What is the gospel? Ask ten Christians and you may receive ten different answers — some focusing on forgiveness, others on heaven, others on a changed life. Yet the New Testament is remarkably consistent. The gospel can be cast in careful formal language as well as everyday informal language. It addresses and speaks to all of us; all of us can grasp hold of it, understand it, and relate to it. And while there is a comprehensiveness and an immensity to the Biblical good news, all its elements are interlinked, gathered around a central strand, unified by a single person.
In simplest terms, the gospel announces ‘the Christ’ (Acts 8:5); it states ‘the good news about Jesus’ (Acts 8:35); it involves ‘proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Acts 28:31). In fewest words, its substance may be boiled down to the brief declaration, ‘Jesus is Lord’ (Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 12:3), or ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’(2 Cor 4:3-5; Phil 2:11), and ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Rom 1:4).
Of ‘first’ and fundamental ‘importance’ regarding the nature of Christ’s Lordship is his death for our sins ‘in accordance with the Scriptures,’ his resurrection from the dead (1 Cor 15:3-4), his all-powerful appointment as Son of God (Rom 1:4), and his super-exaltation ‘above every name … in heaven and on earth’ (Phil 2:9-10). The essential ingredients of the Christian message are therefore, in brief, the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, resolving sin by God’s grace, offering forgiveness for guilt, new birth, and eternal life through the gift of the Holy Spirit.1J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (IVP, 2010 [Orig. 1961]), 66.
Five Words
The gospel in the New Testament is set forth in a variety of moods, styles, and genres: narrative and proclamation, biography and autobiography, letters and visions, facts and interpretation, events plus message. Yet among all the ‘gospel’ material in the Bible it is possible to trace a five-part pattern — five great overarching truths expressed and taught over and over. Taken together they form ‘the doctrinal components of the gospel.’2David Wells, Turning to God (Baker Books, 1989 / 2011), 20.
The structure and shape of the gospel may be indicated, very simply and straightforwardly, in five words:
(1) God
(2) Sin
(3) Christ
(4) Forgiveness
(5) Faith
Taken together these five words offer a clear, uncomplicated, non-technical outline of the Biblical gospel’s contents — an outline which can be easily digested, comfortably memorized, and used without difficulty as a set of headings for fuller explanation and instruction.3For comparison, see the learnable gospel outlines in John Chapman, Know and Tell the Gospel, 4th edition (Matthias Media, 2005), 150-162.
Five Phrases and Five Sentences
By way of expansion, the gospel tells us:
(1) about God’s character and relationship to us
(2) about sin and its consequences
(3) about Christ’s identity and action
(4) about salvation, based on forgiveness, issuing in eternal life
(5) about conversion — full-hearted faith, life-long trust, and turning to God from sin.
The substance of the gospel may next be expressed in five foundational statements.
First, the gospel is a totally positive life-changing word from the God who speaks, creates, rules, judges, and saves.
Second, the gospel includes a warning of judgment to come on sinful humanity.
Third, the gospel centres on Jesus Christ as Lord by his life, death, resurrection, exaltation, and return.
Fourth, the gospel of salvation has immediate impact now through the forgiveness of sins and the creation of new spiritual life in relationship with God, but its strongest stress is on promised outcomes in the eternal future.
Fifth, the gospel demands conversion — faith and repentance — in response to God’s grace and mercy.4These five sentences are partly verbatim and partly developed from Peter Jensen, The Revelation of God (IVP, 2000), 46, 49, 53, 58, and 61.
The Sum and Substance
The huge beating heart of the Christian gospel is ‘the excellency of Christ and his kingdom.’5Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Yale University Press), 16:761. Who Christ is — his person and identity — is the axis around which God’s good news revolves; what Christ has done, and is doing — kingdom and work — is the focus upon which God’s good news concentrates. The sum and substance of the gospel is the person and work of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ — Christ and all his benefits.
To put the matter as starkly and concisely as possible: the gospel is Jesus Christ; and Jesus Christ is the gospel. The great question is therefore this: ‘Who is the Jesus Christ who IS the gospel, and how is he equipped to save us?’6The framing question guiding this article series; Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ (Crossway, 2016), 49; emphasis is in original. See the full discussion at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-gospel-of-jesus-christ/
‘The great work of redemption by Jesus Christ,’ wrote Jonathan Edwards, ‘I suppose to be the grand design of all God’s designs, and the summit and ultimate of all the divine operations and decrees.’7Edwards, Works, 16:761. This judgement is undoubtedly correct: all God’s works, words, and actions — in creation, redemption, and completion — are accomplished by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ (Col 1:16).
‘Jesus is not a function of the gospel; he is its sum and substance. His person and act, his proclamation, his humiliation and exaltation and rule over all things constitute and do not simply illustrate the gospel. … Jesus is the gospel because in, and as, him God intervenes decisively in the history of sin and death. In and as Jesus, God reconciles all things to himself, putting an end to our hostility and alienation and restoring us to freedom, fellowship, and hope.’8John Webster, ‘What is the Gospel?,’ in Timothy Bradshaw ed., Grace and Truth in a Secular Age (Eerdmans, 1998), 111.
The gospel accordingly declares the perfection of Jesus Christ: the integrity of his person and the completeness of his work.
The perfection of his Person means that he is the God-man — fully divine and fully human, two natures equally united in his one singular Person, without division or confusion. The perfection of his work means that he, and he alone, fulfils the offices of Prophet, Priest, and Ping. Because of our sin, a Saviour was required — a Redeemer, Mediator, and Reconciler — one who would offer a sacrifice sufficient to appease God’s righteous anger and make peace between God and rebellious humanity. By the death of God’s Son, human enemies of God are ‘justified by his blood,’ reconciled to God, and saved from his wrath (Rom 5:9-10). The greatest good of the great-good news rests upon this, and upon nothing else. The gospel is not first advice, program, or principle. It is a Person: Jesus Christ the Lord.
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- 1J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (IVP, 2010 [Orig. 1961]), 66.
- 2David Wells, Turning to God (Baker Books, 1989 / 2011), 20.
- 3For comparison, see the learnable gospel outlines in John Chapman, Know and Tell the Gospel, 4th edition (Matthias Media, 2005), 150-162.
- 4These five sentences are partly verbatim and partly developed from Peter Jensen, The Revelation of God (IVP, 2000), 46, 49, 53, 58, and 61.
- 5Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Yale University Press), 16:761.
- 6The framing question guiding this article series; Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ (Crossway, 2016), 49; emphasis is in original. See the full discussion at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-gospel-of-jesus-christ/
- 7Edwards, Works, 16:761.
- 8John Webster, ‘What is the Gospel?,’ in Timothy Bradshaw ed., Grace and Truth in a Secular Age (Eerdmans, 1998), 111.