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{"id":21329,"date":"2011-10-14T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=21329"},"modified":"2011-10-14T12:43:50","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T17:43:50","slug":"what-should-i-do-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/14\/what-should-i-do-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"What Should I Do? Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m now being asked this question by people who are reading The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited<\/a><\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Do people have to pray a prayer when to respond to the gospel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This question emerges from the soterian gospel which has for years invited people to pray a prayer to \u201creceive Christ\u201d or to \u201cask God\u2019s forgiveness in Jesus Christ\u201d etc.. So, I know why people ask this question after they\u2019ve read my book. Why? Because if one shifts out of the soterian gospel paradigm into the Story of Jesus gospel (and it saves), one is then asked how best to respond to the Story gospel.<\/p>\n

Before I give my answer, which I will do at 3pm Central Time today, I want to ask you this: What do you think people are to do as the proper response to the gospel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My answer has two components:<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, I ask this: What does the New Testament gospeling passages actually ask people to do? I find many people either don\u2019t pause to ask this, or what concerns me more, are troubled by what those passages do say because it is either not formulaic enough or it is not simple enough or \u2014 how else to say thish \u2014 those passages don\u2019t have the prayer, they want the prayer, and so they opt for the prayer.<\/p>\n

The answer to the question is this: The New Testament gospeling passages, in summary, call people to repent, to believe and to be baptized. (One can surely add confess.) So, my first answer is to say \u201cWe should invite them or summon them to repent, to believe and to be baptized (in water).<\/p>\n

Second, I get the prayer response. But let\u2019s push this: repenting, believing and being baptized are actually the disposition or the posture of a prayerful orientation toward God in Christ. That is, if you repent, you are turning from sin etc toward God; if you believe you are trusting in God\u2019s word and what God has done in Christ; and if you get baptized you are plunging yourself (or getting plunged) into the Story about Jesus (life, death, burial and resurrection unto exaltation).<\/p>\n

Which is a way of saying this: if the prayer is that sort of disposition, and expresses that turning from sin and self, and expresses trust in Christ, and if it is an orientation to surrender to (the whole Story about) Jesus, then the prayer naturally arises as the way to respond.<\/p>\n

But, if we think some formulaic prayer gets the job done we need to pause. The NT doesn\u2019t gospel someone and then say, \u201cNow pray the prayer.\u201d It says, \u201crepent, believe, be baptized.\u201d The point is not praying but surrendering to God in Christ.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"