What is the Gospel? A Short Summary

One of the most important things to know about the Christian faith is to answer the question, "What is the Gospel?" Unfortunately, it is also one of the most profound concepts in Christianity. Sometimes people like to summarize the gospel as "receiving Jesus" or as "grace" or some other term. While helpful in some ways, those summaries carry the danger of distorting the full gospel. The following is what I think is the absolute shortest version that is sufficiently comprehensive.

Gospel as Jesus' Story

This gospel is the “good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). It is the news that God the Father sent his son to the world (John 3:16), who was born through the virgin Mary (Luke 2:11-12), lived among us as one of us (Luke 2:41-52), performed many great miracles (Matthew 8:1-34), died on the cross “to take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), resurrected from the dead proving he is Lord (Mark 16:6), gave us eternal life (John 3:36), and sent us into the world as his disciples (John 17:18), leaving with us the Holy Spirit as the helper (John 14:26).

Gospel as Redemption History

The above is a short summary of the story of Jesus entering into the world in the “fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4). Of course, the biblical narrative spans much longer than just those short thirty some years. If gospel really does mean “good news,” then gospel should encompass all good news of God at work in the world.^[1] This has happened all throughout history and has been told by the patriarchs, the prophets, the teachers of the law, and by parents to their children for the entire narrative of the Bible. The full gospel story is no less than the redemption story of God saving a people that has fallen to sin. This gospel is epitomized, though not summarized, by Jesus coming into the world around 2000 years ago.

Gospel as Human Response

More than just story, the gospel is also the truth that believing in the story of Jesus – including his life, death, and resurrection – leads to us humans becoming a member of God’s family (John 1:12). This is an eschatological truth (1 John 5:13) as well as a present reality (Matthew 4:17, Luke 17:21). Believing is more than just an intellectual acknowledgement of one's sin, but includes genuine repentance (Matthew 3:8) and action that matches (James 2:18-19), resulting in a life of πίστις (pistis, faith and faithfulness)^[2] that befits the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27). This πίστις, like grace and everything else, is a gift from God and not a result of works (Ephesians 2:8-9). The person who has πίστις is a new creation (Galatians 6:15), having the Holy Spirit who dwells in us (2 Timothy 1:14). All this is in sharp contrast to a life without πίστις, which is characterized by the normal state of every single person (Romans 3:23) being dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1) and in desperate need of God (John 3:18), with no known way of being reconciled to God unless someone shares the gospel with them (Romans 10:14).

Questions

What do you think? Are there some concepts I am missing? Are there some that could be left out? Leave me a comment to let me know!

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Footnotes
[1] In the Old Testament, God saving his people is one of the most prevalent themes, especially in the context of military conquest (i.e. Exodus, Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles).
[2] See N.T. Wright and his multiple works on the interplay and relation between faith and faithfulness, one great book being Paul and the Faithfulness of God.