Those Perplexing Artifacts

If the story we tell is only the story of sinners whose souls are alienated from God, then preaching the gospel is nothing more, and nothing less, than urging people to put their faith in Jesus’ death on their behalf. Such a story has one conflict to resolve: the conflict of sin and guilt as it stands in the way of the relationship between God and humanity. And, if that is the extent of our story, we are left with a rather perplexing collection of Christian artifacts known as “the Gospels,” which do not actually contain much of the gospel at all.