The biblical gospel consists of several topics, heralded by multiple persons, written down by multiple authors in multiple types of literature, addressing a number of different subjects.
Which needs a careful qualification straight away.
The gospel is longer and more layered than a single soundbite.
What This Doesn’t Mean
It does not mean that ‘the gospel’ refers to everything in the Bible, or everything in the New Testament, or anything at all in the Christian faith. Still less that ‘the gospel’ can mean whatever we happen to like best about Jesus or Scripture.
But it is to acknowledge something. Unfold the themes of even a handful of biblical texts offering summary definitions of the gospel — Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; Mark 1:1, 14-15; Acts 13:16-41; 17:22-31; Romans 1:3-4; 1 Corinthians 15:3-5; 2 Timothy 2:8 — and you’ll find rather more than a single point. And there’s a great deal of other material to take in besides.1The definition offered in N. Gray Sutanto’s essay is constricted: ‘The gospel is the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.’ That is absolutely primary and central but hardly it. For example, no mention follows of so obvious a theme in Jesus’ and the apostles’ proclamation of the gospel as the lordship of Christ in the Kingdom of God. See https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-gospel/ [accessed 310323].
The four written Gospels and the wider New Testament present a broad range of realities regarding ‘the gospel.’ The message within them and growing out of them includes a whole array of claims composed of different elements of various kinds.
The gospel is longer and more layered than a single soundbite.
The Best Short Summary Ever Written
Perhaps the most remarkable short summary of the biblical gospel remains the Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary;
suffered under Pontius Pilate;
was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit;
the holy catholic2‘“Catholic” means universal; that is, there is one church across all times, places, and peoples’ (Chad Van Dixhoorn, Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition. Crossway, 2022; 13 n.1). church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting. Amen.
It wasn’t written by the Apostles themselves, and its authorship is unknown. But reflecting the spirit, pattern and high points of New Testament teaching, the Creed contains
‘all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of facts, in simple Scriptural language, in the most natural order. … It is by far the best popular summary of the Christian faith ever made within so brief a space. … It is not a logical statement of abstract doctrines, but a profession of living facts and saving truths. … It is intelligible and edifying to a child, and fresh and rich to the profoundest Christian scholar, who, as he advances in age, delights to go back to primitive foundations and first principles. … It can never be superseded for popular use.’3Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Volume 1: The History of the Creeds. Sixth edition (Baker, 1931/1985), 1:14-15. The substance of The Apostles’ Creed dates from the second century onward. But due to fear of persecution and misunderstanding in the face of violent opposition, at first it was memorized rather than put down in writing. Written versions of it were fragmentary until persecution paused, and the Roman empire was Christianized. The first full Latin text was provided by Rufinus (A.D. 390), and the Greek by Marcellus of Ancyra (A.D. 336-341). See Schaff, Creeds, 1:16-20; then to Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline (SCM Press, 1949/2001); Justo L. González, The Apostle’s Creed for Today (Westminster John Knox, 2007); Michael Horton, We Believe: Recovering the Essentials of the Apostles’ Creed (Thomas Nelson, 1998); Alister McGrath, “I Believe”: Exploring the Apostles’ Creed (InterVarsity, 1998); J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ (Crossway, 1994).
Notice what’s being praised there. Not its comprehensiveness — its shape. Facts rather than abstractions, in the order they happened, in language a child can follow and a scholar can keep returning to.
Where It Needed Supplementing
That’s not to suggest the Apostles’ Creed answers every question.
The Nicene Creed (AD 325) provided clearer expression of Jesus’ divinity. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (AD 381) added statements about the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. The Creed of Chalcedon (AD 451) clarified the relation of Christ’s divinity and humanity. The Athanasian Creed (around the eighth century) brought stronger expression of God’s Triunity.4A brief introduction is Justin S. Holcombe, Know the Creeds and Councils (Zondervan, 2014).
