The Therapeutic Gospel

In this editorial, David Powlison argues that the therapeutic gospel concerns itself with people’s “felt needs”: for love, significance, self-esteem, self-confidence, self-assertion, pleasure, and excitement. The therapeutic gospel gives people what they want. It makes them feel better—at least temporarily. It centers around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. But, Powlison matains, it discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. Powlison concludes that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings change through repentance, faith, and transformation into the image of the Son.