You Need a Better Gospel: Reclaiming the Good News of Participation with Christ

by Klyne R. Snodgrass

Too often, the church hasn't done justice to its own gospel because it has neglected how much the New Testament message is about deep involvement in life with God. Senior New Testament scholar Klyne Snodgrass offers a corrective, explaining that the church will never be what it is supposed to be without a recovery of the gospel.This brief, accessibly written, and timely book shows that the biblical message is about attachment to Christ, participation in his death and resurrection, and engagement in his purposes. Snodgrass demonstrates that understanding and appropriating the gospel of participation conforms with what the church's great thinkers have emphasized throughout history and enables the church to recover its true identity.This book brings the notion of participation in the gospel to a wider church audience. While other studies on this topic focus mostly on Paul's writings, You Need a Better Gospel shows that participation is the emphasis of the entire Bible, including the Old Testament. The real gospel, which offers participation in life with God, is astounding in its beauty and its power for life.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 18, 2022

About the author

Klyne Ryland Snodgrass (born 28 December 1944) is an American theologian, author and professor of New Testament Studies at the North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. His publication Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus garnered a 2009 Christianity Today Book Award.

Reviews

[Scott Bielinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. Though I agree with Snodgrass' main point (any talk of the gospel must necessarily include a robust notion of participation because at the heart of the gospel is union with Christ), this book wasn't as satisfying as I hoped it would be. If we're going to adopt participation as *the* metaphor for the gospel and the Christian life, we must coordinate our understanding of it with biblical notions like adoption, justification, substitution, and imputation (which he says is hardly biblical language!). More work needs to be done to flesh out how each of these metaphors relate to one another. We don't adopt participation at the expense of other foundational theological realities. To be clear, he doesn't argue for that, but he doesn't demonstrate how participation fits into these other concepts--which is, to my mind, an important demerit for this book.

For my money, Michael Allen does an excellent job of relating participation to a wider dogmatic system in his book, "Justification and the Gospel," where he says this: "[T]he gospel is the glorious news that the God who has life in himself freely shares that life with us, and when we refuse that life in sin, graciously gives us life yet again in Christ. While participation in God is the goal of the gospel, justification is the ground of that sanctifying fellowship" (Allen, 37). For Allen, justification and participation are not competitors, but important metaphors that describe aspects of the same reality. I wish this was reflected in Snodgrass' work because that God freely justifies us demonstrates for us the *kind of* God that He is, which points us to the richness of His own life, the life into which He calls us--which is exactly what Snodgrass is trying to demonstrate.

In the end, if Snodgrass' argument is that participation does a better job of casting a vision for the whole of the Christian life, then he is basically right. And there really is a ton of great thought in the book. His chapter on participation in John and 1 John (91-101) was excellent. His section on how participation in Christ doesn't obliterate but dignifies human agency is fantastic (146-151). But far, far, more work needs to be done in relating how that is true with other biblical metaphors that we simply can't do without. I think this work probably would have been better had it been a bit less polemical, more constructive and integrative, and 150 pages longer.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the results of the “Christendom” experience over the past 2,000 years has been the intellectualization of the faith. Many sought to communicate Christianity in terms of an argument or philosophical system, and ever since there has been a strong temptation to make Christianity all about ideas and disputing about doctrines.

What was originally synthesized and philosophized in Christianity then went through the Enlightenment, and the result has sometimes been a perspective of Christianity as information acquisition and distribution. In theory there is an expectation of behavioral change, but what really proves important to many people is to have the right information and disseminate the right information. All kinds of lapses in behavior can somehow be justified and rationalized; but the moment anything about that information gets challenged, disputed, or questioned, then look out.

Think about how “the Gospel” gets characterized: almost entirely in terms of ideas, knowledge acquisition and distribution, and disputation thereof.

While the Gospel has always involved ideas, doctrines, and information acquisition and distribution, the Gospel has always involved far more than this. And Klyne Snodgrass does well at showing an important dimension of the Gospel often lost in this flattening process in You Need a Better Gospel: Reclaiming the Good News of Participation With Christ (affiliate link; galley received as part of early review program, but full book read).

In short, Snodgrass is highlighting the pervasive theme of “participation” throughout the Old Testament, in the Gospels, and in Paul’s letters and other letters. The Gospel was never meant to be just about information. The Gospel represents the story of what God has accomplished so that Christians can jointly participate in His work in/with Him and with one another.

If one has not been attuned to the theme of participation in Scripture, then this book will provide an excellent opportunity to have one’s eyes opened to how frequently and pervasively the authors of Scripture speak to and expect the participation of the believer in the life and work of God. The Gospel is a clarion call to do something: to follow in the ways of Jesus and well embody Him.

The author should be commended as a Protestant and coming to these conclusions, since the “faith only” over-emphasis inherent in Protestantism has led to the functional idolization of belief and faith and comparative disregard and contempt for participation and work. He is always welcome to check out the Restoration side of the pool.

The author and I agree on concerns about the language of theosis/deification; the author mentions perichoresis and Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23. I continue to emphasize, and encourage emphasis, on the story of Scripture as God’s revelation of the perichoretic relational unity within God and God’s desire for perichoretic relational unity with people and among people. Participation works quite well as a significant emphasis within this theme: when we belong to God and His people, we participate in the life and work of God and His people. If we are not participating in the work and life of God and His people, we functionally manifest a lack of involvement with God and His family, and the Scriptures attest to a prospect of terror in judgment if we meet the Lord in that condition.

This is an encouraging work for correcting unwise dogmatic and doctrinal emphasis, and a good attempt at getting back to a much more relational based understanding of what God is all about in Christ through the Spirit.

[Alistair Chalmers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a helpful book. At points I found myself shouting "YES!" from the sidelines, and other points I had some questions, but overall, a good book.
It was a bit repetitive at points. I see what the author was trying to do by focusing on 'participation' language and he did highlight how 'union' language doesn't quite have the same emphasis, but at points it felt a bit hobby-horse-ish.

I like that the author calls out the church on having a simplistic view of faith that might be restricted simply to a set of doctrinal points, rather than a life that is full of Christ. Some really helpful challenges.

***I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not change the way I rate the book. My views are my own.***

[Mark Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but somehow unsatisfying. I don't deny for one moment that the Christian life entails participation with Christ, but I'm just not convinced that participation is the equivalent of the gospel. I may have misread the intention here; I certainly do agree that the Christian life can often overlook the value of participation in/with ('en') Christ. I've also recently read Bates's Salvation by allegiance alone, so perhaps am more persuaded by 'allegiance' than 'participation' as a response to the Christian Good News. Still, some great early chapters in Snodgrass's work and a worthwhile read.

[Brad Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thesis is right. And I think that it’s the right emphasis - particularly as it relates to how we communicate the gospel in our current cultural moment. It ultimately feels like the right direction that needs to be more developed.

The ground work is there and I wish it was something I could recommend widely but it’s just not quite there. The concepts and big ideas have been helpful to me overall and I hope there will be more built onto this by others in the future.

[Jonathan Hart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite a thorough methodical examination of participatory language in scripture - Snodgrass’ book fails to be compelling. His main weakness is a lack of precision to the terms he uses. At different points the term ‘participatory’ means anything from solidarity to discipleship. A more clear definition of terms would have enabled a deeper understanding to emerge.

[Mason Baergen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very poor exegesis, a misunderstanding of what it means to participate in Christ. Rooted in low church theology that completely misses the mark. Very unfortunate.