Later still, the Reformation Creeds were much more explicit about the inspiration and authority of the Bible, as well as sin, grace, and justification by faith.5See Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Volume 3: The Evangelical Protestant Creeds. Sixth edition (Baker, 1931/1985).
Each addition came because something needed saying more precisely than before.
Comfort, Not Just Content
There are literally thousands of very fine gospel statements and summaries.
The opening words of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) offer a wonderful one, cast in highly experiential and personal terms:
‘Question. What is your only comfort in life and in death? Answer. That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation. Consequently, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto him.’6Schaff, Creeds, 3:307-8.
Note the question it opens with. Not ‘what must you believe?’ but ‘what is your only comfort in life and in death?’ Same content, entirely different doorway in.
And rather remarkably, it wasn’t until the final years of the twentieth century that a full formal statement focused directly on the gospel itself appeared.7See the reproduction of this at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-gospel-of-jesus-christ/
The Version You’d Say Out Loud
If you were to offer an informal, conversational presentation of the gospel, it could run something like this:
that Jesus is one hundred percent God, and one hundred percent human;
that without him, human beings face a ‘dreadful sentence of eternal death;’8John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.2.1, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (The Westminster Press, 1960), 542.
but Jesus loves us, lived and died for our sins, and rose again from the dead;
that because of what Jesus suffered and did to achieve our forgiveness we can be right with God, now, and forever;
that Jesus is alive, and ruling at the right hand of God;
he may be personally known, loved, and trusted;
that there is a wonderful new relationship with God to enjoy, and great new power from God to experience;
that life is hard but good, because we’re not left doing it alone, for through Jesus our Heavenly Father is with us by his Spirit;
that beyond death there is a magnificent future in a perfect world to look forward to;
turning to God and away from sin, these truths may be believed, trusted, relied on, and lived for, serving the Lord as he gives us strength, for the rest of our earthly lives until he returns.
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- 1The definition offered in N. Gray Sutanto’s essay is constricted: ‘The gospel is the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.’ That is absolutely primary and central but hardly it. For example, no mention follows of so obvious a theme in Jesus’ and the apostles’ proclamation of the gospel as the lordship of Christ in the Kingdom of God. See https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-gospel/ [accessed 310323]. ↩︎
- 2‘“Catholic” means universal; that is, there is one church across all times, places, and peoples’ (Chad Van Dixhoorn, Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition. Crossway, 2022; 13 n.1). ↩︎
- 3Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Volume 1: The History of the Creeds. Sixth edition (Baker, 1931/1985), 1:14-15. The substance of The Apostles’ Creed dates from the second century onward. But due to fear of persecution and misunderstanding in the face of violent opposition, at first it was memorized rather than put down in writing. Written versions of it were fragmentary until persecution paused, and the Roman empire was Christianized. The first full Latin text was provided by Rufinus (A.D. 390), and the Greek by Marcellus of Ancyra (A.D. 336-341). See Schaff, Creeds, 1:16-20; then to Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline (SCM Press, 1949/2001); Justo L. González, The Apostle’s Creed for Today (Westminster John Knox, 2007); Michael Horton, We Believe: Recovering the Essentials of the Apostles’ Creed (Thomas Nelson, 1998); Alister McGrath, “I Believe”: Exploring the Apostles’ Creed (InterVarsity, 1998); J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ (Crossway, 1994). ↩︎
- 4A brief introduction is Justin S. Holcombe, Know the Creeds and Councils (Zondervan, 2014). ↩︎
- 5See Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Volume 3: The Evangelical Protestant Creeds. Sixth edition (Baker, 1931/1985). ↩︎
- 6Schaff, Creeds, 3:307-8. ↩︎
- 7See the reproduction of this at https://www.greattruthsglobal.org/the-gospel-of-jesus-christ/ ↩︎
- 8John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.2.1, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (The Westminster Press, 1960), 542. ↩︎