communication is usually a small voice in you. A “stirring” is like an intuition or sixth sense. Some call is a strong feeling.
In your heart of hearts, we think you have probably already heard God saying, “Come home and live in my love.” God seems to be inviting everyone in this subtle way.
We encourage you to say “yes” to God.
God Loves You and Me
We have already said that God’s love is deeper than the deepest sea and wider that the universe. The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16).
Sometimes in life, we need to know that God loves us individually.
To put it personally, God loves you in particular! God cares about you and wants you to live a life of meaning and joy. In fact, Jesus said that he offers us all an absolutely excellent life (John 10:10).
Jesus talks about how much God loves each of us. He told two stories to illustrate God’s care. One story was about a shepherd and a lost sheep.
A loving shepherd lost one of his 100 sheep. He did not rest content with the ninety-nine safely in his care. Instead, the good shepherd searched for one that was lost. Because his love extended to all the sheep, he went out to search for the missing one.
When the shepherd found the lost sheep, says Jesus, “he joyfully put it on his shoulders and went home. Then he called his friends and neighbors together and said, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”
Jesus also said that God is like a woman who loses one of her ten silver coins. After discovering her loss, she will not say to herself, “No problem. I still have nine coins. I don’t care about the missing one.” Instead, she will get a light and search her home carefully.
When the woman found the lost coin, says Jesus, “she called her friends and neighbors together and said, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’”
Like the shepherd searching for the one lost sheep or the woman searching for her lost coin, God searches for us tirelessly. God never gives up – ever!
God rejoices whenever any of us come home to God’s love (Luke 15:3-10). God cares about each person. We can be assured that God loves us personally.
God loves you!
God Loves Everyone
Sometimes we need to realize God loves others too. God loves everyone. It does not matter one’s tribe, intelligence, past history, family, sexual behaviors, looks, wealth or poverty – God loves us all!
God cares for all creatures, great and small. The love of God extends to every last bit of creation in the whole universe!
A wise man came to Jesus one evening. He wanted to know about the reign of love Jesus was preaching and living. “If you want to live in that love,” Jesus said to the wise man, “you must be born again.”
This confused the man. How could a person be born a second time, he wondered? How could a grown person get back in a mother’s womb?
Jesus must have seen the puzzled look on his face. So Jesus explained what he meant. He said being born a second time involves spiritual rebirth. Jesus came to tell the good news that everyone can be born again spiritually.
“God loved the world so much that he gave his only son,” Jesus told the man. Whoever believes in the son will not die spiritually. That person can enjoy abundant life (John 3:1-16).
The writers of the Bible report that Jesus is the son whom God gave. Believing in Jesus means enjoying the abundant life of love God gives. The good live involves following Jesus’ example by living a life of love.
Notice that in the sentence above Jesus says, “God loved the world so much…” God loves the whole world. This means God loves everyone, not just you. Not just me. Not just a few. Everyone!
We are all God’s favorite children.
In fact, Jesus said that God is not interested in condemning anyone (John 3:17). God seeks to save us all.
God is not mad at us!
God does hate it when we hurt others and ourselves. Doing such things is called committing “sin,” and we’ll talk more about sin in later chapters. God hates sin and wants to save us from such destructive behavior. But God hates it when we hurt ourselves and others, because God loves everyone.
To enjoy the born again life, we must return to God’s love. We can live the good life when we follow Jesus’ example. Following Jesus involves living in the light and avoiding deeds of darkness (John 3:18-21).
In a letter to Jesus followers living in Rome, a man named Paul talks about God’s love. He says that when we were acting like God’s enemies, God reached out to us. God did not act like our enemy. Instead, God invited us to be reunited.
When we accept God’s invitation to be reunited, we can live an excellent life. Jesus makes this possible (Romans 5:10-11).
While each of us were living in a distant land or working in the fields, God already loved us. God always wanted to be reunited. It is time to embrace our loving Father.
We do not need to be afraid of God. God loves us! God loves others. And God loves all creation.
That is wonderful news!
Posted in 2010 under ...and the Kitchen Sink
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You’ve reached the online home of Thomas Jay Oord, a professor, author, and theologian from the Pacific Northwest. Read more
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Comments
John King
08.25.2010
8:35am
I really like this post. Keep up the good work. I will be looking forward to reading the entire book.
