The Gospel

What is the Gospel?

Recently I have been causing quite a stir in some online forums for calling people out on their false gospel narratives. In order to make certain that I am clear on what I mean by the Gospel, I thought it best to put it in writing for all to see.

What Does the Word “Gospel” Mean?

When we consider the source of many false teachings concerning the Gospel, I want to make it clear what I mean by the Gospel. The word translated “gospel” in the New Testament is the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion, “yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on”) which actually has three different definitions.

The first definition describes what most people understand the Gospel to be. It means “the good news of what Jesus accomplished” and that is what the Gospel truly is to God’s people.

The second definition is a little broader in its definition. It means “the life and teachings of Jesus.” This, again, is one of three definitions of the word “gospel.”

The third definition is also a broad definition. It means “any of the biblical books which contain the summary of the life and teachings of Jesus.” That is why when we describe the accounts of the life of Jesus we call them the gospel accounts. This should be obvious, but there are four such books; each called a gospel.

So, when we pose the question of what does the word gospel mean, it depends on the context of the question.

For simplicity, when I am writing I will capitalize the word when I am referring to the first definition, that which Jesus accomplished, and leave the word lower case when I am referring to the life and teachings of Jesus, unless I am referring to the title of one of the four gospel accounts (The Gospel According to Matthew, etc.)

What is the Controversy?

Unfortunately, there are many people today who do not like to think that Jesus died for the sins of man, despite this being clearly taught in Scripture. Here we are going to do a little bit of Bible study.

I want to draw our attention to what Paul called the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 15:1-9 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ²and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. ³For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, clearly states what the Gospel consists of in these verses.

1.      That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. Note how clearly and succinctly Paul refers to the death of Jesus as part of the Gospel.

2.      That He was buried. The burial of Jesus is just as important as the death of Jesus. Because He was buried, we can also claim the next part.

3.      That He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. Without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no hope for anyone. Paul also made this abundantly clear.

a.      1 Corinthians 15:12-16 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 

4.      That He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…more than five hundred…James then to all the apostles…He also appeared to me. Why is it necessary to show that Jesus appeared to others after His resurrection when we present the Gospel? Because this is what gives us the eyewitness account of His resurrection. Not only did He appear to Peter and those who were with him, but He appeared to more than five hundred people. That is more than enough to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that an event happened.

So, this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; He died, was buried, resurrected, and appeared to eyewitnesses. The biggest issue that people have with this definition of the Gospel is that it involves death. Not only does it involve death, but it involves a substitutionary death.

Notice what Paul says in verse three, “That Jesus died for our sins.” The word “for” there means that the death of Jesus had a purpose. It was to fulfill Scripture, specifically the words we find in Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. ¹⁴As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— ¹⁵so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. ¹Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? ²For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. ⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? ⁹And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. ¹⁰Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. ¹¹Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. ¹²Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. 

This passage of Scripture shows what will happen to the “Servant” of God. This is a Messianic prophecy, despite what others may say.

Does This Mean that God Punished Jesus?

Yes, that is exactly what it means. Jesus, from eternity past, agreed to be the substitution for mankind.

Where does this idea come from?

It comes from the Old Testament. The Torah gives instructions on sacrifices. Each sacrifice had a specific purpose. The sin sacrifice was meant to put the punishment of sin onto the animal being sacrificed. This means that the animal was a substitute for the sinner. When Jesus came and went through His passion, He became the final sacrifice, or substitute, for the sins of the world.

Jesus really suffered on the cross. Not only did He suffer the cruelty of the Roman method of execution, but He also suffered the wrath of God for sin.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10  For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 

Romans 5:6-11 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 

Instead of punishing mankind for sin, God the Father punished His only Son.

This begs the question, did Jesus die for everyone?

The answer is, no. Jesus did not die for everyone because not everyone is saved. If everyone were saved then, yes, Jesus would have died for everyone. But since only those who receive the message of the Gospel by faith are saved, then Jesus could not have died for everyone. This would have made His death worthless to everyone who is not saved.

Jesus tells us how this works.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 

Those last six words “those who find it are few” are hard for some people to understand. They think that Jesus should save the whole world. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that God is not willing that any should perish?

Yes, the Bible does say that. It also says that those who do not believe in Jesus are already condemned, they are perishing.

