What is the Gospel?

 

This document is for Christians who are interested in the finer points of what the gospel is and is not.  For a simpler presentation of what the Gospel is, see the Steps to know God. 

 

Let me start with a few passages of scripture that most Christians believe is definitive.

 

1 Cor 15:1-4

1          Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

2          By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3          For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4          that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (NIV)

 

Many take verses 3 and 4 as a definition of what the Gospel is, simply because they immediately follow verse 1 and 2.  So the Gospel is these 3 things:

 

  1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
  2. that he was buried
  3. that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and witnessed by the apostles and Paul.

 

Would you agree?  Ok, then read what Peter tells you to do with the Gospel:

 

1 Pet 4:17-19

17         For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

18         And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"

19         So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.  (NIV)

 

Ok, now try to obey these 3 things:

  1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
  2. that he was buried
  3. that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and witnessed by the apostles and Paul.

 

How is it coming?  Did you obey them yet?  That definition of the Gospel does not make sense does it?  Does God not make sense?  Could it be the way we are reading it?  How can you obey historical events?  What is the Gospel that we must obey?

 

I wish we could look at the passage from the culture in which it was written. Here’s the next best thing I can offer:  Read the opinion of a Hebrew/Greek bible translator and scholar below. 

 

Missionary to Israel writes:

 

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?  Do we even know?

 

Have you ever wondered what the Gospel really is? When

we mention the Gospel, many think it is something that

began with the Apostolic Scriptures, i.e., the

so-called New Testament. But the Gospel message did

not appear for the first time in Matthew, nor even in

the Apostolic Writings. God "preached the Gospel

beforehand to Abraham" (Gal. 3:8). The generation in

the wilderness "had the Gospel preached to them just

as we have" (Heb. 4:2). Clearly Moses, David and all

the people of faith in the Tanakh (i.e., the so-called

Old Testament) possessed faith unto salvation.

 

Thus, the Gospel message must be something older than

we think.

 

What then is the Gospel? When we search all four

gospels, we never find that Yeshua (i.e., Jesus'

Hebrew name) preached a sermon presenting the Four

Spiritual Laws, nor did He ever lead anyone in the

'sinner's prayer.' He never shared a tract with a

single person. He never asked, "Do you know for sure

that you would go to heaven if you died?" He never

told anyone, "You need to have Me in your heart." If

these cliches were not the message taught by Yeshua

and His disciples, what was the message?

 

His message was the Gospel: "Repent, the Kingdom of

Heaven is at hand!" (Mat. 4:17; cf. Mat. 3:2 where

John the baptizer said precisely the same thing). Or

put another way, Yeshua proclaimed, "The time is

fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent

and believe in the Gospel" (Mar. 1:15).  What exactly

does that mean, though? It means: Turn your life back

from sin because God's rule and reign have already

begun through His Messiah!

 

That's the Good News!

 

It means that the King has come, as prophesied in the

Tanakh.  It means that even though Yeshua died and was

buried, He rose from the dead and therefore will

return to complete His earthly mission as Messianic

Ruler (1 Cor. 15:ff).  It means that we must therefore

submit to the authority of this G-d-installed King

(Psa. 2).  Now! (Act. 17:30, 31)  And the way to do

that is to respond to G-d's kindness and turn away

from sin, modeling our lives from that point on after

Yeshua's.

 

Salvation truly comes by G-d's grace bestowed upon

people to help them to repent; multiplied upon those

who respond to that grace and actually *do* repent.

But let us be clear: a Gospel message that neglects to

state the need for repentance is no Gospel message at

all!

 

Yeshua was preaching repentance. His Gospel was not a

sales pitch for people to feel better about

themselves.  We cannot say that His message was

therefore devoid of grace; just the opposite.  But

neither was it an easy sell.  Nevertheless, the

message had a "pay-off."  Yeshua's Gospel required a

*radical* life change, however, in order for a person

to "collect" anything lasting from the G-d of grace.

 

It required turning away from sin.

 

And folks, how do we know what sin is?  We know via

the Torah (i.e., what is commonly called the Law).  In

case we did not know from the rest of the Bible, G-d

has graciously and clearly defined sin for us in the

Apostolic Scriptures.  Sin is quite simply any

transgression of the Torah (1 Joh. 3:4).  This

definition was restated so that we could know what sin

is, so that people could repent of it.

