Most religious teaching arrives as ideas you’re asked to hold. The Christian gospel claims to be something else: a report of things that have happened.

The gospel is not merely a teaching or a message. It’s composed of concrete events regarding a real person.

Not a Theory — a Set of Events

These solutions and promises are said to rest on a series of unchangeable historical facts.

Which is worth pausing on, because it isn’t how we usually think of religious teaching. The nature of the gospel is not merely a teaching or a message. It’s composed of concrete events regarding a real person. It claims testimony ‘to the facts about’ the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 23:11).

The good news declares that these events are actually acts and works of God. The most crucial of all took place with Jesus’ birth, life, death, and raising up as Lord and Christ. By virtue of what happened to him, with him, and through him, the saving plan and purpose of God was accomplished — uniquely, objectively, decisively, once for all, and for all time.

‘The gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is “Christ died for our sins and was raised”).’¹The Gospel Coalition Confessional Statement, paragraph 6, in D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller eds., The Gospel as Center: Renewing our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (Crossway, 2012), 276.

With the person and work of Jesus — most notably his crucifixion and resurrection — sinful human beings were delivered from their most pressing predicament, and the Kingdom of God with Christ the King was established for always as a saving reality and realm.

Breaking News That Stays Current

This biblical good news is breaking news that remains current, continuing good news forever into the future.

Through the gospel we learn that God’s victory over sin and evil, realised by Christ’s sin-bearing death and death-defeating resurrection, qualified him as capable and competent to take up the highest possible office of executive authority in the cosmos. ‘In fact, the gospel declaration — “Jesus is Lord” — is a declaration of Jesus ascended: that the story of Jesus did not finish with his bodily resurrection but is ongoing, for he reigns.’²‘The ascension is the counterpart to the incarnation as we see in passages like Philippians 2:5-11.’ Robert C. Doyle, ‘The Ascension of Jesus Christ and Present Heavenly Session,’ Unpublished Lecture Notes, 1.

Consider the scale. Current estimates put the universe at between 200 billion and 2 trillion galaxies, so Jesus’ universal rule is no small thing.³See Christopher J. Conselice, et al, ‘The Evolution of Galaxy Number Density at Z < 8 and its Implications,’ Draft Version, October 11, 2016, available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.03909.pdf [accessed 310323]. And above all, the gospel announces this cosmos-wide Kingdom and Reign of Christ.

His sacrificial death for our sins warranted his elevation to director and governor of the universe, ruling over all things visible and invisible, eternally. From that point on he has reigned, and reigns now, absolutely and supremely. He is ‘Head of the New Humanity, the Prince of the New Creation, the King of the Kingdom which he has won and established through his incarnate life and passion.’⁴Thomas F. Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection (T & T Clark, 1975), 112.

Being both Lord and Saviour, seated now at the Father’s right hand, Jesus Christ is today overseeing all the kingdoms of the world; advocating for his followers; sending forth his Spirit’s power and presence; and causing ‘repentance for the forgiveness of sins to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’ (Luke 24:47).

Until he returns in glory at the finish of history, Jesus’ main intention and current preoccupation is that ‘this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’ (Matt 24:14).

One Word, Several Jobs

Worth noticing how flexible the terminology actually is. In the Bible, ‘gospel’ is specialised language — specific, yet also rich, embracing, multi-faceted, used across a range of senses:

‘First, the New Testament uses it to describe the heart of the Old Testament promises of salvation. Secondly, it is used of the saving event of Jesus of Nazareth as the grounds of salvation for all who believe. Thirdly, it designates the proclamation of that saving event as the means by which people are confronted with the truth about Christ. Finally, it is the name applied by the early church to the distinct literary genre, found in the New Testament, by which the story of Jesus is told and preserved for posterity.’⁵Graeme Goldsworthy, ‘Gospel,’ in T. D. Alexander and Brian S. Rosner eds., New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (IVP, 2000), 524; italics supplied.

Prominent among those senses is that the gospel is a message. More literally it’s ‘a word,’ a logos (Mark 16:20; 1 Cor 2:4; Heb 4:2) — about the fulfilment of God’s plans and promises, realised by the Divine Word and Son of God coming into the world through the birth of a real human being (John 1:1-18).

It is, most fundamentally, a message about Jesus’ supreme Lordship through death and resurrection. And again fundamentally, a message by which we are saved from our sins (Acts 11:14) — because at heart it’s a message of reconciliation with God, in Christ, through forgiveness (2 Cor 5:19).

Good News, or Bad, Depending

The Greek behind our English ‘gospel’ is euangellion, in both noun and verb forms — the word that gives us ‘evangelism,’ announcing God’s message.

In the Greek Old Testament and in the New Testament it simply means ‘news’ or ‘message.’ Context decides whether it’s good news or even bad news (1 Kings 1:42; Isa 52:7; 2 Sam 4:9-10; Jer 20:15). The Bible often ‘uses the term to refer to the message that God has fulfilled his promise to send a Savior to rescue broken people, restore creation’s glory, and rule over all with compassion and justice.’⁶Bryan Chapel, ‘What is the Gospel?’ in D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller eds., The Gospel as Center: Renewing our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (Crossway, 2012), 116. Which is why English Bibles usually translate it ‘good news.’

But Paul makes a sharper point. This message, and the messenger carrying it, is ‘an aroma of Christ’ — depending entirely on how it’s received: to one a ‘fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life’ (2 Cor 2:14-16).

The same news, opposite effects.

By Jesus, and About Jesus

For good reason the term also came to be used as a title for the four written Gospels at the front of the New Testament. Those documents tell the story of Jesus Christ on which the ongoing message about him is based.

And notice the sequence they report. ‘The gospel of God’ and ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ was a message originally preached by Jesus himself (Mark 1:14; Matt 9:35). So the gospel is, firstly, a message promoted by Jesus. Later Paul and others spoke of ‘the gospel’ of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (Rom 1:3-4; 1 Cor 15:1-5; 2 Tim 2:8). So the gospel is, secondly, a message proclaimed about Jesus.

Which makes being a Christian simple to define: to trust and follow Jesus Christ, believing that the biblical message about him makes much more sense of the world and our experience than anything else does.

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• 1
  The Gospel Coalition Confessional Statement, paragraph 6, in D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller eds., The Gospel as Center: Renewing our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (Crossway, 2012), 276. ↩︎
• 2
  ‘The ascension is the counterpart to the incarnation as we see in passages like Philippians 2:5-11.’ Robert C. Doyle, ‘The Ascension of Jesus Christ and Present Heavenly Session,’ Unpublished Lecture Notes, 1. ↩︎
• 3
  See Christopher J. Conselice, et al, ‘The Evolution of Galaxy Number Density at Z < 8 and its Implications,’ Draft Version, October 11, 2016, available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.03909.pdf [accessed 310323]. ↩︎
• 4
  Thomas F. Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection (T & T Clark, 1975), 112. ↩︎
• 5
  Graeme Goldsworthy, ‘Gospel,’ in T. D. Alexander and Brian S. Rosner eds., New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (IVP, 2000), 524; italics supplied. ↩︎
• 6
  Bryan Chapel, ‘What is the Gospel?’ in D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller eds., The Gospel as Center: Renewing our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (Crossway, 2012), 116. ↩︎