Here’s my question: I appreciated your analysis about the Seoul Statement and the concept the Gospel is a story, not a simple formula. Could you explain how the Gospel story “saves” lost people? Perhaps the bigger question is: how does believing the story save us?
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Hi @jeff2,
That’s a great question. I’ll share some thoughts, and I’m curious to hear what you and others think.
The best way I know to approach this is to think about Narnia.
One option is to tell you some facts about Narnia:
- A beautiful country filled with fauns and talking trees
- Cursed by the White Witch to always experience winter without Christmas
- Saved by the sacrificial death of Aslan the Lion
These facts are true within the context of the story, but hearing them by themselves doesn’t capture the power of Narnia. It’s one thing to know these details, but it’s something else entirely to experience the story. If you read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, you encounter the world of Narnia firsthand. As you follow Lucy’s footsteps through the wardrobe, you don’t just learn about Narnia — you’re invited to step inside.
As you read, you experience how people interact with the wardrobe. Most people have an earthly mindset and only see an ordinary piece of furniture. But Lucy, a little girl, approaches it with curiosity and a heart of child-like faith. By trusting that there’s more than meets the eye, she enters a world that no one else can access — unless they, too, are willing to believe and follow her lead.
The more you get immersed in the story, the more your imagination expands. You might start to wonder what it would be like to visit Narnia for yourself, to become a Narnian, and to join the battle for Aslan. The story draws you in, makes you long for a world like that, and stirs a desire to be part of something bigger and more beautiful than you’ve ever known.
But here’s the problem: Narnia is just a story. It’s a beautiful story, and it communicates many truths, but it isn’t a True Story. You can’t visit Narnia because it doesn’t exist. It can shape your imagination, but it can’t change your reality.
Now take this analogy and apply it to the gospel. I could list some gospel facts:
- Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born of a virgin in Bethlehem.
- He performed miracles and taught about the kingdom of God.
- He died on a cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day.
These are all true, and they are essential to what Christians believe. If we stop here, we’re only giving people information. But what we need to do is invite people into the gospel story itself — a Story that describes Reality.
Like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when we read the Gospels, we experience how people interact with Jesus. Some only see him as a healer, a miracle-worker, or a teacher. Some see him as a threat to be eliminated. But a few have eyes of faith and recognize that he is not only human but divine. Like Lucy in front of the wardrobe, they see a reality that no one else sees because they are willing to look at Jesus with faith, trust him, and follow him.
As we keep reading the Gospels, we start to see that this isn’t just something that happened long ago. It’s a story we’re invited to participate in, too. God is on a mission to redeem all creation, to put things right, and to make everything new. And if we let ourselves enter into this story, it can change the way we see everything. We start to wonder what it would be like to live in God’s kingdom and to become a disciple of Jesus, following him and sharing in his mission.
In writing this out, it makes me think that perhaps I need to revise my thoughts. The story doesn’t save us — the Storyteller does. So, it’s not the words of the story or the bare facts of history that rescue us. It’s Jesus himself, the living and reigning King, who died and rose again. Jesus frees us from sin and calls us to a new life.
However, we can only experience Jesus through the Gospels, the rest of the Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit, and so on. In God’s wisdom, story is the means by which the kingdom of God becomes real to us.
It’s by immersing ourselves in the gospel story that we see the world differently, our hearts are stirred to faith, and we realize that this is not just any story. This is the True Story that makes sense of our lives, saves us, and gives us a renewed purpose.
So when we talk about the gospel as facts, we’re talking about what happened. And that’s important!
But when we talk about the gospel as story, we’re talking about why it matters, how it transforms us, and what it looks like to know the Storyteller.
One way or another, what I’m trying to get at is that the gospel is not just a list of facts to evaluate at arms-length. God is inviting us to experience Reality - the kingdom of God - in relationship to him. And story is the best way to enable us to experience this.
I’ll pause there - curious to hear your thoughts.
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Thank you, Carson, for such a thoughtful response to my question. Your answer helped. I’ve read the Narnia stories and other CS Lewis works (and Luther, Calvin, and contemporary thinkers including Francis Schaeffer, Chuck Colson, RC Sproul, John Piper, Dallas Willard, Tim Keller and Martin Lloyd-Jones and others. I was more “sure” of things 20 years ago but not quite as sure and dogmatic about theology as I used to be. Read Charles Ryrie ‘s “So Great Salvation” which was the antidote to MacArthur’s “lordship salvation” teaching. But I’ve never really thought of looking at the Gospel Story through Lucy’s eyes in Narnia. So thank you!
