Simple Theology: Gospel
How would you describe the gospel in one word? This word might get the award for the word that most people know but few understand. Would you believe that a clear definition is right there in the Bible?
Transcript
WHAT IS GOSPEL?
Over the last month, we’ve taken big theological concepts and defined them with one word. Today, our concept is gospel. In some ways, the gospel is a concept that has become far removed from its origins. Gospel literally translates into good news and this term was often associated with political announcements like the rise of a new ruler or a big military victory that brought joy. Messengers would be sent to announce the news throughout the land.
Nowadays, it feels like people don’t associate the gospel as good news, but rather a nuisance. And we’ll talk about that later, but let’s take a step back and see why the authors of the Bible chose to term Jesus’ story as the good news. Now, the whole goal of this series is to summarize a theological concept in one word, but today, I’m going to break the rules. Instead of using 1 word, I’m going to use 5 words to describe the gospel. Before I begin, I want to credit InterVaristy and HonorShame.com for their resources in providing practical tools that help minister to cultures in honor-shame contexts. The 5 words that I’m going to use today to summarize the gospel are:
Problem
Dilemma
Solution
Response
Result
And they each address an issue. So, let’s dive in to understand what each of these words means and how they collectively help us understand what the gospel is. Let’s start with the first, unfaithfulness.
UNFAITHFULNESS:
Hop onto any news source, and you’ll immediately know there’s something wrong in the world, but that’s not how the world was originally created. God created the world and everything He created was good. When God created humans, he created them with honor to reflect Him because He is honorable. But the first humans, Adam and Eve, chose to rebel against God because of their unfaithfulness. The problem is unfaithfulness. Adam and Eve were unfaithful. They thought that God was withholding His goodness from them by commanding them not to eat from one tree. They became unfaithful and disobeyed God. Unfaithfulness is the problem that plagues all of humanity. Even if you don’t believe in God, I’d bet that you’re not living up to your standards.
Romans 3:23 tells us this,
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
To understand the gospel, we must understand that the problem is unfaithfulness.
SHAME
The problem of unfaithfulness causes humanity to experience the dilemma of shame. Shame causes us to feel unworthy. Shame creates dishonor and causes a rift in the relationship. Shame causes disunity, which leads to isolation. Some might claim that they don’t need God, but it’s the effect of shame. In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they felt shame, so they hid from God. They made excuses to cover up unfaithfulness. But in the end, there is no solution that humans can come up. Thankfully, God has a solution.
RESTORATION
God’s solution is restoration. God’s love for humanity causes him to do something about the problem and dilemma. He restores the relationship by sending Jesus. Jesus comes to earth and lives the life that humanity should have lived. Jesus also bears all the consequences that the problem and dilemma caused by dying on the cross. Romans 4:25 says this,
“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life so we can be right with God.”
Jesus then resurrects from the dead demonstrating God’s triumph over the problem of unfaithfulness and the dilemma of shame. Jesus restores our honor so that we can reunite with God again. But this offer requires a response.
LOYALTY
Our response is loyalty. God wants us to be faithful to Him. Unfaithfulness was the reason why all of this happen. To experience God’s restoration, we have to respond to the solution, Jesus. We have to accept that our shame can only be taken away by Jesus and by no one or nothing else. We must respond and be loyal to God. Loyalty means we align our lives accordingly to God’s desires. We abandon our own selfish desires and obey God’s desire to love Him and others.
HONOR
When we are loyal to God, the result is honor. Honor is restored. Isaiah 54:4 says this,
“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the sorrows of your widowhood.”
God takes away the shame we feel and replaces it with honor. Honor takes us out of isolation and brings us back into a relationship with God. We also get invited into God’s community and experience this honor too. This is the church where each person thinks of themselves less and honors one another. Their loyal to God is also rewarded in heaven when they receive the highest honor of reigning with God in heaven. True honor is found in God alone, nowhere else.
CONCLUSION
So, that’s the gospel in 5 words, problem, dilemma, solution, response, and honor. Earlier, I mentioned that gospel means good news and I hope it is. I hope you are joyful when you first experienced what it was like to understand the gospel. That it was a victory over failed attempts to be good, to be better. I hope it was good news that things were changing and all you had to do was stay loyal to Jesus.
For some of you, the gospel might not be good news. It might be bad news. It’s bad news because it examines our life and points out our flaws, shortcomings, and mistakes. We don’t want to unveil the bad news about ourselves. The truth is, to understand the good news of the gospel, we first have to understand the bad news about ourselves. We have to accept that there is something wrong in order to discover something right.
Many of us desire to be healthy, but in order to be healthy, we have to accept the unhealthy things we are doing and change them. Theologian, James Cone, writes this:
The gospel “is not good news for the powerful, for those who are comfortable with the way things are, or for anyone whose understanding of religion is aligned with power.”
Now, Cone wrote this specifically about his concern for White Christianity, but I think to it pertains to us too. Our power, comfort, and understanding of what it means to be whole is not exhaustive. We will never understand what it means to be whole, so we will chase thing after thing to find ourselves dissatisfied. That’s not the case with the gospel. That’s not the case with Jesus. In John 4, Jesus is tired after traveling and asks a Samaritan woman for water. She refuses because of cultural and ethnic differences, but he responds to her with this,
“Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus promises her water that will satisfy all her needs. This promise is also true for us. So, wherever you’re at, trust that the gospel is good news for you. We are limited in understanding what good is, but God isn’t. Trust that this good news is for your good.
Let’s pray.