“Every now and then there comes an atheist who understands aspects of the gospel better than many Christians,” writes Dr. Carl Trueman of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA, in a blog post at Reformation21 titled “The Gospel.”
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I just read Trueman’s posting. Let me say that on this point I have sat on both sides of the fence at various seasons in my life. The older I get the more I widen my boundaries. On many things. When it comes to the idea of how a follower of Christ is to be defined, however, I find myself firmly staked out in the resurrection camp. I can let a lot of other things go, even the incarnation, but the resurrection must stay for me.
I do want to differentiate between those who call themselves followers of Christ and those who believe in God. Here, there is an ocean of separation. Does this mean that those who believe in God are not followers of Christ? Yes and no.
I will leave it at this and welcome any and all comments.
As we look at the Gospels (particularly) and then the rest of the New Testament, there seem to be two main things that each New Testament author makes clear about Jesus as essential to believe for salvation. They bring these forward, over and over. They are: 1) that Jesus (who walked the earth as a true man) is God and 2) that forgiveness for one’s sins is only obtained from Jesus. Both incarnation and resurrection fit in to these two categories.
Deb,
Thanks for commenting. When you say, “I can let a lot of other things go, even the incarnation…”, what do you mean by that?
Both the incarnation and resurrection are key truths of the gospel. I can’t see someone denying either and claim to be a Christian. Now there are those who might struggle with these in full but to deny is a form of rejection or unbelief. Living as if you understand the resurrection of Christ is quite another thing. Personally as someone who struggle with sin, if I fully understood the resurrection and lived as if the resurrection was true maybe I would not struggles as much with my sinful nature. I guess in practical terms we can deny the resurrection by not living to glorify Christ in all we do.