What is the Gospel?
For a 2016 class, I prepared a statement of the gospel. I believe it is has a longer history but I am uncertain. Since I will soon begin reading Five Views on the Gospel (due out in June), I thought I would share my own thinking (at least as it appeared in 2016). Once I have read the Five Views book, then I will assess and see what sort of adjustments, expansions, or changes I might need to make to this summary. I am sure my summary is inadequate as a full account, though its focus might be on target. I expect my understanding of the gospel will be enriched by reading Five Views.
The point of this document is to articulate the gospel in terms of what God has done to accomplish God’s own purposes and goal. That, to me, is the gospel–God’s redemptive work. This statement neither attempts to define how to respond to the gospel (e.g, faith [or even allegiance], obedience to the gospel) or describe the gospel’s specific benefits (e.g., reconciliation, redemption, justification, sanctification, transformation, theosis, glorification, etc.). This document is focused on what the Father has done in the Messiah (or King) by the power of the Spirit to accomplish the Triune God’s redemptive work.
This is a 2016 statement. I resisted editing it or changing it, though I saw some places where I would like to do so.
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The good news is this: God has fulfilled the Abrahamic promise in Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.
The Synoptics open with this announcement, whether it is the genealogy in Matthew, or Mark’s title, or Luke’s songs. The expanded salutation in Romans summarizes it (Romans 1:1b-4): “the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus the Messiah our Lord.”
This good news was announced to Abraham (Galatians 3:8) and anticipated by the exiles (Isaiah 52:7; cf. Romans 10:15), but it arrived in the ministry of Jesus (Mark 1:15). The early church proclaimed the good news that Jesus is the Messiah (Acts 5:42; 8:12) who confirmed the good news of the promise (Romans 15:8), through whom the story of Israel came to its fulfillment (Acts 2; 3; 10; 13; 26:6), and by whom the Gentiles are included in the promise (Ephesians 2:17; 3:6-8). The Abrahamic promise is fully realized when God invites those who have persevered in faith (“overcome”) to “inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children” (Revelation 21:7).
The good news is this: God has acted through Jesus the Messiah in the power of the Spirit to reverse the curse by inaugurating, effecting, and guaranteeing new creation. Or, more simply, Jesus the Messiah is both the good news embodied and the bearer of the good news of the kingdom of God.
The telos of creation, which tumbled off-track in the human tragedies of Genesis 3-11, is reaffirmed in the Abrahamic promise, anticipated in the story of Israel, proleptically actualized in the history of Jesus the Messiah, inaugurated in the history of the church, and fully realized in the inheritance of the new heaven and new earth. In this way, through Jesus the Messiah, Abraham and his descendants—those who trust in the Messiah—inherit the cosmos (Romans 4:13).
The “Christ Event” is the means by which this inheritance is secured. God keeps faith with Abraham through the Messiah, and God reconciles the world in the Messiah. By “Christ Event” I primarily mean an event within history (created time and space) though also mediated to us through an existential encounter in the Spirit.
- The incarnation of the Logos as Jesus of Nazareth united God and humanity.
- The ministry of Jesus proleptically realized the future in the present.
- The death of Jesus defeated the powers through obedient surrender to God.
- The resurrection of Jesus inaugurated new creation.
- The enthronement of Jesus at the right hand of God guarantees the future of creation.
The “Christ Event” is the means to an end, and the good news is both the means and the end. The arrival of Jesus the Messiah is good news, and the end, accomplished through the Messiah, is also good news (the “good news of the kingdom”).
Incarnation. “God in the flesh” is good news because the person descended from Abraham is also the same one who descended from heaven by the virgin birth through the power of the Spirit, the Son of God. This one is both human and divine, and therefore unites God and humanity in intimate fellowship. The incarnation completes creation by realizing its telos, which is the mutual indwelling of God and humanity within the creation.
Ministry. The ministry of Jesus—empowered by the Spirit—is eschatological in character because the future, which is the kingdom of God, is proleptically present through the reconciling work of the Messiah. “The good news of the kingdom of God” is this: the blind see, the lame walk, the poor rejoice, the dead are raised, sins are forgiven, the oppressed are liberated, and people groups are reconciled. The promises to Israel are realized in the ministry of Jesus, and the curse is reversed.
Death. The death of Jesus defeated the powers arrayed against humanity. Those powers included sin, the demonic, and oppressive social structures. Jesus endured the cross in obedience to the Father, and through that obedience overcame evil, redeemed creation, and demonstrated both the love and righteousness of God. Through obedience unto death, the Son overcame evil with good.
Resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus by the power of the Spirit inaugurated new creation. As the firstborn from the dead, the resurrected Jesus is the beginning of new creation. He is the new humanity, which is the first installment or first fruit of a renewed creation, including the resurrection of the dead. Death is defeated, and new life is realized.
Ascension. The enthronement of Jesus at the right hand of God guarantees the future of creation. Jesus, as new human—the son of Abraham, son of David—reigns until creation is fully redeemed, including the redemption of humanity in body and soul. As the reigning Lord, Jesus pours out the Spirit upon the renewed Israel, the church, until the last enemy is destroyed.
The good news, then, is the faithfulness of God who keeps the Abrahamic promise to renew the creation, which results in the reconciliation of God, humanity, and creation. This includes such benefits as the forgiveness of sins, transformation of body and soul by the Spirit as new creation, and the destruction of opposing powers. This good news is accomplished by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah, who as both Son of God and Son of David, unites God and humanity so that they might dwell together within the creation.