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What is the Gospel? by Scott Sauls
The Gospel is the core message of biblical Christianity—it is "good news" that is more than the first step in a “staircase” of truths. It is better likened to the hub of a wheel, the central reality around which all of life is arranged. It is not a “basic truth” from which we move on to deeper truths, but is the key and core truth from which all other truth flows. Whether you are just beginning to investigate Christianity, or are a life-long follower of Christ, the Gospel is the one, single thing you must grasp if your life is to be all God designed it to be. Without the Gospel, life becomes distorted in many, many ways. With the Gospel, life is set to a path toward beauty, truth, and wholeness.
Three Core Realities of the Gospel Following are three truths about God's reality, specifically as pertains to the Gospel—each of which is foundational for all other Christian teaching about faith and life.
The first reality: God is restoring, and will once and for all restore, all things that are broken. The Gospel, at its
essence, is the good news that through Jesus, the love and power of God have
entered history to make all things new. This renewal
certainly includes the hearts of people, but also much more. It is God’s
intent to renew (that is, to make beautiful and whole, as it was originally
created to be) the entire universe. Scripture teaches that things as
they are now, particularly as pertains to the broken things in our lives and
in creation, are not the way they are supposed to be, and as a result both
people and all of creation “groan” in anticipation of all things being made
new again—restored to their original beauty before sin entered the world
(Romans 8:18-25; Revelation 21:1-5). Life in the world as it
currently is can certainly be characterized by seasons of joy and splendor
(a good marriage, a new car, straight A’s, an athletic victory, a delicious
steak, beautiful music, etc.). But any thoughtful person would agree that
there is also much that is broken (frustration in work, pain in
relationships, financial strain, sickness, death). In spite of the fact that
all things eventually “break down,” believers in the Gospel, even in dire
circumstances, can live with hope (2 Corinthians 4:7-18, 12:7-10). Though
things aren’t perfect now, it will all be made right when God renews all
things (Revelation 21:1-5). To illustrate—think of the last “project” you were excited about (remodeling a home, waxing your car, weeding and seeding your lawn, getting a haircut, etc.). Both the frustration you felt before the work was done (this isn’t how it’s supposed to be…it could and should be so much better!), and the sense of satisfaction you felt when the project was completed, are a glimpse into the image of God in you—a God who eagerly desires and intends, as the rock band U2 sings, to “make beauty from ugly things.” What we see and experience now is not what will always be. God is making, and will make once and for all, all things new.
The second reality: God is rescuing a people for himself—by grace and through faith. The central teaching or “crux” of the Gospel surrounds not a list of ideas, rules or propositions, but a Person. That Person is Jesus Christ, who, being in fully God (Philippians 2:6; 1 John 5:20), took on human flesh to mediate the enormous gap between a holy God and a sinful, wounded humanity (Isaiah 6:1-7). Whereas religion focuses on behavior (“you can’t be acceptable unless you perform and keep rules”), and irreligion focuses on “personal freedom” (“you can be happy apart from God’s rule in your life”), the Gospel focuses on personal trust in God’s heroic rescue. The average person believes that a Christian is someone who follows Christ’s teaching. Scripture says this is impossible. You don’t rescue people unless they are in a perishing condition and are unable to recover themselves (how many times have you seen a corpse do CPR on itself?).
The Gospel's central message is that Jesus, knowing and sympathizing with the helplessness of the human condition (Genesis 6:5; Ephesians 2:1-10), gave himself as a sacrifice for those who would place their complete trust in his gracious gift—he gave himself—not to “buy us a second chance” but rather to be our substitute. Everything we needed to do to satisfy God, Jesus did for us. He died the death we should have died so that we would never be condemned...God is not angry with us! (Romans 3:23-26), and he lived the life we should have lived so that God would regard us as blameless in his own sight...God is intensely pleased with us and actually enjoys us! (Zephaniah 3:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of what Jesus did as substitute, those who trust in and receive his free gift can truly say, “As far as God is concerned, everything that’s true about Jesus is true about me. God regards me as blameless and beautiful. He loves me as much as he loves Jesus. He gives me credit for all the good that Jesus did, and he puts all the blame on Jesus for all the wrongs I have done and will do.” And this is all true of us before we do anything good or bad, before we even lift a finger.
The third reality: God will make his people beautiful, every last one of them. Returning back to the
first "Gospel reality" stated above, it is not only God’s plan to rescue his
people, but to start them on a life-long journey of becoming restored to
their original beauty, to reflect his image in all of its radiance,
perfection, and glory. Believers in Jesus and the Gospel will one day
actually be like God in their character, way of life, and desires (1
Corinthians 13:8-12; Ephesians 4:24). Christians are on a journey, and are part of a Story much larger than themselves—a fairy tale that is actually true. The Gospel leads us to a beautiful destination—it is a journey we take with others who also believe and embrace it—and we help each other along toward the destination of knowing and becoming like Jesus. In this life, God’s ultimate purpose for us is to shape us, to renew us, to re-make us into Christ-like people. This is therefore to become our goal and vision for our own lives, and it enables us to see everything that happens to us, even suffering, as a tool in the hands of God to artistically mold us into the beautiful workmanship he intends for us to be and to become (Ephesians 2:10).
Counterfeit Gospels Martin Luther said that a sinner trying to believe the Gospel was like a drunk man trying to ride a horse—he will always be falling off on one side or the other. The two errors that the sides of the horse represent are 1) legalism or moralism and 2) pragmatism or relativism or antinomianism.
Moralism (aka "Legalism"). Moralism is the view that a person is made acceptable to God through his own attainments—his own efforts at "being a good person." Moralists are usually very religious, and often very conservative in their religion. Moralism or "legalism" tends to stress truth without grace. Moralists are usually very rules oriented, and depending on their success in keeping the rules they will be either self-righteous or depressed and morose. If they go to Jesus for forgiveness, it is just to ask him to fill in the gaps they have left in their own religious performance. For the moralist, the cross is not the only basis for acceptance by God, but is an adjunct to performance.
Pragmatism (aka "Relativism" or "Antinomianism") Pragmatists are often irreligious, or if they are religious, they prefer more liberal religion. They tend to stress grace over truth, assuming everyone is accepted by God and that we each have to decide what we think is true for us. Often relativists will talk about God's love, but since they do not see themselves as deeply sinful people who are deeply needy of God's grace and rescue, God's love for them costs him little or nothing. For them the cross is not the necessary condition of our acceptance by God.
Conclusion The Gospel holds out to us a whole new system of approach to God. It rejects our attempts to justify ourselves before God, to be our own saviors and masters. It rejects both our pragmatic presumption and our religious attempts to earn our way into God's favor. It destroys the perception that Christianity is just an invitation to become religious. The Gospel will not let us think Jesus is just a coach to help us get stronger where we are weak. To be a Christian is to turn from self-justification of all sorts and to rely exclusively on Jesus' record for a relationship with God.
Christians and non-Christians both stumble over the two counterfeits of the Gospel. Many Churches are deeply moralistic or deeply relativistic. Christians who understand the Gospel very clearly still look like the drunk man on the horse, as the desire to justify ourselves and trust in our own performance continually reappears. The Gospel tells the pragmatist that he is more flawed and sinful than he ever dared believe. The Gospel tells the moralist that he is more loved and accepted than he ever dared hope.
For Further Reading For a more lengthy, in depth article exploring the nature of the Gospel, click here. Also some excellent books that beautifully communicate the nature of the Gospel include:
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