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I hear again and again that if you believe Jesus died (i.e. atoned) for your sins you are saved. Paul says the Gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe (Rom 1:16) and thus, putting 2 and 2 together we arrive at the formula that the Gospel is, essentially, atonement.
Although this is indeed good news for those who believe it, I’ve argued elsewhere that this is not the real Gospel but a subjective implication. The real Gospel is the royal proclamation of Jesus’ Kingship, a message about Him, true for everyone, a call to all to obedience and allegiance. Nevertheless I’m prepared to consider that I might be wrong and that Atonement is the Gospel and I would like to explore that possibility.
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Genesis 6 begins with a puzzling report of the “sons of God” coming down to earth and producing offspring with human women. These strange hybrids, presumably part angel and part human, are called “Nephilim” (traditionally translated “giants”) and are identified with the great heroes and warriors of old.
Chuck Missler, Grant Jeffrey and others have some interesting views on these Nephilim and the whole theory has been taking up much airtime on God TV as well as being a major subplot in Wendy Alec’s The Chronicles of Brothers series (see The Fall of Lucifer). According to this theory the Nephilim are indeed giants but are also semi-demonic figures. The reasoning is that “sons of God” refers to angels and that Nephilim is a form of the Hebrew “naphal” which means “fallen” – the Nephilim are the offspring of fallen angels (demons).
Ever since I heard Tim Keller explain that the root of all problems is failure to believe the Gospel I’ve been fascinated by discovering just what exactly “The Gospel” is and how it is the “power of salvation”. What fact could there possibly be which, when believed, saves and totally transforms a person? Part of my discovery came from listening to N.T. Wright argue persuasively that the Gospel is, quote, “Jesus is Lord” and that most of what we consider to be Good News is a consequence of this.
In the evangelical world the Gospel is taken to be the radical and indeed life-transforming truth that we are justified by faith alone apart from works. Implicitly or explicitly we are told, works are bad because they insult the work Jesus did. I’ve discussed why I disagree with this view in Which Gospel and my realisation is that this is a shrunken, individualised and subjective good news which encourages passiveness and occludes the royal announcement of Jesus’ Kingship which is for the whole world to hear.
