The central message of Christianity is referred to as the “gospel.” The word means “good news” or “good message”—even “good story.”
Christians look to the New Testament to define what this gospel is. That’s where we see what the earliest Christians viewed as the central message of Christianity which they taught and preached. That doesn’t mean we’re bound by the specific language of the New Testament to describe the gospel—as we’ll see, the New Testament itself shows much flexibility in this—but it does mean that any further descriptions of the gospel should align with the basic New Testament descriptions.
The New Testament uses a few words to refer to the gospel. One is euangelion, the word translated “gospel” or “good news.” There’s also the verb form of this: euangelizō, “preaching the gospel.” A similar word used is katangellō, “proclaiming, announcing.” Another word group is the noun kerugma and verb kerussō, meaning “public proclamation” and “publicly proclaim.” Another pattern is to use “word” language (usually logos, sometimes rhēma), meaning “message”: sometimes simply “word” by itself, but often with a modifying phrase (“word of truth,” “word of salvation,” “word of Christ,” and so on).
What is the content of this gospel message? There are many places in the New Testament where the content is described. Here are some of the most direct of those, from shorter to longer. In many cases there are several other passages that say essentially the same thing.
“Jesus”
“Christ”
[Note several other passages that describe the gospel as “the gospel of Christ” or “the word of Christ”; note also that “Christ” is a title, meaning “Messiah,” and referring primarily to expectations of a royal messiah in the line of David, bringing about God’s kingdom on earth.]
“Christ crucified”
“The kingdom of heaven has come near.”
[Note other passages in the Gospels and Acts that describe the gospel as “the gospel of the kingdom” or “the word of the kingdom”, or simply speak of “proclaiming the kingdom”; note also the connection between these and “gospel” ideas in Isaiah 40:9; 52:7; 61:1-2, that the gospel is about God’s presence, God’s reign, and God’s liberation for the oppressed.]
“in Jesus the resurrection from the dead”
“Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David”
“concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord”
“that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures
and that he was buried
and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve”
[Note that this is an oral tradition which Paul received from other apostles before him.]
“You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
[Note the other evangelistic speeches of Acts as well. They vary according to context, but most essentially summarize the story of Jesus culminating in his resurrection from the dead and his exaltation as Lord.]
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ…”
[I won’t quote the whole Gospel here! But that’s how Mark starts off his story of Jesus—the whole story, including his healings, teachings, sufferings, death, and resurrection, is the “gospel.” This is the basis for all four Gospels eventually being called “Gospels.”]
What can we say about all these New Testament descriptions of the gospel? A few observations:
- The gospel message of the early Christians was flexible and fluid. There is no single, standard gospel message. Nevertheless, there are commonalities and patterns among these descriptions.
- The gospel could be summed up in a single word or in a pithy phrase or slogan, it could be distilled to a poetic piece of oral tradition, or it could be expanded to a longer story about Jesus.
- Every description of the gospel in the New Testament is in some way about Jesus. Most of them are directly about Jesus. But even the gospel proclaimed by Jesus himself is tied to Jesus: the kingdom of God has come near in Jesus, in his life and ministry. In various ways, the story of Jesus—even Jesus himself—is the gospel.
- Different aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry are highlighted in different contexts. Some focus on Jesus’ death. Some focus on his resurrection, without mentioning his death. Most expanded gospel descriptions include both—but then other aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry can also be included.
- There is no specific atonement theory described as the gospel in the New Testament. Jesus’ death by crucifixion is important, and some descriptions of the gospel describe Jesus’ death as “for our sins.” But that simply means, “with respect to our sins,” and doesn’t in itself point to any specific atonement theory. To make this plain: popular evangelical understandings of the gospel make it about penal substitution, that Jesus died in our place, taking the punishment we deserved for our sins, turning aside God’s just wrath against us for our sins. Nowhere in the New Testament are these ideas described using gospel language.
- There is no mention of hell or heaven in the New Testament descriptions of the gospel. These also figure prominently in popular evangelical understandings of the gospel, that we are saved from a post-mortem hell and saved to a post-mortem heaven. These ideas are entirely absent from gospel descriptions in the New Testament.
So, what is the gospel, according to the New Testament? Well, as noted above, there is flexibility and fluidity in the New Testament descriptions of the gospel, with certain aspects highlighted depending on the context. But a fulsome summary of the gospel in the New Testament would be something like this:
The gospel is the good news about Jesus, Messiah and Lord, that through his life, teachings, healings, death, resurrection, and exaltation God has acted in the world to bring about deliverance from sin and death and all evil powers, to bring near God’s reign of justice and peace.
Finally, according to the New Testament, for whom exactly is the gospel “good news”? And what should our response to the gospel be?
The New Testament names a few specific groups for whom the gospel is “good news”: these include the poor, sinners, and all creation. The gospel is good news for all those who are in desperate need, not only spiritually but also materially. It is good news for all those who are under the power of sin and death, even oppressed by evil powers-that-be in the world. And the gospel is good news even for all creation, for “every creature under heaven,” as humans walk in the loving way of Jesus in the world. If we narrow the scope of the gospel to focus purely on spiritual needs, we have missed much of the gospel’s power; likewise if we focus solely on material needs.
In response to the gospel, we are called to “repent,” to turn from our sins, our ways of harm toward others, and “believe,” to walk in trusting commitment to God and God’s ways, the way of Jesus, his way of love. And God promises God’s Spirit—God’s immanent, transformative presence—to all those who do this. Many other benefits are also promised, most notably God’s forgiveness.
If you’re interested, you can check out my gospel tract I put together as an alternative to the popular evangelical gospels tracts out there. There’s even a link to a downloadable version which you can fold up and hand out, if you’re so inclined. See here for some background on that tract.
Michael Pahl 