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In my view, four things are left over. I'll share these in this and the next three posts.
The first thing that I think is left over is a vision of salvation as rescue.
The trouble with the "God loves you" and "Love Wins" formulations is that they boil down to "salvation as affection."
As I pointed out in the last post, "salvation as affection" is the problem at the heart of progressive Christianity's theology of the gospel. Because these same progressive Christians care massively, as they should, about social justice. And that commitment makes them see the world, as they should, in highly moralized terms. Oppression and injustice stand under the judgment of God, and the children of darkness are facing some eschatological hazard. Just read the Old Testament prophets.
Trouble is, the Love Wins message from many progressive Christians--salvation as God's affection--has eschewed any notion that anyone faces any eschatological hazard. Expunging any hint of "sinners in the hands of an angry God" from the gospel proclamation is progressive Christianity 101.
Phrased differently, salvation as affection reduces the gospel to a therapeutic, feel good message of affirmation. Which is great, but if sin and evil really exist, which the progressive Christian has to admit given their social justice concerns, the gospel is more than affection and affirmation. The gospel is rescue.
Basically, yes, God loves the world. Agreed. That's totally true. But the world is also stuck. And that's what is missing from salvation as affection, any admission that we're stuck and in need of help. It's right there in John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. God's love graciously initiates a rescue operation. Look also at Ephesians 2.4-5:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
We were stuck, dead. And because of God's great love he made us alive with Christ, rescuing us from deadness. The gospel isn't a story about God's feelings toward us. The gospel is the story of God's actions toward us. The gospel is the story of the rescue operation.
(Of course, that's stated too sharply to make the point. The gospel is the story of both God's love and rescue.)
And if that's true, if the gospel is a story of a rescue operation, then the gospel presumes that we needed rescuing. We share the gospel because people are stuck.
So that's my first answer to the question about what is left over. If you subtract out God's affections from the gospel message, along with your values, morality and politics, what is left over? What's left over is the story of God's rescue operation. The story of how you are stuck and how God has come to set you free.
