How do I understand the Gospel?

I am incredibly fortunate to have been raised in a context where the gospel was considered important. From childhood, my parents taught me the gospel, and we attended churches that taught the gospel. The gospel was simple and personal. Until recently, if you had asked me what the gospel was, I would have said something along the lines of “The gospel is that Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose on the third day, and all we have to do to get to heaven is put our faith in him. This is not wrong. The Bible teaches this in Romans 5:8-11.

That verse does not specifically mention going to heaven, but it does mention justification. In the context I was in, justification and heaven were practically synonymous. In my mind, this was the Gospel. What I did not realize was that what I thought was the entire gospel was really one part of it. Namely, justification by faith. The gospel essentially broke down into what God could do for me. The gospel was about my salvation and my relationship with Jesus. If I am being honest, the gospel I believed was more about me than Jesus. Personal Salvation and a relationship with Christ are important parts of the gospel, but there is more. The gospel is like a multi-faceted gem which includes multiple parts, each important to the whole. The gospel includes Justification by Faith but also includes the story of Israel, the story of Jesus Christ, the restoration of all things and much more. The gospel encompasses much more than just personal salvation.

What is the gospel (εὐαγγέλιον)? 

First and foremost, the gospel is the good news. Without abstracting the word by adding contextual meanings to it, the word gospel means good-story or more accurately to the language the New Testament was written, good news. The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον is the word our English bibles translate “gospel”. This word was not unique to the early Church. The writers of the New Testament adopted the word. This begs the question, if εὐαγγέλιον means good news, and the NT writers adopted it, what was the good news?

 “First and foremost, 

the gospel is the good news.”

C.S Lewis’s famous series, The Chronicles of Narnia, can be said to function as an allegory for the gospel narrative. The second book of the series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, includes many parallels. A short sentence said by one of the Beavers has fascinating relevance to the Gospel narrative. The Beaver addresses the four children and says, “They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps has already landed .”[2] Aslanst (or God, depending on the passage) represents the good news. As the story goes on, we learn that Aslan being “on the move” means he is coming to save Narnia from the evil Witch and set things the way they should be.

The good news of the New Testament writers is that God has been on the move. In Tom Wright's words, “It is the news that something has happened as a result of which the world is a different place.”[3] God is “on the move” meant multiple things, and everything God was doing could be classified as good news. Scot McKnight notes that within the gospel, we find: the story of Israel/the Bible, the story of Jesus, and the plan of salvation.[4] I would add to this list the restoration of all things.[5] We can think of these as sub-categories of the gospel. They all have incredible importance and can be taught individually but are fundamentally connected to the gospel story that God is on the move and things will now be made right. 

“God is coming

to restore the entire world.

Evil has been defeated

once and for all.”

It's not just justification by faith?

If we only understand the gospel to be Justification by Faith, we will have a hard time understanding Jesus. Michael W. Goheen and Craig Bartholomew said that “The Gospel that Jesus preached was the gospel of the kingdom… God is restoring his rule over all of human life in Jesus and by the spirit”.[6] Jesus does talk about the forgiveness of sins[7], but that is not all he talks about. Jesus’s good news was that the Kingdom of God is near. In Mark 1:14-15 Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of God is the good news and we need to change the way we are, the things we do and believe and prepare for the work that God is doing. The Kingdom of God includes the forgiveness of sins, but it is not limited to that. The gospel loses its full scope when we only focus on the forgiveness of sins. As I alluded to by quoting C.S. Lewis and N.T. Wright, The Kingdom of God is the gospel, and that means that God is coming to restore the entire world. The powers and authorities no longer have control. Evil has been defeated once and for all. The entire world is being restored, not just humans. 

“But one thing we can know

for sure is that God is on the

move, and that is good news.”

The Gospel and Israel

The gospel is the culmination of the story of Israel. The gospel is the story of God becoming man in order to redeem his creation. The gospel is the story of God defeating the ruling powers and authorities, sin and death, and bringing humanity back into a relationship with him. The gospel is a story. There is a temptation to break the Gospel down into neat boxes. We call these boxes doctrine. Doctrine is incredibly helpful. Doctrine allows us to systematize our beliefs, keeps us in congruence with a rich history of believers throughout the past two-thousand years and is a helpful tool to keep us from believing whatever we want. Doctrine is helpful, but our doctrine is derived from the truest and most beautiful story ever.

“Our doctrine is derived

 from a story, the truest and

most beautiful story ever.”

Doctrine as Story

Focusing too much on the doctrine and not where the doctrine came from can lead us to elevate certain doctrines over others, just how I elevated justification by faith.  There was no ill intent on my part. I was taught that the gospel is Justification by Faith. Those who taught me were also taught this. This is what Scot McKnight calls a “Salvation Culture” verses a “Gospel Culture”[9]. A Salvation culture focuses on making personal decision. This decision is rarely followed with deep discipleship. It becomes a question of “Are you in or out?”.[10] In “Salvation cultures”, churches want people to make a personal confession of sin and belief in Jesus’s power to save them from their sin. There is no emphasis on the role of a Christian post-conversion. This is like what has been coined “vampire Christianity. Dallas Willard says a vampire Christian is “one who occasionally takes off the grace of the blood of Christ, but refuses to submit their life full-time.[11]  Does a “salvation culture” breed vampire Christianity? Perhaps not necessarily, but the conditions are sufficient. The gospel allows us to live in the power of the spirit. The saving sacrifice of Christ can now be actualized in our lives and transform us into the image of Christ.[12] Part of the gospel is that those who put their faith in Christ are now disciples of Christ and will learn how to live a different way.

“The saving sacrifice of Christ

can now be actualized in our

lives and transform us.”

The Gospel for Everyone

I focused much of my Christian life on believing that all I had to do was believe. I did not attempt to actualize the power of the spirit in me, I would rarely care for the entire creation and would live as if the gospel was about what God can do for me. I failed to understand the gospel's beauty, humility, and scope. While there are many distortions to the gospel, the distortion of being a “vampire Christian” was the one I latched onto. It has been a place in my life God has illuminated and worked on my life. Part of the beauty of the Gospel is that it encapsulates so much but is simple enough that anyone can understand it and live it. Comprehending and living out the gospel is a lifelong process, and there are no doubt aspects that we will not fully comprehend in this life. But one thing we can know for sure is that God is on the move, and that is good news.

“They say Aslan is on the move

-perhaps he's already landed."

C.S. Lewis

 

 

References:
C.S Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe ( Harper Collins, 2008).
N.T Wright, Simply Good News (Harper Collins, 2015).
Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel (Zondervan, 2016).
Michael W. Goheen and Craig G. Bartholomew, Living at the Crossroads (Baker Academic, 2008).
Dallas Willard, Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective, (IVP Academic, 2010).