Chandler, Matt. The
Explicit Gospel. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. 240 pp.
Introduction
The Explicit Gospel is
the first book by The Village Church pastor Matt Chandler. Chandler has been a
pastor since 2002 and gained some recent notoriety for battling and overcoming
cancer, much like a kindred and similarly passionate preacher, John Piper.
Chandler is notable for his animated, sporadic, and outgoing speaking style,
some of which comes through in the pages of his book, most notably in his use
of colloquialisms and descriptive examples from his own experience or from
popular culture.
Theme
The theme of the book is evident in the title, but is
“explicitly” stated in the introduction. Chandler is fighting against
“Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” a phrase he borrows from author
Christian Smith. The new name is for Christianity’s oldest enemy-from-within,
self-righteousness, or, more specifically, seeking to earn God’s favor by
virtue of our own behavior. The explicit gospel is the antidote to this tendency
toward behaviorism.
Division
The book is organized into eleven chapters under two general
headings: “the gospel on the ground,” and “the gospel in the air.” The former
is the individual, humanistic (in the good sense of the word) way in which the
gospel may be understood. The latter is the corporate, cosmic way in which the
gospel may be understood. The gospel on the ground is subdivided into chapters
on God, Man, Christ, and Response. The gospel in the air is subdivided into
chapters on Creation, Fall, Reconciliation, and Consummation. There is a third
major heading, but it handles “implications and applications” of the two
general categories. The chapters subdividing this third section include a
chapter each on the dangers of focusing too much on the “ground” or too much on
the “air,” and a third chapter that seeks to provide practical help in living
an “explicit” gospel.
Strengths
The most obvious strength of Chandler’s book is his ability
to speak about important aspects of the gospel in ways that the majority of
“casually churched” individuals can understand and find familiar to their
experience. The sorts of people who have some familiarity with Christianity,
but may have done very little theological study seem to be the target audience
of Chandler’s book. He won’t miss them for being to academic, nor play to any
ignorance by being to vapid. Another strength is the book’s organization. The
overall arrangement is easy to follow and the chapters are divided into small
chunks, usually with remarks organized into several numerically indicated
points.
Strengths within the content include Chandler’s ability to
make good use of Scriptural exposition for most of the chapters in the book. He
does not make much use of any confessions, creeds, or “old dead guys,” however,
which I’ll get to below. I think Chandler’s does a fair job of using a few good
texts and coming back to them several times, rather than the approach of
culling many snippets from all over the Bible, which helps to show the unity of
Scripture, but loses something in the depth of exposition.
Weaknesses
As it often happens in books that seek a broad lay audience,
Chandler’s attention to theological detail, historical documents and
theologians of the past, and even sound logic suffer. This is particularly the
case in the third section of the book, where he gets into implications. Most of
the examples come from contemporary experience or recent history, losing much
of the richness of biblical exposition that came in the earlier chapters. The
lack of appeals to the historical language of the church, while perhaps
understandable given his audience, underscores Chandler’s own limitations. He
relies heavily upon contemporary authors, and where he does make use of older
lights in the Church, it is usually for a catchy quote, and not for a developed
theological argument.
Considering argument, another weakness of Chandler’s is his
imprecision with logical implication. In his chapters on the dangers of the
gospel and on the ground and in the air, all of his claims are based upon what
sort of things he surmises to have occurred as result of either, but none of
his examples follow necessarily upon a too-acute focus upon individual aspect
of the Gospel or cosmic aspects of the Gospel. In fact, one might ask the question,
“how can focusing on any portion of truth lead to error?” The real point is not
that one or another aspect of the truth has been consider too closely, or
emphasized too much, but rather, they have been misunderstood or incompletely
developed. Perhaps this seems a overbearing criticism, but there is a danger in
treating truths as anything other than glorious. Chandler unwittingly drags
down the things he seeks to lift up by failing to make the proper distinctions
between truth, which never misleads, and errors that masquerade as truths.
Recommendation
There were a few times when I found Chandler very refreshing
to read, and other times I was bogged down by the wealth of personal anecdotes,
pathos-driven examples, and popular jargon. Other will, I am sure, find those
to be the best portions of Chandler’s book. If you are interested in doing theological
heavy lifting, this book won’t present a challenge. If are someone, or you want
to help someone, who has never really understood the basics of the gospel get a
good overview of the gospel, then Chandler’s book is a worthy choice.
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