Duane Brush
08.25.2010
9:20am
Tom,
I feel you have achieved your goal. The vocabulary and grammar are very accessible. I like the use of the parable narrative on a number of levels.
One thing I would point out is that the sin of the younger son was first in the selfish demand for an inheritance not yet his to receive, and in his walking away from a loving father. The wild living was living out his selfish rejection of the father’s love. This is why the elder brother’s story is so important. Not all believers have had a “pig sty” experience, but all need the the Father’s grace and love.
I commend you for undertaking such a valuable and challenging project.
Catherine Clees
08.25.2010
9:20am
I like it! I think that people will be drawn to the book because they feel like they need to “know everything” before they can lead others to Christ. They tend to over complicate the simple fact that God loves them and are looking for an easier way to explain Jesus to others. People I have encountered feel like they aren’t good enough or don’t know enough on how to explain Christ to others, so they refrain from doing it. Hopefully, this new book will help them feel more comfortable sharing the Good News.
John Grant
08.25.2010
9:53am
Dr. Oord,
As I read this first chapter I kept thinking of Deanna’s brother—a child psychologist and a devout agnostic. I wondered what he would think, how would he read this? Like Deanna, he was raised LDS. But unlike Deanna, he rejected all things Christian. I don’t think he would read much beyond this first chapter,if he would even bother to finish it. Phrases like “seeks to save those who are lost” would stir a negative reaction—“Who is he to say I’m lost.” Ideas like “coming home” carry an idea of going to another place (or dying), while he has deep concerns over the place where he is. While the way you present this first chapter would most certainly have an appeal for the person who is already ‘seeking,’ I’m not sure it would have much appeal to Deanna’s brother, nor would it be very convincing. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be negative. And maybe Deanna’s brother is not as typical a case as I imagine.
I do think that God’s love is most definitely the place to start (although then you also have to deal with the whole problem of evil thing). And not only do I think that love is the place to start, but I think that your Essential Kenosis understanding is also the place to work from. I think this sort of understanding would be appealing to Deanna’s brother and others like him.
Perhaps also part of the difficulty is that the ‘gospel’ is not just one thing. It can’t be reduced to a formula. I think starting with the story of the Prodigal Son like you did might be a good thing because it gives it more of a narrative feel.
Anyway, just by 2 cents worth.
John
Hans Deventer
08.25.2010
10:04am
Tom, I like it. If I may suggest something, I’d try to clarify a little more the concept of being “born again”, recognizing that for some of your audience, the concept might even be a negative one, because people who claim it, don’t necessarily live up to it.
Drew
08.25.2010
10:48am
Good use of scriptures! From an evangelical stand point the modern versions like this will help a lot.
Aside from some minor editing that will be (I’m sure) done later it it looks good. The only thing that I would say might be missing is a personal touch. If someone doesn’t yet believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then it’s hard for them to take it as such. Personal accounts always seem to help put it into perspective and help give credibility to the readers.
Overall, can’t wait to see the rest!
tripp fuller
08.25.2010
11:43am
wow! great post and book idea. i wish i had thought of it! at least ill get to read it.
keep up the great work Tom. See you soon @ Big Tent!
Jacob Johnson
08.25.2010
7:57pm
I think that this is perfect for a person who is really hurting and needing reassurance of love. It is perfect for ordinary people who have not heard of God’s love in this way.
It may not be enough for an intellectual Atheist who has thought through their beliefs and the reasons behind them. The logical apologetic style within the first section of “Mere Christianity” may be more appropriate for that ilk.
However, this chapter is an excellent introduction for its target group. Keep us posted on how it’s going!
Hank
08.26.2010
8:20am
What a neat idea—and what a challenge! One thing that fascinated me while reading your excerpt was how similar in tone and style it felt to a recent book that is an almost exact counterpoint. Phillip Pullman’s “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ” beautifully retells the gospels, but comes from an atheist’s viewpoint. Although I am not an atheist, I was deeply moved by the beauty of the stories as he retold them.
Best wishes as you work on this project.
Norma Ernest
08.26.2010
12:20pm
Tom! Congratulation in offering salvation in non-religious language! I understand the challenge. Is it not amazing that Jesus’ narrative of the two sons is so timeless! so current! is it not amazing that the wild, wayward son named his behavior as “sin”? While the Elder son does not name his anger, jealousy, resentment as sin at all but rather justifiable. Our sins of the spirit, not so easily seen as “wild,destructive life style”—until it is expressed in un-acceptance of the returning son. His refusal to socialize with the returning son was still separation from the Father ‘cause where was the Father?—at the party! but he left the party to go seek the elder son.
