A third way to read the gospels

Posted by on Apr 19, 2011 | 1 comment

When people read the gospels, there are typically two ways that they approach the life of Jesus.  I was meditating on Jesus’ temptation account in Matthew 4 about a week ago when this struck me.  We usually approach this passage (and the gospels in general) as…

  • Promise Story.  Many people tend to read the gospels as “promise-stories” that describe what Christians have the power to do and accomplish.  They interpret Matthew 4, then, primarily as demonstrating a promise that Christians have the power to overcome temptation.  To them, the gospels as a whole are primarily a “This is what you can do” message.
  • Practical Story.  Other people usually read the gospels as practical advice.  They interpret Matthew 4, for instance, as primarily about showing us how to overcome temptation.  To them, the gospels as a whole are primarily a “This is how you should live” message.  This is the “WWJD?” method of reading the gospels.

I’ve ALWAYS read Matthew 4 in the second way, reading it primarily as practical advice.  But as I was meditating on this passage last week a serious problem struck me – if you read the life of Jesus primarily as advice about how you ought to live, it’s not good news! If I just read Matthew 4 as telling me “This is how you should overcome temptation”, that’s bad news to me because I don’t always do that!  I (and you) often fail to respond to temptation with faith + Scripture and conquer it.  Reading the GOSPELS in any way that isn’t good news is a serious problem because the word “gospel” itself means GOOD NEWS!!!

Luckily, the Bible gives us a third, truer way to read the life of Jesus in the gospels…

  • Proxy Story. A “proxy” is a legal representative whose actions and decisions are counted as the actions and decisions of the person they represent.  THIS is how The Bible says we can read the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life as GOOD NEWS!  This makes the gospels primarily a “This is what was accomplished for you” message.  The gospels are primarily the story of Jesus living perfectly so that I don’t have to in order to be accepted by God.  So Matthew 4, for example, is primarily about Jesus overcoming temptation on my behalf so that I could be credited as having overcome temptation even though I haven’t, don’t always, and won’t always.

Let me be the first to say that the gospels ARE practical counsel about how we should live, and they are promises about the power available to Christians.  But the gospels are PRIMARILY a story of a perfect proxy acting on our behalf, fulfilling righteousness so that we could be credited as righteous even though we are not.  This is how to read the gospels as GOOD NEWS.

1 Comment

  1. Mitch | April 20, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    I don’t know why it seems to be more timely as it approaches Easter, but I’ve been in Luke 22 for a week or so and just can’t get over the good news of betrayal, loneliness, mockery, abuse and death. The proxy story there is powerful if I remember that it was in my stead he endured it all..