What Is The Gospel?

K-Lai — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:16:00 -0800

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”
—Romans 1:16-17 (NIV)

This passage is probably one of the more memorized parts of the Bible. But as much as it’s memorized and recited, does it really make sense? What is this gospel that Paul so eagerly desires to preach to Greeks and non-Greeks alike (Romans 1:14-15), and what is the fuss about?

Well, from reading those two verses I can see these things:

Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. Duh, it says it right there. But I wonder if this declaration goes deeper than the simple identification with whatever message this gospel brings.

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”—Luke 9:26 (NIV)

Sounds like heavy stuff to me. I could have this mixed up, though. Being ashamed makes me think of embarrassment, or the mortification that comes from being put on the spot for something incredibly inappropriate. Usually when I’m ashamed of something or someone I don’t want to look at them or even be around them. To some extent it’s even the type of embarrassment that kids have with their parents in public. We want to project an image that we think people will like, and if anyone or anything in our lives conflicts with that image, we are ashamed. So I see the boldness of Paul’s statement in openly identifying with this gospel. But what is this gospel? If it is inherently appealing, then why would he even bother to say that he’s not ashamed of it? And if it’s inherently repulsive, why would he not be ashamed of it?
The gospel is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes. I want to break down this statement some, since it’s quite a mouthful. I confess, I often rattle this phrase off without even pausing to reflect on what this means, and how it applies to my life now. But this is such an important point of theology…it explains why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, and gives us a better idea of the nature of this gospel. The Greek word for gospel in this passage, euaggelion, is the idea of “glad tidings,” or good news, most often in the context of the salvation that comes in Jesus Christ. It is described as the “word of truth” (Colossians 1:5), as “glorious” (1 Timothy 1:11), as “eternal” (Revelation 14:6), as containing hope (Colossians 1:23), as a mystery (Ephesians 6:19), and so forth.

That was a slight diversion from where I was going in my thought process, but I thought that was pretty neat. Anyways, Paul says this gospel is the power of God. That definitely puts a challenge to me – do I consider the message that Jesus Christ died and rose again to free us from the bondage of sin and death the power of God? Probably not as much as I should. But I think this definitely gives legitimacy to Paul’s reasoning for not being ashamed – after all, why should anyone be ashamed of God’s power? Furthermore, God’s power in the gospel is for the salvation of everyone who believes. From what I see in this passage, Paul’s not saying that the words are sufficient for salvation. I see him saying that for everyone who believes the gospel, their salvation by the power of God is manifested through the gospel. This correlates with what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18 – “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The words themselves, in whatever form you might choose to think of them, aren’t powerful in themselves. Because for someone to hear the gospel doesn’t save them, but for that person to believe the gospel and be transformed, the power of God is visible in the gospel. I’m having a hard time trying to put this into words that make sense – the gospel does have the power to change lives, not an intrinsic power, but because it is the vehicle for salvation to be offered to a person. And because it is powerful and full of good news, Paul is not ashamed of it, to the point of eagerly desiring to preach it. Hopefully that made sense; I don’t even know if I understand what I wrote.
In the gospel there is a righteousness from God that is revealed. Paul explains this statement later on in Romans, so I’ll leave that for another time. But it’s good, really good.

Well, I suppose that’s all I have for today. I gotta start studying again, so until next time, stay warm, and don’t leave the gas on or else you’ll go to sleep dreaming about waking up on fire.

"What Is The Gospel?" by Jeremy

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:21:55 -0800

Hey Kevin! This is Jeremy. The Guy from Michigan who does music stuff and learned some html from you. Sweet post. I was especially hit by the the part…

“The words themselves, in whatever form you might choose to think of them, aren’t powerful in themselves. Because for someone to hear the gospel doesn’t save them, but for that person to believe the gospel and be transformed, the power of God is visible in the gospel.”

This makes me think of the parable of the sower (mark 4), where the seed (the word) is scattered, but the seeds power is only manifested in the soil that takes it in and grows it. And again in the section right after that where he says no one puts a light under a bushel. Just as a light is only usefull if you use it to light the way, the word is only usefull to the heart that is transformed by it.

k-lai.com: What Is The Gospel?

What Is The Gospel?

"What Is The Gospel?" by Jeremy