Obsessed evangelicals, part 2
For an evangelical, then, the gospel is where Christianity starts, and where it continues and where it ends. It's an obsession. Our lives are lived out in terms of this gospel, as we work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Our love for others is defined and motivated by the love of God in Christ that this gospel reveals. Our ministries are driven by a passion to prayerfully share this gospel message with each other and the world, that everyone might hear and respond. Our priorities and structures and programs are shaped by this gospel, not to mention our outlook on life now in this world. From a gospel viewpoint, evangelicals enjoy the creation and its gifts, while sitting lightly to it (since the gospel tells us of an imminent future judgement), and enduring with patience the sufferings that it brings.
This gospel obsession also explains why evangelicals are so strong on the Bible, and so keen to read, study and teach it. The biblical revelation is not only the one, true authoritative source of the gospel; it is also ‘gospel’ shaped in itself. The focus and theme and content of the Bible is that Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of all God's promises and purposes for the world, and that the gospel of his kingdom is the message that all mankind needs to hear and respond to in advance of the Last Day.
So, an ‘evangelical’ is someone for whom the supreme, central organizing principle for all theology and life is the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. Or to put it a little more pointedly: ‘someone obsessed by the gospel of Jesus Christ’.
Now, what's very useful about this little definition, apart from its shock value and its comprehensiveness, is that it highlights a vital and often overlooked aspect of evangelicalism. Evangelicals are not simply people who believe certain things about the gospel of Jesus Christ; they are people who believe that the gospel is central and determinative, and that everything else flows from it (including ethics, ecclesiology, hermeneutics, eschatology and most other things you can think of). The gospel ‘occupies our thoughts constantly and exclusively’. It's our abiding obsession, because we are convinced that it is God's obsession as well—that all his plans for this creation come together and are summed up under Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to the Father.
So the test of whether a church or Christian movement is ‘evangelical’ or not is simple: Is it obsessed with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Is that what it talks about all the time? Are the constant themes of its preaching the biblical message of the cross, the resurrection, the judgement to come, repentance, forgiveness of sins, faith, hope and love? Does it constantly urge its members to a gospel-responsive life of repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, as we suffer the trials of discipleship this side of glory? Are its ministries shaped by and focused on proclaiming this gospel, seeing people respond to it, and nurturing them in a gospel lifestyle?
In the end, if the Hillsong movement, and others like it, do not deserve the label ‘evangelical’ it will be because of this: that their obsessions lie elsewhere than in the gospel of Jesus Christ.