The James Bond Gospel

I don't know if you like Bond movies? They used to be a staple on British television over the festive period, though maybe not so much these days. The plot in most of the Bond films is quite straightforward. For me, Goldfinger is the archetypal Bond film and most subsequent Bond films use the same basic plot. An evil genius has a plan to take over the world and James Bond has to stop him (or her? though I don't think there has been a female Bond villain yet).

This plot line is actually a pale reflection of the reality of what the Bible tells us has happened to the world. An evil super-villain, a spiritual being called the devil or Satan, rebelled against God at some point before human beings came into existence. Later, when the first human beings were created, he schemed successfully to lead them into rebellion against God as well and give up their position of God's stewards and viceroys over creation to come instead under his evil influence, control and ownership as slaves of sin. Satan's work was like unleashing a terrible virus into the atmosphere that would then infect and poison the whole of creation.

Something is wrong with the world and with us. Deep down we know it. All human beings are "not quite right." We're not the people we feel we should be. Often we're not the people we even want to be ourselves. The Bible tells us we're right to feel that way. We're not imagining it. And the Bible calls the thing that's wrong with us is a deadly disease called "sin."

Sin is like a virus that infects and affects every part of us - our bodies, our brains, our hearts - and all their functions including our thoughts and our feelings. It is a disease that is, humanly speaking, incurable, and it only has one prognosis - death. In biblical terms, "death" is not just physically dying, but an eternal state of "un-life." Not only that, the symptoms of this disease ravage our behaviour and manifests as pride, cruelty, anger, hatred, lust, envy and many other utterly horrible human traits. All the particular evils trace their origin back to the disease of sin that has infected humanity, and we every single one of us catches the disease from birth. It is inevitable for everyone born into this world that they will be infected, even if there is a latency period during childhood before the disease goes "full blown".

Another horrible aspect of the disease is that it is completely debilitating. We are paralysed by sin. Unable to find a cure. Unable to even want to be cured.

That's the position we all find ourselves in. That's the way the world has always been right from the earliest period of human history.

The story of the Old Testament in the Bible is largely about God calling on one nation, Israel, to be the people through whom the disease of sin would be dealt with and through whom the world would be put right. It is also the story of how that people failed again and again in their mission, finding out that they themselves were infected with the same disease as all the other nations.

The New Testament tells the story of how God came to earth himself, which it turns out had always been the plan, in the person of his Son, his "second self" who was born and lived as a faithful Israelite called Jesus of Nazareth. He showed the character and the wisdom of God, and then in his death he took on himself the entire disease, to rid the world of it once and for all, thereby defeating the Evil Mastermind who was behind it all. He rose from the dead so that not only would the disease have no more power over him, but that the cure he had created and the immunity from it he had gained could be passed on to everyone who wants it for themselves. Not only that, but once we are given the medicine, the power of the disease is broken and we start the long process of recovering from the effects of the disease, knowing that one day we will be totally free of it and able to live forever, even though our body goes through death.

So how do you receive the cure? It's very simple. You trust in Jesus to save you and ask him come into your life and cure you. When you ask him, he will do it. Then you become his friend and stay in a loving friendship with him forever, getting to know him, learning to see what a life without the disease looks like and trying to copying him in your life. You'll also find that there's a great crowd of people who have also been saved and now live in a new kingdom. The group is called the church, which means "the gathered ones." The church gets together to thank Jesus, meet his Father who is now our Father too, and to be energised by his Spirit to live as we should and deep down really want to live. Among other things, we continue to work to help other victims of the disease in practical ways in this world and spread the good news that there is a cure available for everyone.

The Gospel and the Message of Salvation

You would think that one of the simplest questions that any evangelical Christian would be able to answer is this: What is the gospel?

After all, isn't that the very defining aspect of everyone who identifies himself or herself as an evangelical, that they are committed to the evangel, the gospel?

A number of scholars have pointed out that what evangelicals usually call "the gospel" is not quite the same as what the biblical writers meant by "gospel". Examples of this would include N. T. Wright and Scot McKnight among others. Evangelicals tend to think that the gospel is exactly the same thing as the message of salvation – a step-by-step guide for how sinners can be forgiven, find peace with God and start a new life – but these scholars distinguish between what is specifically meant by "the gospel" itself in the New Testament and the message of salvation which is always one of the New Testament's great implications of the gospel. But the call to trust and follow Jesus in order to find salvation is not the "gospel" itself as narrowly and specifically defined in the New Testament.

The gospel or good news is the proclamation or announcement of a fact, the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the King of Israel, died for our sins and has risen from the dead to be the rightful the Lord and Saviour of the world. The gospel is in fact the story of Jesus which shows that he is the King and Saviour of the world.

The message of salvation is obviously closely linked with the gospel, but not identical to it. The message of salvation for us flows out of the story-fact that Jesus came to earth as Saviour and Lord.

The salvation message is that no one is right with God as they are, everyone needs Jesus to save them because he is the King and Saviour of the world, and Jesus is willing to save anyone who comes to him. The gospel or good news is the proclamation of who Jesus is and what he has done. Both parts are important because it is only because of who he is that he could do what he did and it is only because of what he did as well as who he is that his gospel can then become our gospel – good news for people like you and I who are not right with God and need salvation.

A Political Phase

I haven't been blogging much in the last couple of months. One of the reasons for this is that I haven't been that well. I've had quite a few colds and then hay fever, the odd chest infection, and most recently I got a molar tooth out and its been infected and sore as well. I'm hoping to have a better second half of the year than I have in the first half healthwise.

The other reason I haven't been blogging much is because I've been reading more. I've always been interested in politics and current affairs and have been reading some more political books. I have always believed there is a strong link between faith and politics. I suppose I wanted to test out what I believed about politics and how I saw the gospel impacting on political views. I read material from across the political spectrum from right wing Thatcherites and Neoconservatives through Liberal, Socialist and Marxist thinkers.

In the end, having tried to see what is good and bad in all systems I came back to pretty close to where I started - I'm in the Centre of the political spectrum on most issues. My wife summed up my views more succinctly than I ever could myself. She said something like "You think that to be a really Right-wing conservative is incompatible with the gospel." I guess that is so.

There are a few political opinion tests and questionnaires I found useful online. If you want to think about your political views and where you stand, check out the following websites.

http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

http://www.politicalcompass.org/index

http://uk.isidewith.com/political-quiz

Pentecost 2014

Yesterday was a remarkable Pentecost in Sandyford Henderson Memorial Church in Glasgow.

I have only been present once before at a service where a congregation was hearing and then deciding whether to choose a new minister and then I was only a boy.

Yesterday, Sandyford Henderson heard Rev Jonathan de Groot preach as sole nominee. The atmosphere in the service was electric and the sense of the Holy Spirit's presence was almost palpable.

I am happy to go on record as saying that during the whole service I felt very strongly that the sole nominee was indeed the person God wanted for our congregation, and afterwards speaking to a few others, I wasn't alone in this.

The fact that the vote after the service, by secret ballot, was unanimous in favour of Jonathan's election as our new minister is testimony, I think, to the true unity that only the Holy Spirit can bring to the body of Christ.

There are a number of procedural hurdles to cross in both presbyteries, but God willing, we will have a new minister at Sandyford by late summer/early autumn and the long vacancy, which has lasted since Easter 2011, will be over.