What is the Gospel?
Many years ago, when our church was just beginning to take ourselves seriously as a real church, the newly formed elder board decided to talk through basic Christian doctrines. One of our first topics was, “What is the Gospel?” It just seemed to make sense that if we were going to be a Bible-believing and Gospel-centered church, we ought to all be on the same page with regard to our terms. We had six elders at the time and one of the things I remember most about that discussion was that we had six different definitions of what the Gospel was. The definitions weren’t opposed to one another and as we discussed things it became apparent to us that the Gospel was a much larger concept than any one of us had previously thought.
I tell this story simply to let you know that what you think the Gospel is is probably correct, but there’s also probably much more to it than what you might think.
If we begin with simple definitions, we find that the word Gospel is an English word that comes from an Anglo-Saxon term, god-spell, which means “good story.” This comes from the Latin, evangelium and is found in the New Testament Greek as euangelion, both of which mean, “good news.” So, technically, the word, gospel, simply means good news. If someone came to you with news about your sister’s new baby, that would be good news. And the word an ancient Greek or Roman would have used would have been gospel. And, if you were to go to your brother’s house, you might ask, did you hear the gospel (good news)? Karen had her baby. They named him Bob! We would call this the “gospel of (or maybe, about) Bob.”
The Bible uses the word in this simple way. For instance, we find Paul telling the Thessalonians that Timothy had brought him good news (euangelion) about their faith and love (1 Thess 3:6). So, at that level, the word gospel simply means good news. “I’ve heard good things about you all. Way to go. Keep it up.”
The Bible also uses the word in a more specialized way when it talks about one particular event of good news in a sea of other events that are all part of and point to the particular event. In a sense, all the uses of gospel that mean simply good news, have a small letter g and when the Bible talks about this particular event, we use the capital letter G. Gospel vs. gospel. Let’s turn our attention to the capital letter Gospel.
When we read the Bible, we will find that it is overwhelmingly about Good News. It isn’t about good news generally, but about the Good News. Paul said he was given the ministry of testifying to “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). Or you could say, he was given the ministry of “telling folks about the good news regarding the grace of God.” So, now the gospel or good news is about something particular—the grace of God. Paul might have said, “God has acted in history, in a gracious way, and I’ve been sent to tell you about it. Oh, and it’s really, really good news.” This good news is really Good News because it is about absolute, total, infinite, and most glorious News. This Gospel isn’t just nice, it is ultimate. The news about the Thessalonians doing well was good news. God acting in history to restore mankind to himself, is Good News.
Paul put the Event in a nutshell for the Corinthians when he said,
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time (1 Cor 15:1–8).
This is the Gospel, stripped of everything that explains it, applies it, embraces it, goes before it, or after it. It is the bare bones Gospel and it is glorious. Jesus died for our sins, he was raised, and lots of folks saw him alive after seeing him dead. And many Christians teach and preach that nutshell version of the Gospel week after week. They believe that preaching it and believing it will get them into Heaven when they die. And that’s all true. But…
But notice that little phrase, “according the Scriptures” that is sprinkled throughout the text.
A minute ago, I mentioned that this is a theme throughout the entire Bible. The whole Bible is full of stories about, is mentioned in Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:5). Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And as we read further, we see that what this means is that the people rebelled against God and brought calamity down on their heads. When the trouble came, they cried out to God and he graciously came to them and rescued them. This pattern has happened over and over throughout the Bible (I was going to include texts so you could see what I’m talking about, but this theme is so prevalent that all you need to do is open your bible anywhere, and you’ll see this pattern). God creates man and blesses him with a wonderful place to live, the people get complacent with the blessings and rebel against God, and then they are given the consequences of living out from under the protection of God and they are crushed for their sins, then they cried out to God and he rescued them and gave put them back in the land with the attending blessings.
Throughout all this, there is a consistent little voice saying, “This won’t always be this way. One day God will establish his kingdom throughout all the earth with one Savior, one Lord, one King.”
Then, in the New Testament, the authors say, over and over again, what you see happening here, is what was foretold there. For example, we have Jesus referring to Psalms 35:19; 69:4; and 109:3-5 and saying, “But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause’” (Jn 15:25). Paul referred to, Psalm 2:7; Isa 55:3; and Psalm 16:10 when he said,
And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’ And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’ Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption’ (Acts 13:32–35).
Peter used the Old Testament in this same way when he quoted Lev 11:44, 45; 19:2; and 20:7, saying,
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of I Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:13–16).
The little voice, in the midst of other stories of blessing, rebellion, rescue, and reconciliation was pointing toward the great event of Jesus’ coming and dying to rescue the entire world from sin. He did this so that we could be reconciled to God and to live holy and joyful lives with him forever. So, the Gospel is that Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead, but this news comes in the context of the entire bible, and in that sense, the whole Bible contains or is the Gospel.
What this means is that when we talk about living out the Gospel or preaching the Gospel or explaining the Gospel or studying the Gospel we must live, preach, explain, and study the whole Bible. If we don’t do that, we will end up stunted and immature in our faith and this will undoubtedly lead us into sin.
So, taken all together, the Bible tells us again and again that God wants to bless his people with good things, first of which is his presence. This is good news—Gospel. It tells us that people want their own way, and consequently go their own way, which, because it is God they are leaving, means they are sinning. It starts with a subtle drift; “Did God really say?” Slides into ignorance; “I didn’t know that.” And ends with full-blown rebellion; “In your face God! If you exist!” This is bad news. But it also tells us that God loves his people and always does things to “fix” the relationship. And he did this by sending his son Jesus to die, in our place (the consequences of sin is death), to rise from the dead (to prove the acceptance of the death and to rule and intercede for us). The result of this sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection is life with God forever. This is good news—Gospel.