The Gospel

A friend sent me the link to a church she had visited and as I perused the site, I found this church's definition of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I was struck by the words they choose to depict and explain Christ...so moving and powerful, yet so relatable and refreshing.  Thought I'd share:

Perhaps ironically, ‘the gospel’ can be a challenging thing to define in concise terms. It resists our categories, it can, in a sense, mold to fit any scenario, and has timeless, inexhaustible relevance. There is no era, conflict or triumph that it won’t speak powerfully into. It is the active ingredient.


The gospel is something that enables other things, drives other things––such as hope, community, the desire to gather together and laugh, serve, pray, celebrate, and enter into heartache. The gospel cultivates humility and wisdom; it promises healing and freedom; it meets us in the depths of sorrow and loss, and is the intrinsic meaning behind those things we find most true, most beautiful, most life-giving.

The gospel is the story of God coming to earth to redeem and renew, in a manner and through a means that could not have been––then or now––more unthinkable, counter-intuitive, or radical.

The gospel (literally, the ‘good news’) is that God entered history, walked among us, suffered, died, and rose again on behalf of people who are unable to perfect or satisfy themselves; for people who don’t deserve to be died for.

And in this gospel, all who transfer the weight of lordship from off of themselves and on to Jesus are promised a new identity, new life, and a new future.

In the gospel we are empowered to venture into our own hearts and lives and see them as they really are. The gospel enables us to find wholeness and refuge in our dependence on Jesus to be the sole means of our acceptance before God, and, remarkably, before ourselves.

Imagine what life would be like if we were able to enter into friendships far less motivated by being liked. What if criticism wasn’t so crushing? What if false accusation wasn’t so threatening? What if rejection wasn’t so condemning.

What if you were less self-aware, less fearful, less defensive, slower to anger, and freer to forgive? What if you were more generous, more patient, more hopeful, and more ‘other-focused’? What if your tattered edges were less embarrassing?

The gospel is the reality that we need a God who would die and live on our behalf, and that in Jesus we have one who has––not motivated by obligation, but by love.

Through the gospel, we are freely given a new identity––an identity based not on race, social class, gender, self-performance, worldview, a particular theological system, or a catalog of rules and regulations. Instead, it’s a new identity rooted solely in trusting Jesus that redefines every aspect of our lives.

Because of the gospel, we no longer have to hide from exposure and project that we have it all together, because God knows, loves, and enjoys us as we are, not as we pretend to be.

The story of the gospel is how and why we can be certain of and rely upon the love and faithfulness of a gracious God. And it’s capable of changing anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

http://www.allsoulsseattle.org