The Gospel

The word “gospel” means good news. But for there to be good news there must be a problem. There must be bad news. Look at our world. It’s filled with sickness, disease, hunger, thirst, hatred, murder, death and the list goes on. The gospel is that God got his hands dirty. God came down to earth, his world we messed up, to fix everything. The story goes something like this . . .

God created the world. We screwed it up with our dissatisfaction in God and our selfish pride. This is why we have pain and death and suffering. God gave promises that one day he would send Someone on a mission to unite all peoples and bless them in a new way in a new community. The Servant would suffer and die and buy a people that would know God and experience him by his Spirit. That Someone was Jesus.

Jesus Christ was born in an infamous area called Nazareth. He came with a mission to “serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He proclaimed that God’s righteous and perfect rule (the Kingdom) had arrived through him and that people should turn from their old way of selfish and prideful living to embrace him and follow him.

Jesus ended up being killed by his own people – hung up on a cross and cursed. He died an innocent death so that the guilty could go free. He rose from the dead so that those who are in him will also rise. He fulfilled all perfection so that those who believe in him are seen as perfect before God. He was rejected by his father so that those who are fatherless would be included in God’s family. This new community calls Almighty God “Our Father in heaven.” Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. The grace of the cross is that now God looks at us and loves us and accepts us just as he does Jesus.

The hope of Jesus’ great message of the Kingdom is that, one Day, God is going to bring his children home. The earth will be renewed. His people will be perfect. God’s presence will be pervasive. Those who have believed and followed Jesus will enjoy restoration in intimacy with God, each other, and the world. But because of Jesus’ work, the kingdom has already begun and is growing towards this end. Jesus continues to minister through word and deed through his followers who are living in this world (John 17:15-18; Acts 1:1; 1 John 3:18). As we live and minister, our motivation is the cross and our hope is heaven, the new and restored earth.

Gospel Nuggets

“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“[Jesus] comes to earth. He draws a circle around himself. He says, ‘Everybody, you’re outside this circle. You’re broken. Marry me.’” – Don Miller

“The gospel is that God has come to rescue and renew creation through the work and in the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.” – Tim Keller

“The New Testament often defines the gospel as, simply, Christ. The gospel is the ‘gospel of Christ’ (Rom. 15:19; 1 Cor. 9:12; 2 Cor. 2:12; 9:13; 10:14; Gal. 1:7; Php. 1:27, etc). Or, more specifically, the gospel is the ‘gospel of the glory of Christ’ (2 Cor. 4:4). And even more wonderfully, perhaps, Paul says that the preaching of the gospel is the preaching of ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’ (Eph. 3:8).” – John Piper

“[The gospel is] the good news that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and therefore the Lord of the world.” – Tom Wright