What Is the Gospel?
The word “gospel” gets tossed around as much as “awesome.” If a Chicago hot dog is awesome, how do we describe God? “Gospel” endures the same burden.
The apostle Paul said he suffered for the gospel, and we should too (2 Timothy 1:8).
He preached the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17) and claimed it was “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16, NIV).
It’s probably something bigger than we think. It might even be awesome.
People often misspeak and title their explanation of how to receive salvation as “the gospel.”
But the gospel and what we do with it (how we are saved) are different.
The way we are saved is by hearing the gospel and responding appropriately.
Peter simplified it with the action of “repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Or, later, he said,
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19).
Paul summarized it like this:
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).
Telling people how to be saved (the plan of salvation, or ABC–Admit sin, Believe who Jesus is and what he did, and Commit to follow him forever) is not telling them the gospel.
It's challenging to understand salvation, let alone why we should be saved if we haven’t heard the gospel. Let’s clarify.
The gospel has power because it's what God uses to draw people supernaturally, and it isn’t all supernatural. The message of the gospel frames our lives in a way that makes sense. It shows us how and why we need to be connected to what God is doing.
So, what is the “gospel?”
Let’s begin with a look at a concise statement of the gospel, one of the earliest ones written. As we read this, think about the word “gospel” as “good news” because that's what it means, and that's how it would have been heard.
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
The writer, Paul, said that he preached the gospel (good news), and by it, they were saved.
Paul then summarizes that gospel neatly in three steps:
An event happened (Christ died and came back to life).
The event was the fulfillment of God’s work in history (God’s mission since the beginning of time was leading to this event).
The event changed everything (sins are forgiven, the Kingdom of God is here, the Kingdom will continue to grow and develop until the King returns, and this development will be led by those being saved).
All of that is summarized in these core verses. If we continue to read 1 Corinthians 15, we'll see more about the role of believers in representing God on earth and bringing the Kingdom.
It's critical to see how the gospel includes not only the historical event (Christ died for our sins and has been resurrected) but also how that event fulfilled the history of God’s work in the world and the initiation of God’s work in the future. Paul uses the simple phrase, “according to the Scriptures,” to tie the event to the backstory.
That backstory is too much to go into here. It covers the entire Old Testament, but the gospel is confusing without understanding God's work as recorded in the Old Testament.
Here are the highlights of the Old Testament story, the "according to the Scriptures" that Paul referenced:
God created people to be loved by him and to reign for him on earth.
People failed and failed and failed to do what God planned.
God chose the Jewish people to rescue and bless the rest of the world.
He made a covenant to rescue them and asked them to commit their allegiance to him.
They repeatedly failed, too, but God stayed faithful.
Eventually, God sent Jesus as a Jew to show what faithfulness looked like and to become a sacrifice to redeem everyone.s
Jesus inaugurated the new Kingdom and offered salvation to those who want to live in it forever.
We can’t understand the need for Jesus or salvation from sins apart from the background story.
Also, if we don’t see that Jesus’s death and resurrection conquered evil and sin and inaugurated the Kingdom, then we miss how it changes our lives. We start to think Christianity is primarily about going to heaven.
If we don't see the gospel as what God's been doing since creation, we view Christianity as simply another idea or religion.
The gospel is the Good News story of Jesus as the fulfillment of all that God has been doing and the opening of the opportunity for salvation and life with God now in all he is doing and will do.
It is Good News, and it changes everything.
Resources: There are two excellent books that unpack in a simple and scholarly way what we have discussed here:
Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited.
N. T. Wright, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good.
The gospel (lowercase g) is the Good News story. The Gospels (upper case G) are the four books of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) that describe the culmination of the story Big Story in Jesus.