Gospel is News

We all know that the word “gospel” means “good news,” but what does that mean?

First of all, it is news.

The gospel is news about something that has happened. It is not advice about how to live your life. It is not a step-by-step arrangement by which one can obtain a ticket to heaven.

Let me explain this in a little more detail. We tend to simplify the Good News “to make it presentable in a way that is formulaic and manageable.” Many of us are familiar with The Four Spiritual Laws, The Roman Road and other “summaries” of the Gospel. But we should not confuse these with the Gospel itself.

They should be thought of “as pedagogical devices something akin to summaries of people and events you might find in junior high history textbooks or encyclopedias. They are valuable, they contain truth and they can communicate enough information to familiarize you with the subject, to some small degree.”

But the News is much bigger than these “summaries.”

Listen to how God describes the “gospel” through Isaiah:

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" (Isaiah 52:7).

This is news about something that has happened. And what is that? It is the arrival of the Kingdom of God.

Already in Luke 9:6, the Twelve were “preaching the gospel.” In Luke 20:1, Jesus is preaching the gospel in the Temple courts. But the key event was yet to take place. As Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, the Good News is “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

The News is that we have been reconciled with God through Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:22).

The News is that Jesus Christ has defeated the powers of evil (Colossians 2:15).

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”