Let me begin by defining “Gospel.” Simply put, gospel means, “good news.” In this very broad definition, is the good news simply that Christ came to earth a man, died, and rose again? Is the good news limited to just 4 books of the Bible?
I would like to propose that the whole of the Bible is good news. Certainly, the 4 gospels share the good news of Christ’s life but could we not argue that Romans equally shares the good news of eternal life? Does not even Genesis show God’s redemptive purpose from the begining of time and thus is good news for us?
I would even say that Acts is good news for us in that it shows us a church community that while not perfect is living out church life in community. It is good news that a church persecuter like Saul can be redeemed to be the greatest evangelist the world may have ever known.
It is good news that even in the exile, God is sovereign. It is good news that in the Psalms, we can bring our frustrations, joys, and everything else to God in song. It is good news that we can live out our faith practically, as in the book of James.
I believe that the whole of the Bible is good news. And this good news may take the form of proclamation of God’s goodness in Christ, or it may take the form of how to live faith in a faithless world. Good news may even come in the form of rebuke as long as it leads to repentence and proclamation of Christ or the changing and living out of faith.
I think thought, in our Western ability to compartmentalize and dissect we have tried to boil down the Gospel to just one small thing but the good news is so much more than a mental ascertation. In other parts of the world, the gospel is much more practical than theological. It is much more about how to live than it is how to think. It is about right action, not necessarily right belief.
Yet, we do not live in other parts of the world. We live in the Western world. How then does the gospel look, sound, feel to you?
