How relevant is the blood of Jesus?

A fellow named Dever said, “Of course we should contextualize the gospel—not to make the gospel more palatable or acceptable to the sinner,” he said, “but to make the offense of the gospel clearer.” He insisted: “Don’t try to improve the gospel by making it more relevant—you’ll lose the gospel.”

I've been thinking about our attempts to be "relevant" lately. Most attempts to make the gospel relevant focus on removing removing its 1950's trappings and put a more current spin on it. Most of this has to do with aesthetics such as dress, meeting places, music styles, and the use of multimedia.

I'm all for meeting people where their at. Get the tv addict with commercials, shows and movies. Get the music junkie with whatever gospel-lyric-infused imitation tunes get their attention. Get the punk rocker with pierced preachers. If wearing chaps helps you connect with lost cowboys, then strap them on. That's fine. god loved us enough to meet us where we were, as we were. Just remember that he loved us too much to leave us that way.

If people find the gospel more palatable because you dress it up in one of these gimmicks, that's fine I guess. But please do not confuse what is appealing to the worldly people you are trying to reach with what is actually relevant. Nothing could be more relevant than where one stands with Jesus.

Just be sure the method of communicating the gospel does not overshadow the message.