What is the Gospel?

It’s common American practice to reduce complex concepts into byte-sized marketing messages. Many Christians think of a verse or two written by Paul when they hear the word “gospel.” A few hear gospel hallelujahs. Even fewer think of the first four books in the New Testament.

The word “gospel” translates the Greek word εὐαγγελίου. Transliterate the Greek and you get the English word “evangel”; the root of “evangelist” and “evangelism”. Literally the word translates “good news.”

Mark believed his writings were the gospel. He begins his narrative with this line:

The beginning of the good news [εὐαγγελίου] of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (ESV, Mark 1:1)

He expands his gospel definition to the Prophets in the next sentence:

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet (ESV, Mark 1:2)

One’s definition of the gospel is fundamental to their content and approach to evangelism. If your definition is summed up in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (ESV, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

then your message centers on synopses of the final moments in the Gospel narratives and your approach is to ensure that hearers receive your bullet-point narrative. For whatever reason, this definition seems more prevalent among conservative Evangelical circles.

The Gospel as Story

Evangelism as Three Stories

Although we may be tempted to limit the good news to the Gospel accounts, and this shorthand can be helpful, let’s not forget that the good news begins with the back story

TODO: reference The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight TODO: Add examples of gospeling from the book of Acts. Philip shared, and the Ethiopian wanted to be baptized. Paul shared his apocalypse with Jesus. Jesus offered the Samaritan woman living water.

Practices To Try