The elder son apparently had not noticed the current value of his “balance sheet”! I am assuming his half of the estate had improved over time—he could afford to be generous. Alas! Alas! NE.
Paul DeBaufer
08.26.2010
1:53pm
“The numbers in parentheses indicate the particular verses in the Bible to which we refer. Long ago, scholars divided the books into small segments called verses. These small segments have numbers to help us locate them.” No mention of chapters, but I think that that was intended.
I think that you explain things very well. I do, in a sense, agree with John Grant as far as the phrase, “calling you home.” I think in the Christian parlance this refers to dying. Although, and this would be for the more mature Christians, I do understand that the Kingdom of God is both my home and a current reality, so I do go home when I enter the Kingdom. However, most evangelicals use the phrase to mean death of a believer.
As far as an agnostic/atheist audience, I’m not sure any Christian book would be attractive to them. They certainly weren’t for me. I think that for them lengthy apologetics would be in order, but that would seem, to me, to take away from the intended purpose of this book.
I look forward to reading the whole book when it comes out. I am currently working with many new believers, not my comfort zone or am I the best one for the job, but…, and I think that this might be a good tool for them. We even get “seekers” in our program, so….
Thomas Jay Oord
08.27.2010
8:31am
Tom
What if you said “we encourage you to start the journey home to God” instead of say yes to God. That fits the story and also that’s where most people start discovering more about God that leads to the big YES to God. Just a thought.
Also I have a question…What would you say to a pastor who just resigned his pastorate because he said he does not believe that God works in the details of life? He said “I just don’t believe that God is intimately involved in the prayers of people.” He is a good pastor and has done a very good job leading the church. He is well educated and has had good mentors but he is through with being a pastor. Of course I tried to talk to him and begged him to take time but his mind was made up.
Any advice?
Keith Wright
Daniel Ketchum
08.28.2010
7:59am
Dr. Tom,
You introduced this blog: “I feel like God is calling me in this direction. I care deeply about the salvation of the world!”
Thank you for caring enough to invite the “person on the street” into Jesus and into good news from the Word. This could become your finest contribution to current culture.
I continue to pray with you for the heart of the Father, the mind of the Son, and the anointing of the Spirit. God is willing, ready, and able to call you deeper in love.
We are eager to know who is the coauthor. Grace and peace in Christ.
Daniel Ketchum
Sisterlisa
09.02.2010
5:18pm
Thomas, you are not the only one with this revelation and I am so happy to see this. It is so refreshing to see the Good News be told like this.
Grady Harmon
10.10.2010
9:31pm
Dr. Oord,
I really enjoyed this post. I really liked the fact that you didn’t say much, but you let the stories of the Bible point out the love that God has for us. I have been a Christian for quite some time, but I found this chapter very refreshing in the way I think about God’s love. It was a great reminder that He cares for us individually and really He loves us like we were the only one on Earth. Also, this would really communicate to youth. I work with youth regularly and they really struggle with feeling loved and I thought that this chapter would have really connected with most of the.
Grady Harmon
Brian Knight
11.05.2010
9:45pm
Dr. Oord,
I enjoyed the chapter. I think it is very important to begin a conversation with a prospective believer with a definition of who God is. You do well in allowing the Bible to be the primary source of explaining God in a way that someone could relate and would desire a relationship. We need to know that God cares about us and loves us right where we are. But He also wants more for us.
I think you did well in keeping it on topic and not trying to do too much. You also did well avoiding any “churchy” terms that may be difficult for someone unfamiliar with the faith. This is a great foundation for the rest of the book.
Brian Knight
Hamish
12.22.2010
8:05pm
This is a good easily understandable presentation of the gospel. I have a few questions though. First of all what are you planning for the other seven chapters? This first chapter says quite a bit about what the gospel is which is acceptance and freedom from death. My next question is who is your target audience? This is a stretch for me because I do not know or want to presume how little or non-aware people are in America of the Christian message or the Bible. Have you ever read Peter Rollins’ Orthodox Heretic? This book is a presentation of parables and your first chapter reminded me of this book.
All in all I think this is a worthy endeavor and might possibly serve a purpose if it is propagated by Christians who live out the gospel. If your book wakes one person out of death than it is a worthwhile procedure.
Hamish