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The great cancer: the gospel assumed


There’s a very important article by David Gibson called ‘Assumed Evangelicalism’.  It's well worth reading the whole thing but just to whet your appetite I'll summarise...  Gibson starts by retelling the stories of two movements – the Mennonites and the UK Student Christian Movement:
The first generation of the Mennonite Brethren movement believed and proclaimed the gospel and thought that there were certain social entailments. The next generation assumed the gospel and advocated the entailments. The third generation denied the gospel and all that were left were the entailments. 
In its earliest days the SCM believed and proclaimed the atoning blood of Jesus. The next generation assumed it but did not make it central. The following generations have rejected and denied the apostolic gospel.
Gibson defines ‘assumed evangelicalism’ as a church, organisation or movement which: 
believes and signs up to the gospel. It certainly does not deny the gospel. But in terms of priorities, focus, and direction, assumed evangelicalism begins to give gradually increasing energy to concerns other than the gospel and key evangelical distinctives, to gradually elevate secondary issues to a primary level, to be increasingly worried about how it is perceived by others and to allow itself to be increasingly influenced both in content and method by the prevailing culture of the day.
It's a subtle and difficult thing to spot but Gibson gives us two helpful questions with which to examine ourselves:
  1. To what extent does scandalous and transforming grace dictate our priorities and shape our visions and strategies? If the gospel is assumed there will be legalism and/or license. We will think that the gospel is just for unbelievers not for believers. We will look for Jesus plus...
  2. To what extent do the evangelical distinctives of biblical authority and the Cross dictate our priorities, and shape our visions and strategies?  Are these truths just filed away in a dusty doctrinal basis or they the source of our joy, taught and preached week after week.
Assumed evangelicalism is rife. And the solution is getting explicit. As Glen Scrivener tweeted a few years ago:

“For every use of ‘gospel’ as adjective I want 3 explanations of the noun & if u bang on abt gospel-centred by golly u’d better centre on it”

Good point well made. So here are a few explanations to get us going: What is the gospel?
Let's be explicit about the gospel. Let's not lose our relish for the good new of Christ crucified and risen and given to us. Let's communicate it with all the different colours that the Bible paints it for us. Let's be gospel-centred in a richly biblical way. Let's keep pointing to Christ in his Word.

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