This past Sunday, I was preaching through John 3:16-21, which prompted me to ask, “What is the Gospel?” On meditating on this passage, I came to see that the gospel (and the bible) contains a very strong honor-shame element. This is actually a huge discovery because it shifts the way we think about, and thus, present the gospel. And to me, it is a much more personally connected way to think about the gospel than how we typically think about the gospel in terms of guilt and innocence. Here is my summary of the gospel based on my reading of John 3:16-21. This is essentially my paraphrase of the passage.
The gospel is who we actually are in relation to who God is.
The gospel is who we actually are in relation to who God is. Therefore, the gospel is about coming to the light, that is, reality. Our problem is we don’t know who we actually are and we don’t know who God actually is, and we don’t actually know what God thinks of us. This is what it means to be in darkness.
In this way, the gospel centers on identity. And identity is not just who you think you are, but identity is also who others say you are. And the most important opinion is who God says you are. The gospel, then, according to John 3:16-21 is that you are sooooo loved by God! What does God think of you? He loves you soooo much! This is where the gospel begins. And his love is not a condition, it is a presupposition. He already loves you. After all, he’s the one who thought the idea of you (Psalm139), and never stops thinking of you, and sustains you, and provides you with everything good, and in fact, he loves you so much that he has held nothing back and has even given you his greatest treasure (his only Son) for you.
If God loves, why does he condemn?
Why then does God condemn any that he loves? The issue is that they don’t love Him, and they don’t think He loves them. Instead, they love the darkness (v. 19), they hate the light (the truth which is found in God). That is, they prefer to stay in the dark and are not really concerned about the truth of who God is and who he says that they are. They prefer to stay in the dark, and believe lies about who they are and who God is. Why would anyone prefer to stay in darkness? It is because they fear exposure (v. 20). The exposure of being shown wrong, foolish, weak. In other words, people don’t want to be shamed. They want to be honored. The good news then, is that God has made a way that we can be honored, but it does first require that we own up to our shame. It does require acknowledging that we have been wrong about him and ourselves.
While God has given every possible gift to woo us back to the truth, and a right relation with him, they reject the truth. They even reject his most precious treasure (the Son of God) and even shame him to the utmost by misidentifying him (he is not the only Son of God, thus they identify him as a liar) and even crucify him. In this, God does not condemn them, no, they condemn themselves. God sent the Son not to condemn, because they were condemned already by believing lies about who God is. And so God sent the Son to bring us out of this darkness, but by rejecting the Son and not believing who he says he is they continue in that condemnation. They condemn themselves by their misjudgment (concerning Christ and God’s love). God wants to bring us to him, but the world separates themselves from the true God.
The good news though, is that though we fear being exposed for our sin (loving darkness, and believing lies about who we actually are in relation to who God actually is), God loves us so much that his Son was shamed in our place so that all who believe in him (those who come to the light/truth) could be honored. And in the end, it is a win win win: for God the Father, for Christ, and for the world. Christ is honored in his exaltation; we are not only brought to see ourselves as we actually are in relation to who God actually is, we are also honored together with Christ and lifted out of our shame; and then God the Father is honored because he orchestrated the whole thing.
A more personally connected approach
Typically, when we share the gospel, we tend to emphasize guilt and innocence (you’re a sinner, and you need to be forgiven). This is not untrue, however, using a shame-honor focus can be more personally connected because it doesn’t focus so much on broken laws, but a broken relationship. Fundamentally, it is resisting who God says he is, and resisting who God says you are to him.
It is also different, because God says you are loved. So it begins and is driven by love, not condemnation. And the issue is actually that we separate ourselves from the true God, and condemn ourselves by refusing to believe this truth. But still, it is difficult to accept because people don’t want to admit that they are wrong, and they don’t want to give up their desires. And this is their condemnation: they love their pride and they love their desires more than they love the truth which has been revealed by Jesus Christ. In other words, they prioritize honoring themselves, rather than honoring God. Here they fail to see who God actually is, the one who deserves all honor and glory. The good news is that in spite of our great dishonoring of God, he continues to love us and seeks to brings us back to the truth.
If you only knew how much God loves you
That means sharing the gospel is really about why someone resists God’s love for them in Christ Jesus. If you think about coming to believe in Jesus like a wedding engagement (Ephesians 5), the real issue is that while Christ loves the world so much that he wants to marry her, the world resists his offer of marriage. He will not force you to marry him (that is, enter into this covenant relation with him), and so by resisting him, you judge him to be unworthy of your affection. In this, you dishonor Christ, and you dishonor yourself for your poor judgment, and you separate yourself from the one who loves you most.
This is sad. This is another difference between an honor-shame focus versus a guilt-innocence focus. With a guilt-innocence focus we point the finger at their sin. With an honor-shame focus, it is sad that they refuse to see how much God loves them. Thus, the heart of an evangelist should be driven by this thought: “If you only knew how much God loves you.” In this way, it is like trying to restore a sibling who is estranged from their father whom they perceive to be a cruel father, when in reality he loves them so much. In fact, this is the story of the prodigal son. And Jesus is actually like a sibling who reconciles us back to the Father.
Conclusion
Well, this is sort of a scratchpad synthesis that gathers my reflections on what the gospel is based on John 3:16-21. I know it’s kind of raw and dense, but I think this is the beginning to seeing the gospel and preaching the gospel in a refreshing, and I think more biblical way. It actually turns out that this is a thing that many theologians and missionaries are thinking about. You can find a bibliography of honor-shame resources at honorshame.com. I’ve also been reading Honor, Shame, and the Gospel which is a collection of essays on the topic which is very helpful.