Recovering the Real Lost Gospel

Darrell L. Bock

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781433673146
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Studi biblici

While some seek so-called lost gospels, Darrell L. Bock suggests the real lost gospel is the one already found in the Bible and reminds everyone of what it means: good news. Praise for Recovering the Real Lost Gospel "Darrell Bock is one of the church's finest New Testament scholars. He has the unique ability to write on both the technicaland popular level and presents a biblical theology of the gospel that is clear, robust, and holistic.This is a valuable contribution to helping us rightly understand the greatness of the gospel." Daniel L. Akin, president, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary"You are holding in your hands a really rare book--one that goes all the way back to the New Testament in connecting the gospel and the cross with the life of discipleship and the mission of the church in a broken world that needs the message of grace.Darrell Bock is one of our best biblical theologians and is at his best in this new study." Timothy George, dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University" Recovering the Real Lost Gospel is a welcomed corrective and timely guide for so many individuals and churches who seemingly have lost their way amidst the confusing spirituality and mixed religious messages of our day." David S. Dockery, president, Union University"Bock teaches us the essence of the best news ever told. The gospel is so much more than good advice... it is the message of life, hope, grace, and Jesus himself! Get ready to be reminded why it is the best news ever!" Pete Briscoe, senior pastor, Bent Tree Bible Fellowship (Dallas, Texas)"Too many Christians think of 'the Gospel' as merely the last page of an evangelistic tract. Bock demonstrates with clarity and vision that the gospel is better news than some have dared to hope. Read this book, and let its wisdom drive you to worship and to mission." Russell D. Moore, dean, School of Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Chapter 1

The Gospel Starts with a Promise:

Relationship in the Spirit

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Just for a moment, forget about sin. Forget about the debt we owe and the prospect of God’s punishment. Those are all important things to consider, and we will consider them soon enough. But for the moment, I want to focus on something else: instead of sin, I want to think about the deep needs that define our humanity. To be human is to be aware that we yearn for things that we just can’t get on our own, whatever our culture of self-sufficiency might tell us. We desire to be connected to something outside ourselves. We long to know why we exist at all. These needs and longings are central to the Bible’s story. The gospel starts with a promise that addresses the deepest of human needs. Where relationships are broken, the gospel brings restoration.

The Covenants: God’s Plan to Restore Relationships

The Abrahamic Covenant

The gospel didn’t begin in Matthew 1:1. It began many centuries earlier in the dusty regions of the Middle East. God made a promise to Abraham, an old man who would give rise to a special people. In the midst of a world that had ignored its Creator for the elevation of their own glory (Gen 11), God moved to deliver humanity from its own foibles. In Genesis 12:1–3, God made a commitment with Abraham:

The LORD said to Abram:

Go out from your land,

your relatives,

and your father’s house

to the land that I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation,

I will bless you,

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

I will curse those who treat you with contempt,

and all the peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.

That commitment became known as the Abrahamic covenant. Perhaps the greatest of God’s promises to Abraham was this: through Abraham, God’s blessing would penetrate throughout the world. In that first declaration of the promise, God offered no details as to how this blessing would spread. That story would develop across several centuries and inspired writers. In that unfolding story is our story—our need for promise and the hope of restoration.

The context of this initial promise is important. In Genesis 1–11 we see how humanity had gone its own way, consistently going astray from the Creator. Whether we think of the individual acts of Adam or Cain or turn to the corporate actions before the flood or in building the tower of Babel, people showed a consistent tendency, one they still have, to turn away God and toward their own interests. In many ways, the story of the Bible is the story of God’s stubborn faithfulness to His creation and those He had made in His own image—His commitment to pursue them in steadfast love and patience. God’s love is the core of the gospel. The needs of humanity have run deep for a long time.

God’s promise to Abraham grew. Part of the original promise was that Abraham would father a special seed (Gen 12:2), a people in touch with the true God. That story—the story of Israel’s origins—is told from Genesis through Deuteronomy (Gen 13:13–17).¹ Abraham did father a seed in the figures of Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons who followed Jacob, known as the patriarchs. From them emerged the nation known as Israel. God’s program was revealed to this people. They were the bearers of God’s promise and revelation. They experienced a deliverance through Moses, pictured in a God who kept an ear open to people. They became a nation called to honor God (Exod 19:3–6).²

The Davidic Covenant

Israel, however, had her own hopes, and they didn’t always line up with God’s hopes for her. She longed for a king like the other nations had; God was not good enough for them. God noted that the Israelites’ request for a king was really a rejection of Him (1 Sam 8:6–7); nevertheless, He graciously granted their desire and through this eventually extended the promise He had made to Abraham.³ This extended promise, known as the Davidic covenant, was a line of kings from the house of David (2 Sam 7:8–16):

“Now this is what you are to say to My servant David:

‘This is what the LORD of Hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from following the sheep to be ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. I will make a name for you like that of the greatest in the land. I will establish a place for My people Israel and plant them, so that they may live there and not be disturbed again. . . .

