It is all too easy to stop thinking about the things with which we are familiar. For Christians, one such familiar word is gospel. It is one we usually associate with salvation, which of course is not wrong, but neither is it complete. You see, the term gospel, or good news, is meant to describe the whole story of Jesus, but all too often the idea of the gospel is reduced to its very important main event – Jesus dying on the cross and rising again. According to Dallas Theological Seminary professor Darrell Bock, this is a dangerously abbreviated version of the Gospel.(1) He writes that to “only speak of Jesus dying for sin – even to speak of Jesus dying for and rising again – is to give only about half of the gospel message.”(2)
Why is this such a problem? Well first, if the gospel is only understood to be the fact that Jesus died and rose again to defeat sin, it is easily viewed as a one-time event. Once an individual accepts this truth, he or she may put a check-mark in the gospel box and move on with life, living a cliff-noted version of the gospel. Author and pastor, JD Greear comments on this very reality when he writes: “The gospel is not just supposed to be our ticket into heaven; it is to be an entirely new basis for how we relate to God, ourselves and others. It is to be the source from which everything else flows.”(3) If this is true, and the gospel means more than just the possibility of personal salvation, then it will impact how we live out our time and spend our talents and resources in and for the Kingdom of God.
The second reason this matters is because it can lead to confusion. In our age of instant, where attention is grabbed by sound bites, snaps and tweets, simplifying the gospel to only a main event may seem effective. Shouldn’t we want to make it quick and simple for people? The problem with starting at the death and resurrection of Jesus, is that it is jumping into the middle of the timeline, and whether that’s the gospel story or any modern movie, picking up in the middle means missing out on meaningful details and minimizing the significance of the conclusion.
So what all should a full gospel presentation contain? This is where a wider scope of Scripture becomes helpful. It is a common mistake, when thinking of the gospel, to think only of the New Testament. The Old Testament plot lines are imperative to the task of forming a full understanding of the gospel. New Testament Scholar Scot McKnight emphasizes this point when he writes: “God chose one person, Abraham, and then through him one people, Israel, and then later the Church, to be God’s priests and rulers in this world on God’s behalf. What Adam was to do in the Garden – that is, to govern this world redemptively on God’s behalf – is the mission that God gives to Israel. Like Adam, Israel failed, and so did its kings. So God sent his son to do what Adam and Israel and the kings did not (and evidently could not) do and to rescue everyone from their sins and systemic evil and Satan (the advisory). Hence, the Son is the one who rules as Messiah and Lord.”(4) Thus, Jesus’ story is rooted in Israel’s story in the Old Testament, as God’s redemptive work began back in the pages of Genesis. The Bible is one continuous story of God working in his creation which culminates with Jesus. So, understanding the events of the Old Testament where the failure and wandering of the human heart is highlighted, helps explain why Jesus shows up in the New Testament, and why it is such Good News. The Old Testament gives us the backdrop of creation, the fall, and then on-going separation and brokenness. It doesn’t take too many Old Testament stories before it becomes clear that sin brought destruction and dysfunction into the world. Reading through those stories makes the clear point that there is no mess, brokenness or failure that would surprise God. That’s why Jesus’ story brings so much hope.
The world desperately needed a savior, and then the savior comes. In Jesus’ story we learn that he eternally existed with God, as God, yet in unimaginable love he dressed himself with humanity, in order to die for our sins, be buried and rise again. We see that he appeared to many witnesses displaying his victory over sin, death and the grave. But even beyond those often emphasized elements of the gospel story, we also come to understand that he returned to heaven and is currently seated at the right hand of God as Lord. That even now he is our king and that his kingdom is very much at hand! We are also promised that he will come again to this same world to put an absolute end to evil, once and for all, and that when he does he will usher in a final state that is restored to his original purposes for us without pain and death. Finally, we are also instructed that he will judge and reward us according to how we lived.(5)
This is the full and complete gospel message. This is the Good News! The death and resurrection is an essential part of that story, but just as people waited for that first advent, his people are still called to faithfully live and proclaim him until his second coming! How we spend our lives now in his kingdom has eternal impact, both for ourselves and others. The gospel is not, and never has been, a one-and-done message. You cannot simply believe and then go about your business unchanged. True belief is a catalyst of mission, hope and purpose.
Too many people settle for a version of the gospel that is a salvation souvenir. As believers we must understand that God’s redemptive work is still unfolding, and that truly receiving the gospel will require our participation. As David Platt puts it, we must come to see that “God has a will, and he has made it clear. From cover to cover in the Bible, God wills to redeem men and women from every nation, tribe, language, and people by his grace and for his glory.”(6) It is the redeemed who carry the message of Christ’s redemption to the lost and hurting – sometimes across the world, and sometimes simply across the street.
So yes, the gospel message stretches back to the early pages of the Old Testament, and then moves forward to the work of Christ accomplished in the New Testament. However it also includes the current task of commissioned kingdom work of believers in the present and looks forward to the future restoration and reign of Christ for eternity. The full gospel is a glorious message of realistic truth and unfettered hope – and it is still what the world needs hear!
[1] Darrell L. Bock. The Real Lost Gospel: Reclaiming the Gospel as Good News (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2010),3.
[2] Ibid.
[3] JD Greear. Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2011), 9.
[4] Scot McKnight. The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 35.
[5] Matthew W. Bates. Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017), 52, applies to entire paragraph.
[6]
David Platt. Follow Me (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers,
2013), 133.
