What is the gospel?

Posted on December 31, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Like many organizations, the church has its own jargon. The danger with jargon is that we can use words for which we have a fuzzy understanding. One of the words in common usage in the church is the word gospel.

At its core, the word gospel means “good news.” The English word gospel comes from the Old English and is a compound of god (good) and spel (story or message). It is a direct translation of the Greek word euanggelion which is also a compound of eu (good) and anggelion (message or announcement). This is the word from which we get our English words “evangelism” and evangelical.

But what is the gospel? How should we define it in a Christian context?

As I thought about this, I thought that I should use my Bible software to do a search of the word gospel in the New Testament to see how the gospel is described. Here is a list of things that I learned about the gospel from looking over the list along with a reference to where I found it. The list is not exhaustive; some of these appear in multiple places and I only list the reference to the first mention.

It is the gospel of the kingdom [of God] – Matthew 4:23
It is preached to the poor – Matthew 11:5
It should be preached in the whole world – Matthew 24:14
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ – Mark 1:1
It is the gospel of God – Mark 1:14
It is the gospel of the grace of God – Acts 20:24
It was promised beforehand – Romans 1:2
It is concerning [God’s] son – Romans 1:3
It is the power of God for salvation – Romans 1:16
Paul calls it “my gospel” – Romans 16:25
Paul felt compelled to preach the gospel – 1 Corinthians 9:16
It is free – 1 Corinthians 9:18
It is the gospel of the glory of Christ – 2 Corinthians 4:4
It can be counterfeited – 2 Corinthians 11:4
It can be distorted – Galatians 1:7
It is not according to man – Galatians 1:11
It contains truth – Galatians 2:14
It was preached to Abraham – Galatians 3:8
It is the gospel of your salvation – Ephesians 1:13
We become partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel – Ephesians 3:6
It is the gospel of peace – Ephesians 6:15
It was a mystery (something previously hidden) – Ephesian 6:19
It should be defended – Philippians 1:16
It will change our behavior – Philippians 1:27
It is a message of hope – Colossians 1:5
It comes in power and in the Holy Spirit – 1 Thessalonians 1:5
The gospel is opposed – 1 Thessalonians 2:2
It is entrusted to men – 1 Thessalonians 2:4
It is the gospel of our Lord Jesus – 2 Thessalonians 1:8
God calls us through the gospel – 2 Thessalonians 2:14
It is the gospel of the blessed God – 1 Timothy 1:11
It is something worth suffering for – 2 Timothy 1:8
The gospel brings life and immortality to light – 2 Timothy 1:10
It is about Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and a descendant of David – 2 Timothy 2:8
It caused Paul to be imprisoned – Philemon 13
It is preached by the Holy Spirit – 1 Peter 1:12
It is something that the angels want to understand – 1 Peter 1:12
It demands obedience – 1 Peter 4:17
It is eternal – Revelation 14:6

Perhaps there is no better way to end one year and begin another than by reflecting on the may facets of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a gift we have been given!

The idol of approval

Posted on September 9, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

This morning I was challenged by a paragraph that I read in The Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan K. Dodson.

“In Christ, we possess a power that can rip the muzzle off, chase away the shadows, and bolster winsome, authentic gospel witness. That power lifted Jesus out of the grave, but it sits latent in our blanketed heart, where we are inordinately troubled by what others think. Beneath the blanket of persecution there often lies a golden idol, the one thing we cannot live without – the approval of others. We pine for the approval of others and would rather quiet down about the good news than speak up and risk our coworker thinking we are preach, impersonal, or intolerant. Our reluctance to talk about Jesus springs from a desire to gain the approval of others instead of resting in the approval of God our Father. We desperately need to set apart Jesus as Lord in our hearts, not what others think as lord. This is where deep security is found. To get there, the idol has to be replaced with a greater God who offers deeper security and meaning. We need the gift of repentance, regularly, to exchange our worship of what others think of us for what God the Father thinks of us in Christ – fully loved, fully accepted, no condemnation, no rejection.”

This paragraph highlights two of the reasons why I often fail to speak up about what I believe.

The first is that I forget (or I never really learned) that the power that conquered death is promised to be operative in my life if I am in Christ. The power remains constant, my appropriation of that power is restricted by my weak faith.

The second is that I am far too concerned about alienating anyone and far too concerned about what others think of me.

To these, I can add a third reason. That reason is that I am very aware of my failures and do not want to be labeled as a hypocrite. The problem is that I will never perfectly live out the truths of Scripture. I should not let my failures deter me from sharing the gospel, because my failures are why I need the Gospel in the first place.

The solution to all three of this is rather simple to understand, but difficult to do. The solution is to take my eyes off myself and focus on Jesus (see Heb. 12:1-2). In those verses in Hebrews, Jesus is presented as enduring the cross for the joy of being united to believers as a result of his sacrifice.

Certainly then, I should be willing to endure a little embarrassment for the joy of seeing others come into relationship with God.

Moving beyond the gospel?

