It's a simple question and it seems on one hand everyone knows the answer like one plus one equals two and on the other hand, it is complicated with many different theological tribes giving different answers or focusing on different parts of what the gospel and deemphasizing others parts.
I was at a meeting with a group of ministers and one pastor asked the question, "What is the gospel?" Some stuttered, others reflected, some said it the gospel of Paul spelled out in 1 Corinthians 15 and yet it's more than that? What does that mean? Do we just parrot the words, "that Christ died for our sins according to Scriptures . . . and by repeating the words mechanically, is that it?
The two best answers given were that the gospel of Jesus is a gospel of God's grace and the gospel of Jesus is God's power to be a new creation. What is interesting are the words "grace" and "Power of God" exact language or words is missing from Paul's Corinthian proclamation or are they? Suddenly it struck me like lightening from heaven that Paul and his hearers all understood that these were the very pillars of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I just started reading N. T. Wrights "How God Became King" and here is what N. T. Wright perceptively says concerning the gospels and the gospel:
"We use the gospels. We read them out loud in worship. We often preach from them. But have we begun to hear what they are saying, the whole message, which is so often much greater than the sum of the small parts . . . This is the lifetime puzzle. It isn't just that we've all misread the gospels, though I think this is broadly true. It is more that we haven't really read them at all. We have fitted them into a framework of ideas and beliefs that we have acquired from other sources" (pp.9-10).
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