What is the Gospel?

I do hope this can become an interesting thread, for there is some interesting meat in the accounts of the apostles:

Mt 4:23 ¶ And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Mt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Ac 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Ro 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

Ro 15:16 That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God,[b/] that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

Seems like there is more than a simple answer at first blush, doesn't there?

Is it the gospel of the kingdom, of peace, of God, of Christ, or what exactly?

What was the gospel of the kingdom which Jesus the Christ preached? As His followers, shouldn'that be the message we carry to the world also?

Since the apostles asked Christ if this was the time when He would restore the kingdom, then there must have been something in Jesus' message which gave them that idea.

If St. Paul preached of the gospel of peace, and the gospel of God, it must have something to do with our state of natural enmity and separation from God which is due to the Fall.

My point is this: you will no doubt get answers which say that the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sinner and our need to accept that as the sacrifice for our sins, and no knowledgeable Catholic would disagree. At the same time, there seems to be another message, the "gospel of the kingdom" which Jesus preached which is not heard of today.

So what was it and how do we know what it said?

Brother Ed

 

The gospel is the good news (the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ) but there's more good news than that: the kingdom of God is here! "Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." (Mark 9:1) Unless there are men walking around who are about 2000 or so years old, then the kingdom must have already come with power. (Rev 1:9) "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." John tells Christians that he is a fellow partaker in the kingdom, showing that the kingdom is here! Paul teaches that God "...hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:"(Col 1:13) No longer do men need to pray "thy kingdom come" for it is here. Even so, it's invisible: (Luke 17:20-21) "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Because the gospel goes beyond the facts of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, it has commandments. How can a person obey facts? "Obey the death, burial and resurrection of Christ." How do you obey facts? No, you obey commands! The gospel has commands! What are they? Acts 2:38 "Repent and be baptized" etc.

(2 Th 1:8) "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:"

[ June 24, 2002, 09:44 PM: Message edited by: SolaScriptura ]

 

I know this sounds boring because it is used so much and everyone is familar with it,but.....As long as 1Cor15:1-4 remains in the bible,we know what the gospel is and what it does.

It is in itself the perfect source for salvation and nothing else is a part of it.

The gospel and obeying the gospel is 2 different situations.Peter preached the gospel in Acts 2:14-36 and stopped after declaring Jesus as Lord.

The repenting and baptism was simply a response that the Holy Spirit through Peter asked us to do if we want to take advantage of the cross.Salvation is there for the taking but it lies in the church.We simply need to respond to what the Holy Spirit asks us to do to be in his church.Gospel + 0 = salvation for all but it requires obedience or response.

However,it gives power to Jesus to save whomever he wishes under any condition.But we don't have the power to tell others to not respond.

God bless,Charles

 

Well, looks as though someone is on the right track, but why didn't you finish? What is wrong with completing what we should do. That was the question in Acts 2:37)....what shall we do?

Answer: Acts 2:38) Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,
(which happened in Acts 2:4) And they were all filled with Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterence.

Acts 2:39) For the promise is unto you, and to your children amd to all that
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

If I'm not mistaken, He is still calling! If the question is the same, so is the answer.

Thank you Jesus,
MEE

 

Hello Mee,
I like your "thank you Jesus"ending.\o/praise the Lord.

Mee,what you are asking for(the what shall I do part)is not part of the gospel.The message of the gospel was declared in verses 14-36.It stopped when Peter declared Jesus as Lord.

What you are referring to is the response.The response has no power for salvation.But it is necessary to obtain the salvation that Jesus accomplished.We can't boast about anything we have done in order to be saved.I think we agree and I'm sure you are much more of a theologian than I.

I'm old and been in the Church of Christ all my life but I count my Baptist friends my brethren.I see things more like them than my own denomination.I think both denominations needs some fine tuning about Baptism.

God bless,Charles

 

greetings,

Repent, God's Kingdom is at hand.

its short, but if understood correctly, its accurate.

peace

 

I agree!

