The Christianese term gospel is a contraction of “good spell,” or spell meaning, as it used to, “story.” Since stories can be fictional, Christians prefer the word “news,” i.e. “good news.” It’s a translation of the Greek word evanghélion, “good proclamation.”
In Homer’s day, the word referred to the tip you paid a messenger when he gave you good news. In Augustus Caesar’s day, the word referred to his particular good news: “Caesar is coming. He’s a great man who’s accomplished great things. His rule will be great and prosperous. Here’s your chance to embrace him as your ruler.” A lot of Christians compare the gospels in the bible with that particular genre of literature: Jesus is the real great man whose rule will really be great and prosperous. And eternal.
The gospel of Christ Jesus, which he himself proclaimed, is this.
The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News! —Jesus, Mark 1.15 NLT
That’s what we Christians recognize as the good news: Jesus has come to author and perfect the reign of God in the real world: The Kingdom of God.
The watered-down gospel.
If the Kingdom of God isn’t the idea of the gospel you’re familiar with, that’s because a lot of Christians teach an inferior version of the gospel.
The personal gospel. Christians teach the gospel is about “accepting Jesus as your personal savior.” And that’s not wrong: Jesus is Lord of all, but each of us have to individually embrace him as our very own personal Lord. Problem is, this idea of “personal savior” has let a lot of Christians to believe Jesus is only a personal savior: He saves me—and you—but not necessarily the entire planet. He has come to be my Master—and yours—but doesn’t necessarily rule the world. His Kingdom is meant to affect my life—and yours—but not necessarily everyone’s.
The spiritual gospel. Christians teach the gospel is spiritual. Which it is: It doesn’t just affect the way we behave, but it’s meant to affect the way we think and feel. It’s not about external appearances, but about integrity: The inside holiness must match the outside holiness. Problem is, a lot of Christians emphasize spirituality so much, we totally skip over physicality—and do nothing. Everything becomes about our thinking and our feelings, about our internal lives, and nothing is done towards doing good deeds and obeying God’s commands and demonstrably loving our neighbors. We have kind, benevolent feelings for them—but we do nothing for them otherwise.
The gospel of the age to come. Christians teach we’ll experience eternal life. John 3.16, which I’ll discuss next, is quoted all the time because in it Jesus promises his followers eternal life. Certainly this is one of the best things about the gospel: Living forever with Jesus. Problem is, a lot of Christians act as if it’s the only thing about the gospel. We focus on heaven, on what will take place after the resurrection, and make all our plans with that in mind. In the meanwhile, we do absolutely nothing for the world we currently live in—because it’s going to pass away. We don’t think of eternal life as beginning now, but as beginning after the resurrection.
The prosperity gospel. In contrast with the Christians who teach the Kingdom is all in the future, there are those Christians who teach the blessings of the Kingdom are available to us in the present day. And they are. Problem is, the only “blessings” some Christians care about are the financial blessings: They want money. They want stuff. They want their heavenly mansion, now; they want their heavenly Lexus, now; they figure their heavenly Daddy Warbucks needs to start giving them their allowance. Unlike those who overemphasize the spiritual part of the gospel, these folks overemphasize the material part.
These are not the only misconceptions about the gospel. There are plenty of others. Humans being creatures of extremes, we take our favorite part of the gospel and emphasize that—and when we share the gospel with others, they get the idea the gospel is only that. Our favorite parts turn into the whole thing.
John 3.16 as “the gospel.”
This is why so many evangelists and preachers insist the gospel is summarized in one verse, John 3.16:
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. —Jesus, John 3.16 NLT
That’s what I was raised to think, and many Christians still think it. And John 3.16 is indeed good news. But it is not the whole of the good news.
Yeah, we won’t perish. Yeah, we’ll have eternal life. But eternal life for what reason? For what purpose? What’ll we do with that eternal life?
Some Christians really do preach that we’ll spend that eternal life situated around Jesus’s throne, praising him in an eternal musical worship service, forever and ever amen. And while they might enjoy singing to Jesus forever, I expect it’d bore the pants off me—but don’t worry, they say; God will “fix” us so we won’t find it boring to do nothing but sing forever and ever. Um… no. Again, that’s taking your own favorite thing—musical worship—and overemphasizing it. In this case, to the point of ridiculousness.
Paul wrote God has saved us for the purpose of making us “his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.” (Tt 2.14 NLT) Once we died to sin with Christ, we were raised to “produce a harvest of good deeds for God.” (Ro 7.4 NLT) He has “created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ep 2.10 NLT) Musical worship is only one good thing out of the many things we’ll do for God, and one another, in the Kingdom.
The gospel—the good news—is that Jesus has defeated sin, and conquered the world, to make the reign of God, and our good works, possible. So, as Jesus said, repent of your sins. Trust the good news.