Is your Gopel large enough?

I went to Sunday school in a different church last Sunday. The teacher (who was also the pastor of the church) talked about the "big picture" of the Bible. He said -- and I love this line -- that the Bible goes from creation to re-creation.

The third mark of a robust gospel from Christianity Today is that "the robust gospel deals with a robust problem." To quote the article:

When Eve, with her husband in tow, chose to eat from the wrong tree, the [God] image was cracked in each of ... four directions: God-alienation, self-shame, other-blame and Eden-expulsion. Sin results not only in alienation from God, which is paramount, but also in shame of the self, blame and antagonism toward others, and banishment from the world as God made it to be.

Our problems are huge -- we are separated from God and from each other. In order to solve these very big problems, we need a very big gospel.

Nothing short of re-creation will solve our problems. We must be transformed. We cannot find the answers to our problems without God, even though we try all the time.

I think that may be why I bristle when someone places a criteria on grace -- when someone insinuates that we can only earn grace through our "good" behavior. We are transformed by grace -- not through our own power, or through our own actions, but through the love and action of God. Unless we realize that, our gospel is not nearly robust enough.