On the Gospel as it Saves

NT Wright (along with Rob Bell) are fond of saying that the gospel is not just "steps for someone to come to salvation." Here is a quote from "What Saint Paul Really Meant."

It is not, then, a system of how people get saved. The announcement of the gospel results in people being saved--Paul says as much a few verses later.

Ah, the deceptive power of half-truths. Wright is careful to leave himself plenty of wiggle room when it comes to his detractors, and is quite able to defend himself. When accused of robbing the gospel of its saving power, he can point back to his second sentence, and claim that he is really about getting the exegesis right. This is his constant defense.

But the effect, of course, is to make the gospel not about salvation. Salvation is something of secondary importance, almost a side-effect of the gospel. This is why you read in Rob Bell about how the gospel is about so much more than just steps to salvation, etc.

Of course, they are right. Here is the Word of God:

"This is the gospel...that Christ died for sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures."

This is a narrative account of one man's life. The gospel is the life of Jesus Christ presented to others.

Wright's narrative account stresses Jesus as new King of Israel. He does this because often the Emperors of Rome announced new kings using the word "gospel." See here the weakness of his reliance on extra-Biblical resources...this fact is clearly contradicted by a simple cross-reference!

But ultimately, all this deceives because it separates the gospel from the saving action of God, from which of course it is inseparable. The gospel is meaningless unless living, that is, applied to the specific situation of men. An analogy may illuminate here.

Say for example you are in a burning building. You perhaps eagerly desire to get out. The good news, or gospel, in this situation would be the location of a fire exit.

Now say you come across some men also eagerly looking for a way out. They know there is a fire, so you tell them first about the location of the fire exit. Then you carefully lay out the steps for them to find it.

Now say you come across some other men who are ignorant of the fire in the building. First, of course, you would inform them of the fire. Than you would again repeat the steps to make your way out of the building.

The existence of the fire door is only "gospel" as far as the people who need to get out of the building can find the exit. There is not gospel apart from salvation that occurs when men leave the building. Now of course, the good news itself is the fire exit. But for men to lay hold of this fire exit, the steps to finding it must be carefully laid out for them.

The pedantic man would insist that informing men of the fire and telling them the steps to finding the fire exit are not "good news." The normal man is briefly amazed at the pedant's silliness, and then returns to the earnest work of getting out of the burning building.