The Expulsive Power of a New Narrative: Why the Biblical Story Must Displace Competing Alternatives

EMQ » Oct – Dec 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 4

Summary: No one lives without a narrative. Rather, everyone lives in accordance with some story that forms and shapes their worldview. Christian ministers and missionaries –  – particularly those laboring to make disciples among all peoples –  – must account for this reality. True transformation requires the biblical narrative to displace alternate narratives as the integrating center of one’s faith and practice. Without such narrative displacement, our evangelism and discipleship efforts are compromised.

By C. S. Barefoot

In a famous sermon entitled, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” Thomas Chalmers argued that true Christian transformation is only possible when love for Christ replaces one’s prior, worldly affections.[i] Chalmers – a nineteenth-century Scottish pastor-theologian – claimed that simply renouncing worldly desires is an insufficient starting point for a godly, moral life. Rather, worldly desires must be displaced by a greater affection. According to Chalmers, such displacement “will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.”[ii] In other words, personal transformation in the Christian life requires that a love for God displace one’s prior love for the world.

That logic of displacement is no less important in missions. Missionaries engage people who not only have misplaced affections but also worldview narratives that contradict Scripture. Just as Christian transformation requires that a love for God displace a love for the world, it also requires that the biblical narrative displace competing narratives as the integrating center of one’s worldview. The story of Scripture must become the defining narrative of one’s life. Otherwise, people are susceptible to syncretism – which occurs when Christian belief and practice blend with unbiblical tenets from other religions. Thus, narrative displacement should be a central aim for mission practitioners in all contexts.

Function of Narrative

Everyone lives according to a narrative – a story that shapes the way they view themselves and the world.[iii] According to Paul Hiebert, such worldview narratives are the “the broader stories that people take to be true about the ultimate nature of things. They provide the paradigms … that help people understand their cosmology, human history, and biographies by showing them the fundamental ‘plot’ or ‘story line’ in which they live.”[iv] There is no such thing as narrative-less belief. No one believes from a blank slate. Rather, all worldviews derive from some kind of narrative. For example, secular worldviews are often based on the story of Enlightenment progress, while Hindu worldviews derive, in part, from the story of cyclical reincarnation. All such narratives, according to Hiebert, “give meaning to [people’s] lives by explaining the past and the present and pointing to the future.”[v] In this sense, narratives are fundamental to one’s worldview.

The biblical grand narrative spans from the beginning of the universe to its ultimate consummation. It begins with God creating the world and establishing his kingdom over it. It then recounts the crisis which has since plagued God’s creation – human rebellion against God. Highlighting the disastrous consequences of this rebellion, the story then narrates how God chose one family to be the vehicle through which he would rescue humanity and all creation from the curse of sin. It then traces the long history of that chosen people – Israel – and God’s desire to draw all nations to himself through them. Yet the failure of Israel to live as a faithful kingdom of priests and a light to the nations precipitates the narrative’s climactic episode – the arrival of Jesus, through Israel. Jesus inaugurated God’s coming kingdom and secured a place in that kingdom for people from every nation through his own death and resurrection. The narrative then highlights the birth and growth of God’s church – his people now identified by faith in Jesus rather than physical relation to Israel. It concludes by picturing the flourishing future of God’s kingdom, which Jesus will establish in full at his return.[vi]

From a Christian perspective, this narrative of Scripture is foundational to discipleship. Christianity is not a set of abstract principles or commands, but a story rooted in history. This story defines reality. It shapes a proper understanding of who God is. It illustrates the response that God requires from the people he created. Understanding this narrative necessarily precedes any attempt to live according to it. As philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre explains, “I can only answer the question ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’”[vii] Therefore, a faithful response to the gospel message requires an understanding of the biblical narrative.

One passage that highlights the importance and function of narrative understanding is the Pentateuch’s account of God giving his Law to his people.[viii] In Exodus 20, the well-known chapter on the Ten Commandments, God begins by grounding his instructions in a narrative of his gracious redemptive activity. He declares, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2, ESV). The story of what God had done for Israel in rescuing them from Pharaoh thus shapes their understanding of who God is and provides the basis for the commandments that follow.  

Narrative functions in a similar manner in Joshua’s charge to the Israelites after their conquests in the promised land. Toward the end of his life, Joshua gathers all the people at Shechem and begins narrating all that God had done on their behalf, starting with the calling of Abraham (Josh 24:2) and concluding with God’s defeat of Amorite kings (Josh 24:12), which ushered the people into a fruitful land for which they had not labored (Josh 24:13). Then Joshua declares, “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14). The story of God’s goodness to his people over many centuries served to remind them of God’s gracious character and summon them to obedience. It was the basis for sincere and faithful service to God.

In these, and many other cases, the narrative of God’s redemptive work provides the foundation on which his people build their lives. It frames the context for understanding what God requires and why he instructs his people to live in certain ways. Without that context, God’s commands would lack force and intelligibility. As Christopher J. H. Wright explains, the narrative declares, “Here is what has happened in your history, and these are the things that YHWH your God has done. Then the Law expresses the responsive imperative: Now then, this is how you must behave in light of such facts.”[ix] An understanding of that narrative therefore serves as the necessary precursor to faithful obedience and service to him.

