A Definition
What is “The Gospel?” Let me propose a definition that I think could fit in every use in the Bible. “A message of good news, sent by God.” This allows for any messenger (an angel, John the Baptist, Paul or Jesus). I believe in some cases the messenger takes ownership of delivery and refers to it as his gospel, but with careful examination you will likely see that he is representing the message as coming from God (see Rom 16:25).
Yet a definition doesn’t really answer the question "What is the Gospel" does it? Because what the question implies is, “what good news does the message bring?” And this is where the question intersects with our topic of salvation. We often use the phrase “the gospel of salvation.” Yet, the Bible only uses that phase once (the gospel of your salvation See Eph 1:13)
In western, evangelical Christianity, we have been conditioned to think of only one message when we read the word “gospel” in the Bible. Some groups have decide that there are two messages, the gospel of the kingdom of God and the gospel of salvation.
Does the Bible have a single gospel? Has God only sent a single message with good news or has He sent several? If more than one, are they related?
What is the Gospel
If you simply do a Google search using the question, “what is the gospel” you will find the typical response is an explanation of the gospel of salvation. Bible.org has a really good article articulating that typical response. In it they quote the The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia as saying “The central truth of the gospel is that God has provided a way of salvation for men through the gift of His son to the world.”
There is no question that this is a truth of the gospel message in the Bible. A great example of that is Paul’s words from his letter to the Corinthian Church. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor 15:3-4). Here, Paul is referring to the gospel which he preached to the Corinthians (see 1 Cor 15:1) He even says this is of first importance. In a sense, one could even say that Paul is making it the central truth. Yet, if we are to believe this is the complete message of good news coming from God we are left with some difficult passages to explain.
A Quick Survey of the Bible
If you replace the phrase “The Gospel” in the Bible with “the death, burial and resurrection of Christ”, you will find it difficult to make sense of some passages.
To make sense of the Bible’s use of “the gospel”, we must realize that it was used to mean something that includes the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection but is not limited only to that truth. I was used in a way that is more than that central truth.
For example, in Matthew 4:23, we have Jesus, going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Surely, His death and resurrection was not the central topic in His preaching. In fact, we are told what his central topic is. Of the five references to “the gospel” in Matthew, three of them are explicitly stated to be about “the Kingdom.”
Again in Matthew (Matt 11:5) and twice in Luke we have Jesus referencing Isaiah 61 when He says that He is preaching the gospel to the poor. (Luke 4:18, 7:22) What are the poor going to do with the news of Jesus’ death and resurrection? Jesus did foretell his death and resurrection at times, but only to his disciples (See Matt 16:21, 17:9) or in a such an obscure way nobody even understood what He meant.(See Matt 12:40 and John 2:19)
(One of the references is Jesus affirming to John the baptist (through John’s disciples) that He was indeed the promised messiah, because he was preaching the gospel to the poor. (Matt 11:5) The final reference is in Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper after the woman poured the perfume on Jesus. Here he simply says “Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”)
In his letter to the Galatian Church, Paul tells us that the gospel was preached to Abraham. (see Gal 3:8) It is clear that he was not directly referencing the death and resurrection of Christ but instead the blessing of all the nations. Of course, it was the death and resurrection of Christ that made this possible, but insisting on Christ’s death and resurrection as the entire message of the gospel replaces the end with the means.
The good news is not simply the death and resurrection of Jesus. The good news is the result of His death and resurrection. But not only His death and resurrection, but also his life His teachings, and His enthronement at the right hand of the Father. It includes God’s intention from the beginning of creation to His provision for the end of this creation.(See 2 Pet 3:13) It includes Christ’s birth (see Luke 2:10-11) as much as His death.
When we do a study of the use of the word throughout the scriptures, what we learn is that the word “gospel” was used to represent many instances of good news from God. Some of those messages were proclaimed by Men and some by angles. Some are even difficult to understand how they could be good news (see Rev 14:6-7 - The hour of God’s judgement has come).
