Gospel Prism

I was expecting Mark Driscoll to have more, shall I say Mark Driscoll-like things to say, to say, but I think he was contextualizing for the audience. Any way, what I noticed was that DGM did not put Mark Driscoll on the same panel with David Wells and D. A. Carson. I have to believe that was a bit intentional, but I would have really loved to have been a witness to that interchange. In some ways that would have crystallized what this time was about, in a sense, a coming together of two worlds. Oh well…so here is Mark Driscoll’s talk. I actually appreciated very much what he said. It was a blessing to me.

Introduction

Jesus lived a simple life and lived in relative anonymity. He is the most famous person in human history. So the question remains to be answered then, “Who is this Jesus?� Jesus remains as culturally hot as ever. The cross has become the most legendary symbol, and popular pop culture icon (e.g. Madonna). The question that begs to be answered is, “How should we articulate who is Jesus in this world as the church, especially in light of this pop culture view of Jesus?�

Incarnation and Exaltation of Jesus Christ

The Reformed and Emergent theologies are debating this view of Jesus. When Emergents think of Jesus, they think of Jesus as fully man. They stress the imminence of his manhood. They hold to an incarnational Christology. As an orthodox Christian we must believe in the incarnation of Jesus but not as the only view of Jesus. That concept if incarnational Christology is what drives a view of culture. The problem however is that when that is the only thing that is left of Jesus, we devoid Him of His Godhood. On the other side, there is a stress on the exaltation of Christ. What is lacking is the combining of both christologies. We must avoid the theological error of reductionism.

There are some who over emphasize the exaltation and do not see the incarnation and do not see Jesus as someone who actually suffered as a man. Jesus is one who was tempted and did suffer and can understand us as one who has undergone what we also underwent. It is in the incarnation of Jesus that we have the ability of how to suffer. It is in the exaltation that gives us the authority to call people to repentance.

Revelation
Revelation is a book about Jesus. It gives us the exalted Christ, all about the throne. Revelation 19 gives us the example of authority.

Missiology
We must contend for the exaltation of Christ and contextualize for the incarnation of Christ. Like Jude 3 which says that Faith delivered once and for all saints and that must be contended for, we must contend for the exaltation of Jesus.

9 issues we must contend for

1. Scripture is authoritative, inerrant meta-narrative
We believe the Bible is the meta-narrative over everyone. Apart from Scripture we have no revelation of God. You must tell the people the story of the Bible.

2. Sovereignty of God must be defended against open-theism

3. For the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ

4. Pelagianism – Denial of original sin
In many ways, the emerging church and culture, by denying orthodox tenetds of Christianity, is forming its own religion, a “new kind of Christian.�

5. Penal subsitututionary atonement
We are saved from God and the wrath, anger, and justice of God. This is not a marginal issue of theology. What is at stake is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What is at stake is the glory of Jesus Christ and those who hear you. God feels that angry about sin and there is nothing compassionate about not saying this message, because it keeps people from hearing the message of salvation and the consequences of a terrible hell.

6. The exclusivity of Jesus
Jesus is altogether different and distinct from anyone has ever lived. If we lose the exclusivity of Jesus, we lose Jesus.

7. For gender
Men and women are different.

8. Hell
People don’t like hell, you’re not supposed to. Jesus speaks of hell more than anyone. No one disputes heaven for ever. But people deny the forever of hell.
Every marketer tells us about their personal hell and their personal Savior to get us out of our “hell.�

9. Kingdom is in priority over culture
Over-realized eschatology – Speaking nothing but the Kingdom, but have conflated Kingdom and Gospel. There is now a movement that speak of the end of the age means the end of the Jewish era and we are now living in the Kingdom. We think the Kingdom of God on the earth. In many ways the Emerging Church is like the Corinthian church which had an over-realized eschatology. It’s tiring to talk about the Kingdom and not talking about the King.

We must also contextualize…
We must communicate it to the various subcultures and people groups. Jesus Christ is a missionary. He incarnates into culture. The church must not only do evangelism but must do the work of a missionary in a culture.

In 1 Cor 9, in addition to contending, we must also contextualize. Do you really care about the Gospel? Then you will not only contend, you will contextualize the Gospel so that as many people will meet Jesus.

In one hand, we put in timeless truth in the closed-hand negotiating fighting for doctrine and the other the open-hand and timely winsome ministry. Those who are creative without truth drift into heresy. We must argue not for relativism but relevantism. We are not arguing for seeker-sensitive but seeker sensible.

Are there aspects of things you need to reject? Are there other things that we can receive and can be culturally adapted? Are there things that must be redeemed? There are things in culture we must reject. There are things in culture we must adapt and there are things we must redeem.