Last week at the National New Church Conference the Reverand Tim Keller spoke. He is the senior minister for Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NYC. In his address he highlighted a wonderful point from the book of Galatians.
In chapter one of Galatians the apostle Paul greets his readers with his familiar, “grace and peace to you” and then, rather forcefully, chastises them for backtracking on their commitment to “the gospel.” He passionately accuses them of turning to “a different gospel” which he claims is not good news at all. In his typical hyperbole, Paul declares that even if anyone or he, himself, were to return to the province of Galatia and preach something other than what he had preached initially and by which the Galatian Christians were converted, they should suffer eternal condemnation. Here in chapter one Paul makes a strong case for the unity of the gospel. There is just one gospel so Paul seems to say and if anyone presents something different he should go to hell. Paul underscores the validity and legitimacy of the gosepl he preached by affirming that the gospel he presented to them was given to him through revelation by Jesus Christ himself. Clearly, Paul is playing the ultimate trump card.
The interesting part comes in chapter two as he describes his relationship with the other apostles, in particular those in the Jewish church in Jerusalem. Paul describes his trip to Jerusalem to privately present to the leaders “the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.” On this trip he took along the Greek convert Titus who, Paul notes, is not compelled to be circumcised while in Jerusalem with all of the circumcised Christians. Continuing on in 2:7 Paul identifies himself as the apostle to the Gentiles and Peter as the apostle to the Jews. He reports that the leaders in Jerusalem encouraged him that such an arrangement should continue.
What is interesting is the oneness/lack of oneness of the gospel. Apparently, Paul sees no contradiction in aruguing for the singularity of the gospel when threatened by doctrines of law-keeping and yet enbracing his role as the preacher of the unique gospel to the Gentiles, which does not enforce circumcision while accepting that Jewish Christians still do.
I think what we hear echoing in the deep caverns of the book of Galatians are Jewish Christians arguing the point. Some are insisting that circumcision is a “salvation issue” and other, more progressivly minded Jewish Christians, accept that it may not be a salvation issue yet feel circumcision should still be practiced out of respect for their Jewish heritage. Paul’s response seems to be harshest for the first group because they have irreparably damages the true gospel (chapter 1). In chapter 1 Paul is writing as theologian. In chapter 2 we see Paul writing as as missionary/church planter who understands that the singular gospel will look remarkably different as it is embedded in different cultures, sometimes to the great dismay of the other.
As the old song says, “Everything old is new again!” How remarkable it is after 2000 years of Christian history & innumerable volumns written expounding the gospel, we are still so easily confused. As I re-read Paul’s words, I am struck by the eternal weight of this matter. “If we or an angel from heaven shuld preach a gospel othe than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” The call to preach the gospel is no small matter. And we must not be blackmailed into preaching an immasculated gospel or a gospel that keeps peace with the Judaizers. Rather, we must preach the pure, radical & at times divisive gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world.
OW
