In the last week, I’ve heard two phrases to describe the same principle but didn’t realize a name exists for it. Those two terms are “the full gospel” and “the four chapter gospel.”
Many, if not most, of us know some of the good news about Jesus Christ. We know that the world is sinful and broken, and because of that brokenness we experience separation from God. We know that Jesus, Son of God, came to earth, died on a cross, and rose again, defeating sin and death, which grants eternal salvation for all who believe.
Lots of us, me included, used to stop there. At some point in my journey to Christianity, I was taught about my obvious brokenness and sinfulness (though I didn’t really believe that I was so bad and had to prove that I sucked first before I could see my need for salvation). Once I effectively fell on my face and saw just how far short I fell of the glory of God, all I had to do was ask Jesus into my heart, and he would save me. And he did. I am not ashamed to say I had a true conversion experience, dry bones brought to life, parched earth drenched in Living Water, breath of God breathed into empty lungs. My life changed on the day I committed my life to following Jesus, my Lord and my Savior.
It’s a pretty great story, the gospel or good news, but there’s actually quite a bit more to the story. Our brokenness and our need for God’s restoration through the life, witness, death, and resurrection of Jesus are only two parts of the story. There’s a beginning and an end we’ve often missed, and to me, leaving the beginning and the end out changes everything about our relationships with God.
First, God Created. And It Was Good.
The good news doesn’t begin in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; it actually begins in Genesis 1.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Out of chaos, God formed everything and called it all good.
This is chapter one of the full gospel: God created, and God called all of creation good.
So often, our theology glosses over this reality and leaps into Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve give in to the accuser’s lies and believe, instead, that they aren’t good enough (so gain this knowledge from the tree of good and evil) and that God isn’t really good (did God really say…?). We love to blame Eve for the fall, but shouldn’t the blame be put where it belongs, on the accuser, Satan, who convinces each and every member of the human race that they aren’t made in the image of God and that God is a jerk?
Satan’s a liar. Turn back to the beginning of the story. Everything God created he called good.
When we allow ourselves to flip back to the beginning of the story, then there’s something to which we can be restored to. Our identity isn’t in our brokenness. It is in our status as sons and daughters of the living God—loved because we are. Because we were made in God’s image and likeness. Because he made us and called us very good. Precious and fearfully and wonderfully made.
The essence of our existence is GOOD.
So, what happened? We believed the lie. Someone, somewhere, once made me feel ugly. Someone, somewhere, once made me feel inadequate. Someone, somewhere, once made me feel ashamed of who I am. Someone, somewhere, sowed the seeds of doubt, anxiety, self-hatred, and shame into the tapestry of God’s love for me, and I believed them. I believed God required me to prove myself to enter his good graces. I believed I had to be perfect in order to be loved. I believed I had to earn acceptance, win significance, grab ahold of my own security.
It took a mighty blow to wake me up and realize that God’s love was there for me all along—before the lies and after the fall. Because after the fall, there was God.
Then, God Promised a New Creation.
For many years, I rested joyfully in my salvation and celebrated my golden ticket to heaven without really understanding the rest of the story. If you haven’t been counting, it’s been about 2,000 years since Jesus rose from the dead, and he still hasn’t come back (at least not the way we’ve been expecting him).
But while we sit around and wait for the second coming and the end of all things, there’s a fourth and final chapter I was missing.
“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
God’s story begins and ends with creation.
The fourth chapter is an invitation into the kingdom of heaven, now.
You know, it took a long time in human ways of counting for our world to come into existence. For God, it took no time at all. Since Jesus came to give us corrective lenses so we could see God’s goodness for what it is, humanity has been slowly evolving toward a new heaven and a new earth. When Jesus came and then promised us the Comforter, aka the Holy Spirit, he invited us to be co-creators of the New Creation. We get to help the “old world” of things pass away. We get to help build the Holy City, the one defined by God’s greatest commandment, to love God and love others, to welcome the foreigner and eunuch, to care for the widow and orphan, to feed the hungry, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on.
We get to be a part of that good work. More than that, we are expected to enter into that good work. What a mission, not to just save souls for after this life but to actually make this life better for those same souls! God wants us to enter into the good work of restoring human life and all of creation to its original goodness, making all things new again.
What a great story. What a great way to see and to be in this world.
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