Who Gets To Define The Gospel? – What Is The Gospel?
What is the gospel? Who gets to define it? Surely it is the Triune God. Randy helps us think through this issue and brings us to a definition of the gospel.
Do you have any questions about the gospel? Make a comment below or Contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Who Gets To Define the Gospel?
As Paul begins his letter to the Romans, he begins to explain what the gospel is.
…the gospel of God — the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son…appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:1-4).
What Is The Gospel?
In her annual Easter Message, the head of one of Canada’s leading liberal denominations talked of the social justice needed in the Central American nation she was visiting. She went on to say, “El Salvador is a land where Christ is crucified every day”.*
The connection to El Salvador immediately caught my eye. Our daughter had just returned from that tiny nation after a brief mission with Samaritan’s Purse. And our other daughter worked for part of 2 summers at a Christian deaf school over a decade ago in the same country.
Here’s that quote one more time: “El Salvador is a land where Christ is crucified every day”. When considering the cosmic impact of the events of that historic Easter weekend in Jerusalem 2 millennia ago, what could that possibly mean? How could the death of the Cosmic Christ in any way parallel civil events in the 21st century?
In its context advocating for political truth and reconciliation of partisan adversaries, the denominational moderator had defined the gospel as that which recognizes this: “Our stories are interconnected. Our realities are one.”
Really? Our realities are one? And that’s the gospel?
Relation To The Easter Message
In fact, the impetus for this so-called gospel was not the Word of God or even the historic events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, but surprisingly – jarringly – the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission examining harm done to Canadian indigenous peoples by the Canadian federal government!
How is this even tangentially related to the biblical declaration of the Easter message?
Here’s the contrast for me. Our daughter’s team was handing out Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, and with the delivery taking the opportunity to teach a very different gospel to children in the same country: the biblical gospel of salvation through Christ by faith alone.
Whatever it means, these disparate understandings of the “gospel” evidence something of the 21st century spectrum of definitions for understanding the term.
The Gospel Of God
When writing to the church at Rome in the mid-50s of the first century, Paul called it the gospel of God (Romans 1:1). The apostle showed the continuity of the gospel message and its definition throughout the Bible by quoting from the Old Testament 57 times in this, his theological magnum opus.
There is no other way to understand it. Paul is saying the gospel is of God, it is at His initiative and by His execution – and it belongs solely to Him.
Therefore, the Triune God alone defines what is the gospel!
Definition Of The Gospel
Here’s the 3-part definition we’ve been repeating at Bethel.
The gospel is:
- the declaration of good news
- of the Person and work of Christ
- and the eternal benefit to me through repentance and faith in Him.
The gospel is good news, because it answers the unequalled problem of the bad news – that you and I stand as sinners before a holy God. And whereas we may not think that so bad with our contemporary relativistic view of morality, Paul in Romans spells out the obscenity of even one sin as being an assault on God’s holiness.
At one time, every one of us has been guilty of
- suppressing the truth of Who God is by our own willful denial and wickedness (Romans 1:18); and
- intuitively recognizing God’s eternal omnipotence, and divine nature, and yet refusing to acknowledge His supremacy (Romans 1:19,20); and
- knowing of God’s transcendent Being – the One who alone sustains all life and provides every good gift – but declining to honour and thank Him (Romans 1:21).
Receiving Christ’s sacrifice by faith as the only way to achieve reconciliation with God is essential to the Gospel.
Takeaway:
Any definition of the Gospel that excludes the death and resurrection of Christ is emphatically not the biblical gospel. Any understanding that excludes sin, repentance and faith misses the heart of the Gospel of God.
…God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 4:24,25;5:1).
*excerpted from United Church of Canada Moderator Jordan Cantwell’s 2016 Easter message.
Do you have any questions about God? Make a comment below or Contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Randy Bushey
After completing a 35 year corporate-management career in the general insurance industry, Randy is dedicated to full-time elder’s work at Bethel Gospel Chapel in North Bay (Ontario).
With a primary pastoral focus in Bible teaching (preaching and leading Bible studies). Randy is also engaged in visitation, church music, and helping develop other men in their roles as Christ-followers, preachers and leaders.
He is married to Pat who is investing her life in working with women and children in the local assembly. They are both energized by their 3 children (2 married) and 6 grandchildren!
You can listen to pod casts from Randy’s show, “The Faith Factor,” by clicking here.
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Images:
Saviour Of The World – Frankjh
San Salvador – Extremesv
Apostle Paul – Valentin De Boulougne
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