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The Gospel: The Message About and Means To Salvation From Sin and A New Life 

The biblical Gospel is both the message about and the means to humans getting saved from their moral condition of sin and being re-created by the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. When we understand the content of this message and how it is the means to our rescue from sin and re-creation as a new kind of person, then we are rightly understanding what the Old and New Testament mean by gospel.

Terminology

The English term gospel is the translation of the Greek word euangelion and means "good news." In the ancient Mediterranean world euangelion was a term often used to refer to a good report about some event and was usually announced by some messenger. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah (8th and 7th century B. C.) specifically referred to the biblical gospel in chapter 52, verse 7: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" The biblical gospel is truly about the reign of God over all creation, and his reign in special way over his chosen covenant people whom he redeems or rescues from sin. It is this same message of salvation that the New Testament writers in quoting numerous Old Testament texts said Jesus embodied and fulfilled. In other words, Jesus is the gospel, and both the Old and New Testament delcare this gospel message.

Union of New and Old Testament

It is precisely because Jesus is the gospel that we must understand that the gospel message declared by the New Testament writers can only be rightly understood when it is viewed within its proper Old Testament context. In other words, one does not rightly understand the New Testament unless one has a proper grasp of the Old Testament. Central to understanding both the Old and New Testament is the biblical doctrine of creation. It is with God's creating all things by his Word and Spirit that the Bible begins, and indeed, passages such as John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:16; and Hebrews 1:1-4 highlight that Jesus is the creator. It is the Jesus written about in the New Testament who is God's Word, who took on human flesh at a particular place and time in creation. As Jesus tells us in John 3, he came not to condemn the world, but to save it from sin. As John the Apostle would later write (1John 3:8), Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Yes, acording to the Bible, the devil is a real being, and not simply a concept or construct in some people's thinking. These works that Jesus is destroying (notice that John stated what Jesus came to do, not what he came hoping to do!) were sown in the creation shortly after the creation of the first man and woman. We read about this, of course, in the Old Testament book of Genesis.

Doctrine of Creation Defining the Doctrine of Redemption 

If we are to rightly understand the biblical gospel we must understand it in relation to that teaching or doctrine that is at the center of the entire biblical message and all Christian doctrine--the doctrine of creation. The Bible begins by revealing that God created heaven and earth, and all things that fill them by his Word and Spirit in an orderly fashion, according to a pattern of six days (look for a later post about the "days of creation') and all very good (1:1-2:3). Within this creation account we learn that God created humans as male and female, in his image, and with rulership over the creation. God created all things good. That means Adam and Eve, the first humans, were in a condition of not having sin; they were good. That is, they were morally pleasing to God, and in a right relationship to him. Furthermore, they were given by God ruling status over the earth, and that too was good. They were not told to exploit, pillage and plunder creation, and the rulership of humans over creation that is revealed in Genesis 1 and 2 does not warrant human ravaging of creation. Indeed, it is only the biblical doctrine of creation that teaches us our righful place and duties in creation and how and why humans rebel against their place and duty. 

In Genesis 2 we learn of God commanding the man not to eat of a tree that was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3 tells us of the man's and the woman's rebellion against God's command not to eat of the tree. As husband and wife, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God's order as expressed throughout creation. Sin has always been a family matter and redemption from sin is too. The order God created within the man's and the woman's relationship to each other as husband and wife, as well as their relationship to the rest of creation was what Adam and Eve rebelled against. These relationships between themselves, and the rest of creation defined their relationship to God. God's response to their sin was to bring his covenant curse of death and his covenant blessing of life (Genesis 3:8-19). God specifically stated that he would bring a conflict between the offspring of the woman and the serpent, who represented the devil, and that in this conflict the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent--that is, destroy him, while the devil and all those following him in his rebellion against God, would inflict a wound on the "heel" of the one who would destory the devil and all his work. By his life, death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus accomplished the  destruction of the devil and all his work. this is what the biblical gospel is about. 

The Biblical Gospel is Power

The apostle Paul in Romans 1:16-17 wrote that he was "not ashamed of the the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation for all those who believe, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, because in it a righteousness from God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, 'the righteous will live by faith.'" In these concise words Paul summarized that the biblical gospel is not merely the message about the matters I have referred to above, but it is the means by which one is rescued from sin and has God's eternal and righteous life created and sustained within him or her. Paul's statement in Romans 1:16-17 speaks of our believing in the gospel as a continual process (the Greek verb form communicates this). The gospel is therefore not that which one believes only once at a particular moment in time, but that one must continually believe throughout the entire course of one's life. Indeed, the true Christian, while marked by various "peaks" and valleys" throughout his or her life, will, nontheless, persevere in believing in Jesus. This is so, because if we truly believe in Jesus it is a sign that God has begun a good work in us and he will perfect that work in us (Philippians 1:6). The apostle Peter expressed it this way, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable , undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1Peter 1:3-5). Finally, just as Paul wrote that the Christian is justified (declared righteous) by faith, and therefore has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, he also wrote, "Since, therefore, we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:9). In other words, the Christian's faith is produced by the death of Jesus. You see, by believing in Jesus, by believing in the gospel, you are accessing the living God and his power that only he possesses, and by this you are being re-created into a new person. This is why Paul would also write that if we are united to Christ by faith we have been raised spiritually from the dead and we possess God's eternal life; we are truly new creatures (Romans 6:1-4; 2Cor. 5:17).

Come and Join Us

While the world offers innumerable self-help programs and strategies that emphasize and exalt human potentiality and powers, the biblical gospel is about the utter helplessness of humans to correct their problems and change themselves. Indeed, the biblical gospel is about the truth that we are the problem and God is the solution. If that sounds like good news to you, and you are living or visiting in the Greensboro, NC area you will certainly find at Covenant Fellowship a group of sinners who recognize and rejoice in these truths. Come and join us on Sundays at 10 a. m. at the Bur-Mil Park Clubhouse, just off of Owls Roost road. Come and join us for our worship of the only true and living Triune God, who delights in rescuing sinners from themselves and re-creating them to be like the Lord Jesus.