Is the Gospel Primarily Word or Deed?
bryan on April 20th, 2008
I love how this topic comes up over and over. People like to ask “Is the gospel primarily word or deed?”
I think the next time someone asks me that question, I am just going to respond
“Yes.”
It really is sickening to me that people feel such a need to split these two components. I keep hearing arguments about how what the poor really need is just the Word of God(by which most mean the Bible, not Jesus, the true Word of God). I hear others is reaction to that person say “all they really need is bread.” And the worst part is that I’m not just hearing this from younger Christians who don’t know better, this argument is coming from older Christians, people who in my estimation should be able to figure out the difference.
I think of the book of James where it says if you tell people “hey Jesus loves you, be warm, have some food” but don’t provide them with something to help them stay warm or something to eat that you have a pretty terrible faith. And yet we don’t think this way of the need to follow through in our proclamation. James goes this far with it: “faith without works is dead.”
Dead
Dead as a doornail.
It ain’t worth anything if it’s not bringing about works as well.
So to those trying to say that the gospel is just something that is proclaimed by word, please stop.
To those trying to say the gospel is just about how we live and is proclaimed only by deed, please stop.
The gospel is, was and will be a message that changes our entire lives, a message that calls us to change our actions to bear witness to the reality of Christ’s work to bring about healing to a creation wrecked by sin. It takes individuals realizing their sinfulness and that they need Jesus. And then living in light of the change he is doing in their life, and it happens by how they live and by how they speak.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:15 am
Don’t you think you’ve made this a bit too cut and dry?
Don’t get me wrong, I agree whole heartedly with your post and statements concerning the Gospel. But, I have always felt that the underlying tension here is deeper.
I don’t think people are really asking a question about the Gospel. I think they’re asking a question about themselves. And I think the answer you gave is correct, but for some reason I don’t feel it is completely adequate.
It’s late and my mind is too scattered right now to pin point exactly what I’m trying to discover here. It might have been nothing. I will think on it some more and bug you later.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:15 am
Hey Brandon!
I’d be interested to see what you are thinking about the underlying question at work here. Admittedly, this might not be my most thought out blog I’ve written in a while and I pumped it out in the middle of the night.
Regardless though, for me there is a need to address those who don’t see care for the poor and other ways that Christians care for the community as part of what the gospel entails. They need to know that doing these things is not distracting from the gospel, but is a product of taking the gospel seriously.
On the other side, there are those who want to make the gospel just about how we live, and not point out that people need salvation from sins etc. This is equally bad and also needs to be addressed, because they have to realize that the way of living only happens as a result of people being cleansed from sins. They are selling a cheap bill of goods without Christ’s atoning work.