The word translated “gospel” in the New Testament is euangelion from which we get our word “evangelism.” Long before Christ, euangelion meant the gift you gave to someone who brought you glad tidings. By the time of Jesus, the word came to mean simply glad tidings, and that’s what it means in the New Testament, “good news” or “glad tidings.”
There are four ways we Christians use the word “gospel.
First, we use “gospel” when we speak of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the central truth and core of our Christian faith. This use of the word “gospel” speaks of a perfect man, Adam, having fallen into sin and, as the sole representative of humanity, giving that sin nature to us all. Because it was a perfect man who fell, there needed to be a perfect man to pay the price for Adam’s sin.
God didn’t create another perfect man to pay the price. He didn’t even send an angel and make that angel into a perfect man to die for man’s sin. He gave His all. God the Son came Himself. He emptied Himself of His glory, took on the form of man, and became obedient to the Father, obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross (Phil. 2:5-8). Then God raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24). This meant God the Father raised Jesus(Gal. 1:1), God the Son raised His own dead body (John 2:18-22), and God the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 8:11).
This use of the word “gospel” speaks of the miracle of Christ’s resurrection. Believe it or not, this miracle is the best documented event in ancient history. We have documents of eye witnesses who saw it. We have enemies who admit the tomb was empty on Easter morning, we have non-Christian historians who acknowledge the resurrection was taught in the early church. The evidence is there.
The second use of the word is as in “the gospel of the kingdom,” the good news of the kingdom. There are two parts to this. The first is the gospel of the kingdom from the beginning of John the Baptist’s preaching to the rejection of Jesus by the Jews. This gospel of the kingdom gave us a Mediator in Christ (1 Tim. 2:5) This was promised in 2 Sam. 7:16. The second part is the kingdom to be established in the future, the Gospel of Grace which begins with the rapture of the church.
The third use of the term “gospel” is a negative use, a “different” gospel (2 Cor. 11:4) or a “false” gospel. This was prevalent even in the early church when “certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness, who deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).
We see these people in our churches today as well. These are people who are convinced they have found new truth, have a “new spin” on an “old doctrine.” The church needs to be on the watch (Acts 20:28-30). Whether meaning well or knowing just what they are doing, they will rob the church of its unity and purity.
The fourth use of the term “gospel” is of the four biographical writings of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. These are writings by eye witnesses to the miracles of Christ or, as in the case of Luke, were testimonies personally relayed from eye witnesses to the writer (Luke 1:1-4).
The Gospels are divided into two parts, the synoptic and John. “Synoptic” means of the same view. Even a casual reader has to admit the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are very similar. Many scholars even believe Mark was written first, and the writers of Matthew and Luke used Mark to prompt their memories of the acts of Jesus of Nazareth. John, on the other hand, is very different. It was written some thirty years after the other three, nearly seventy years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. No doubt John had read the other three, and the Holy Spirit had prompted him to add more to the story. John is written to another audience as well, to the Greek speaking world. He speaks of Jesus existing with the Father in eternity past (John 1:1). He calls Jesus the “Word,” the “Logos.” This is a term used by the Greeks meaning “the Revealer.” John wrote in His gospel how Jesus revealed Himself to be God (1:1, 1:14, 5:18, 8:58, 10:33, 20:28). The entire world would know God had visited us in the Person of Jesus.
Why is this important?
It is our task as Christians to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel (Matt. 28:19). There is a gospel we need to use to encourage each other of the kingdom now present with its Mediator Jesus Christ. We also must encourage one another of the kingdom yet to come but promised to us. We need to warn each other of false gospels, different gospels which can draw us away from the truth. Last of all, we need to devote ourselves to the teachings of the apostles as did the early church (Acts. 2:42). When we hold the New Testament, we hold the very teachings of the apostles given to us. Together, let’s share this good news, this gospel, with a blind world.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 