Thus, the narrative of Scripture is formative. It helps Christians make sense of the world, its history, and humanity’s place in it. As missionary theologian Lesslie Newbigin declares, “The Gospel of God … refers to the beginning and end of all things and therefore to the real meaning of all that happens. It follows that there cannot be an absolute separation between the history of our redemption, and the sacred story of the Old and New Testaments, the story of the Church and the whole story of mankind.”[x] Therefore, to truly understand life from a Christian perspective and properly respond to the gospel message, we must understand the broad narrative of Scripture.

Displacement of Narrative

Yet not only is the biblical narrative formative; it is also expulsive. In other words, the biblical story has the power to displace other worldview narratives by which people live. This expulsive power is important, because, as Newbegin claims, “If this biblical story is not the one that really controls our thinking [and our lives,] then inevitably we shall be swept into the story the world tells about itself.”[xi] Old narratives die hard. If they are not displaced, they will continue to operate sight unseen, forming and shaping people in ways that subvert the gospel message.

To understand the importance of narrative displacement, consider ways that Hindu narratives form and shape adherents of Hinduism.[xii] Although Hinduism does not feature a single overarching story as its core foundation, its narratives are similar in their perspective of humanity’s role in the universe.[xiii] These Hindu narratives – as with all worldview narratives – engender various motivations for and approaches to religious practice.   

For one, Hindu narratives give rise to a self-centered posture and motivation for religious observance.[xiv] They picture gods not as inherently good, but as fickle and, at times, vindictive in behavior. Since these gods are believed to hold power over the material world, many adherents to Hinduism perform religious practices in order to garner favor with them. The glory of God is not the purpose of worship – as is the case in the biblical narrative. Instead, personal gain is often the driving motivation.[xv] In other words, adherents seek to gain some kind of material benefit from the gods in return for their allegiance and devotion. Gods act as divine benefactors, and one’s worship of them is ultimately self-serving.

Additionally, Hindu narratives promote salvation based on one’s works (karma). Salvation for Hindus typically refers to a release from the cycle of reincarnation – the process by which someone is continually reborn after death into various levels of worth and existence. Whether one is reborn as an animal or low-caste servant or high-caste priest, for example, depends on the works one does in this life. The accumulation of good works can then lead to a release from such reincarnation. In other words, one receives salvation not on the basis of God’s grace – as the biblical narrative reveals – but rather on the basis of one’s own actions. As J. Snodgrass observes, “the effort in [Hindu] salvation is always on the side of the saved, not the savior.”[xvi]

Narrative displacement is therefore imperative in this case, because Christianity endorses neither a self-serving motivation for worshiping God nor a works-based means of entering his kingdom. If the narratives that undergird these emphases are not replaced by the biblical narrative, then they are liable to be imported into one’s embrace of Christianity. In other words, prospective believers might be inclined to embrace Jesus as the object of their religious devotion yet worship him as a means to material prosperity and serve him as a means of earning salvation. This possibility is not just theoretical; it constitutes a real challenge for ministers of the gospel in South Asia.[xvii]

Fortunately, the biblical story carries with it an “expulsive power,” the power to displace competing narratives as the integrating center of one’s worldview. In other words, the biblical story can dislodge alternate narratives which have previously defined and guided people’s lives.[xviii] This expulsive power is most operative when, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we begin to understand the story of Scripture and perceive that this story, more than any other, makes sense of the known world. It compellingly answers life’s most fundamental questions: Who are we? Where are we? What is wrong? What is the solution?[xix]

Accordingly, narrative should remain at the center of the missionary’s evangelistic and discipleship endeavors. Missiologist Brad Vaughn recommends missionaries regularly gather and lead small groups of seekers to survey the biblical story. This provides them with “the mental categories and perspective to make sense of the gospel and its demands.”[xx] This kind of narrative teaching also guards prospective believers against syncretizing elements of the Christian faith with aspects of the narrative with which they grew up. Thus, whether in evangelism or in early discipleship, missionaries should make the biblical story a cornerstone of their teaching ministries. Only when the narrative is known can its expulsive power take effect.

Conclusion

The biblical story lies at the heart of a Christian worldview. According to Hiebert, it “provides a unique, comprehensive interpretation of universal history and a unique understanding of humans as responsible actors in history.”[xxi] The work of evangelism and discipleship is therefore the work of drawing others into the biblical story as participants in its unfolding drama. Yet, to become a faithful actor in God’s story, one must actually know the story and embrace it as one’s own. Only then can it displace previously held narratives. Without this narrative displacement, prospective believers might adopt Christian practices without having their worldviews transformed. Therefore, missionaries should make the biblical narrative a central component of their evangelistic and teaching ministries. For as the psalmist indicates, we become what we behold (Psalm 115:8), and we behold through narrative.

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[i] Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” in The Protestant Pulpit: An Anthology of Master Sermons from the Reformation to Our Own Day, ed. Andrew Watterson Blackwood (Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1947), 50–62.

