The Two-Fold Gospel is Narrow and Broad
In the summer of 2014 I led my ministry team to restructure everything we had been doing for the previous nine years. It doesn’t take a genius to realize this was a bad idea. There are a lot of articles I could write about what I learned from that experience, but I want to highlight what I learned about the gospel.
One of the key issues that arose was lack of clarity about what it means to preach the gospel every week. Since this was one of the driving commitments behind the changes we made, some of my leaders (very understandably!) got frustrated when they didn’t hear an explicit gospel message every week. Then I got frustrated and discouraged when they voiced their concern, because I simply didn’t know how they were missing the gospel that I was preaching so consistently. In hindsight, I wish I took a slower approach to change and began by clearly articulating the two-fold gospel as outlined below. I would take a few months to study this with my leadership team while integrating it into my messages before making any structural changes to the ministry.
The Narrow Gospel
The Narrow Gospel is what we usually think about when we think about the gospel. It is explicitly cross-centered and is the message we proclaim when we invite nonbelievers to receive the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. This is an evangelistic message for nonbelievers, and the center-point of the Christian’s salvation.
In short, the gospel is this: God saves sinners through Jesus.
Here is a slightly longer version: Sinners are forgiven, justified, and adopted by grace through faith in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16-17
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Romans 10:9-10
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
The Broad Gospel
The Narrow Gospel is the nucleus of God’s redeeming work in creation. It is the central story of the Bible. It is the clearest picture we have of who God is, what he is like, and what his disposition is towards sinners like you and me.
But if youth workers only teach the Narrow Gospel to students, then although they might become Christians they’ll never develop a biblical worldview. I am convinced that one of the reasons why younger generations of Christians are walking away from the faith is because they’ve only heard a reductionistic presentation of God’s work. Historically, Christians have believed in four chapters of the gospel: Creation, Fall, Salvation, Glorification. These have been worded somewhat differently, but the chapters of God’s story have been consistently proclaimed throughout Christian history. If you want to read more about this by others, consider this essay by Stephen Wellum or anything by Graeme Goldsworthy.
Creation: God is the creator of Heaven and Earth and everything in them. God created humanity in His image, as his sovereign representatives to rule on the Earth from the Garden of Eden. In Eden, they lived with perfect intimacy and fellowship with one another, with creation, and with God directly.
Fall: Sin and death always go hand-in-hand. When Adam and Eve sinned, they brought God’s curse into creation. Now all things taste the sting of death and corruption, even while bearing imperfect witness to their original glory and goodness. Within God’s curse on humanity, creation, and on the serpent there whispered a message of forthcoming salvation, prophesying this would not be the final chapter.
Salvation: This is the Narrow Gospel, as outlined above. (Some include Old Testament prophecies foreshadowing the Person and Work of Jesus Christ in this chapter.) The cross and empty tomb lay at the heart of the gospel, and are filled out by understanding the entire Broader Gospel.
Glorification: Salvation has been accomplished and secured through the Person and Work of Jesus through the cross and empty tomb. But he has not yet returned to judge all creation and to fully complete the salvation of his people. When he comes again, it will be in glory and with judgment. In this sense, we are still living in the midst of the unfolding gospel. And those who endure will see the day when everything sin has brought into the world will be replaced with the glory of God in the New Heavens and New Earth.
When youth workers proclaim this Broad Gospel, they ground students in reality while casting a vision of what God has done, is doing, and will do. The gospel isn’t only about what happened on Calvary, and it’s not just about living in heaven with God after we die.
Throughout the book of Acts, we get to witness the Apostles and other disciples preaching the gospel. Consider Paul’s sermon in Acts 17:24-31 to a group of Gentiles who were generally unfamiliar with the Old Testament. Paying attention to how they articulate that message sheds light onto the way we can do the same in our own ministry to students today.
The Two-Fold Gospel and Youth Ministry
Youth workers want to reach the next generation with the gospel. We don’t want to make it more complicated or burdensome than it needs to be. As the saying goes, we want the cross to be the only thing that stands between a student and God.
That’s a good and healthy desire. The gospel is good news, and woe to us if we become like the Pharisees who add burdens onto God’s Word that keep people away from receiving God’s grace.
At the same time, I suspect that we have reduced the gospel into an evangelism tool. We use it to “get students saved” and then we don’t know what else to do with it until the next evangelistic conversation. The Narrow and Broad Gospel belong together, filling one another out into a message that truly is good news of great joy for all people.
Without any framework for who God is, the Narrow Gospel is likely to be received and re-interpreted by students in ways that we don’t intend. It can become a therapeutic gospel (God will help me and make my life better if I trust in Jesus), or a message about Christian universalism (God is love and will save everyone through Jesus, whether they believe in him or not), or it can merely become a license to sin (I can claim God’s grace after I have my fun tonight).
Since the years when I made that failed-effort at restructuring my ministry, I’ve learned how to better articulate the two-fold nature of the gospel. Here are some questions for you to consider as you consider how your biblical text and key theme(s) are informed by the two-fold gospel. Answering these questions before you write your message or lesson will help you know how to communicate in a way that is faithful to the text and leads your students in the gospel every week.
What does this have to say about who God and what God is like? What aspects of God’s nature are highlighted here? (God)
What does this have to say about what it means to be human - and in particular, what it means for men and women to honor God? (Creation)
Where is this shaped and mis-shaped by the effects of sin and the curse? What good-intentions have become mis-guided and turned into self-glorification instead of genuine worship? (Fall)
Is there any salvation promised or desired? In what ways do we see the curse leading to destruction and repentance leading to salvation? (Salvation)
What is the end result - salvation or judgment? Do we see a resolution where grace has been given and healing has taken place? Is there a promise yet to be fulfilled? (Glorification)
How does the life, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus inform the way I should think about this passage or topic? What is truly and distinctively Christian about this text/theme? (Narrow Gospel… ask this question after doing the work required above)
