The Gospel: A Definition
Apr 17th, 2006 by admin
I love Jeff Purswell’s definition of the Gospel as relayed by C. J. here. It is full of the extent, depth, and richness of the understanding of the Gospel that is usually missing in many attempts at a definition. I think I might be quoting this at Wellspring as we come close to summarizing our mission and vision. Here it is:
The gospel is the good news of God’s saving activity in the person and work of Christ. This includes his incarnation in which he took to himself full (yet sinless) human nature; his sinless life which fulfilled the perfect law of God; his substitutionary death which paid the penalty for man’s sin and satisfied the righteous wrath of God; his resurrection demonstrating God’s satisfaction with his sacrifice; and his glorification and ascension to the right hand of the Father where he now reigns and intercedes for the church.
Such news is specific: there is a defined ‘thatness’ to the gospel which sets forth the content of both our saving faith and our proclamation. It is objective, and not to be confused with our response. It is sufficient: we can add nothing to what Christ has accomplished for us–it falls to us simply to believe this news, turning from our sins and receiving by faith all that God has done for us in Christ.â€?
- Tom Wright, close but no cigar…
- Spurgeon and the Joy of Substitution
- Justified by Works?
- Value 8: Unreached Peoples: The Gospel for the Hopeless
- Justification and N.T. Wright Again
Yowzah! Now that is a definition of the Gospel! Maybe it could be offered to the Ecological Evangelicals to sift the Ecological from the truly Evangelical. I seem to recall that “evangelical” has a strong relation to Purswell’s definition of Gospel and that the evangelicals of Tyndale’s time were known as “gospellers”.