A Passion for the Gospel
Reviewed by Robert P. Mills, August 1, 2001
“The thread uniting every contribution in this book,” write its editors, “is the unambiguous confession of the unique, singular, saving Lordship of Jesus Christ.”
Each adjective is essential, for “Where classical faith calls believers to a participation in God’s life and mission by an exclusive attachment to the Person of Jesus Christ, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, the modernist tendency is to call for an adherence to only the ideas of Jesus.”
Released by Louisville’s Geneva Press just prior to this summer’s General Assembly, A Passion for the Gospel includes 10 essays and 10 sermons written by individuals who have been involved in efforts to renew the spiritual integrity and vitality of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In the opening essay, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Scott W. Sunquist summarizes the historic Christian understanding of the gospel, literally the “good news,” as “the salvific work of God the Father through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit for the whole world.” With refreshing candor he addresses a reality often sidestepped, or even denied, in Presbyterianism’s current fascination with “unity in diversity:” “What is good news from God is not received as good news by all. The gospel that unites is the same gospel that divides.”
Next comes Mark Achtemeier’s “The Lordship of Jesus Christ,” which explores the implications of Jesus’ unique, singular and saving lordship: “Lives that are not being conformed by grace to the shape of Christ’s sovereign rule … are clearly in great jeopardy. … The danger is that by the time Christ ushers in the kingdom in its fullness, they will have become souls so misshapen and distorted by the ravages of sin that they will be unable to greet Christ’s triumphant reign as anything other than catastrophe.”
Spoken to a denomination that often prefers a fuzzy pluralism to the sharply etched and uncompromising demands of the gospel, these are bold, timely words. Doubtless they will fall on many rocky paths. But where they find good soil, they will edify and inspire countless souls who long to hear the Lordship of Christ faithfully proclaimed by Presbyterians to and for Presbyterians.
Among the sermons, particularly noteworthy are Charles Partee’s engaging “Truth as Search and Encounter,” which asserts that “divine truth requires divine encounter,” and Catherine Purves’ lilting “Two-Part Invention,” which celebrates the sacraments.
As with most compilations, these sermons and essays vary in import and impact. However, taken together they comprise a persuasive, indeed passionate, contemporary articulation of the Church’s foundational confession: Jesus Christ is Lord.