MEE

[ July 01, 2002, 10:51 AM: Message edited by: MEE ]

 

I agree with the teaching that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the gospel. For this encompasses all that was necessary to satisfy God the Father; The shed blood of his Son for the sins of the entire world. Therefore, salvation is the free gift of God; Grace which is given to all who will believe in the Son. Eph. 2:8-9. That is the gospel pure and simple.

But we are also warned not to subvert or attempt to re-define the gospel.

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into THE GRACE OF CHRIST unto another gospel. But though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Gal. 1 6,8

Let us be vigilant for any attempt that is made by man to suggest that the gospel is anything other than the GRACE OF CHRIST.

 

Great reply Torrey!

In Him Kim

 

Hey Torrey,
Good post.You are so right.

But the sad part is that not enough people are drawn to that grace.Getting people to respond to the gospel was difficult for the apostles and still is today.

Grace is there for the taking,how sad it's being wasted in so much of the world.

Mee,
Thanks for the reply.I like you.

God bless,Charles

 

The response that we make must be part of the gospel or how could it be called "obeying the gospel"? Remeber that in Acts 8 Philip only preached Jesus, but after hearing Jesus preached, the eunuch correctly understood baptism. What kind of miracle was that...or was it one at all? I believe that we must follow the examples of Peter in Acts 2 and Philip in Acts 8 and when we preach Jesus talk about baptism. After all, the great commision commands the baptism of those that are taught. Any man who teaches someone about Christ and not about baptism has failed to do his job.

[ July 04, 2002, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: SolaScriptura ]

 

Sola,

Baptism is no more a part of the gospel than "through faith is a part of grace".Eph2:8

Of course,if the bible says we receive God's grace through faith then what we obey through faith is very important.

However,not as important as grace.God protects his son's obedience and keeps his seperate from ours.He also warns us to not boast about ours.But we can't get away from our part which is the acts of faith which he asked us to do.

Baptism is only one of those acts of faith and our Baptist friends obey him in that request.Hey,you are as excellent a CoC member as I have seen.Your attitude and teaching is bible centered.As you well know,those of us in the grace oriented CoC have more opposition from within than from our Baptist brethren.

God bless,Charles

 

The Gospel is simply means "Good News". It is the way in which Christ plans to save us from hell.

 

Charles:
You said God protects his son's obedience and seperates ours from his.Could you please give me the word of God for this position. It seems the Bible says we are to follow his example.( Hebrews 5:8,9, I Pet. 2:21). God connects our obedience with spiritual blessings.( II Pet. 1:3, Eph. 1:3). All spiritual blessings are in Christ. It requires obedience to get into Christ.( Gal. 3 26,27). It will require obedience to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.( Mat. 7:21 Lk. 6:46,cf. Jn. 5:39,40).God requires faithful obedience of all people.
Noah was saved by grace through faithful obedience. ( Gen. 6:22). Abraham was justified by faithful obedience. ( Hebrew 11:17, James 2:21). God requires the same of all nations ,today.( Romans 16:26). I know of no biblical example of any man being spiritually blessed without faithful obedience to the word of God. If you know one, please send it to me. I would like to study the matter some more.
Frank

 

Paul went around persecuting Christians, he was in direct opposition to the will of God but the Lord showed him mercy and grace, saved him from the power of sin and death and made Paul into a great soldier of Christ. Paul was most definately not faithfully obedient prior to receiving the ultimate spiritual blessing of having his sins washed away.

 

I respectfully disagree, based on the fact that it must be preached in order to preach Jesus and that Peter preached it during his first gospel sermon, but as long as you understand that it is a necessary response to the gospel, I don't see any reason for arguing about it.

I love that old song Rock of Ages:

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure."

Even though the song recognizes the fact that baptism "water...from Thy wounded side...Save from wrath..." is a necessary response to the gospel, it also shows that we cannot boast:

"Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no languor know, these for sin cannot atone; Thou must save and Thou alone; In my hand no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling."

[ July 05, 2002, 08:17 PM: Message edited by: SolaScriptura ]