Offering the gospel is more than offering personal forgiveness, escape from hell, or even a right relationship with God (though I hasten to add these are the primary benefits of the gospel). Part of the restorative purpose of the gospel is to enable people to stop treating others as objects to be used and start relating to them as persons to be enjoyed.
This purpose of the gospel needs to be understood in light of the nature of God as triune, as well as the purposes of God for creation and the effects of the fall in thwarting those purposes. The fundamental purpose of creation is the glory of God through the flourishing of his created order, and that flourishing is constituted by the created world being in proper relationship, a relationship of shalom (peace, harmony).
Harmonious relationship goes to the very heart of what it means to be human. Humans can be truly human only in proper relationships. Made in the image of God, human beings are Trinitarian beings. Contrary to the individualism which says we can only discover and be ourselves in isolation, the Biblical account teaches us that we are essentially communal. Just as the persons of the trinity are constituted as individual persons in eternal relationship with one another, human beings, made in the image of God, are essentially “person-in-relationship”. The fullness of what it means to be a human being created in the image of the triune God cannot be realized apart from relationships patterned after the triune community.
Man was meant to flourish in God’s creation. Human flourishing consists in and requires that we be properly related to God, self, others, and nature. These are relationships of enjoyment.
Now, one fruitful way to analyse the effects of sin is to see that it seeks to obliterate the glory of God by diminishing the flourishing of creation, most notably in the crown of creation, human beings. Satan is the first graffiti artist. Sin destroys or diminishes the image of God in man by causing alienation. Sin alienates the sinner: from God, himself, other humans, and his place in the world. And the effect of alienation is the diminution of our humanity. Sin makes a monkey out of you; sin dehumanises man through alienation. (Death is the ultimate alienation; possession, severe mental illness, war, addictions, and physical infirmities, are all in the continuum of dehumanizing alienations, leading down to the ordinary strife we experience in human relationships and in the longing for “connectedness” that remains in even the best relationships in this fallen world)
The "objectification" of persons ‑‑ not treating them as persons, but as means to an end, as threats to a goal, or as objects to be used for personal gain, whether it be spiritual notches on one's conversion belt, or sexual conquests, or employees to be exploited … ‑‑ is one form of the breakdowns in dehumanizing relationships.
The gospel is in the business of reconciliation – the restoration of the “shalom”, the peaceful harmony of all things in properly ordered relationship of enjoyment.
The gospel is about restoring our ability to relate properly -- as "persons‑in‑relation" after the image of (according to the pattern in) the triune communion ‑‑ and thereby restores us to the image of God. That, by the way, is the essence of sanctification: the restoration of the image of God in fallen humanity. It follows that sanctification is inherently and essentially a communal and corporate enterprise. (Sanctification = being restored to the image of God. God is a trinity of persons‑in‑relation. Therefore to become like him necessarily involves entering into Trinitarian‑like relations.)
It also follows that if we are not entering into and welcoming others into enjoyable personal (opposed to "objectified") relationships, then we are not offering them the gospel at all. Instead we are offering the same old fallen way of being a human being ‑‑ using people rather than welcoming them into and entering personal relationship ‑‑ except with a religious veneer over it.
The church ‑‑ a community of enjoyment is part of the gospel. Evangelism ‑‑ proclaiming the gospel to the world ‑‑ involves bringing the church to the world and the world to the church, the community of joy, of enjoyment, of a “party people”. Party on, then, and let’s keep inviting others to party with us.
This purpose of the gospel needs to be understood in light of the nature of God as triune, as well as the purposes of God for creation and the effects of the fall in thwarting those purposes. The fundamental purpose of creation is the glory of God through the flourishing of his created order, and that flourishing is constituted by the created world being in proper relationship, a relationship of shalom (peace, harmony).
Harmonious relationship goes to the very heart of what it means to be human. Humans can be truly human only in proper relationships. Made in the image of God, human beings are Trinitarian beings. Contrary to the individualism which says we can only discover and be ourselves in isolation, the Biblical account teaches us that we are essentially communal. Just as the persons of the trinity are constituted as individual persons in eternal relationship with one another, human beings, made in the image of God, are essentially “person-in-relationship”. The fullness of what it means to be a human being created in the image of the triune God cannot be realized apart from relationships patterned after the triune community.
Man was meant to flourish in God’s creation. Human flourishing consists in and requires that we be properly related to God, self, others, and nature. These are relationships of enjoyment.
Now, one fruitful way to analyse the effects of sin is to see that it seeks to obliterate the glory of God by diminishing the flourishing of creation, most notably in the crown of creation, human beings. Satan is the first graffiti artist. Sin destroys or diminishes the image of God in man by causing alienation. Sin alienates the sinner: from God, himself, other humans, and his place in the world. And the effect of alienation is the diminution of our humanity. Sin makes a monkey out of you; sin dehumanises man through alienation. (Death is the ultimate alienation; possession, severe mental illness, war, addictions, and physical infirmities, are all in the continuum of dehumanizing alienations, leading down to the ordinary strife we experience in human relationships and in the longing for “connectedness” that remains in even the best relationships in this fallen world)
The "objectification" of persons ‑‑ not treating them as persons, but as means to an end, as threats to a goal, or as objects to be used for personal gain, whether it be spiritual notches on one's conversion belt, or sexual conquests, or employees to be exploited … ‑‑ is one form of the breakdowns in dehumanizing relationships.
The gospel is in the business of reconciliation – the restoration of the “shalom”, the peaceful harmony of all things in properly ordered relationship of enjoyment.
The gospel is about restoring our ability to relate properly -- as "persons‑in‑relation" after the image of (according to the pattern in) the triune communion ‑‑ and thereby restores us to the image of God. That, by the way, is the essence of sanctification: the restoration of the image of God in fallen humanity. It follows that sanctification is inherently and essentially a communal and corporate enterprise. (Sanctification = being restored to the image of God. God is a trinity of persons‑in‑relation. Therefore to become like him necessarily involves entering into Trinitarian‑like relations.)
It also follows that if we are not entering into and welcoming others into enjoyable personal (opposed to "objectified") relationships, then we are not offering them the gospel at all. Instead we are offering the same old fallen way of being a human being ‑‑ using people rather than welcoming them into and entering personal relationship ‑‑ except with a religious veneer over it.
The church ‑‑ a community of enjoyment is part of the gospel. Evangelism ‑‑ proclaiming the gospel to the world ‑‑ involves bringing the church to the world and the world to the church, the community of joy, of enjoyment, of a “party people”. Party on, then, and let’s keep inviting others to party with us.
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