Gospel
“That’s gospel truth!” says the person who wishes to be believed about a certain undeniable statement or “you can’t take what he says as gospel truth,” to cast doubt on the veracity of a claim. In light of the use of this idiom in everyday discourse, it is not irrelevant to inquire, “What is the Gospel?” In this paper, I will explain the meaning of the gospel, by drawing on the Scripture in considering a positive definition, essential characteristics, and its timeless significance. In declaring the gospel, which the apostle Paul preached to the Corinthians, he penned its inspired definition as follows: “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” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
From this text, it should first be observed that the gospel is primarily a proclamation, specifically, an announcement of a historical-salvific event. This may appear to be the prima facie sense of the passage, but as a message of what a certain person accomplished in the past, it must be distinguished from an imperative or admonition to behave in a certain prescribed way. Second, the gospel has as its subject Christ, not us. Christ is the doer of the action, and his work is accomplished for us, the objects for whose cause, his action occurred. Christ, or the “Anointed One,” who was foretold of in the Old Testament (OT) Scriptures, would die as a sacrifice for sinners (Isa. 53:5-8), be buried (Isa. 53:9), and rise again (Isa. 53:10-11). What God declared would happen in the OT, came to pass in actual history. That Christ died for our sins is stated, but the reason for why our sins necessitated his death, requires further inquiry.
Turning back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the first man was commanded to abstain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the punishment of death. Rather than heeding God’s word, Adam freely chose to commit sin, which is a transgression of the law of God. Having sinned, Adam, including Eve became separated from God. God announces to the serpent, through whom Satan had tempted our first parents to sin, the first mention of the gospel, by promising, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen.3:15).
Though mankind had fallen from their original state of perfection, God gives hope of a coming seed, the seed who was promised to Abraham (Gen. 22:17-18), and who is revealed in the NT as none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:16). God, in his mercy, also made coverings of animal skins to clothe their nakedness, from which a connection between bloodshed and sin is demonstrated, as Lev. 17:20 affirms, “it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” In the Mosaic economy, worshippers had to perpetually offer sacrifices for their sins, of which Hebrews 10:11 emphatically states, “could never take away sins.” Coming into the world as the suffering servant, Jesus came to fulfill what the OT sacrificial system, as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of his people. His one and only sacrifice was finished and cannot be reduplicated, in that it has perfected forever, those who are sanctified (Heb.10:10).
Having died for sinners on the cross, Christ was also buried. Christ’s burial is significant, in that it proves that he actually died, since the only fitting candidates for burial, are the dead. Christ prophesied of his burial in Matt. 12:40, where he used Jonah’s three days and three nights dwelling in the belly of the great fish in connection with his own burial. Moreover, John the beloved apostle, who was an eyewitness to Christ’s death and burial, records that two men who encountered the powerful teaching of Christ, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took Jesus’ body, prepared it for burial, and then buried it in a tomb (John 19:38-42). As the Prince of Life, Christ could not remain dead; the grave did not have the power to keep him dead, thus he rose again on the third day. The fact that he rose again, means that he was once stood alive and so, in his resurrection, rises to the state which he had formerly enjoyed, in the same body, yet now glorified and incorruptible. Christ foretold of his resurrection during his earthly ministry on numerous occasions and fulfilled the Psalmist’s words, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psa. 16:10). Furthermore, Dr. Luke’s account documents the fact that Christ’s resurrection was a physical one, in that he bore the scars of his death on the cross, invited his disciples to touch and observe those marks, and was able to eat food (Luke 24:38-43).
In his discourse of the gospel, Paul affirms that in addition to he and the apostles being eyewitnesses to the risen Christ, five hundred believers also saw him, many of whom remained alive and could confirm the veracity of Jesus being alive. Though the gospel is the message of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is certain, yet it is equally certain that the message calls for a response by its hearer. Having explained to his disciples that his death and resurrection were necessitated to fulfill the Scriptures, Jesus declared “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). Thus, on the day of Pentecost, after preaching the gospel to his Jewish audience, Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).
Simply having the sound waves from the preacher’s voice strike the listener’s ear, though necessary for receiving the forgiveness of sins, is not sufficient. Repentance (a change of mind), which is the counterpart of faith, or trust, are required. Thus, the sinner must answer the gospel call with a repentant faith. The author of Hebrews makes this point as he compares the difference between those who enter God’s rest and those who don’t when he states, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:2). Faith and repentance are the gifts of God (Eph. 2:8; 2 Tim. 2:25) and God certainly gives what he commands, yet these truths do not thereby negate the need to call on sinful men to answer the summons of the gospel. In addition to the gospel being a message to be believed, it is a message that is exclusive. Paul, in his stern rebuke of the Judaizers of Galatia, marveled that the Galatians were turning from the gospel which he preached “unto another gospel, which is not another” (Gal. 1:6-7). The gospel contains only one Savior and one way by which salvation is obtained, namely faith. Any gospel that either has a different savior than the Christ of the Bible and a different means other than by faith in Christ, is a distortion of the gospel, which is why, unsurprisingly, Paul writes of the “truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5,14; Col.1:5).
Truth, by definition is restrictive, and consequently rules out every other competing message to salvation. This true gospel is also a gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15) which has two effects. First, in reconciling the sinner to God. The apostle writes, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Prior to having peace with God, the sinner is at war with him. The gospel-less person, who is marked by having a carnal mind, hates God (Rom.1:30) and his law (Rom.8:7) and is ignorant of the way of peace (Rom.3:17). Yet God, being rich in mercy, disarms the theological criminal, makes him his friend, and fills the transgressor with his peace (Rom. 15:13). Second, the message of peace brings reconciliation between those who would otherwise be alienated from each other. Christ, by virtue of his atoning work on the cross, broke down the Berlin wall of covenantal separation that existed between Jew and Gentile, and has brought them together into his one body (Ephesians 2:12-16). The gospel unites divided people, including those from different social, gender, and ethnic classes, by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11). The good news of the gospel is also a message of hope.
After explaining the reconciliation that occurred through Christ’s cross-work, Paul admonishes his Colossian readers to not be “moved away from the hope of the gospel” (Col. 1:23). The gospel pronounces hope in that it ensures our eternal blessedness in the presence of Christ forever. Any purported message of hope that does not carry a person into eternity, is no hope at all (1 Cor. 15:19), which is what makes the gospel’s promise of hope unique, unparalleled, and unprecedented. Since the gospel is grounded in the historical, factual event of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, it is a hope that is not simply a “hope-so,” but a “know-so.” Paul again, in writing to the Thessalonians who had experienced the death of loved ones, writes, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (I Thess. 4:14). This hope then, is essentially connected to the fact that just as Christ rose victoriously from the dead, so too, all who trust in him, will one day, be raised as well.
Finally, the gospel is “the power of God” (Rom. 1:16). It is that power which is able to bring immortality to the mortal (2 Tim. 1:10). Through the preaching of the gospel, God exercises his mighty power in imparting spiritual life to sinners. For human beings to propagate life through natural means is one thing, but to create new life in the soul, which is otherwise dead in trespasses and sins, is the distinctive characteristic of the gospel. The gospel is the matchless means by which salvation is delivered. In summary, the gospel is the announcement of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; the message of truth, peace, and hope; the message to be believed, and the power of God. There has been, is, and always will be, only one, true gospel.
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...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them... 2 Cor 5:19
Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Acts 13:38
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