What Is the Gospel?

What Is the Gospel?
By Larry d. Wright

A fellow pastor, David Cofield (check out his blog @ http://www.energizingword.blogspot.com/) Crossroads Baptist Church in Elgin, was challenged by a podcast message he heard from Dr. John Sittema of Reformed Theological Seminary. The professor challenged his students to articulate the gospel in 25 words or less. David took the challenge, here is his response: “The gospel is the result and reason for man's fall will be restored by faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ.” He then passed the challenge on to me.

Here is my first response to the challenging question, “What is the gospel?”

“The gospel is God’s activity through Jesus Christ of totally restoring man to a relationship with Himself and to the life He intended before sin.” (25 words)

How would you succinctly describe the gospel? Unfortunately, after all these years, Christendom has no clear, crisp presentation concerning the message and the path to the “gospel.” Roman Catholicism presents a path that is winding, complicated and based on man’s efforts to please a loving but seemingly reluctant God. He can be convinced to offer redemption from damnation but you must try really hard to wrench salvation from His omnipotent hands. The church is the custodian of salvation and so you must stay in her good graces to be a prospect for heaven. Is that really “good news”?

Evangelical Christianity in her attempt to simplify the gospel has often done nothing but cheapened it. Example: “If you want the God of all creation to totally and radically transform your life; if you want the same God who invaded planet earth in Jesus Christ to invade your life, ‘Please raise your hand!’” We have so oversimplified the gospel that we have an army of simple-minded hand raisers who are not committed to battle for the cross! Every stream (denomination) within the kingdom (river) is convinced that the criterion they set forth is the right and noble path to eternal life. They all march under the banner of GRACE THROUGH FAITH ALONE but you must allow them to define both “grace” and “faith”. The church is the herald of the “good news”, which is free of course, but you must jump through certain hoops in order to qualify; to get the opportunity to raise your hand. Again, is that really “good news”?

For those of us on the “inside” the gospel is GOOD NEWS because we sense that we are favored by God and going to heaven one day but from the perspective of those on the “outside looking in”, what we generally have to offer is “bad news!” They don’t understand our terminology or terms. Is there any wonder that the sea of restless and wandering humanity is confused? Most have abandoned all hope for eternal life because the message they get from us is this; “You must become like us to receive the gospel.” Unfortunately, they look at most of us and say, “No thank you! I will roll the dice and take a chance on hell.” That’s “bad news”, right?

Therefore, here is my second succinct response to the challenging question, “What is the gospel?”

“The gospel is God’s answer to the bad news. You can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ!” (22 words)

Accepting the challenge to concisely articulate the gospel in 25 words or less was interesting and stimulating. However, I am glad that Paul was not limited in words or creativity and therefore his answer to the question, “What is the gospel?” turned out to be the book of Romans.