The Gospel of Jesus is like the proverbial elephant. Àjànàkú sì kọjáa mo rí ǹkan fìrí. Generations of severing the gospel from Jesus’s Jewish roots have generated much misunderstanding among believers today. We need to reappraise the elephant for what it is. So, what exactly is the euangelion, the Gospel?
It may help to start by saying the term predated the Jesus event. Everyone in the Roman Empire knew of the imperial euangelion that promised prosperity and peace. It was a gospel maintained with brutal force that crushed opposition triumphantly. In fact, ironically, it was for reasons of upholding the imperial gospel, the Pax Romana, that Jesus was crucified. The crucifixion of Jesus was not a unique event. Rome impaled thousands more before and after.
So, when the disciples started announcing another gospel, of Jesus, they were being as political as they were spiritual. This gospel does not directly compete with the emperor’s, but if it’s true, then the emperor’s is false. Unlike the emperors, the soldiers of this other gospel do not kill or maim. On the contrary, they joyfully lay down their lives.
For reasons having to do with the church’s historical deviation from the Hebrew roots of Christianity, many of us have a truncated understanding of what the Gospel of Christ is about, so even passages that clearly alert us to there being more to the story have been explained away. Consider the following:
1 Corinthians 15:3-5 ESV
[3] For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, [5] and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
The passage affirms that Christ died, was buried, and resurrected for humanity’s sins – the heart of the stories told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. For many Christians, this is the entirety of the gospel that must be believed for salvation. It’s a manifestly truncated understanding for two reasons. First, as an increasing number of unbelievers continue to ask us today, it is not particularly obvious that the death of a man, especially one that we claim was innocent, equals GOOD news. Yes, the fact of the resurrection does ease the discomfort a bit, but it does not eliminate the unease completely. So, reading the Jesus event in isolation is a disservice.
Second and more importantly, the 1 Corinthians passage above repeatedly says, “in accordance with the Scriptures.” What the heck is THAT about? Obviously, the “Scriptures” in question is the Hebrew Bible, not the New Testament. As a matter of fact, scholars believe that 1 Corinthians 15 is the earliest piece of Christian writing – before Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. So, for sure, the “Scriptures” in question refer to the Old Testament. This should be straightforward, but I want to ensure all doubts are pulverized.
On the road to Emmaus, after Jesus was crucified and buried, two disciples were heartbroken and sad as they traveled. Suddenly, Jesus appeared and walked with them, but they didn’t recognize him. The guys were troubled because it seemed that Yahweh had failed them. After all, they had hoped that Jesus would deliver them politically and militarily from Rome’s tyranny. Luke says the following about Jesus’s response to them:
Luke 24:25-27 ESV
[25] And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! [26] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” [27] And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
So, even the resurrected Jesus relied on “Moses and all the Prophets” as he “interpreted to them in all Scriptures the things concerning himself.” In other words, these passages tell us that the Gospel of Jesus was contained in the Scriptures before any book of the New Testament was ever written. The Torah and the Prophets, along with the Psalms, already contain the gospel. This is why Paul could repeatedly say, “according to the Scriptures.” Things had to happen according to the Scriptures for the first-century Jews to ascertain that Jesus was the promised Messiah! How else were they to know?
So, if the gospel of Jesus was already in the Hebrew Bible, where might we find it? Paul explicitly tells us:
Galatians 3:8 ESV
[8] And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
Paul boldly says that “the” gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham. What?! Yeap. The gospel preached to Abraham was that through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed. Part of the promised “blessing” is the salvation that Jesus offers. THAT is the good news – God is reconciling the world to himself through Jesus, just as he always wanted it to be. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is NOT the gospel per se. These events effectuate the genuine good news that the Lord of the universe has cleared the road for humans to return home.
For a more extended treatment of this subject, see the entry here.
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