What is the Gospel?

At the center of everything we do and teach is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the announcement of the good news about Jesus Christ to the world.  The teaching of morals and proper behavior is fine, but the only way for anyone to participate in the Eternal Life of God is through the teaching of the Gospel.

So what is this Gospel?

The New Testament declares the Gospel in many different ways.  In fact, the entire New Testament is a declaration of the Gospel, the effects of the Gospel upon the world, and the response of the individual to the Gospel.   But, each speaker and author had a different way of expressing the Gospel.  A quick glance through the book of Acts will reveal how Peter, Stephen, Paul, Philip and others, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, varied their presentation of the Gospel according to their audience.  Even Jesus had different ways of expressing Gospel truth.

There are many ways to express the Gospel (four spiritual laws, roman's road, etc), I would encourage you to make the presentation of the gospel "your own".  Let it be in your voice, in the way you speak, and in the way that your audience will understand.

But where do you start?

I have found a good place to start is to write your own Gospel summary based on Scripture.  Here is mine as an example:

The Gospel is: God, the creator of heaven and earth (Gen 1:1) against whom all have sinned (Rom 3:23), was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them (2 Cor 5:19), but forgiving them through the redemption found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 3:24) to be received by faith alone (Rom 3:22), and calls us to participate in His work, through the Holy Spirit, as obedient servants (Rom 12:1-2) under the authority of the Word of God (2 Tim 3:16-17).

That is quite a mouthful!  But, it is a good place to start.  What is your summary?

How about those that are already believers?

The teaching of Gospel truth is relevant to both believers and unbelievers.  Martin Luther said that we must teach the Gospel to ourselves everyday, because we forget it everyday.  The Gospel is what the Spirit uses to change us (and our students) and conform us to the image of Christ.  May we never feel like we or our students have moved beyond the Gospel!