Stan writes today to once again pit Paul against Jesus. And as always, I'm not picking on Stan and don't want to talk about Stan. I'm talking about the point he is raising and the questions he's ignoring... as has been my experience when talking with more conservative Christians. Stan says...
Despite the Pauline Dispensationalists who claim that Jesus taught a different gospel than Paul or the Social Justice Warriors that argue that Jesus taught a "good news for the poor" rather than "saved by faith" gospel, it appears that Jesus and Paul taught the same gospel: repent and believe and you will have eternal life.
A few points:
1. Folks like me do NOT believe in a "good news for the poor" rather than "saved by faith" gospel" - we believe in salvation by God's grace and we note that Jesus said he'd come to preach this good news specifically, literally to the poor and marginalized. That is, this salvation of grace begins with the poor and marginalized.
2. I'm noting that Stan found nothing in Jesus' words saying anything about the evangelical belief in a penal substitutionary atonement theory as taught by some human traditions.
3. And, as always, I wonder (and get no answers other than waving away the questions or saying we shouldn't take THESE words literally)... What do you all do with Jesus' continued emphasis on a good news for the poor and marginalized that came up so frequently and with such emphasis in Jesus' words? Ignore them?
WHY did Jesus say he'd come to preach good news to the poor and marginalized specifically?
What about that good news of "repentance and faith" (PLUS the blood sacrifice/atonement/angry god theory) is somehow good news for the poor?
4. Here's the thing: I can point to the ways in which a Gospel of Grace that more aligns with Jesus' teachings is good news specifically for the poor and marginalized. In the salvation by God's grace, where we have a loving God who loves the whole world and wants to see the whole world saved and who BEGINS that salvation of grace with/for the poor and marginalized who have traditionally been ignored and excluded, it IS good news for them in the following ways:
a. They are specifically INCLUDED. Not told they're filthy and unclean, unfit to be loved by God. They are lovingly invited, welcomed and greeted to the dinner table.
b. When we're following Christ and the early church's examples, that means, among other things, that they're literally invited to come and eat. That IS good news specifically for the poor and marginalized who have been ignored at best and hated and blamed at worst... they're welcome AND there's food. That's good news for the hungry and the lonely, abandoned, forgotten and oppressed.
c. They/we are welcome not JUST to a dinner, but to be part of a beloved community, one that begins with grace, love and welcome. And there's real power in that Church of God that is a beloved community, welcoming in grace and that's a real difference for the literally poor, sick, foreigner and oppressed. There's some level of protection in that community, there's healing in that community in a way that isn't there in the individualistic, god eat dog world and that is especially true and important for the poor and marginalized.
Do you see how it's reasonably literal good news for the poor, this doctrine of welcoming, loving grace? That, as opposed to, "IF God decides to 'gift' you with 'faith,' then you can be saved and if not, tough luck for you - poor and rich and in between!" That's the "good news" of the random one-in-a-million lottery winner, not for the poor and marginalized... I always wonder if they can see how that would not be literal good news for the poor and marginalized (and truly, it's not good news for most of humanity, at least amongst those evangelicals who insist that "the bible" "teaches" that God will send most of us to burn in hell forever!)?
It's a good and important question, though, "What Gospel did Jesus preach?" And I am certainly down with repenting and believing in Jesus/God... that would be part of a good news of grace, where we are welcomed and welcome to repent and forgive. But as you well know, it's not merely believing in God - even the demons do that, right? So simple "belief" is not what Jesus was speaking of, right? I'd say that it's affirming/accepting Jesus' WAY which is the way of grace which is, as Jesus notes, good news for the poor.
Can you see, at least, how some of us find that internally consistent with Jesus' literal words and rationally compelling?
For what it's worth, other times this issue has been raised and ignored...
https://throughthesewoods.blogspot.com/2015/08/different-gospels.html
https://throughthesewoods.blogspot.com/2018/09/defining-gospel.html
https://throughthesewoods.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-gospel-of-jesus-vs-evangelicalism.html
