On the Gospel

This post presents a small break in the action, an interruption in a set of scheduled postings I've written over the past month or so. It has been a pretty prolific month here, as I'm sure any consistent reader has noticed. I'm usually a post-a-month kind of guy, and to be honest, it's hard for me to write much at all because of my work and teaching schedule. Grace in Practice provided a great deal of impetus to write a few posts on a favorite subject, and there are yet a couple posts written and in queue.

I expect my comments on the gospel itself to be relatively lengthy. They are inspired in part by a couple of recent blog posts by Scott at Theologica. He wrote a five-part series of blog posts entitled "What is the Gospel?" that summarize his position on the gospel. If I can summarize his summary, it is that the central theme of the gospel is the kingdom of God.

I am not very interested in polemics, although I recognize their value in discussion. I avoid engaging in them when writing blogs as a general rule, though I have done so occasionally. I make mention of Scott's writings because they are basically the inspiration of my own. I make no apologies for disagreeing with him in his basic premise, though I hope and pray that these are not received as an indictment of Scott as much as a positive reinforcement of what I believe the Scriptures say about the gospel.

I am not a scholar, or even a pretend scholar. I provide this kind of caveat on most blog postings, but here it is even more relevant, since we are treating the essential foundation of Christianity and the most important facts of history. I expect some scholars would agree with me, and others disagree. You are free, of course, to draw your own conclusions.


With these introductory comments aside, let me provide the ten-word summary of the gospel:

God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Naturally, all formulations of the gospel are subject to clarification. This is why I hate ten-word summaries of anything. But I think this gives us a starting point to build on. The brief phrase "God revealed" speaks to how we know God, the relationship that we share. The final phrase, "person and work of Jesus Christ" comprehends not only the ultimate revelation of God in Christ but also his death, burial, and resurrection, the Old Old Story of our redemption. It does not treat the gospel as a Get-Out-Of-Hell-Free card we play in the Monopoly game of our existence.

With this summary in mind, I expect really to develop these thoughts primarily in two or three posts. In the first and (possibly) second, I'd like to develop the ideas behind the revelation of God. In the last posting, I'd like to look at the Old Testament gospel to see how it is fulfilled in the New.