This article is part one of three in a series intended to answer the important question: What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? Part one is defining what the gospel is, and more importantly, what it is not. Part two (coming soon) is about Heaven (The Gospel – Heaven: Redefining Our Perspective of Paradise). The last part will be about Hell.

It is vital that Christians understand what the gospel is and what one must do or believe to be saved. This is the foundational doctrine of evangelical Christianity. It is the most important decision in your life, and it is the primary decision that shapes all other aspects of life.

Before getting into what the gospel is, let’s go through what the gospel is not.

What the gospel of Jesus Christ is not:

1. The good news of the gospel is not that you can earn your own salvation. Just do more good than bad in your life or focus on loving others and social justice issues. This false gospel hardly sounds like good news, and it makes us the center of the story instead of Jesus.
2. The good news of the gospel is not that Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that we can have political power, cultural influence, or material wealth. These are the markers of success according to the world, not Jesus. This false gospel comes out in various versions of the prosperity gospel as well as in the rampant political idolatry that we see on both the left and the right (more on that in a future article).
3. The good news of the gospel is not that Jesus helps us manage our sin problem. We don’t need help managing our sin, we need someone to take on the full punishment for our sin once and for all and make a way to reconcile us to God.
4. The good news of the gospel is not that Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that we can go to Heaven instead of Hell when we die. This may sound controversial to many evangelicals. While this view of the gospel isn’t completely untrue, it misses the point. Jesus did die for our sins, and he did rise again, but the focus on going to Heaven versus Hell after death is not the way that Jesus talked about what he was doing through his death and resurrection.

While many Christians also lack a robust understanding of Heaven and Hell, we will wait to address that is parts 2 and 3. For the rest of this article, we provide an alternative framing of the good news of the gospel by going back to the beginning. Let’s look at what Jesus himself said he was doing when he started his ministry in both Matthew and Luke.

Matthew: The Gospel in the first sermon of Jesus

The gospel of Matthew starts with the birth narrative, followed by John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus, and then the testing of Jesus in the wilderness. These are the events that set up Jesus’ preaching and ministry. The section that immediately follows includes a brief, but central summary of what it was that Jesus was preaching.

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Matthew 4:17 NIV

If we are going to understand the gospel, we need to understand what Jesus meant by repent and The Kingdom of Heaven.

Repent

Repent means to turn away and go in the opposite direction. Turn away from trying to earn salvation through your own power. Stop idolizing the cultural markers of success. Turn away from trusting in tradition or your collective group identity. Instead, turn to God and join him in what he is doing.

The Kingdom of Heaven

In addition to Matthew, let’s also look at what happens in the gospel of Luke immediately after Jesus is tested in the wilderness.

Luke: Who is the gospel of Jesus Christ for?

Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah. Jesus has just started preaching and he is about to deliver his inaugural sermon. What does he say?

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Luke 4:18-19 NIV

After Jesus read this, he sat down and declared that he had just fulfilled this scripture. He was bringing the good news of the gospel and who was it for? Jesus said it was for the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed! This isn’t to say the gospel is only for the poor just like the gospel wasn’t only for the Jews, but it is instructive to meditate on what this special focus on the poor means for our understanding of the gospel.

At a minimum, we can see that the gospel has implications for this present reality. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is not about going somewhere else after death. It was about being a part of what God was starting to do in reconciliation all things to himself, starting with a special focus on the poor.

Conclusion

What does this mean for us today?

First, we need to identify where false gospels are invading and diluting a true and biblical understanding of what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. They can sneak into our thinking and impact our actions with surprising ease. What false gospels are most enticing to you?

Second, we need to repent and turn away from the sin and false gospels in our life.

Third, we need to choose to follow King Jesus by giving him our allegiance.

Last, we need to reflect on our view of the poor. Do our actions indicate that we care about the poor as Jesus did?

At this point, you may still be wondering about how life after death, Heaven, and Hell fit into all of this. Stay tuned for parts two and three in the near future.

Let us know in the comments your thoughts about what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. Subscribe to be notified when future articles are released.

Resources to learn more:

Also take a look at our Resources page for what has influenced our thinking.

Take a look at our other Blog posts for articles engaging culture with faith and reason.

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