TheosGuy

When I hear people talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I notice that many things are tacked on to the Gospel that I don’t think should be there. At the Together for the Gospel conference in 2006, I saw a book entitled, God Is the Gospel, by Dr. John Piper. Dr. Piper in this book used Biblical texts to define what is the Gospel. I decided to take it one step further and only use Biblical texts that use the Greek words translated as gospel or good news. To do this I followed the following procedure.

• I did a “LexiConc” search for the word “gospel” at Blue Letter Bible. This gave me all the Greek root words that are translated in the English to “Gospel.”
• I analyzed the results and noticed that three root Greek words were translated “gospel” 149 times in 121 distinct verses in the Greek text supporting the KJV.

From these results we can find some distinct elements that are comprised in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (also known as, the Good News). Some of these are the same as in Dr. Piper’s book, as well.

1. A living God, who is the Creator of all things.
   (Act 14:15 ESV ESV) “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

2. A Sovereign God.
   (Rom 10:15 NKJV) And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

   Note that Rom 10:15 is referencing Isa 52:7, which reads:

   (Isa 52:7 NKJV) How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

3. God has intervened into the life of man. The Kingdom of God is at hand! God is King!
   (Mar 1:14-15 ESV) Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
4. Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of David
   (Rom 1:1-3 ESV) Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh
5. Great joy for all the people, a savior is come into the world!
   (Luk 2:10-11 ESV) And the angel said to them, Afear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
6. Christ died for our sins!
   (1Cor 15:1-3 ESV) Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
7. He was resurrected and it was witnessed by those who abandoned Him.
   (2 Tim 2:8 ESV) Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel
8. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
   (Luke 3:16, 18 ESV) John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire… So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.
9. The power unto salvation.
   (Rom 1:16-17 ESV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

The Gospel could be preached from Biblical text as:
The living Sovereign God, the Creator, the King of Israel and the universe, the son of David, has come in His Son, Jesus the Messiah, and has died for our sins and been raised from the dead, with the power to give us eternal life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.