The Explicit Gospel (Matt Chandler)
Review By Cody Balfour
The American Church is quickly spreading a gospel, but is it really the Gospel? First Corinthians 15:1-4 clearly states what the Gospel is: Christ crucified, buried, and resurrected. Despite this, many churches are drifting away from that crucial message. And increasingly, they fail to identify the Gospel as God Himself—a rather bold, but nevertheless biblical, message.
Matt Chandler has addressed this very issue in his new book, The Explicit Gospel (2012). Chandler is the pastor at The Village Church in Dallas, Texas. In The Explicit Gospel, Chandler gives testimony about lifelong churchgoers who believed they knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ, only to discover later that it had actually never been taught to them biblically. Chandler’s stated goal in this book (and in his preaching and teaching) is to present to his readers the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a clear, understandable, and biblical way so they may know plainly what they are accepting or rejecting.
The Explicit Gospel is divided into three main sections. In chapters 1-4, Chandler considers “The Gospel on the Ground.” In chapters 5-8, he considers “The Gospel in the Air.” By couching it this way, Chandler is not advocating two gospels, but two aspects of the one Gospel of Jesus Christ. Finally, in chapters 9-11, he provides “Implications and Applications.”
Part 1 (chs. 1-4): The Gospel on the Ground
In part 1, Chandler considers “The Gospel on the Ground,” which has four elements: God (ch. 1), Man (ch. 2), Christ (ch. 3), and Response (ch. 4). Beginning with God in chapter 1, Chandler shows us God’s basic character and nature. Chandler writes, “Therefore, if we’re going to talk about the scope of the cross, we need to first talk about who God is. What is he like? How big is he? How deep and wide is his power?” [1] In this chapter, Chandler explores God’s character as it relates to His creativity, omnipotence, passion for His glory, and self-sufficiency.
Continuing with Man in chapter 2, Chandler considers who we are as human beings and who God created us to be. “We are a worshiping people. Worship is an innate desire, an instinct and impulse wired into us by God himself” [2], writes Chandler. He also explains man’s fall and God’s resulting wrath.
After presenting the problem of man’s sin in chapter 2, Chandler considers the solution in chapter 3, which is Christ Himself. God has placed His wrath for man’s sin upon Jesus. Chandler narrates this when he says, “He [Jesus] separates a bit from his dozing friends, falls on his face, and pleads with God, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me’ (Luke 22:42), while knowing fully that there is no other way” [3]. This teaches us that Christ’s death upon the cross was the only way for Him to atone for fallen man’s sins.
Chapter 4 wraps up this section, presenting a biblical response to the Gospel of Christ. Although this topic is debated among many in the modern American church, Chandler presents Scripture’s take in a simple and clear manner: “All they did was preach the gospel, and men were cut to the core. They wanted to know, ‘What do we do in response to this news?’ Peter tells them, ‘You repent and get baptized’” [4]. In short, the Gospel is this: Repent of your sin and have faith in Christ.
Part 2 (chs. 5-8): The Gospel in the Air
After considering “The Gospel on the Ground” in part 1, Chandler explores “The Gospel in the Air” in part 2, which also has four elements: Creation (ch. 5), the Fall (ch. 6), Reconciliation (ch. 7), and Consummation (ch. 8).
In chapter 5, Chandler helps us understand what occurred at creation: what’d we mess up, and what is Jesus doing to restore it? He writes, “The miracles of healing, deliverance, provision, and resurrection all reveal that God, through Jesus, is making all things new, that he is restoring what once was unbroken” [5]. Chandler points out that we too often see Christ’s miracles and good deeds simply as that: miracles and good deeds. He reminds that they are much more than this though. Ultimately, they are signs that Christ is restoring creation.
What does creation need restoration from? This is the subject of chapter 6 in which Chandler considers the Fall. He begins this chapter with this powerful quote from R.C. Sproul: “Sin is cosmic treason” [6]. Chandler aims that we see just how wicked our sin is against holy God and how it all began with our Fall. Because we’ve now sinned, whatever we chase in life, other than God, quickly fades. After quoting Ecclesiastes 1:4-7, Chandler summarizes it this way:
He’s describing life as if it’s a treadmill! We get caught up in this silly circular pattern, and at the end of the day, each generation runs with all the vigor of the sweaty man on the treadmill at the gym. And when all is said and done, we don’t go anywhere [7].
All of life—everything—is vanity, unless we choose to pursue God.
Having discussed Creation and the Fall, Chandler next considers God’s solution in chapter 7: reconciliation. Chandler stresses that God hasn’t simply left us to fend for ourselves after we sinned (though we certainly deserve it!). Instead, He sends His Son in the flesh, Who dies upon a sinner’s cross and resurrects from the dead, to reconcile us to Him for His glory. In addition to reconciling us to God, Christ’s death even affected creation—remember how the sky grew dark and the earth shook at the cross. Chandler remarks, “The reaction of the natural order connects Christ’s death to a rift in the fabric of creation itself” [8].
