Over the last few days I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the Gospel because of a blog posting that I read at Signposts 02 asking what is or is not the Gospel. In fact, I’m writing this in response to a request by specksandplanks. To be fair, this is probably a post I should have written some time ago and I would definitely like to thank specksandplanks for calling me out on it.
Before I begin, though, I would like to say that of all the responses I read, there was one that stood out to me, posted by Teddy. It’s a video of John Piper’s presentation of what the gospel is (an event, an experience, etc), which I also shared with my Facebook friends. If you haven’t already seen the video, you should definitely check it out here.
The Gospel is both simple enough that a child can understand it and so beautifully faceted and shaded with nuance and glory that it will take the full understanding of all those who name the name of Jesus to begin to understand it.
The Gospel begins with God.
Actually everything begins and ends with the Triune God – Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit.
There is no other place to begin and God is big enough that I can’t begin to describe him. That said, here is my feeble attempt. God is absolutely holy. He is the creator, owner, and sustainer of absolutely everything. He is the definition of beauty and love and light and all that is magnificent. He is without compare. He is the totally righteous judge and yet the author of mercy and grace. He is beyond definition. All of creation speaks of his invisible attributes – his divine wisdom and power – and yet all of this is not enough to describe him. Everything that is created exists within him. He is the lover of the unlovely. He protects the widow, the orphan, and is a father to the fatherless. He is the very source of all life and all of time and eternity rests within the palm of his hand.
The Gospel addresses the human condition.
We are messed up. We are all sinners, born into sin and a cursed world.
We are separated from a right relationship with God because of our sin, completely unable to be made right with God of our own efforts. We are damned to an eternity without God, unable to exist in or even enter his manifest presence. We are without hope. There is absolutely nothing that we can do to obtain God’s favor.
(this is the small section because the Gospel is really about God, not us)
The Gospel focuses on Jesus of Nazareth.
Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we can be restored to relationship with God.
It was always God’s plan for humanity to be restored to right relationship with him. But because we were (and are) unable to be made right with God, Jesus, out of obedience to the Father’s plan, came to do that which we are unable.
Jesus of Nazareth, God incarnate, fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life of obedience to God so that he could offer himself up as a sacrifice for our sins. He took our punishment on himself so that we could receive the gift of eternal life, which is to “know God, the one true God, and Jesus Christ” (John 17:3).
The Gospel is a free offer.
You don’t have to do anything but accept it by faith.
God extends us this offer – a free offer – to be restored to right relationship with God through faith in Jesus of Nazareth. You don’t have to – in fact you can’t – do anything to get it.
- You don’t have to earn it. You can’t earn it.
- You don’t have to buy it. You cant.
- You can’t bypass or circumvent it.
It is only through faith in Jesus of Nazareth that our sins can be forgiven and we can be restored to right relationship with God. But if we do come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, he restores us to right relationship with himself and makes us completely new – reborn if you will.
There are some other things I would like to discuss here – wonderful things that God has put in the Bible. But these things are all results of the Gospel. They are effects or byproducts of the Gospel. But if they were all to fall away, the Gospel alone remains and is more than sufficient.
Please, if you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me directly or leave them below.
A pretty good summary. The gospel should also be explained in the context of the eternal purposes that God has always had for his special creatures; even before the fall. We are the only ones in all of creation privileged to ever be able to become heirs of his kingdom and co-heirs with Christ. Not even the angels had that. Since Adam, God has embarked on a relentless mission to bring us back to him in accordance with his will and purpose. Christ's sacrifice is fundamental to this. In this we realise that the gospel is not 'free'. It came with the heaviest price that a divine being can ever pay. Our eternal lives were purchased with blood. Not with the blood of any man or prophet but with the only and begotten Son of the Most High. That is the good news. While we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us.
Thanks RavingEvangelical. I didn't do a great job of calling out the great price of the free gift that has been offered us while we were still sinners.
Wow, good job telling people what they already know. Seriously, does this post offer anyone ANYTHING they didn't previously know?
Elf0,
Thank you for giving me a chance to explain myself. Perhaps I didn't make it clear enough in my post.
I'm a little confused that you seem frustrated or upset by what I posted. I had no intention of providing new learning in terms of the Gospel message. In fact, I don't believe that there is anything I can add to what God has done. The core Gospel message has remained unchanged for around 2,000 years already.
