Elliot Ritzema

Tag: gospel

  • Spurgeon’s “Let the lion out of the cage” quote

    Every now and then, I hear it attributed to some great preacher of the past that the gospel (or sometimes, the Bible) is like a lion (or sometimes, a tiger). The idea is that it doesn’t need to be defended; it just needs to be let out of the cage.

    It’s a great quote, but what is the source? It comes from Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century Baptist preacher. He actually said it in at least three different forms. The first version I was able to find is from a book called Speeches at Home and Abroad, from a speech at the Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, May 5th, 1875:

    There seems to me to have been twice as much done in some ages in defending the Bible as in expounding it, but if the whole of our strength shall henceforth go to the exposition and spreading of it, we may leave it pretty much to defend itself. I do not know whether you see that lion—it is very distinctly before my eyes; a number of persons advance to attack him, while a host of us would defend the grand old monarch, the British Lion, with all our strength. Many suggestions are made and much advice is offered. This weapon is recommended, and the other. Pardon me if I offer a quiet suggestion. Open the door and let the lion out; he will take care of himself. Why, they are gone! He no sooner goes forth in his strength than his assailants flee. The way to meet infidelity is to spread the Bible. The answer to every objection against the Bible is the Bible.

    And like many preachers with a good illustration, he repeated it. This is from a sermon called “Christ and His Co-Workers,” preached on June 10, 1886:

    A great many learned men are defending the gospel; no doubt it is a very proper and right thing to do, yet I always notice that, when there are most books of that kind, it is because the gospel itself is not being preached. Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion, a full-grown king of beasts! There he is in the cage, and here come all the soldiers of the army to fight for him. Well, I should suggest to them, if they would not object, and feel that it was humbling to them, that they should kindly stand back, and open the door, and let the lion out! I believe that would be the best way of defending him, for he would take care of himself; and the best “apology” for the gospel is to let the gospel out. Never mind about defending Deuteronomy or the whole of the Pentateuch; preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Let the Lion out, and see who will dare to approach him. The Lion of the tribe of Judah will soon drive away all his adversaries.

    Finally, this from a sermon titled “The Lover of God’s Law Filled with Peace,” preached on January 2, 1888:

    The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it. See you that lion. They have caged him for his preservation; shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes! See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears! These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries.

    UPDATE: Want to see another example of Spurgeon telling an illustration multiple times? Read this post!

  • Book Review: The Explicit Gospel

    There has been a recent rash of books about the gospel. There’s Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel, J.D. Greear’s Gospel, Andrew Farley’s The Naked Gospel, and Greg Gilbert’s What Is the Gospel?, among others that I’ve probably left out.

    What sets this book apart from the rest? I can’t say, because the only book I’ve read on the above list is The King Jesus Gospel. But I can tell you what makes this book interesting.

    The idea behind The Explicit Gospel is that, even for many people who grew up going to church, and are still part of a church, the gospel is implicit. It isn’t talked about; it’s “understood.” Which means that it’s not really understood at all.

    Matt Chandler, the preaching pastor of The Village Church in Texas, (along with co-author Jared Wilson) sets out to correct that with this book. He divides the book into three sections: The Gospel on the Ground, The Gospel in the Air, and Implications and Applications. The gospel on the ground is how the gospel affects individual lives: we are each separated from a holy God by our sins, and we need Christ as a mediator to rid us of our sins. The gospel in the air is how the gospel affects the entire universe: God created a good creation, which was marred by human sin. God’s plan is to reconcile the world to himself, and ultimately remake creation into a new heavens and new earth. In the final section, Chandler talks about the dangers of gospels that dwell on the ground and in the air too long, and finally draws a sharp distinction between the real gospel and moralism (trying to be a “good” person), which is often substituted for the gospel when it is not made explicit.

    What I loved about this book is that is a fine attempt to keep together two sides of the gospel that are sometimes separated. The gospel isn’t just about salvation, but it isn’t the gospel apart from salvation. The renewed creation is a huge part of the gospel, but God’s salvation of sinners shouldn’t be forgotten in the grand vision of the renewed creation. They are both essential.

    All the same, I think it is safe to say that this is not a presentation of the gospel that all Christians would resonate with—at least, not 100%. It is written from within the Reformed stream of Christianity, and has distinctively Reformed understandings of God’s glory and sovereignty. Chandler also takes a view of the first chapters of Genesis that he calls “historic creationism,” which sees the amount of time described in Genesis 1:1–2 as indeterminate, but the seven days described in the rest of Genesis 1 as literal 24-hour days. There were also one or two issues mentioned in the last part of the book where I thought Chandler was being less than charitable toward those with whom he disagreed. I probably agreed with about 95% of what Chandler was saying, but there was 5% where I thought, “This could be seen in a different, but still biblically faithful, way.”

    I don’t dismiss this book because of that 5%, though, and neither should anyone else. The Explicit Gospel is a great reminder of two things of which the Church in the United States is in constant need to be reminded: salvation and the renewal of creation are essential parts of the gospel, and moralism is not.

    Note: Thanks to Crossway for a review copy of this book. I was not asked to give a positive review.

  • Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel

    The problem that Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel is intended to address is that the way evangelical Christians preach the gospel doesn’t often lead to lives characterized by discipleship. Evangelical evangelism has been geared toward getting people to make decisions (“accepting Jesus into your heart”), but “we lose at least 50 percent of those who make decisions” (20, italics in original). People become “saved,” but they don’t become disciples of Jesus. Clearly, the evangelical understanding of gospel and evangelism is not leading to changed lives as often as it should.

    After calling attention to this problem, McKnight asks, “What is the gospel?” He turns to the New Testament–Paul, Jesus, and Peter–and concludes that the gospel “is declaring the story of Israel as resolved in the Story of Jesus” (79). He argues that Christianity left behind the emphasis on story in favor of an emphasis on salvation during the Reformation; the story-formed Creeds were de-emphasized in favor of confessions (McKnight mentions in particular the Augsburg Confession and the Genevan Confession). He takes pains to point out that the Reformers can’t be blamed for the “salvation culture” that we’ve ended up with. However, the seeds of a salvation culture were planted during the Reformation’s shift from an emphasis on story (of which salvation is a part) to an emphasis on salvation (without the rest of the gospel).

    McKnight closes the book with five things that are necessary to regaining a gospel culture:

    1. We have to become people of the Story (153).
    2. We need to immerse ourselves even more into the Story of Jesus (153).
    3. We need to see how the apostles’ writings take the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus into the next generation and into a different culture, and how this generation led all the way to our generation (155).
    4. We need to counter the stories that bracket and reframe our story (157).
    5. We need to embrace this story so that we are saved and can be transformed by the gospel story (158).

    I would recommend this book, but not on its own. It needs other books to flesh out the full picture. It does a good job of arguing that evangelical understandings of the gospel have led to a salvation culture rather than a gospel culture, but doesn’t go into detail about what a gospel culture looks like when it is lived out (McKnight himself has written a book on that subject called One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow). Also, and this is not really a fault of the book, but I am concerned that as a result of McKnight’s argument there may be people who get an impression that the gospel is “either/or”: that is, it is either the story of Jesus fulfilling the story of Israel, or it is salvation. In reality, salvation is part of the gospel. McKnight makes that point (88), and I think it is very important that we do not lose sight of it.