Outlined Transcript:
In this lecture, I want to talk about the heart of the transcultural gospel.
I have talked a lot about how we understand the Bible without accommodating it to different cultures, changing it, or contextualizing it unnecessarily in order to meet the intellectual or philosophical standards of various cultures.
The place to start is at the heart of the gospel message.
Guilty in Adam, Righteous in Christ
This is not a Western construct, though many people in missions and theological circles claim that it is. It has become very popular to throw out anything perceived to be Western.
But the idea that we are all guilty in Adam, the first Adam, and that in the last Adam, Jesus Christ, we can be declared righteous is at the heart of the gospel system.
There is a lot of discussion today about different cultural paradigms. Some cultures are described as guilt-innocence cultures, others as honor-shame cultures, and others as fear-power cultures.
In that framework, people sometimes argue that in a fear-power culture, the gospel is primarily that Jesus will assert His power to take away your fear of demons, bad luck, or the afterlife. In an honor-shame culture, the gospel becomes the message that God will take away your shame and honor you when you are loyal to Him and honor Him. Then guilt and innocence are treated as the Western paradigm.
I think these categories can be helpful approximations, but I do not think they are completely accurate.
Guilt and Innocence Are Not Enough
Let us start with guilt and innocence.
I distinguish guilt-innocence from guilt-righteousness.
In the West, or really in any highly secularized state or metropolitan culture, people often think in terms of laws and legal order. It does not necessarily have to be Western. There are large capital cities and metropolitan centers throughout the world that are highly secularized even when the countries themselves claim a particular religious identity.
In those settings, guilt and innocence make sense.
Most countries have laws prohibiting certain social infractions. For example, you cannot murder. I would assume virtually every country with a functioning legal code has some prohibition against murder.
But those same laws do not positively mandate the righteous alternative.
The negative command is, “You cannot murder.” The positive command would be, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”
No state can really legislate that, because that is righteousness.
The state has ways of punishing guilt and recognizing innocence, but it does not have a way to measure or reward righteousness. In a secular legal system, you are essentially getting by as long as you remain innocent. The state does not want you to break the law and murder someone. It does not necessarily care whether you hate your neighbor, as long as you do not act on that hatred.
But the Bible cares.
The Bible Requires Righteousness
The Bible not only says that you cannot murder. It says you cannot hate your brother.
And it goes even further than addressing the sinful affections of the heart. It positively commands righteous affections.
You are not only forbidden from murdering someone. You cannot hate him. And beyond that, you are commanded to love your neighbor as yourself.
It does not say to love your neighbor as much as you happen to want to. You are to love your neighbor as yourself, in the same manner that you love and care for yourself.
That is very different.
This is why the human problem is not ultimately a guilt-innocence problem. In that sense, the critique is correct. Guilt-innocence can be a particularly Western or secular legal framework.
But the human problem is a guilt-righteousness problem.
The alternative to guilt is not merely innocence. It is righteousness.
The Gospel Answers the Human Problem
Only the gospel can satisfy that problem.
Through penal substitutionary atonement, our guilt is pardoned. Through the imputation of Christ's righteousness, received through faith alone, we receive the righteousness of God.
That is where we have to start.
Once we have received the imputed righteousness of Christ through faith, all the other human longings begin to make sense.
We desire to be free from shame and treated with honor. We desire to be free from fear and filled with peace. We desire not to be weak or impoverished, but to be strong, healthy, and whole. We desire not to live in bondage to the trappings of this life, but to be free and to flourish as human beings.
Those are good desires. They are connected to the image of God in us.
The problem is that we look for their fulfillment in the wrong places and in the wrong ways.
The Longings of Every Culture
The gospel makes sense of all these desires because it shows us where they actually come to fulfillment.
The pivot point is the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ and the imputation of His righteousness.
From there, all the benefits and blessings we desire begin to make sense because they come to us from Christ and through union with Christ.
Honor, peace, strength, freedom, and true human flourishing cannot replace the gospel or become alternate versions of the gospel for different cultures. They are blessings that make sense only when they flow from the saving work of Christ.
This is how the transcultural gospel system works.
In a few future videos, I will walk through each of these different categories in more detail.