Lately I’ve been questioning the simple A-B-C formulas I learned as a kid. I walked through the Roman Road with an inmate in a state penitentiary while serving with a prison ministry 15 years ago - and I “think” that guy “was saved”, but I don’t know for sure. The question in my mind was always “how much” does one have to believe to be saved? How much “fruit” must spring from your faith? The thief on the cross just asked the Lord to remember him.
All to say I’m intrigued by the “enter the story” concept but I don’t understand how “entering the story” fits with concepts like forgiveness of sins. You wrote how Lucy wanted to be in Aslan’s kingdom - that is compelling and perhaps even convicting. So again, thank you. I’d really like to understand this “Gospel story” concept better.
Thanks,
Jeff
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Hi @jeff2,
I’ve continued to think about your post and your questions. Thank you for raising them. I’m curious to hear more from you and others.
You said:
One way to answer this question is to study the Parable of the Soils (Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:4-15). It’s where Jesus explained to his disciples how they should evaluate people’s responses to him.
Larry Hurtado writes that it “is perhaps the chief representative parable for Mark” (UTB Commentary on Mark). Why? Hurtado mentions that it’s the only one that Jesus explains, and it comes first in this section of parables.
Zooming out a bit, as I read through Mark, it becomes obvious that he is providing dozens of ‘case studies’ on how people responded to Jesus. The capstone comes in Mark 8, with Jesus asking his disciples, But who do you say that I am?
I would summarize the meaning like this:
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Some appear to accept Jesus, but time and circumstance will reveal that it was only a passing interest.
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Others wholeheartedly accept Jesus, and over time, in various circumstances, their faith will continue to be revealed by lifelong faithfulness - and fruitfulness.
That’s as simple and as mysterious as it gets.
If our “heart” - our inner being - our core identity - welcomes Jesus as Lord - then we are saved. Then, the presence of lasting fruit demonstrates that our faith is genuine.
But even if we receive Jesus “with joy,” if our faith is short-lived, this uncovers that our faith was not whole-hearted.
So, how can we tell?
With prayer, wisdom, and discernment, we seek to evaluate the claims of our hearts by the character of our lives.
Charlatans will learn how to imitate true faith - like tares growing up among wheat - but God will sort it out at the end.
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As far as how much someone needs to believe, I think the Romans Road does capture it well:
But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom 10:8-13)
As Carson says in this post expanding on the ABC presentations of the gospel, these kinds of presentations - like the Romans Road - are biblical. And, since
they can absolutely lead to salvation. For, no matter how we hear, it is Jesus himself who saves. Yet, I think it’s key to recognize that ABC presentations don’t contain the full story that’s within the Gospels and they often may not draw us in in the same way that the fuller story of the gospel does nor do they help us to see the nuances of who Jesus is or what it looks like to live out our faith in the same way.
As for the how much fruit aspect, I think @Carson’s response covered it well, I would only add that, as you noted, the thief on the cross simply asked Jesus to remember him. He died before any more fruit could be seen, yet surely his life would have borne that fruit out over time. Nevertheless, as regards discerning from our earthly perspective, we cannot see others’ hearts. Thankfully as @Carson shared,
Concerning, this
The way I see the gospel as a story fitting in with concepts like the forgiveness of sins, is that it shows us the broader context and the motivating reasons for why we ought to want our sins forgiven. The gospel as a story not only tells us that our sin separates us from God, but shows God’s steadfast love as He consistently blesses, warns, teaches and directs His people. It shows how the righteousness and holiness that He calls us toward is not arbitrary but is for our good, and the grievous consequences that come as a result of sin time and time again as His people continuously stray throughout history. Failure after failure - even from those such as Moses and David - drives home our inability to live righteously on our own and our great need for reconciliation and a new heart. In this light, the hope and joy of Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross for us, bringing reconciliation and a means to be created anew and given God’s own Spirit is made so much the greater! For, by entering into the story, our great need for God and our total reliance on Him and His great, enduring love and forgiveness is made clear through thousands of lives and contexts in which He works. It’s not a story that ends there either, but one which presents us blameless before God and living with Him in new creation! A part of the story which helps ground our hope, showing the glorious future that we have to look forward to. And yet, a part so frequently left out that I think many would be surprised to learn that we look forward to life in the New Jerusalem in new creation with physical bodies rather than an eternity of disembodied existence in heaven.
I hope that can be a helpful perspective and I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you haven’t yet gotten to check out Carson’s post I linked expanding on his thoughts about ABC presentations, I’d definitely recommend giving it a read!
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