The Gospel Is the Good News!

How would you define the gospel? How would you sum it up? D.L. Moody once said, "I can write the gospel on a dime." Michael Horton describes the results of a recent survey in Christian Century that asked mainline pastors and theologians to summarize the gospel in seven words or less. Here are some typical (and less than stellar) responses: "We are the Church of Infinite Chances"; "To dwell in possibility"; "In Christ, God's yes defeats our no."

The one attempt that really caught Horton's attention was from Dr. Lamin Sanneh, a Gambian scholar teaching at Yale: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world." Horton offers a penetrating critique of what he calls the gospel of "God loves you anyway." -The White Horse Inn Blog, September 5, 2012, Michael Horton

So, "What is the Gospel?" According to Faith Facts, Gospel is a term used over 75 times in the New Testament. While it has various nuances of meaning, it's most fundamental meaning from the Greek is "good news." But good news of what? According to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology edited by Walter Elwell, "the gospel is the joyous proclamation of God's redemptive activity in Christ Jesus on behalf of man enslaved by sin."

Another usage for the term is to refer to specific books in the Bible that set forth the life and teaching of Jesus, for example the Gospel of Matthew, etc.

The importance of the gospel cannot be overstated. Indeed, it is the culminating concept of the entire Bible. So as the biblical writers proclaimed this good news to all, so we in turn proclaim it to our readers. As it says in the most famous of all Bible passages:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

The gospel is something to be preached and to be believed (1 Corinthians 15:11). The gospel is the proclamation of the glory of Christ rather than something we proclaim about ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:4-6). Yet the gospel has implications for our obedience.

Since the gospel is delivered by belief, more light on this can be shed by what is meant by “believe in” in such passages as John 3:16: “Whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The word in (Greek eis) really means “into” or “unto.” Since we do not have an idiom in English “to believe into” or “to believe unto” it is translated “believe in.” But the meaning is deeper than mere intellectual assent (James 2:14-19). It implies that we believe so deeply in Jesus that we will commit our whole being and obedience to him.

The gospel, by the way, is the same in the Old Testament as in the New Testament. See Romans 1:1-3, Galatians 3:8, Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Now, let's take a  moment and comment on what the gospel is not.

• It is not, "Have your best life now"—as a popular TV preacher proclaims.
• It is not, "Jesus came to be your best friend."
• It is not sacramental. Paul specifically states in 1 Corinthians 1:17-18 that the gospel does not include baptism.
• It is not placing one's trust in the church but rather in Christ's finished work on the cross.
• It is not something that we must do.
• Further, it is not the so-called social gospel. (The social gospel is a response by certain liberal Christians who began to doubt the Bible and its miracles, including the bodily resurrection of Christ. Left with no gospel at all, these professing Christians turned to social action in society as their focus and redemption.) 
• Nor is the gospel the whole of the New Testament, which some Christians who tend toward legalism think.

For the apostle Paul, the gospel was the reason for his existence. That there would be no doubt about exactly what the gospel means, Paul specifically defines it in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). This passage offers the clearest definition of the gospel. It is indeed perhaps the most important passage of the entire Bible.

In subsequent verses (1 Corinthians 15:9-58), Paul goes on to explain the significance of the resurrection event. Because of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection, we all have hope of eternal life. He stakes everything on the resurrection being an actual historical event. He insists that unless Christ's resurrection really and truly happened, our faith is in vain.

Here is your take-away for today:  The gospel is the good news that Christ lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose from the dead to satisfy God's wrathful judgment on the world. Because of Jesus' payment in full for OUR debt, it is now possible for anyone to receive salvation through a living faith in Christ.

Prayer: Father whatever we do, it is because Jesus Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live. In Jesus name we pray, Amen (1Cor 5:14) 

-Special thanks to Faith Facts

Have a blessed day!

Erika