Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good by N. T. Wright

Author:N. T. Wright
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Gospel, Good News
ISBN: 9780062334343
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2015-01-05T22:00:00+00:00

Saving the World

But how does the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the good news that this was for our sins and in accordance with the scriptures turn out to be the good news of the new creation? How are these things joined together? The answer is simple—and revolutionary. God wants to put humans right to put the world right. And the good news is that this, too, has been accomplished through Jesus.

Here again popular Christian traditions and popular Christian preaching have shrunk the underlying message of the New Testament. We all imagined the point to be simply that humans needed rescuing and God did this through Jesus. We imagined the problem to be that we were out of touch with God and we needed to reestablish a relationship with him. Well, that is all true, but it’s not the whole truth. We forgot what humans (so to speak) were there for in the first place. God made humans so that he could look after his world through this particular creature. His intention was to bring his creation forward from its beginnings to be the glorious place he always intended and to do so through this human family.

That is one part of what it means to be in the image of God. God is not an object in the world, but he wanted from the first to be present and active in his world, so he created humans to be the means and mode of that presence and that activity. That is why human rebellion against the Creator’s intentions was so disastrous—not just for the humans but for the whole of creation.

Those who know the story of Genesis will know that when the first humans rebelled, they were told that the earth would henceforth be harder for them to work. It would produce sharp, unpleasant weeds—thorns and thistles. We have been inclined, I think, to see this as a problem simply for the humans: life is going to be tough. And so it is. But this is also a problem for the earth itself. Creation was supposed to be brought to flourishing harmony, to a fruitful fulfillment, through the work of humans. So creation itself is frustrated, all because the humans got it wrong. The problem is not “Oh dear, humans sinned, so they will now go to hell.” The problem is “Humans sinned, so the whole creation will fail to attain its proper goal.” Perhaps that failure, if not dealt with, is part of what we should mean by hell.

The good news, therefore, is that when humans are put right, the project can get back on track. Not all at once, of course, just as we humans are not put right completely and forever at a stroke. But this is the goal.

All this brings us back to our earlier themes of coronation, covenant, and creation. In the New Testament, Jesus announces that God is becoming king. He is enthroned—that’s how the Gospel writers see it—as, on the cross, he completes his work of covenant renewal, the forgiveness of sins.

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