Chandler concludes part 2 by discussing consummation in chapter 8, which is a very debated subject of Scripture. Despite such controversy, Chandler establishes that the final goal of consummation (or redemptive history) is “the restoration of fallen creation through the ushering in of a new heaven and a new earth” [9]. Chandler desires that we know that God will not simply disregard the present creation and create something altogether new. No, instead He will restore everything to the way it was.
Part 3 (chs. 9-11): Implications and Applications
Having presented “The Gospel on the Ground” (chs. 1-4) and “The Gospel in the Air” (chs. 5-8), Chandler concludes his book with “Implications and Applications.” In this final part, he details precisely how we apply these truths in lives today and how these truths are even potentially dangerous if abused.
Chapters 9-10 are respectively entitled “Dangers in a Gospel on the Ground too Long,” and “Dangers in a Gospel in the Air Too Long.” If short, if we give so much focus on one aspect of the Gospel to the exclusion of the other, then we make the Gospel something that it is not, and in some cases, a Christ-less Gospel. It’s not either/or, but both/and. Chandler remarks in chapter 9 about emphasizing the Gospel on the ground the exclusion of the Gospel in the air: “If we don’t give special care to watch out for these historic errors, the possibilities become probabilities” [10].
Again, in chapter 10 Chandler remarks about emphasizing the Gospel in the air to the exclusion of the Gospel on the ground: “When people stay in the air too long, they can begin to try to make the gospel more palatable, because they desperately want people to know and love Jesus” [11]. He warns that even when our intentions are good, we must nevertheless be careful to not simply fit the Gospel to our needs and wants. Rather, we must fit our needs and wants to what the Gospel and its work. Along similar lines, David Platt suggests that we sometimes attempt to take Christ’s blood and replace it with Kool-Aid such that it tastes good to the world. However, Platt and Chandler remind us that we must never do that.
In his final chapter, “Moralism and the Cross,” Chandler stresses that any attempt to live a moral life without Christ is pointless. He states, “If you’re simply managing behavior, but not removing the roots of that behavior, then the weeds simply sprout up in another place. You may mow it down for a season of time only to see it sprout up again” [12]. Christ must be the center of our moral behavior. While good morality doesn’t save us, we should nevertheless be moral because of Christ in us.
Conclusion
Chandler is a gifted writer. And I recommend this book to anyone who needs a refreshing in the plain and simple Gospel—what it is and how to present it.
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[1] Matt Chandler with Jared Wilson, The Explicit Gospel (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 21.
[2] Ibid., 39.
[3] Ibid., 54.
[4] Ibid., 81.
[5] Ibid., 107.
[6] Ibid., 111.
[7] Ibid., 117.
[8] Ibid., 140.
[9] Ibid., 163.
[10] Ibid., 178.
[11] Ibid., 192.
[12] Ibid., 214.
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About the Author: A native to Oklahoma, Cody Balfour is a pastoral ministry student in his third year at Welch College with an interest in missions.
November 1, 2012
Thanks for the review. This is on my reading list already and now I am especially looking forward to it. I would offer one bit of push-back. In the first paragraph of the article, the Gospel is defined as “Christ crucified, buried, and resurrected” (according to 1 Corinthians 15). While I do not totally disagree with this analysis, I do think it is incomplete. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.” (NLT) It is not just that Jesus is the Gospel; Jesus is the Gospel just as the Scriptures said. Paul roots his claims about Jesus not simply in observable history, but in the writings of Moses, the prophets, and the other works of the Old Testament. It is all the story of Jesus; it is all the Gospel! The story of Jesus (in the New Testament) only truly makes sense in the context of the story of Jesus in the Old Testament. Paul seemed to understand that; unfortunately, we often forget it. Keep up the good work!
November 2, 2012
Yes I totally agree! And Matt Chandler goes through those things in his book by explaining it through “The Gospel on the ground” as he goes through God, Man, Christ, Response and paints a picture of a everything in scripture points to Christ. Thanks for the reminder and the encouragement! I hope you enjoy the book.
November 2, 2012
A really good treatment of this is provided in “The King Jesus Gospel” by Scot McKnight. Excellent book.
November 5, 2012
Thanks for this Cody. I was especially interested in Chandler’s remarks about “the restoration of fallen creation through the ushering in of a new heaven and a new earth.” As you pointed out, the world isn’t going to disappear to be replaced by something else. THIS world is going to be restored and renewed. That makes a difference in the way we think about how we live in this world in light of the gospel.
November 6, 2012
Most definitely! Sometimes we seem to think that God is just going to do away with this world and create a new one, but that’s not the case. He is going to restore this world, just as he will restore us. Thank you for the comment and for reading the review. I hope you’re able to pick up the book and read it, and if you are, message me and tell me what you think. Thank you Dr. Rogers!