We throw around a lot of words in our day to day lives that we do not always have a complete grasp on its meaning. One of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, we see one character constantly yell "Inconceivable" as the event he is stating is inconceivable is actually happening. Which leads another character to plainly state "you keep saying that word, I do not think you know what it means".
As Christians, there are a lot of big and fun theological words we like to throw around to prove our bona fides with other believers, and hopefully appear quite smart to outsiders. But the most important word we say, and often do not grasp fully, or explain totally, is "Gospel".
The straightforward answer to what IS the Gospel, is, Good News. Specifically that Christ died for sinners. And that is the greatest good news of all the good news that could have ever been news'd. But there is a lot to it that we miss. And when we miss the details, we are missing a richness and a power that is the engine that drives the good news.
Jesus starts His ministry in Mark 1 with this proclamation.
15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
"There it is" you shout. Jesus does use the word Gospel here which is often rendered as "good news". Do not miss though that there is a powerful context that can't be skipped over to shout "Good News".
First Part: The time has come--The Bible describes all of creation groaning(Romans 8:22) in anticipation of God's redemption of His creation. Jesus is announcing to those of us who are desperately waiting on redemption and healing that the promised time has come.
And what is the important context of that time arriving??
Second Part: The kingdom of God has come near--- Jesus does not say, God has come to help you out in your life. This is IMPORTANT. God is KING. And it is HIS kingdom that is coming to bring about that which creation has been groaning for. And our first HONEST response should be FEAR.
All of Romans 2 explains why. God is Holy and will judge all people. There will be no place to hide. No excuses to be made. The kingdom of God is His and all those who are in sin will be eternally separated from God. By God's very nature His holiness will not fellowship with sin. When the kingdom of God comes, you are either His, or in sin, and those in sin will face what the Bible calls Hell.
Third Part: Repent--- The Biblical word Repent is another one we often misuse. It isn't simply a statement of "I'm Sorry" It means an active turning FROM sin and going TOWARDS God. This part of Jesus's call in Mark chapter 1 is that all of creation has been waiting for the Holy and Righteous King to come and establish HIS Kingdom and therefore, you and I, need to run to God and away from sin.
Fourth Part: And believe the Good News--- Here is what the good news is really all about. You and I are DEAD in our sins(Ephesians 2). But Christ enters into death on our behalf, and defeats it. In our sin and death we CANNOT run from Sin, but the good news is that Christ dives into our sin, pays our price and carries us towards the Father.
The Good News is never about what we have done in response to the coming of a Holy King who will Judge all, but it is about our inability to save ourselves and, by faith, believing in the work of Christ that has been done on our behalf.
See, no matter where you are at right now, God IS coming to establish HIS kingdom. He is not coming to fix some stuff up for you and clean up our messes to make things more palatable for us. The Good News is that redemption is coming, and YOU can be a part of it BECAUSE of Jesus.
That is the Gospel.
