In a recent YouTube video, I mentioned that when I was in the doctoral program, I wrote a paper evaluating a chapter by an NT scholar who said that there were different saving messages in the NT. A comment and question by SR caught my attention:
“You mentioned a professor who supported the belief that James and Paul proclaimed two different gospels. How can this be? I know of only one saving gospel message, which is the same gospel message you proclaim so clearly.”
Thanks, SR.
The NT scholar was the late James D. G. (Jimmy) Dunn (October 1939 to June 2020). He wrote an influential book titled Unity and Diversity in the New Testament. During my doctoral program, I wrote a twenty-page review of the chapter titled “Kerugma or Kerugmata?” (Chapter II). Kerugma (singular) means “gospel message” or “gospel,” and kerugmata (plural) means “gospel messages” or “gospels.”
Dunn asks: “Was there one single, normative expression of the gospel in the earliest days of Christianity?” (p. 11). Concerning Jesus’ gospel, Dunn makes this statement: “We must notice that in no recorded instance did Jesus call for faith in himself” (p. 15, italics his). What about John 3:16? There are dozens of verses in John’s Gospel where the Lord Jesus called for faith in Himself.
After discussing the gospel preaching of Jesus (pp. 13-16), in Acts (pp. 16-21), of Paul (pp. 21-26), and of John (pp. 26-29), Dunn draws the conclusion that the NT presents different ways to be born again. He writes, “Do the Acts sermons, Paul, and John share a common kerugma? If we think of the individuality of their proclamation, the distinctiveness of their emphases, the answer has to be No!” (p. 29).
He did, however, find three core elements to “a common kerugma”: 1) “the proclamation of the risen, exalted Jesus,” 2) “the call for faith,” and 3) “the promise held out to faith,” which he says might variously be listed as “forgiveness, salvation, life” (p. 30).
But he also speaks of “considerable diversity of the different kerugmata” (p. 30). “No two kerugmata were exactly the same” (p. 30). “But if the NT is any guide, one can never say: This particular formation is the gospel for all time and for every situation.”
“Quite clearly Jesus stands at the centre of the post-Easter kerugma in a manner which is not really paralleled in Jesus’ own kerugma” (p. 31). “There can be no going back to the proclamation of Jesus as such” (p. 31). “The first Christians were not concerned simply to reproduce the message of Jesus” (p. 31). “In short, the Christian Church is built round the post-Easter kerugma, not the teaching of the historical Jesus” (p. 32).
How different were the various kerugmata? Dunn says, “There differences were often considerable, and incompatible when transposed to other situations” (p. 32). “Any attempt to find a single, once-for-all, unifying kerugma is bound to fail” (p. 32).
Notice how the chapter ends:
The abstraction…of the core kerugma does not give clear enough indication of the distinctive character of Christianity…To demand more as the indispensable minimum is tantamount to asking Paul to excommunicate James or Luke to excommunicate John!” (p. 32, exclamation point his).
Back to SR’s question, “How can this be?” The answer is that Dunn, like most NT scholars today, has abandoned the Gospel of John as the source of the NT kerugma. It is telling that when He discusses Jesus’ kerugma, Dunn does not mention a single verse from John’s Gospel! In pages 29-32, he discusses 100 different passages from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Why none from John’s Gospel?i It is because Dunn confuses Jesus’ discipleship teaching with His evangelistic teaching.
Dunn is not alone. See James Boice’s book on evangelism, Christ’s Call to Discipleship. See the subtitle to the first two editions of John MacArthur’s, The Gospel According to Jesus: What Does Jesus Mean When He Says, “Follow Me”?
There are lots of people who say that there are multiple saving messages in the NT. Some say that one condition is turning from our sins and committing our lives to Christ. They say that another condition is just believing in Jesus and receiving the free gift. They point to other NT authors who say we are saved by believing that Jesus is God and that He died on the cross for our sins and rose again.”
Are there different ways to be born again in the NT? If leading NT scholars get this wrong, how can we know the truth?
Even a child can grasp the truth of John 3:16. Go to the right book, and you’ll find the evangelistic message. Go to the wrong book, and you may well find the discipleship message.
If you want to keep grace in focus, make sure your kerugma is the kerugma of Jesus as found in the Fourth Gospel.
