{"id":16,"date":"2008-11-06T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html"},"modified":"2008-11-06T00:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-06T00:30:00","slug":"the-problem-is-the-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html","title":{"rendered":"The Problem is the Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

To say that we Christians have the “gospel” is to say we have “good
\nnews that resolves the bad news.” So, we ask, What is the problem to
\nwhich the gospel speaks this good news? What is it that Christianity “fixes”? The most significant problem
\nmany presentations of the gospel face is that the problem the gospel is trying to fix is not robust
\nenough. In other words, the problem has become the problem.<\/p>\n

What is the need humans have that the gospel satisfies? I’d be interested in your response to this question. <\/p>\n


\n
Which is to say: until we define the problem aright, we aren’t offering a robust gospel. In my book Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us<\/a>\"\"<\/strong> I try to define that problem. So what is it?<\/p>\n

A
\ncasting glance both at Genesis 1–3 and at how the Bible’s big Story
\nworks, reveals there are four major problems and that means that the
\n“gospel” speaks to each of those four problems, and I believe these problems are deeply important to all of us — Christian or not:<\/p>\n

1. A problem with God: fear.
2. A problem with Self: shame.
3. A problem with Others: enmity.
4. A problem with the World: exploitation\/irresponsibility.<\/p>\n

These
\nproblems emerge from Genesis 3 when the Eikon, humans made in God’s
\nimage, cracks — we crack in four directions: with God, with self, with
\nothers, and with the world.<\/p>\n

The fundamental reminder that every
\nIsraelite reminded herself or himself with daily was to love God with
\nheart, soul, and strength (the Shema: Deut 6:4-5). On top of this,
\nJesus clarified that loving God meant learning to love others as
\nyourself (this comes from Lev 19:18). These are what Eikons who work right do daily … they love God and they love others. I have to believe the gospel is designed to fix this kind of problem, the problem that humans don’t love God and don’t love others.<\/p>\n

And any serious reading of
\nthe Bible’s Story reveals that God cares deeply about how God’s people,
\nIsrael and the Church, lives in this world. Page after page in the
\nBible we find stories and episodes in the life of the nation, in the
\nlife of the Church, and the focus is how that people conforms to the
\nfundamental obligations to love God and to love others. Community is
\nGod’s design.<\/p>\n

So, the human problem is loving God, loving self,
\nloving others, and loving the world enough to be God’s good stewards.
\nThe gospel — the act of God to restore cracked Eikons in the life,
\ndeath and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the powerful gift of the
\nHoly Spirit — is designed to restore our <\/p>\n

1. alienating, hiding fear of
\nGod,
2. our discord with ourselves with shame,
3. our enmity with others, and
\n
4. our irresponsiblity toward and exploitation of the world.<\/p>\n

Any gospel that does not address each of these problem is not big enough because it has not defined the problem big enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To say that we Christians have the “gospel” is to say we have “good news that resolves the bad news.” So, we ask, What is the problem to which the gospel speaks this good news? What is it that Christianity “fixes”? The most significant problem many presentations of the gospel face is that the problem…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Problem is the Problem - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Problem is the Problem - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To say that we Christians have the “gospel” is to say we have “good news that resolves the bad news.” So, we ask, What is the problem to which the gospel speaks this good news? What is it that Christianity “fixes”? The most significant problem many presentations of the gospel face is that the problem…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-06T00:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1557254532\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Problem is the Problem - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Problem is the Problem - Jesus Creed","og_description":"To say that we Christians have the “gospel” is to say we have “good news that resolves the bad news.” So, we ask, What is the problem to which the gospel speaks this good news? What is it that Christianity “fixes”? The most significant problem many presentations of the gospel face is that the problem…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2008-11-06T00:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1557254532"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html","name":"The Problem is the Problem - Jesus Creed","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1557254532","datePublished":"2008-11-06T00:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-06T00:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1557254532","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1557254532"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/the-problem-is-the-problem.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Problem is the Problem"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith for today","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0","name":"Scot McKnight","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","caption":"Scot McKnight"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/author\/smcknight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}