What exactly is the gospel of Jesus Christ? I’ve been a Christian now for 22 years, and until recently I thought I understood the gospel thoroughly. I’ve shared it and taught it to Christians and non Christians and I’ve even memorized it. This gospel I’ve learned and taught is summarized within several scriptures in the book of Romans often referred to the Romans Road to salvation.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of that sin is death. Jesus Christ died for that sin even while we were still sinners such that the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So that if you believe in your heart in Jesus Christ and if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved…anyone who calls on the Lord will not be ashamed.
These scriptural summary of salvation are all found in Paul’s epistle to Romans (Romans 3:23, 6:23a, b, 5:8 and 10:9-10).
But…I now realize that this is only part of ‘the gospel’, this is actually how a person becomes saved, this is step one in reuniting with our creator explained in a few sentences and is useful in helping others to reunite with God if they are ready and inclined to do so. This however is only part of the story, one subset of a much grander narrative, a larger purpose, a greater reason which explains God’s purpose for his creation and this life we are moving through.
The full gospel of Jesus Christ does include what I summarized above. But there is a much more attractive, much more compelling, much more gripping story that is often neglected and rarely, if ever told to non-Christians. A broader explanation of the gospel is referred to in Ephesians chapters 1-3 and some scholars believe this is a good summary of the gospel that Paul preached to the gentile world. And which was so effective at converting and building the many gentile churches that we read about in the New Testament.
Writings from people like Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet, T. Austin Sparks, Watchman Nee and the book of Ephesians have helped me to realize that the Apostle Paul had such success because of his gospel. His church planting and conversion of Godless gentiles to faithful Christ followers was a fruit of his gospel. His message however is not distinctly recorded in most of his epistles because most of his letters were to existing bodies of believers and were written to deal with specific church problems. His gospel preaching was not recorded readily, some bible scholars believe that the closest we have to a recording of his gospel is found in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians was a general circuit letter that was distributed to several churches and is thus considered the closest record we have of Paul’s general gospel.
I have broke down and analyzed Ephesians 1-3 and found that in this letter Paul first told what God did, then he shared at least three reasons that he did it, then he shared at least 8 different realities that God made possible within Jesus Christ.
This gospel is compelling to anyone because it causes our life, our very existence and it makes sense of the reality that we see around us. It connects us with God’s original purpose rather than the “you are headed for hell and here is how to get out of it.” Most are not ready to hear that. The gospel as preached by Paul, explains the universe that we live in and observe, while it reconciles God to man.
Gods story is mesmerizing, it is life-changing and it must be told! Everything makes sense and lines up once we understand who Jesus Christ is, why he made us and this universe and how we fit into everything.
