By Tyler Allred

“You can’t reduce the gospel to a tweet!”

I heard that this weekend. Is that correct? Is the gospel “un-tweetable?” Or maybe I could put it this way: If you only had one sentence, would it really be impossible to express the good news of Jesus?  In reaction to a truncated, individualistic gospel, have we stuffed that word with so much, well, ‘stuff’ that it has lost some of its linguistic worth?

Specifically when it comes to this word, “gospel,” the great, good, glorious news of the Christian faith, I believe we absolutely need more clarity, not less.

There’s a growing trend I’m encountering in the way Christians talk about “the gospel.” Perhaps you’ve heard phrases like this:

“We need to be asking, “What is good news to this community?”

“We need to gospel to come into that neighborhood and transform it”

“We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about the “social gospel,” our good news is big enough to fit that in as well.”

The gospel is justice and shalom and reconciliation and peace and transformation; it is what our world needs; it is the gospel of the kingdom of God; it is not simply “I’m a sinner, Jesus died so that I can go to heaven when I die.”

I understand and agree with most of the sentiment behind these ideas. Here’s my problem though, we’ve turned “the gospel” into a personal entity without helping people have any clarity on what news we’ve actually been given. It hurts our proclamation and our embodiment of this good news when we can’t even express what it actually is! Saying things like “We need the gospel to come into that neighborhood and transform it” sounds great, but what does it mean? What is this news? How could it transform? Why would that be good?

We Need Clarity 

Here’s the main point of my post: Rather than saying, “We can’t reduce the gospel,” we need to be saying, “We need to clarify the gospel, so that we don’t reduce its impact”

You see, by expanding this word “gospel” so that it essentially means everything-good-we-want-to-talk-about-regarding-the-Christian-faith we’ve lost the sharp edge of our good news that actually propels us into action, and calls people to respond. What I propose will allow us to keep all the great truth about the impact and transformation of God’s Kingdom while giving us a clarity and power to actually embody our “good news.”

What is the Gospel?

Gospel (euangelion in Greek; “good news” in English) is not an all encompassing term. In ancient Rome, where this word was first used, this word always referred to the proclamation of an event that happened that now changes the fortunes and reality of the hearers of this “good news.” When a Caesar was born, or came back victorious in war for instance, “gospel” was proclaimed throughout the land.

Augustus had claimed to bring peace and prosperity to the whole Roman world, rescuing it from its apparent slide into chaos; his accession was hailed as ‘good news’; his successors were acclaimed variously as ‘saviour’ and ‘lord’.^[1]

In that context the first Christians started using this term to proclaim the good news that Jesus had accomplished, (an incredibly bold and revolutionary thing to do!) They went around, in Caesar’s backyard, and began proclaiming that there was really good news and it wasn’t from Rome!

So what was the proclamation? What victory occurred? What happened in history that would change the reality of the world?

Jesus came announcing the gospel that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Mark 1:15) and the four gospels tell us the story of how Jesus became King. In his life Jesus began to usher in the kingdom; in his death, resurrection and ascension Jesus achieved victory and sat down as king over the cosmos! (Cf. Matthew 28:18; Mark 15:26; Luke 24:21ff; John 18:37)

In the rest of the New Testament, the shortest formula of “the gospel” that we find is precisely that announcement. “Jesus is Lord!” “Jesus is Messiah”– both of which pointed to one thing, Jesus has become King!

36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36 NIV)

(Cf. Romans 1:1-4; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 1:20-21; Revelation 4-5) 

I have already expounded this in my other post “What is the Gospel?” so here I’m only summarizing my thoughts. We need to be very concrete and specific when we use this loaded word, “gospel,” It is, by the nature of the word, a proclamation of the victory that Jesus accomplished on the cross and the reality of the Kingdom of God now available through that victory. (For more on this here’s two more posts “Why did Jesus Live?” and “NT Wright on the Gospel”)

The Dangers on Either Side

The reason I make such a big deal out of this, is because I’m worried about what happens when we don’t have a concrete gospel. On one hand, we have the truncated gospel of sin management that we are right in rejecting. That “good news” focuses all the attention on the individual sinner and what they can get out of it- You’re a sinner and you need a savior, Jesus died for you so that if you accept him into your heart then you don’t have to go to hell, but get to go to heaven when you die. That is not a “gospel” as we’ve defined the word; it’s a system of how to get saved (and a pretty flawed system at that), it is not a proclamation of a new reality.

Then on the other hand, we have the tendency to make the word “gospel” mean just about anything and everything “good” that God and His Kingdom stands for. It certainly includes all the stuff about Jesus and the cross and His resurrection and our salvation, but it seems to be taken up in a much broader sense as well; it seems to become a personal entity. When we start asking ourselves, “What is ‘gospel’ for this community?” Are we asking what it would mean to proclaim and embody the kingship of Christ? Or are we saying that in a more generalized, “anything good,” sense?

Proclamation must be joined with Incarnation

There is a king on the throne of creation, His kingdom is at hand and His disciples (the citizens of that kingdom) have been sent out with a mission. But the proclamation of this good news, that Jesus is King, cannot be divorced from the incarnation. Our king took on our humanity, He trudged through the muck and the mire and was ultimately crowned king on a bloody cross.

The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighborhood.

John 1:14 (The Message)

Our God “moved in” to our neighborhood, and forever located the ministry of his church; ours is a flesh-and-blood kind of mission, a cross-shaped ministry. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us:

Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are (The Message)

The key to that verse, I think, is that people are asking. If we’re not living out the rule and reign of Christ, if we’re not fully embodying the reality of His Kingdom breaking in to our existence then to turn around and say, “Jesus is King” doesn’t really make any sense. But, if we’re living this out and someone asks us, “why are you living that way?” Then with full confidence we can say, “Because over our world sits a loving king and my allegiance is to him, can I introduce you?!”

When we get really clear on what our gospel is it should naturally flow into the full outworking and embodiment of that good news. And likewise, only as we fully embody and “incarnate” this good news can we proclaim this gospel with all boldness and love.

How does this alter your paradigm of “good news”

What would the impact be if we proclaimed and lived out the kingship of Jesus?

How will you “put flesh and blood” the news that Jesus is King this week?