What Is The Gospel?
It has always been popular in Christian circles to tout "the gospel" as the answer to all our problems. For Jesus, it created problems. Jesus announced the good news of his fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah while reading the scroll in the temple (Luke 4). (There is a gospel goldmine sitting under this text. I might comment on it later.) Shortly thereafter the Jews tried to run him off a cliff. The gospel is persecution and Jesus.
This past week I was sitting next to a teenager on a plane and we were talking about music. When he found out I was a pastor, he said that Gospel music is cool. He then asked me what a pastor does. (It was a very interesting and disturbing conversation.) The gospel has become associated with a genre of music, a genre which sometimes truncates the gospel of Christ. Negro spirituals and bluegrass musicians frequently look to the gospel as a one-way ticket out of this world-to heaven. The gospel is fire insurance and earth escape.
A resurgence of gospel language--Tim Keller fame--is making its way into Christian vocabulary. Churches and people talk about being "gospel-centered." I don't think very many of them know what Keller or more importantly, Jesus, really meant.
N. T. Wright talks about the gospel being an announcement that the God of Israel has arrived in and through the person and work of Jesus. Some people use him to say that the gospel is about the reign of God (which is only part of Wright's fourfold gospel). These people say that the gospel focuses on the community of God, reconciliation between races, genders and social groups. The gospel is communal and cultural transformation.
What is the gospel? I recently asked the guys I disciple this question. I got some disheartening answers at first, but the more we talked about it, the more they qualified. About mid-way through our discussion, Dave arrived at John 3.16 (man, is that text misunderstood). We spend the rest of the time understanding John 3.16 in the context of Jesus' description of eternal life as obtaining a rebirth by Spirit and water (cf Ezek 36.25-7). But before I post our thoughts, what are yours? What is the gospel?
This past week I was sitting next to a teenager on a plane and we were talking about music. When he found out I was a pastor, he said that Gospel music is cool. He then asked me what a pastor does. (It was a very interesting and disturbing conversation.) The gospel has become associated with a genre of music, a genre which sometimes truncates the gospel of Christ. Negro spirituals and bluegrass musicians frequently look to the gospel as a one-way ticket out of this world-to heaven. The gospel is fire insurance and earth escape.
A resurgence of gospel language--Tim Keller fame--is making its way into Christian vocabulary. Churches and people talk about being "gospel-centered." I don't think very many of them know what Keller or more importantly, Jesus, really meant.
N. T. Wright talks about the gospel being an announcement that the God of Israel has arrived in and through the person and work of Jesus. Some people use him to say that the gospel is about the reign of God (which is only part of Wright's fourfold gospel). These people say that the gospel focuses on the community of God, reconciliation between races, genders and social groups. The gospel is communal and cultural transformation.
What is the gospel? I recently asked the guys I disciple this question. I got some disheartening answers at first, but the more we talked about it, the more they qualified. About mid-way through our discussion, Dave arrived at John 3.16 (man, is that text misunderstood). We spend the rest of the time understanding John 3.16 in the context of Jesus' description of eternal life as obtaining a rebirth by Spirit and water (cf Ezek 36.25-7). But before I post our thoughts, what are yours? What is the gospel?
posted by Jonathan Dodson @ 8:35 AM
7 Comments:
At 2:38 PM,
Josh O. said…
Will,
You said it so clearly:
"The gospel of Jesus is a decree that the kingdom of God is present and accessible by faith in Jesus."
I'll see if I can add just a little.
Last fall I asked my students:
"If the gospel is basically the truth that you can be saved by believing Jesus died on the cross for your sin and rose from the dead, how could Jesus say 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the GOSPEL' at the beginning of his ministry? Before he died and rose again?"
This helped drive home an understanding of 'gospel' rooted in the drama of redemption rather than 20th century, Jesus-and-me evangelicalism.
I think the key to understanding the gospel is Isaiah's proclamation of YHWH's promised return (i.e. the establishment of His Kingdom)in which he will reward the righteous and judge the wicked. Key texts are Isa. 40:9; 41:2; 52:7; and 61:1.
So Mark's use of Isaiah 40 in ch. 1 with referrence to John the Baptist and Jesus bridge both the OT concept of 'gospel' and the NT concept of 'kingdom.' This is not to say the Kingdom of God is not present in the OT, but rather the gospels develop it semantically.
At 8:50 AM,
Bob said…
As leader of one of said churches who claim to be "gospel-centered," I feel called out to respond. Props to all that has been written. I'll take a different angle.
First, I decry the question. Asking "What is the gospel" is like asking "What is the Trinity" or "What is the kingdom of God?" There is a depth and richness to the gospel that defies the simplicity of the query.
But here's my attempt: the gospel is the means of being and remaining in union with Jesus.
John Murray and the book of Ephesians convinced me that being "in Christ" is the essence of redemption. The gospel, as proclamation (Rom 1:15) and as power (Rom 1:17), is the means of gaining and sustaining union with Jesus.
If I am united with Jesus, I am united with him in his atoning death and resurrection, in his mission, in his kingdom purposes, in his values, in his Trinitarian community with the Father, in his present and future reign, etc. etc.
Union with Christ is the end; the gospel is the means.