Posted on April 13, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

In some churches I have attended, there is a sense that the gospel entails the elementary teaching of Christianity. In those churches, maturity is thought to entail moving beyond the gospel into more “meaty” doctrinal teaching.

I have come to realize that this is wrong headed and leads not to maturity, but to immaturity. The effect of this teaching is the exact opposite of the desired result.

The gospel teaches me that every aspect of my being is in need of redemption by Jesus Christ through his work on the Cross. The first thought of the gospel is that I am more deeply flawed than I ever dared to admit. The second part of the gospel is that I am loved more deeply than I ever dared dream.

If I do not preach this two-pronged gospel to myself every day, I am sure to go off track.

If I forget these two aspects of the gospel, theological knowledge will only serve to make me proud.

If I forget these two aspects of the gospel, any change that I make in my life will come from self-will rather than surrender to God. This will only serve to make me hard hearted.

If I dwell on how loved I am without realizing how unlovable I really am, this will only serve to make me selfish.

If I dwell on how flawed I am without basking in God’s love for me, this will only serve to make me morose and overwhelmed.

I should never think of moving beyond the gospel. I should only think about how more deeply the gospel needs to be applied in every aspect of my life.

The Apostle Paul should be our model in this. The same man who could call himself the chief of sinners, also penned one of the most confident declarations of God’s love in Scripture:

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, ESV)

The softening of the Gospel

Posted on April 2, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Listening to a Podcast on the way to work this week, I heard Tim Keller use an illustration that I found helpful. He used a wax seal to illustrate the impact of Biblical law upon the heart of a man (or woman).

To seal a letter, some wax is melted onto the letter and then a seal is pressed into the wax to show the identity of the one who sealed the letter. To do this properly, the wax had to be softened to take the impression of the seal.

Without softening, the seal would have difficulty in making an imprint upon the wax. Either the seal would leave a superficial impression on the hard wax, or the seal would crush the wax into pieces.

Without the Gospel, the Biblical law will have a superficial impression on a man or it will crush him. If a man does not operate under the good news of the Gospel, if he does not acknowledge his moral failure and helplessness to change, the law will either crush him or make him proud.

The result of a superficial application of the law is spiritual pride and intolerance. I saw an example of this recently when a well known comedian applied the ten commandments to his life in such a way as to prove that he keeps the Ten Commandments even though he doesn’t believe in God. To make his proof he had to offer a very superficial understanding and application of the commands. The result was that this comedian comes off as a bit condescending to those who have a different understanding of those commandments.

But non-believers are not the only ones who experience a superficial application of the law. Some who claim to believe the Gospel have also demonstrated this. They may even make every effort to live up to their understanding of the law and may genuinely believe that they are pleasing God by what they do and that they are in the right for the way that they live. The most extreme example of this can be found by following the misguided activities of the folks at Westboro Baptist Church. Their antics display the shallowest impression of the law upon their hearts and a law devoid of any Gospel.

On the other hand, if the law is applied without the softening of the Gospel, a man may be crushed by it. A proper understanding of the law will lead to the correct conclusion that no man can or will completely live up to the standard presented in the law. Any attempt to do so will end in disappointment or despair. If you doubt this, just think about how far into January the average person makes it with his New Year’s resolutions.

Prior to his understanding of righteousness coming as a result of faith, Martin Luther was a man that was crushed by the law. The best example of this is a line from the movie Luther, where Martin says to his superior, “I am too full of sin to be a priest.” Martin understood how far short of the Biblical standard he fell and was overwhelmed by that understanding until he discovered the Gospel.

When Christianity is presented as simply a moral code or philosophy of living, it is not good news, there is no Gospel in such a presentation. The only result will be pride or despair.

But, with a proper understanding of the Gospel, and how much we are loved by God, then the law becomes a tutor (NASB) or guide (ESV) to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). When we understand that Jesus has satisfied the law on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) we are no longer bound by the standard of perfect law keeping. Jesus kept the law for us.

Because Jesus has done this for us, we have no basis for pride or condemnation of others. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much we have been forgiven.

Also, when we understand how much we are loved, we will not be crushed by the law. Jesus loved you and I so much that he was willing to endure the cross (Heb. 12:2) so that we might be in relationship with him. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much God loves us and how far he has gone to bring us into relationship with himself.

Under the Gospel, our hearts experience the softening that allows for a proper understanding of the role of the law (Tweet this).

My guess is that each of us, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, will gravitate toward one or the other of these superficial applications of the law. Either we will be drawn toward pride over our law-keeping or we will be overwhelmed by our inability to live up to the standards in Scripture. Personally, I am easily sucked into the vortex of the latter.

The antidote to both reactions is a proper understanding of the Gospel, which I like to summarize in two lines (this is a quote/paraphrase from Tim Keller). The Gospel tells me:

I am more deeply flawed than I ever dared to believe
I am more deeply loved than I ever thought possible

That is indeed good news.

The idol of approval

Moving beyond the gospel?

The softening of the Gospel

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