# “A dangerous turn” by D.A. Carson

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2010/10/05/a-dangerous-turn-by-d-a-carson/
- Published: 2010-10-05T09:46:28-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“If the gospel becomes that by which we slip into the kingdom, but all the business
of transformation turns on postgospel disciplines and strategies, then we shall 
constantly be directing the attention of people _away _from the gospel, _away _from
the cross and resurrection.

Soon the gospel will be something that we quietly assume is necessary for salvation,
but not what we are excited about, not what we are preaching, not the power of God.
What is really important are the spiritual disciplines.

Of course, when we point this out to someone for whom techniques and disciplines
are of paramount importance, there is likely to be instant indignation. Of _course
_I believe in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, they say. And doubtless they 
do.

Yet the question remains: What are they excited about? Where do they rest their 
confidence? On what does their hope of transformation depend?

When I read, say, Julian of Norwich, I find an example of just how far an alleged
spirituality may be pursued, in medieval form, directly attempting to connect with
God _apart _from self-conscious dependence on the substitutionary death and resurrection
of Jesus—the very matters the apostle labels ‘of first importance.’

Wherever contemporary pursuit of spirituality becomes similarly distanced from the
gospel, it is taking a dangerous turn. One of the most urgently needed things today
is a careful treatment of how the gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought
to shape everything we do in the local church, all of our ethics, all of our priorities.”

–D.A. Carson, “What is the Gospel?–Revisited,” in _[For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433504928?tag=toletaupanre-20)_(
Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 165.

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