 

More likely than not, if our Master were preaching His

Gospel in much of the Christian world today, He would

quickly be disregarded as a legalist. He would

probably be called a Judaizer. I am certain that He

would be told by someone to let go of 'the old ways of

the Law' and learn to walk in the 'new way of the

Spirit.'

 

We as followers of Yeshua should be passionate about

restoring the whole message of the Gospel to the Body

of Messiah. We each must strive to assist both Jewish

and non-Jewish believers to return to the feet of the

Master for a fresh encounter with the One they have

confessed as Lord. It's time to take off our

gentile-centric theological goggles, stop pitting Law

against Grace, and to deal honestly with the real

Messiah and His real message-the man from Nazareth who

rebuked sin, hypocrisy and pretense while encouraging

true repentance and obedience to the commandments of

the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

--Missionary to Israel

 

 

My reply

Bryan made many excellent points about what the gospel is not in his writing above—as well as some fascinating points about what it is.  However, I’d like to continue the discussion in two veins:  First, I’d like to challenge this idea:

 

Sin is quite simply any

transgression of the Torah (1 Joh. 3:4). 

 

Then, I’d like to embellish the conditional aspects of his argument.

 

1. 

Sin is quite simply any

transgression of the Torah (1 Joh. 3:4). 

 

I appreciate the simplicity of this definition of sin.  However, it is confusing to most people, who do not know which parts of Torah are no longer binding on Gentile believers.  To leave out this clarification would confuse many.  Also, I think a definition of the Gospel should be simple and broad enough to include people with disabilities or other disadvantages that keep them from studying the word like we do.  Keeping Torah leaves them out.  That’s my opinion. 

 

John 9:41

41        Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (NIV)

 

I believe that God judges sin according to two vertices: 

a. Severity of the sin

b. Intent of the sinner – the ignorant, or accidental sinner is judged differently than the hardened sinner, even if they happen to commit the same sin. 

 

2.

This passage you mentioned seems like the most definitive I could find regarding what the gospel is:

 

1 Cor 15:1-4

1          Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

2          By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3          For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4          that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (NIV)

 

But if the salvific response is only to "hold firmly to the word" (in a mental assent way) and not believe in vain, then other passages don’t make sense:

 

1 Pet 4:17-19

17         For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

18         And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"

19         So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.  (NIV)

 

How do we reconcile these apparently contradictory scriptures?  We take a closer look at the translation.  Check out the other translations of 1 Cor 15:1-2 below.  Notice how differently they render the NIV’s past tense have taken. 

 

1Co 15:1 And, brothers, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and in which you stand; (MKJV)

2 by which you also are being kept safe, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. (MKJV)

 

 1Co 15:1  ¶ And I make known to you, brethren, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which also ye did receive, in which also ye have stood, (YLT)

 2 through which also ye are being saved, in what words I proclaimed good news to you, if ye hold fast, except ye did believe in vain, (YLT)

 

1.       NIV:  “have taken your stand” (past tense)

2.       MKJV:  “you stand” (present tense)

3.       YLT:  “ye have stood” (past continuous tense)

 

These other translations seem to speak of not only initially receiving (1 Cor 15:1 “have taken”), but continually standing in the Gospel, in order to continue in a state of salvation.  This sounds more long term than the NIV.  Coupled with Peter’s warning above to “obey” the gospel, we discover this:  The salvific response to the gospel is continual behavioral obedience to it until death.

 

Obeying this gospel

Now lets examine the entire passage one last time:

 

1 Cor 15:1-4

1          Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

2          By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3          For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4          that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (NIV)

 

 

So then, how can we obey these three items of “first importance”? 

 

  1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures -  if you truly believe this, you will avoid sinning (which is crucifying Christ).  Your sin, and mine, and everyone elses is what crucified Christ. The only way to avoid sinning is to obey the gospel.
  2. that he was buried – and we should be buried with him.
    1. Romans 6:4
      We were therefore
      buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
      (Whole Chapter:
      Romans 6 In context: Romans 6:3-5)
    2. Colossians 2:12
      having been
      buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
      (Whole Chapter:
      Colossians 2 In context: Colossians 2:11-13)
  3. that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and witnessed by the apostles and Paul.
    1. Romans 6
      3Or don't you know that all of us who were
      baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
      5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

 

 

 

 

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