[ii] Chalmers, “Expulsive Power,” 50.

[iii] On the foundational nature of narratives for life and worldview, see N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Fortress, 1992), 38–39; Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story, 3rd ed. (Baker Academic, 2024), xiii–xxvi; Michael W. Goheen and Albert M. Wolters, “Worldview Between Story and Mission,” in Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview, 2nd ed., by Albert M. Wolters (Eerdmans, 2005), 125–127.

[iv] Paul G. Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Baker Academic, 2008), 99. Hiebert refers to such narratives as myths, though not in the sense of them being unreal or imaginary.

[v] Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 28.

[vi] For a fuller picture of this narrative plot line, see Bartholomew and Goheen, Drama of Scripture.

[vii] Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, 3rd ed. (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), 250.

[viii] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (IVP Academic, 2006), 59.

[ix] Wright, Mission of God, 59.

[x] Lesslie Newbigin, The Relevance of Trinitarian Doctrine for Today’s Mission (Edinburgh House, 1963), 24.

[xi] Lesslie Newbigin, quoted in Bartholomew and Goheen, Drama of Scripture, xv.

[xii] The Mahabharata and the Ramayana narratives, along with other literature like the Vedas, Upanishads, Dharmashastras, Puranas, and Bhagavad Gita, have exerted a tremendous influence on the worldviews of Hindus. For explorations of this literature and its impact, see Gavin Flood, ed., Wiley Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, 2nd ed. (Wiley Blackwell, 2022), 37–127.

[xiii] Jessica Frazier, “The Classical Worldview: Early Foundations of Hindu Philosophy,” in Wiley Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, 2nd ed., ed. Gavin Flood (Wiley Blackwell, 2022), 422–35, highlights within Hindu philosophy various creation accounts, conflicting metaphysics, and a lack of consensus on the goal for humanity’s quest for liberation. Regarding the unity of Hinduism amid its diversity, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Hinduism: A Religion to Live By (Oxford University Press, 1979), 136, asserts, “Hindus wherever they might live, have a uniform and coherent outlook on religion. This similarity is seen in the religious position taken by them and not in the identity of cults and rituals. While Hindu religious beliefs and practices are multiform, the Hindu religious outlook is very unitary. Wherever they come from, the Hindus will hold the same view of the deity, express the same views about religious life, and put forward the same apologia for their religion. It is in this that the true unity of Hinduism is to be seen. It is more a particular religious outlook than a particular religion.”

[xiv] Chaudhuri, Hinduism, 9–10; Pavan K. Varma, Being Indian: The Truth About Why the Twenty-First Century Will Be India’s (Penguin, 2005), 61, 64.

[xv] J. Snodgrass, “Mission to Hindus,” in Theology and Practice of Mission: God, the Church, and the Nations, ed. Bruce Riley Ashford (B&H Academic, 2011), 245, explains, “Many of the myths of the gods depict not just their shining virtues but also their vices. This rather troubling fact opens the door to question the very nature and character of God. If the gods are capable of both good and evil, what assurance do we have of their actions and intentions toward us? They may do us good, but they may just as easily do us harm. In the absence of such assurance about the nature and intentions of god/the gods, Hindus are oftentimes compelled to take matters into their own hands. Worship becomes contractual, a fulfillment of certain divine requirements in order to achieve the desired outcome.”

[xvi] Snodgrass, “Mission to Hindus,” 249.

[xvii] In my own ministry experience in South Asia, these two challenges have surfaced clearly. The drive for material benefit brings the notion of “prosperity theology” into the foreground. Admittedly, prosperity theology – as a concept and school of thought – can be difficult to define, since nuances and divergencies exist among proponents from place to place and person to person. This complexity has been explored recently by Tamie Davis, Mafanikio Theology: Learning Prosperity from Tanzanian Women (Carlisle: Langham Academic, 2025). Regarding prosperity theology in India, Indian pastor-theologian Arv B., “Understanding India’s Fascination with Prosperity Gospel Teachers,” https://in.thegospelcoalition.org/article/india-prosperity-gospel-teachers/, provides a helpful reflection on why prosperity theology has found fertile soil in the Indian subcontinent.

[xviii] Wright, New Testament, 40–42, uses the language of subversion to describe the encounter between the biblical narrative and competing alternatives. He explains, “A good deal of Christian theology consists of the attempt to tell this story as clearly as possible, and to allow it to subvert other ways of telling the story of the world” (p. 132).

[xix] Brian J. Walsh and J. Richard Middleton, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian World View (IVP Academic, 1984), 35, highlight these questions as fundamental to every worldview; Wright, New Testament, 132–33, follows this outline.

[xx] Brad Vaughn (previously published under the pseudonym “Jackson Wu”), “Biblical Theology for Oral Cultures in World Mission,” in World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues, ed. Scott N. Callaham and Will Brooks (Lexham, 2019), 287.

[xxi] Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 300.

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EMQ, Volume 61, Issue 4. Copyright © 2025 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: [email protected].