Christ, the clue to history

“The true meaning of the human story has been disclosed. Because it is the truth, it must be shared universally. It cannot be private opinion. When we share it with all peoples, we give them the opportunity to know the truth about themselves, to know who they are because they can know the true story of which their lives are a part.

Wherever the gospel is preached the question of the meaning of the human story—the universal story and the personal story of each human being—is posed. Thereafter the situation can never be the same. It can never revert to the old harmonies, the old securities, the old static or cyclical patterns of the past. Now decisions have to be made for or against Christ, for Christ as the clue to history or for some other clue.”

—Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 125-126

Published in: on March 13, 2009 at 1:00 am  Comments (2)  

The Authority of Jesus

“The authority of Jesus cannot be validated by reference to some other authority that is already accepted. The naming of this name calls for nothing less than a fresh and radical decision about one’s ultimate commitment.”

- Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret, Rev. Ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1995), 15.

(HT: The Big Picture)

Published in: on February 10, 2009 at 10:51 am  Comments (2)  

“The wind blows freely”

“It happens over and over again that the gospel ‘comes alive’ in a way that the evangelist had never dreamed of, and has effects which he never anticipated. The gospel is addressed to the human person as a human person in all the uncountable varieties of predicaments in which human beings find themselves.

The gospel has a sovereignty of its own and is never an instrument in the hands of the evangelist. Or, to put it more truly, the Holy Spirit, by whose secret working alone the gospel ‘comes alive,’ is not under the evangelist’s control. The wind blow freely.”

—Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 153

Published in: on December 12, 2008 at 1:00 am  Leave a Comment  

The test of our faith

“Missions are the test of our faith that the gospel is true.”

—Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 127

Published in: on November 13, 2008 at 1:00 am  Comments (1)  

“Where all are guilty, and all are forgiven”

“Jesus shocked the established authorities by being a friend to all—not only to the destitute and hungry, but also to those rich extortioners, the tax-collectors, whom all decent people ostracized … The shocking thing was not that he sided with the poor against the rich but that he met everyone equally with the same unlimited mercy and the same unconditioned demand for total loyalty.

If we look at the end of his earthly ministry, at the cross, it is clear that Jesus was rejected by all—rich and poor, rulers and people—alike. Before the cross of Jesus there are no innocent parties. The cross is not for some and against others. It is the place where all are guilty and all are forgiven.”

—Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 151

Published in: on August 21, 2008 at 1:00 am  Comments (3)  

“A new starting point”

“The gospel is not a set of beliefs that arise, or could arise, from empirical observations of the whole human experience. It is the announcement of a name and a fact that offer the starting point for a new and life-long enterprise of understanding and coping with experience. It is a new starting point. To accept it means a new beginning, a radical conversion.”

—Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 148

Published in: on August 8, 2008 at 1:00 am  Comments (1)  

“An explosion of joy”

“Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be silent about such a fact?

The mission of the Church in the pages of the New Testament is like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout which is not lethal but life-giving.”

—Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 116

Published in: on June 19, 2008 at 1:00 am  Comments (1)