In my previous post, I laid out a three fold approach to understanding the relationship between Gospel, Church, & Culture. In summary, we must understand the Gospel in light of culture. Second, we must understand Culture in light of the Gospel. Third, only then can we wisely Church the Gospel in our cultures. These three layers of understanding build on each other the way you plant a tree. We need Gospel seed to be scattered in Cultural soil in order to grow the Church into a robust, healthy tree that can flourish and provide shade within its culture. In the next three posts, I will take each layer and explain what I’m getting at. Let’s start with the Gospel.
The Eternal Gospel
African theologian and Missiologist John Mbiti writes:
“The Gospel is God-given, eternal and does not change. We can add nothing to the Gospel. For this is a eternal gift of God; but Christianity is always a beggar seeking food and drink, cover and shelter from the cultures it encounters in its never-ending journeys and wanderings.â€
This quote addresses our two primary concepts, gospel and culture, and does so by making a distinction between the eternal gospel and its never-ending cultural expressions. Although the gospel does not change, it is clothed over and over again, changing its appearance in various cultures throughout time.
The phrase “eternal gospel” only appears in Revelation 14 where an angel flies over the earth “with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.” When we think of the word “eternal” our minds typically trigger otherworldly, un-earthy images, but God is connecting this eternal gospel with very earthly, worldly imagery. The gospel is not for heaven but for earth; it is not for escape but for engagement.
The Gospel is Cultural
In fact, its great news is for cultural-linguistic groups of people, i.e. nations, tribes, languages, and people. The gospel is focused on cultural groupings of people. It does not seek to rescue Americans from America or Africans from Africa, but rather to meet them in their cultural clothing. Someone has said that in heaven we will be “fully American” or “fully African.” The gospel is culturally particularized, focused, expressed.
In Christ, we discover the gospel clothed in cultural particulars. Jesus Christ does not drop out of heaven; he is born into a particular time and place, wearing particular clothing, speaking a particular language. He particularizes the good news in his flesh and in his clothing. Andrew Walls puts this phenomenon well: “Incarnation is translation.†Jesus is translates the gospel for us in space and time, in flesh and culture.
The Gospel is cultural. Jesus is cultural. We are cultural. Although the Gospel does not change, it does change its clothing. Incarnation is translation.