And just as 'union with Christ' is a broad concept, so is the gospel. It can be viewed from many perspectives. The diversity of gospel language among canonical writers (gospel of the kingdom, gospel of the glory of Christ, righteousness of God, power of God for salvation, et al) is mirrored in the diverse rubric of contemporary life (NT Wright or Keller or gospel music). All touch on valid facets of the diamond. The danger lies in embracing or promoting only one facet (a la modern evangelicalism and "fire insurance").
At 12:12 PM,
Jason Kovacs said…
Great blog! Looking forward to joining the conversation!
I like what Bob wrote, that the end is union with Christ, the Gospel is the means.
I have been thinking a lot about the Gospel, Christ, my life, and in particular, my utter depravity. I feel like I have such a small understanding of the Gospel, a meager love and taste of the glory and beauty of Christ, and my sin is far greater, ugly, and evil than I dare to believe.
What has struck me lately about the Gospel is that it says I am more loved than I can dare to imagine in Christ (because of my union with him by faith). And the solution is not within but totally and completely outside myself in the perfect person and work of Christ. That is so counter those who say the problem is external and the solution is within.
I'm looking foward to hearing/reading more in the days ahead here.
At 12:29 PM,
Jason Kovacs said…
Just read this quote on another blog and thought I'd post it here. Gotta love Luther:
"Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not. If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly."
-MARTIN LUTHER
At 1:35 PM,
Josh O. said…
I believe, confess, and delight in Paul's summary in 1 Cor 15. But this is gospel-shorthand.
I'm really interested in your (ya'll) answer to the my previous question:
What is the 'gospel' Jesus is referring to in Mark 1:14? How can he tell his listeners "to repent and believe the gospel" before he has even died and risen from the dead?
At 11:18 AM,
Jonathan Dodson said…
Any sentence that starts off like this is bound to end as a fragment, no matter how grammatically correct. Bob's comment about the richness and depth of the gospel underscores this reality. However, Todd provides a refreshing reminder that the gospel is simple (not simplistic) in its richness. Certainly our experience would validate this claim. But what of its richness, its depth? Can the gospel be contained by one statement such as the historic Apostle's creed or the biblical summaries of 1 Cor 15 and "union with Christ"? And what of the theological talk of the kingdom of God, its announcement and arrival and consummation in Christ? The gospel is historical, biblical, theological and personal. Bob's closing remark illustrates the multifaceted nature of the gospel:
"It can be viewed from many perspectives. The diversity of gospel language among canonical writers (gospel of the kingdom, gospel of the glory of Christ, righteousness of God, power of God for salvation, et al) is mirrored in the diverse rubric of contemporary life (NT Wright or Keller or gospel music). All touch on valid facets of the diamond. The danger lies in embracing or promoting only one facet (a la modern evangelicalism and "fire insurance")."
To quote Brian McLaren (which I do not do often), "the gospel is many-versioned and multi-faceted." Not only is it multi-dimensional in its Christ-centered meaning--kingdom (comprehensive), union (personal), and salvation (redemptive)--but it also appears in different versions both biblically and historically, from the African Masai creed to the American Reformed language. However, its multiplicity of forms and facets does not reduce the gospel to a kind of choose-your-own-adventure message. What then is the gospel?
To pick up on Josh's observations, the gospel is something that was preached prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus as the arrival of the kingdom of God. This kingdom, as Todd points out, was ushered in not by John the Baptist (or anyone else) but by Jesus the Christ himself. As the much-awaited Christ, Jesus' announcement of the kingdom was conjoined with a call to repentance from sins and faith (enter Will's concise definition). This announcement or decree is "good news." In order to truly understand the gospel, the good news, it seems wise to trace the words in the gospels about the gospel. I will go to Luke 4/Isa 61; however, we could easily go to Mk 1/Isa 42 also. My comments will be limited, emphasizing the biblical origins of the gospel, but as a result, I think they lead to the multifaceted gospel we have discovered together.
Returning to my initial comments about the gospel causing problems for Jesus in his reading of Isaiah 61, I find it striking that he chose to read that portion of Isaiah rather than one of the more explicitly messianic chapters such as 52 or 53. Nevertheless, it is in this reading that Jesus goes to Isaiah for his understanding of the gospel, the good news: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
This statement of the gospel is several things: 1) Spirit-anointed 2) Christ-proclaimed 3) YHWH-ordained 4) personal 5) redemptive 6) comprehensive. Although the fulfillment of this announcement is Christ-centered, it is a Trinitarian message. It is also a proclamation to the poor. Severed from their luxuriant promised land, the poor and displaced Jewish exiles are in spiritual and physical bondage, imprisoned for their idolatry. It is redemptive, releasing those captive to sin and in exile from their King and his kingdom/land. Finally, it is good news for all creation, not just for the people of God. The context of Is 61 (and 52 where gospel also appears), reveal that this message restores the exiles to a land of plenty and peace, an eschatological kingdom characterized by the repair of cities, the fruitfulness of vineyards and the abundance of sheep. In short, the gospel is renewal of all creation for the redeemed multiethnic people of God, those who hope in the Jesus of the Trinity which, of course, hinges upon the messiah’s death, resurrection and return (reading in Isaianic context). The gospel is not less than the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it is much, much more.
At 11:45 AM,
QUASAR9 said…
I don't think the gospel created a problem for Jesus, they followed him. What Jesus made clear is that nothing (no one else) can exclude you from the 'kingdom' - not even death. Nothing except One Self. Laters ... Q
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