John 3:14-18 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 

Jesus came to save those who will believe. That is fairly clear from the Scriptures.

Are There Other Aspects of the Gospel?

The Gospel is what we have already discussed; the death, burial, resurrection, and witness of Jesus to be the substitute for sin. However, there are many things that Jesus accomplished in this one act.

For instance, Jesus crushed the head of the enemy.

Genesis 3:14-15 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. ¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 

He now serves as our priest and grants us access to God the Father.

Hebrews 4:14-16 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

He became victorious over death, allowing us to share in His victory.

Romans 6:9-11 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

These are just some of the things that Jesus accomplished through His one act of sacrifice and substitution. This means that those who say that the Gospel is Christ being victorious, being our priest, fulfilling prophecy, and such things, these are truly part of the end result of the Gospel. But they are only partly correct. The Gospel is the death, burial, resurrection, and presentation of Christ.

Beware of False Teachers

There are false teachers out there. Some people may say that the Gospel does not mean that Jesus died or that God punished sin through His Son. They may say that the Gospel is everything contained in the gospel accounts. This is true, to an extent. We already discussed that the word translated “gospel” can also mean the story of the life and works of Jesus. This is gospel, but not the Gospel. There is a difference.

There are also people who claim that the Gospel is that Jesus provided healing and financial prosperity to His people through His death. This is a result of twisting Scripture and not understanding what it truly means in Isaiah 53 when it says, “By His stripes we are healed.” In context this means that we are healed from the work of sin in our lives through salvation. It does not mean we can demand that God heal every sickness and disease in our bodies.

Don’t get me wrong. God does heal. He can heal whenever and however He chooses. Sometimes it can be instantaneous through His touch. Sometimes it can be over a period of time through the help of medical professionals. Sometimes it means that the sick person graduates from this earthly realm to the heavenly. But it does not mean that we should always expect instantaneous healing at the wave of a man’s hand.

There are those who claim that Jesus did not come to die, but to bridge the gap between God and man. This is somewhat true. He does make intercession for us. He did provide the way for man to come to God. But that is not the full extent of His work.

Then there are those who claim that Jesus did not die to take on the wrath of God for sin, but that He came to reveal the Father’s character and, through the work of the Holy Spirit, provide an antidote to sin and selfishness. These people also claim that we can completely, of our own accord, reject the “antidote” and God will allow sin to continue working in us. These people hate, loathe, and despise the idea that Jesus died in our place. They consider it almost criminal that God would pour out His wrath on His own Son.

This has been the source of one of my latest Internet debates. Unfortunately, I was not able to convince those who stood on this claim that they were actually preaching a false gospel. I am afraid that those with whom I have been debating will end up quite surprised when they leave this earth, if they don’t change and embrace the Gospel written in Scripture.

Where Do These Bad Teachings Come From?

There is not one clearcut answer to this question. I will try to do my best to explain where I see their origins.

1.      There is the intentional twisting of Scripture from Satan. His work has always been to make people question and misinterpret the words of God. This work started in the Garden of Eden when his line was, “Did God really say…”

2.      There are people who may intentionally be out to deceive others for their own gain. We are warned against this in Scripture. It is no coincidence that twenty-six of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament have warnings about false teachers and false doctrine. Some people want to make everything about themselves.

3.      There are people who have been deceived into thinking they are preaching the true Gospel. The Bible refers to them as deceivers who are being deceived. This is an unfortunate group of people because they are spreading a false gospel, and they don’t realize it. Many times, when confronted with the true Gospel, they reject it for the deception they have fallen under.

Of course, there will always be false teachers spreading a false gospel. It has been that way since the beginning. It started in the Garden of Eden and continues through today.

What Can We Do?

There are only two things we can do to combat the false gospel.

We can continue to spread the true Gospel of Christ.

We can continue to warn others about the false gospels.

These are the two things we can do. And they go hand-in-hand. It is hard to find someone who has not been exposed to a false gospel these days. Anyone who watches much Christian TV has been exposed. We must continue to share the true Gospel while we warn about the false gospel.

I hope you have found this helpful in defining the Gospel of Christ and showing what to do against those who share a false gospel. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me and I will do my best to answer them.