There has been much discussion about the meaning of the Gospel. What is the Gospel? Entrance into to heaven? A list or propositions? In this video, Dallas Willard talks about what the Gospel is and how we live in it.
What do you think about Willard's perspective? Do you think he captures the essence of what the NT calls the Good News?
I find Willard’s perspective really refreshing. It safeguards to me what is the danger of a description of salvation by faith that makes faith to be the opposite of action.
I don’t think we’ve really grasped how much defining salvation as by faith vs. by works has damaged people’s understanding of salvation. Willard and some of the new perspective folks have been pretty key in helping me to make sense of an understanding of the Gospel that is demanding and requires our whole life, but that isn’t a Gospel of earning.
There’s a part 2 to the clip where Willard says “Grace isn’t opposed to effort, it’s opposed to earning.” And I think that is at the crux of the sort of refreshing work Willard can help us grasp.