{"id":92401,"date":"2020-05-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=92401"},"modified":"2020-05-05T06:34:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T10:34:07","slug":"scot-mcknight-the-gospel-and-its-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=92401","title":{"rendered":"Scot McKnight&#8211;The Gospel and its Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text\">You may now see what I\u2019m doing there: those who turn the gospel into its benefits and then construct the gospel for the sake of personal benefits (salvation, redemption, justification, transformation, meaning in life, going to heaven) are glory-makers like the selfish athlete. As sport is about the city and its team, so the gospel is about God and his Son Jesus. Yes, for sure, the gospel brings benefits but it is first about Jesus \u2013 the gospel story is the story of Israel that finds its climax in the story of Jesus \u2013 and then about us. (See <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3df50Lf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>King Jesus Gospel<\/strong><\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Look at the gospel summary passages in the New Testament and you will see the point (1 Cor 15:1-28). Where\u2019s the focus?<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">\u201cWhat\u2019s in it for us?,\u201d is the question asked by the one who turns the gospel around into a benefit-package. Benefits themselves can be distorted and benefits can distort the gospel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Evangelism that focuses on Jesus and tells people about Jesus and draws people to the glory who is Jesus have it right; those who entice people into the benefits that come from the gospel are turning it around. Robert Jenson in his <em>Systematic Theology<\/em>, says this: \u201cgospel messengers,\u201d are ones who say \u201cWe are not here to entice you into our religion by benefits allegedly found only in it. We are here to introduce you to the true god, for whatever he can do with you \u2013 which may well be suffering and oppression\u201d (1.51). That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/scot-mcknight\/2020\/may\/gospel-and-its-benefits.html\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">When the benefits of the gospel shape the gospel itself:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/htD7exgNsW\">https:\/\/t.co\/htD7exgNsW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Scot McKnight (@scotmcknight) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/scotmcknight\/status\/1257265841877516289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may now see what I\u2019m doing there: those who turn the gospel into its benefits and then construct the gospel for the sake of personal benefits (salvation, redemption, justification, transformation, meaning in life, going to heaven) are glory-makers like<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=92401\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,164,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christology","category-soteriology","category-theology-scripture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92405,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92401\/revisions\/92405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}