But since you asked, I believe that this post does offer people something they may not have previously known. While my audience is primarily, if not completely, followers of Christ, it is possible that somebody who has not previously heard the Gospel message might find it here. But that's not really why I wrote this.
I wrote it because somebody asked what I believe is the message of the Gospel (you'll see that at the top of the post). That seems to indicate that there is at least one person who did not know where I am coming from. That being the case, I figured there might be others who were in the same boat and that maybe I owed them that courtesy.
There's been some toying around with the idea that the gospel is not so much a message in the sense of words, but an entire lifestyle. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay get into this a little with their book Tangible Kingdom.
One of the things that has struck me the most in the last year is the concept of Christianity as lifestyle. Reformed Christianity has long held the view that when a person accepts Christ, they are not JUST ascribing to a certain set of beliefs, but are bring themselves into alignment with the full counsel of Scripture. Unfortunately, I hear way too many followers talking only about belief or only about action. In reality, both are modeled in Scripture and most would agree with that (I'm not claiming that faith is insufficient for salvation, just that the Biblical example a la James 3 is that a certain lifestyle accompanies true faith).
What worries me about some of the more traditional views of gospel is that many of them limit themselves to only the words. The message of God coming to earth in the person of Jesus, dying on the cross for our sins, and defeating death via his resurrection for our eternal life is the greatest message the world has ever encountered! But equally as good and beneficial is the lifestyle that results from that good news; so much so, that I'd be inclined to say that gospel is word AND deed. That's why I tend to talk about “gospel living”; the gospel has power by itself. But in the fallen world we live in we demonstrate just how incredible the gospel is through our actions.
Jason,
Thank you for your comments. I've been trying to get my head around this for quite some time as well. To be honest, I haven't been able to come up with a way to express the transformative nature of the Gospel without diluting the work of Christ and introducing “works” as a component of salvation.
I think that this misconception is rooted in the idea that the forgiveness of our sins was both the point of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection and the end of the deal. That misses the real point – our restoration into relationship with God through Jesus.
I still tend to view the transformative nature (both forgiveness and our lives being formed into the image of Christ) as a result or byproduct of the Gospel. But I would also ask whether we can really say that we have faith in Jesus if we don't believe with our whole lives. If we don't choose to actually follow him.
I'm interested in continuing this dialog – I'm certainly open to and would like additional input. I may also check out the book you mentioned (I have several in my queue at the moment). Perhaps God will expand my understanding!
There's been some toying around with the idea that the gospel is not so much a message in the sense of words, but an entire lifestyle. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay get into this a little with their book Tangible Kingdom.
One of the things that has struck me the most in the last year is the concept of Christianity as lifestyle. Reformed Christianity has long held the view that when a person accepts Christ, they are not JUST ascribing to a certain set of beliefs, but are bring themselves into alignment with the full counsel of Scripture. Unfortunately, I hear way too many followers talking only about belief or only about action. In reality, both are modeled in Scripture and most would agree with that (I'm not claiming that faith is insufficient for salvation, just that the Biblical example a la James 3 is that a certain lifestyle accompanies true faith).
What worries me about some of the more traditional views of gospel is that many of them limit themselves to only the words. The message of God coming to earth in the person of Jesus, dying on the cross for our sins, and defeating death via his resurrection for our eternal life is the greatest message the world has ever encountered! But equally as good and beneficial is the lifestyle that results from that good news; so much so, that I'd be inclined to say that gospel is word AND deed. That's why I tend to talk about “gospel living”; the gospel has power by itself. But in the fallen world we live in we demonstrate just how incredible the gospel is through our actions.
Jason,
Thank you for your comments. I've been trying to get my head around this for quite some time as well. To be honest, I haven't been able to come up with a way to express the transformative nature of the Gospel without diluting the work of Christ and introducing “works” as a component of salvation.
I think that this misconception is rooted in the idea that the forgiveness of our sins was both the point of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection and the end of the deal. That misses the real point – our restoration into relationship with God through Jesus.
I still tend to view the transformative nature (both forgiveness and our lives being formed into the image of Christ) as a result or byproduct of the Gospel. But I would also ask whether we can really say that we have faith in Jesus if we don't believe with our whole lives. If we don't choose to actually follow him.
I'm interested in continuing this dialog – I'm certainly open to and would like additional input. I may also check out the book you mentioned (I have several in my queue at the moment). Perhaps God will expand my understanding!