For most of the twentieth century in the United States, evangelistic preaching meant explaining how the vicarious penal substitutionary theory of the atonement works. The logic of this approach has made good sense because Christ accomplished the work of salvation on the cross. Nevertheless, the cross does not exhaust the good news of Jesus Christ. Each element of the gospel addresses specific ultimate spiritual issues for which Christ is the answer. The problem in evangelistic preaching has come when preachers try to answer all of the questions of life with the cross.

This issue first emerged for me on Christmas Sunday morning fourteen years ago as I sat in my study ten minutes before the service began. The phone rang, and when I answered it a woman asked if she could still go to heaven if she killed herself. Protestant scholastic theology has an answer to her question. The blood of Jesus is sufficient to cover all sins; once saved, always saved. So in confidence I could have answered her question: "Yes, madame, you can go on and kill yourself."

Of course, she had not asked her real question. She really wanted to know some reason to live. She wanted hope, and the cross does not address that issue. The resurrection gives us a concrete reason for hope.

Soon after that episode while preaching in a series of revival meetings, I went with the pastor of the church to visit a prospective member. In the course of the conversation, the pastor asked the man if he would like to be "born again." Using the third chapter of John, the pastor then explained how the vicarious penal substitutionary theory of the atonement works. I sat amazed. The pastor never once mentioned how the Holy Spirit regenerates people. The cross speaks to forgiveness and justification, but the gift of the Holy Spirit speaks to the new birth and sanctification. I began to realize that most Christians in the west have grown so accustomed to the old, old story that they have forgotten what it means.

In the New Testament, every element of the gospel represents an avenue to faith. Salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ who saves. Protestant scholasticism has also had the tendency to equate justification and salvation. Salvation would not happen without justification, but justification does not exhaust the meaning of salvation, nor does it exhaust the work of Christ on the cross. Would anyone want to choose between receiving forgiveness of sin, being cleansed of sin, or being freed from sin. Yet, justification, purification, and redemption represent three entirely different dimensions of what Christ accomplished on the cross, only one of which relates to penal substitution.

In a world that knows the Law, has a grounding in Scripture, and has had familiarity with the story of Jesus, justification often represents the major spiritual issue to address. Justification addresses the spiritual experience of guilt. In past years, Americans tended to assume that everyone experiences guilt in equal measure. Sermons often proceeded with the assumption that people everywhere labored under a load of guilt.