What is the Gospel?

Why the Gospel?

So often we hear the word “Gospel” and we think of it as the thing we tell someone so they can be saved. But the Gospel is not the ABC’s of our faith, it is the A-Z of our faith.  It is the point on which everything in our faith stands.  The Gospel is for non-believers, yes, but it is also for believers.  

Consider that Paul said in Romans 1.15 that he is “eager to preach the Gospel to you.” Who was he speaking to?  The church in Rome.  He was looking forward to preach the Gospel to the believers.  In 1 Corinthians 15.1-4, Paul said to, again, the church, “I want to remind you, brothers [believers in the church at Corinth], 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 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.”

What do you notice there?  That the Gospel is not just what is initially preached and then received for salvation, but it is also what believers stand on and are being saved by.  Meaning, that it is the Gospel that continually transforms and changes our hearts, and causes us to have a deeper worship of Jesus, a stronger confidence in our identity in Him.

In 2 Timothy 2.1, we see that it is God’s grace that strengthens us, not our own self-discipline or power within.  We don’t strengthen and transform ourselves. When we press the gospel into our hearts, it’s then that our addictions get broken, relationships heal, and our lives start changing and transforming, because we are being conformed into the image of Jesus, we’re not simply working hard at being a better version of ourselves. 

What is the Gospel?

The word “gospel” in Greek is euaggelion and it means “good news” or “good message.”  The word angel is angelos, which means “messenger” or “herald.”  So evangelize in Greek is the verb form, euangelizo, and it means “to herald the good news.” 

It is also helpful to know that when the apostle Paul refers to preaching the Gospel, he doesn’t differentiate between discipleship and evangelism?  To Paul, “to evangelize” doesn’t solely mean “to share the Gospel with unsaved people.”  Evangelize, to Paul, simply means “herald the good news.”  Paul speaks of “evangelizing” to both believers and non-believers. In Romans 1.15 he says he is eager to “ euaggelizō” [evangelize, or “preach the gospel”] to the church.  But in other Scriptures, he speaks of evangelizing to non-believers.  Why?  Because Paul knows that it is the power of the Gospel that sanctifies, transforms, and matures disciples, as well as saves and converts the minds and hearts of non-believers.

Consider a few passages from the Word:

 

So What’s the Point?

Why is this important for us to know?

We have to ask ourselves the question:  What are people being saved people to?  What are they being lead to?  For most Christians, Christianity, going to church, reading the bible, and praying is all about becoming a better person and learning how to live a better moral life.  We try to convince people through our programs and awesome church services that it’s more fun to be good people and that we can help them do that. 

But that’s not what we are here to do.  We are here to be witnesses.  Witnesses that have seen and are currently experiencing the transforming, life changing work of the Gospel of God’s grace in our lives.  It’s the Gospel that goes to work in us, because the Gospel reveals Jesus like nothing else can, and it is only Jesus that can transform our hearts and minds.  The Gospel reveals to us, more than anything else, the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our King.