A Refresher on the Gospel
I occasionally ask Christians, ” What is the Gospel?” I think you will get different responses depending on the social position you are in because although there is one Gospel, it comes to us engaging our own experiences and situations.
The more popular response is that the Gospel is our sins being forgiven and because of that God is not mad anymore. Today, someone told me in joking around that it is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While he said this sarcastically, he actually gave us something better than simply saying that it is our sins being forgiven.
Here is what I said,
Actually, your answer is better put than saying that it is the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. In other words, a major part of understanding the Gospel is recognizing that a) it is not a formula on how one’s sins are forgiven, b) it is not an explanation on how someone gets saved, c) it is not just about God’s wrath being satisfied, but rather first and foremost it is a story which in nature includes other things than Jesus Christ being crucified. The book of Mark is the only book that calls itself a Gospel (1:1). It says, ” In the beginning of the Gospel about/of Jesus Christ.” Thus, the Gospel precedes Christ death because the death of Christ is but a part in the Gospel, a major part, but nonetheless a part of the Gospel for it is a storyline in the Gospel.
The writer then draws from the book of the Prophets, combining Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 as an essential element of this story that is about to be told in which the writer calls, “good news.”
Going down to Mark 1:14, an interesting turn takes place in the Gospel story. This Gospel about Jesus Christ has Jesus Christ preaching the Gospel about God, namely the Kingdom of God being near and this kingdom of God calls for two things, a changing of the mind and faith concerning the Gospel. However, while Jesus in the story is preaching in Galilee, a place he was raised in, in the context of the narrative ( the story), it is the reader, us, who are called to faith concerning the story.
Does this means then that the people in Galilee and us as the readers are called to two different Gospels? Not at all, the Gospel that the Galileans were being prepared for is the same Gospel that we as the readers read but for the Galileans it is being demonstrated differently-Jesus embodying the good news which includes all that he does from there on, and for us readers it is the same. We read how Jesus embodies the good news, through his life, his actions, his friendships, his advisories , his trials, his treatment of the poor, his own social position, his dealings with the rich, his dealings with women, with the Jews, With gentiles, with religious leaders and political leaders, and his victories. In a nutshell, Gospel illustrates his relationship with God and his relationships with people as well as his relationship to creation (visible and invisible).
So, when you say that the Gospel is Matthew , Mark, Luke , and John, you are actually providing a better answer than simply saying it is the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Hope you’ve been refreshed
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Crusito!
I like the perspective you’ve taken on the gospel. I do think the full msg of the gospel and the scope of its implications are broader than “Christ crucified.” In saying that, however, I think the Lord Jesus Christ and His Cross is at the center of the entire matter. Indeed, upon a surface looking-up of the word “gospel” in the Scripture, we see Jesus proclaiming the gospel of “the Kingdom of God”, as you mentioned (Mat 4:23; Mat 9:35; Mat 24:14; Mar 1:14-15).
I’m reading a book by Vaughan Roberts titled, GOD’S BIG PICTURE: TEACHING THE STORYLINE OF THE BIBLE (IVP). He emphasizes the Kingdom of God as the consistent theme thru the entire Bible, both OT and NT. He quotes another writer names Goldsworthy, defining the Kingdom of God in this way: “The Kingdom of God = ‘God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing.’” He goes on to dissect this definition, which on its surface is reads sensibly.
I think we can see this definition in action and relevance for us when we read Paul in Colossians 1:13 saying to the Colossian believers, “He has transferred us from the domain of darkness to the KINGDOM of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (emphasis added).” He precedes that statement by acknowledging their “faith in Christ Jesus” and the “hope laid up for [them] in heaven” and their hearing of that hope “in the hope of the truth, the gospel” which came to them. He speks of them hearing the gospel and understanding “the grace of God in truth (Col. 1:4-6).”
Following both of these statements, Paul gives the ill spill about Christ which includes: “all things were created through [Jesus] and for [jesus]. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together,” and “that in everything he might be preeminent (Col 1:16-19).” And, further, “God was pleased to… through Christ… reconcile all things to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (Col 1:19-20).”
Paul, then, follows these preceding words up by talking about our (Christians’) former state of alienation and hostility toward God and our doing evil deeds, and how we were then reconciled by Jesus by his death so that we may be presented holy and blameless before him, “if, indeed, [we] continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the GOSPEL that [we] heard (emphasis added, Col. 1:21-23).”
Okay… All this to say that I think this section of Paul’s letter to the Colossians gives us a swiftly zooming shot into the motion picture storyline of the gospel. Paul begins by mentioning the “gospel” and how it brings us into the same kingdom Jesus preached that people REPENT to be welcomed in to. He then talks about the work of christ on the cross and how God through the Son is at the CENTER of the plan of the gospel to RECONCILE all things back to himself by “the blood of his cross.” Then, Paul calls us who have heard the gospel (who Jesus has RECONCILED by his DEATH) not to shift from it, standing stable and steadfast.
2nd okay… So, what I’m sayin is, I completely agree that “He died for my sins” isn’t exactly a comprehensive look at the gospel, especially, when we leave it at the Cross and don’t let it do its work in our hearts (attitude, behaviors), in society (politics, culture, communities, etc.), the gospel has super-broad implications for every area of every aspect of life!! The gospel began before time began and will continue its good and perfect work throughout all of eternity. We see from Genesis til now how God desired his kingdom (His people in His place under His rule and blessing). We know how that seen reality got jacked up via the Fall and God’s journey with Israel, but how the hope was preserved in God’s covenant with Abraham to bless all peoples through him and ultimately through his seed (the incarnate Lord Jesus who started his ministry calling kats to reconciliation through repentance into God’s kingdom). We know how the Lord Jesus made this hope a reality – for those who heard his voice through lips of flesh then, for those who heeded his word through his Spirit before his incarnation, and through his people’s lips and lives today by the power of the Spirit – by his atoning death on the cross.
3rd okay… Finally, I mast say that though “Christ crucified” without its implications can be perhaps a weak interpretation of what the gospel is, CHRIST CRUCIFIED is at the CENTER of it all. Its THE key point in the gospel narrative of God’s plan for His glory being known through His eternal kingdom. So, I can be satisfied when headz echo the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:1-4, “…the gospel… of first importance… that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”. I can get with that, as long as we seek out and live out its endless implications for all of life and Creation!!!
Whew!!! Tell me what you think.
M. "2cndarkness" Savage - September 25, 2008 at 3:16 pm
good stuff.. As I read this, I began to think to myself “what IS the gospel?”. I think I would have answered “It’s the good news of God revealed” or “the good news of Jesus Christ”
But you are so right.. the Gospel is the good news of who God is… manifested in Jesus Christ which encompasses our salvation, but also His charecter, His words, His glory, and His mind, His actions, and reactions etc.
Hmm… this causes me to think..(and forgive me if I ramble.. I am thinking out loud) Because if the gospel is the good news of the Lord…who he is and so on and so forth then really could I even say that our salvation is central message of the gospel? Yes and no.. No because if my salvation is the central message of if then that places my gift at the center…If God did not choose to save me, that would not make Him any less glorious or righteous or good. But yes because It places the Glory of God as the ultimate lover at the center…
Wow.. what a great question… and a great answer… good stuff to think on.. I love it!!!
Michelle - October 17, 2008 at 3:53 pm