‘When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod and with blows from others. But My faithful love will never leave him as I removed it from Saul; I removed him from your way. Your house and kingdom will endure before Me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’”

This regal line had a special relationship to God as His representative. The king of this dynasty was a son to God and God was his father (v. 14). Out of this promise came the hope for a unique king who would be the kind of ruler God desired. Out of this promise came the hope of a Messiah, a king who would bring peace and establish righteousness in line with promises God made originally to Abraham.

The New Covenant

The majority of Israel’s kings failed. They did not live up to God’s ideals, reflecting instead the pattern of rebellion we have seen already. More often than not, they went their own way. Eventually God judged the nation, scattering them through war and exile. It was in this context that God promised a new covenant: a commitment to write His righteousness on the hearts of people and to fix them from the inside out with His very own presence and power. That commitment was revealed through Jeremiah (Jer 31:31–34):

“Look, the days are coming”—this is the LORD’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the LORD’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the LORD’s declaration. “I will place My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying: Know the LORD, for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—the LORD’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

Two key ingredients came with this elaboration of God’s promise. First, there would be forgiveness of sin; second, God’s law would be written on the heart. That long history of unfaithfulness—even by God’s own people—demonstrated that human beings didn’t have it within themselves to keep their end of the covenant bargain. They needed God’s presence and power within them.

Forgiveness never stood alone; it was designed to provide the way to a restored relationship with God. Consider what God said through Ezekiel:

I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances. (Ezek 36:25–27)

A new heart. A new Spirit. A new start. If God’s people are going to obey God’s law consistently, it won’t be by trying harder. It will be by God’s Spirit dwelling within them.

Summary

This overview of the promise of the Old Testament shows that behind the gospel stands the promise of three covenants that actually form a singular promise of God to fashion a people who themselves are a reflection of God’s promise and blessing living in a world filled with need. Together the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New covenants form the gospel’s backbone. God would form a people through whom the world would be blessed. He would do it through a promised king, a Messiah. That king would bring two key things the world desperately needed: forgiveness and a restored relationship with the living God. The two were always connected to be good news from God.

The Proclamation: From John the Baptist to Jesus

Luke 3:16

Tucked away in Luke’s Gospel is a passage most of us pass by very quickly, yet in it are some of the most profound things said in the entire Bible. It’s too bad Luke 3:16 is not as well known in the church as John 3:16. The promise and revelation in Luke 3:16 literally run through all of Luke and Acts.⁴ In this verse, John the Baptist says, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John made this remark in response to speculation that he might be the Christ. What is the sign of the new era? God’s giving of His Spirit to His people—not the outward, physical sign of water baptism, but the inward sign of a Spirit baptism. This new era will come in the person of the One who follows John: Jesus Himself. In bringing the Spirit, Jesus will bring a renewed relationship. Remember what Ezekiel said? “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.” According to John the Baptist, Jesus was coming to fulfill that promise.

But there is more to this verse. It is found in the remark that John was not worthy to unstrap the sandal of the One to Come. Two points help us to appreciate what John is affirming. First, John says this as a prophet of God. In the vocational ladder of jobs God can give, few rank higher than prophet. In fact, later Jesus called John the greatest born of woman (Luke 7:28).⁵ So this is not just anyone saying he is unworthy to serve the One to Come—it is a prophet of God, the greatest of the prophets at that.

Second, let us consider John’s saying that he is not worthy to untie the strap of his master’s sandal. In Judaism, a person was not to become a slave. However, if he did, there was one thing later Jewish tradition noted a Hebrew slave should never do: he should never untie the strap of his master’s sandal in order to wash his feet (Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael Nezikin 1 on Exod 21:2).⁶ Unstrapping a master’s sandal was seen as too demeaning for a Hebrew to perform.

The difference between John as a prophet and the person of the One to Come is so great that John, even though he is a prophet, is not worthy to perform even the most demeaning task of a slave. The One to Come is that unique. The significance of this point cannot be overstated. The Messiah to come is a figure of a different order. The chasm between Him and a prophet is vast. The One who brings God’s promise is not merely another in a line of prophets but someone in a completely different, utterly unique category.

I love to make this point for those who tend to see Jesus as just another religious great. That is not how the person who pointed to Him saw it at all. The difference between them was too great for them to be seen in the same light.

I used this passage once in India to explain to a Hindi audience just how unique the Promised One is. My point was that John the Baptist was a figure whose activity was predicted in the Bible centuries before he ministered (Isa 40:3–5).⁷ Not too many of us have our career outlined for us in advance! Yet despite John’s high position in God’s plan and program, the role of the One to Come was even more elevated. Even as a prophet, John would have been honored to have done a most demeaning task for Him and felt unworthy to perform such a task.

The bottom line of the new era’s arrival is the coming of the Spirit. That is the provision that shows the promise of God has come. The goal of all of this covenant activity is to restore a lost rela...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• About the Author
• Name and Subject Index
• Scripture Index