WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
The gospel has been described as a pool in which a toddler can wade and yet an elephant can swim. It is both simple enough to tell to a child and profound enough for the greatest minds to explore. We will spend our lives exploring the gospel. However, where do we begin? To set a foundation in the exploring of defining gospel I have offered a word, a phrase, a paragraph, and a story. These are derived from a study of Scripture and scholarship. Much more could be said, but I hope and pray it would set a trajectory to know the beauty and depth of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Word: Jesus
Phrase: Jesus is King
Sentence: The gospel is the identity of Jesus as the promised Son of God and Messiah, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for sin and justification, the establishment of the reign of God and the new creation.
Paragraph: The gospel is the story of history that God Himself has come to rescue and restore creation in and through the work of Jesus on our behalf. Through Jesus, the Messiah, the power of God’s kingdom has entered history to renew the whole world. Through the Saviour God has established his reign. When we place our trust in the person and work of Jesus we become kingdom citizens and our relationship with God is restored. In trusting in the burial, and resurrection of Jesus for sin and justification kingdom power comes upon us and begins to work through us. We witness this radical new way of living by our renewed lives, beautiful community, social justice, and cultural transformation. The gospel motivates, guides, and empowers every aspect of our living and worship.
Story: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
1 Corinthians 15 is the gospel. This is where the apostle Paul first articulates it and what he articulates is the creedal tradition that had been passed on to him. This is how the early church defined gospel from the very onset. Every time Paul says “gospel” he means what he says in 1 Corinthians 15. That gospel is the narration of the story of Jesus as Messiah (and Lord over all) as that story that completes or fulfils the story of Israel, and brings that story to its goal. That story is about Jesus and Jesus, who is Saviour, saves through what he did — his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. That story is about New Creation!
New Testament scholar Scot McKnight reminds us the gospel is a story.
Jesus didn’t drop out of the heavens one snowy night in Bethlehem to a world hushed for Advent. Instead, Jesus’ birth came in the midst of a story with a beginning, a problem, and a lengthy history. When Jesus stood up to announce the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 4:23), the first thing his hearers would have focused on was not the word gospel but the word kingdom—the climax of Israel’s story and its yearning for the eternal messianic reign. Gospel-preaching for Jesus had the same hope and vision one finds in Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), Zechariah’s Benedictus (1:68–79), Simeon’s Nunc dimittis (2:29–32), and John the Baptist’s summons to a new way of life (3:10–14)—namely, the fulfillment of the whole story’s hope, the kingdom of God. This is why Paul defines gospel after its first mention in Romans 1:1 with this: “which he promised beforehand through his prophets, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David” (NRSV). To preach the gospel and to believe the gospel is to offer and enter into a story.
New Testament scholar N.T. Wright reminds us the reason this story is good news…
In the Roman Empire, when a new emperor came to the throne, there’d obviously be a time of uncertainty. Somebody’s just died. Is there going to be chaos? Is society going to collapse? Are we going to have pirates ruling the seas? Are we going to have food to eat? And the good news is, we have an emperor and his name is such and such. So, we’re going to have justice and peace and prosperity, and isn’t that great?! Now, of course, most people in the Roman Empire knew that was rubbish because it was just another old jumped-up aristocrat who was going to do the same as the other ones had done. But that was the rhetoric.
In his book, How God Became King, N.T. Wright, says, “The whole point of the Gospels is to tell the story of how God became king, on earth as in heaven.” God is becoming King and he is doing it through Jesus! And therefore, the world can be relieved! God’s justice, God’s peace, God’s world is going to be renewed. The Story of the Gospel promises a new society and a new creation. For example, Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth declaring the prophetic vision was now coming to pass through him, there was more than personal redemption at work. God’s kingdom, the society where God’s will is established and lived, was now officially at work in his followers. Followers of Jesus now partner with God in overturning the injustices and exclusions of the empire and establishing an inclusive and just alternative. We find this in Jesus’ opening words (Luke 4:18–19), the Beatitudes (6:20–26), and in his response to John (Mark 7:22–23). This vision for a just society led to the radical practices of generosity and hospitality in the Jerusalem churches (Acts 2:42–47). The church becomes a new society of apprentices of Jesus at work in the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit, for the purposes of God.
Our Story: As the church, this story of the gospel now becomes our story. Which means that we cannot look at the world without the story of the gospel being our lens. The gospel is our worldview. It is the language we now speak and the story in which we live out of. The implication is that whatever problems we or others are facing the gospel has an answer to it. Whether it be finances, sex, debt, marriage, parenting, singleness, doubt, addiction, etc. the gospel has an answer. That is a life of following Jesus. The story of Jesus – who he is, what he has done and how sufficient he is – answers every single question we are facing.
What is the question? Jesus is the answer!
As we grow in our gospel literacy, we will find that to be more and more true!