Interestingly, the gospel of Jesus insists on obedience according to both Paul and Peter (2 Thess 1:8, 1 Pet 4:17). This implies admonition. The angel in Revelation also brought admonition with his gospel of God.(see Rev 14:6-7 “Fear God, and give Him glory .. worship Him…”) This flies in the face of the gospel preached by many evangelicals which has no room for admonition. They insist, “There is nothing for us to do. It was all done by Christ.”
A Single Gospel
I will ask this question again. Does the Bible have a single gospel? Has God only sent a single message with good news or has He sent several? If more than one, are they related?
I believe the Bible has a single gospel. More accurately, I believe the Bible has a single gospel theme. The Bible contains several instances of specific messages of good news, each of which contain the same theme. What is that theme? It was proclaimed to shepherds by a multitude of angels, “God has good will toward men.” (See Luke 2:14) This has been proclaimed in many ways by many people and most importantly by Jesus himself (see Heb 1:1-2). When Jesus taught that the kingdom of God was within reach, was available to the poor and the persecuted, he was proclaiming the same gospel that Paul preached to the gentiles.
I reject the notion that Jesus did not preach the gospel of salvation. The message of the gospel is very important because, as Dallas Willard pointed out, “What we do or do not understand in any area of our lives, determines what we can or cannot believe. .. You cannot believe a blur or a blank…” If we are to have faith in the gospel message, we must be very clear about what that message is. And this is the crux of the issue regarding the gospel.
Paul tells us that “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Rom 4:3) We have already seen that Paul said that the gospel was preached to Abraham. (see Gal 3:8) What was it that was preached to Abraham? Paul points out that the specific good news was that all the nations would be blessed in Abraham through his seed. Abraham believed God regarding His word to bring him an heir from his own body.Interestingly, the specific gospel regarding the blessing of all the nations on the earth was a direct result of Abraham’s obedience. (see Gen 22:18 and James 2:21)
What we need to note here is that Abraham did not believe that Jesus died for his sins and was raised again on the third day. He believed that God would do as He said, even if He had to raise the dead. (Heb 11:19) Why did he believe this? Because he believed the basic gospel message that God had good will toward him. His faith was in the character and nature of God.
I will have more to say about faith in upcoming articles. The point I want to leave you with today is that the central gospel message is “God so loved the world… (that He gave His only begotten Son)” (John 3:16), God demonstrates His own love toward us … (in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.) (Rom5:8), But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us … ( even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ) (Eph 2:4), God our Father, who has loved us … (and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace) (2 The 2:16), In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.) (1 John 4:10), To Him who loves us (and released us from our sins by His blood) (Rev 1:5)
The central truth of the gospel is that God loves us. The good news is that God loves us. There is a great number of professing Christians that don’t even believe that God loves them. They are in a continuous cringe waiting for God to punish them for not measuring up. The common evangelical gospel doesn’t help when we depict Christ as absorbing the wrath of God directed at us. Dr. Jack Arnold said it succinctly, “God took out his wrath on Christ instead of on sinners.” He has a point here that is important. And we will have to address it. However, any depiction of God that can not be represented in Christ does not conform to what the Bible teaches. Jesus stated, “he who has seen me has seen the Father.” and the writer of Hebrews tells us “He [Jesus] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”
I want to be clear. The adversaries of God should have a “terrifying expectation of judgement” (see Heb 10:27) but it won’t be for lack of love on God’s part. (see 1 Tim 2:4 and 2 Pet 3:9) And the sinner who falls into the hands of God will find him as David did, reluctant to execute judgement. (See 2 Samuel 24:16)
We have a view of the Gospel that disparages God, that minimizes the main point of the Gospel and emphasizes the means rather than the end. The good news is that God’s love for us compelled Him to devise and execute a plan that will bring us into His good intention. And that intention is the “to” for which we have been saved.
Thank you for reading.
In my next post I will look at God’s intention for us, that to which we have been saved.
