A Note on the Word ‘Gospel’
Texts: Gen. 3:22-24 Isaiah 40:9 Isaiah 52:7 Mark 1: 14-15 Eph. 1:13 1st Cor. 15:1 2 nd Cor. 1:20 Matt. 4:23
The word ‘gospel’ occurs 72 times in the New Testament. Plainly the word ‘gospel’ is the
briefest summary of everything the N.T. has to say about every aspect of the Christian life.
Everyone is aware that the word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’ or ‘glad tidings’ or however the
newest translation of the Bible puts it.
Long before the advent of Jesus Christ, however; long before the N.T. writers took over the
word ‘gospel,’ the word had been used in the ancient world, the pagan world. In the ancient,
pagan world the word ‘gospel’ or ‘good news’ was used of a slave running to bring news of a
Roman general’s military victory. It was also used of the Roman emperor Augustus, who
insisted that his birthday was the beginning of good tidings for the world.
When the church took over the word ‘gospel,’ good news, for the church’s characteristic
message, the church repudiated any suggestion that military conquest was God’s ultimate
blessing or that a Roman emperor could profoundly save anyone.
I: — The apostle Paul, having been visited and embraced by the risen Lord Jesus Christ,
reminds the congregation in Ephesus (1:13), “In him, Christ…you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation.” It is the gospel, and gospel-quickened faith, that saves. The gospel
is Jesus Christ, in the power of the Spirit that he uniquely bears and bestows, awakening the
spiritually asleep to their predicament before God and also acquainting them with God’s
provision in Christ for that predicament.
What is the predicament? In a word, we are alienated from God by his judgement upon our
sinnership.
Recall the old story in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve, blessed unspeakably by God and provided
with everything anyone needs to live gladly, gratefully, obediently and fruitfully with God; Adam
and Eve, in an incomprehensible act of defiance and disobedience, revolt against God. Does
their defiant disobedience remove them from the garden of Eden? No. Then when they find
themselves outside this garden, had they ventured out deliberately or wandered out absent-
mindedly? No. Then how did they find themselves ‘in the far country’? God had expelled them.
They were ousted by a judicial act of God.
Did their defiant disobedience alienate them from God? No. God’s judgement upon them
alienated them from him.
Then can they simply repent (to repent, in Scripture, is to turn, turn around, make a U-turn);
can they simply repent and return to the garden, return to their home? No. A flaming sword,
according to Genesis 3, that turns every which way fends off any and all human attempts at
remedying our own predicament, fends off any and all our efforts at retaking Eden, any and all
efforts at our overcoming our alienation from our creator.
In evangelistic appeals we often invite, even urge, people to ‘come home.’ Who says there’s
a home to come home to? If humankind is now in the ‘far country,’ like the prodigal son in Luke
15, there can be a waiting father eager to receive us only if that father’s judgement is rescinded.
And it has been rescinded in the cross.
Let me say it again. We can return home; we can recover our blessedness; we can find our
alienation from God supplanted by the warmest, winsome welcome only as God rescinds his
judgement upon us. And this he has done in the cross. As Peter says (1 st Pet. 1:24), “He [our
Lord Jesus Christ], himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live
to righteousness.” Because God has rescinded his judgement upon sinners in the cross, we
can become rightly related to him (this is what ‘righteousness’ means).
In the same vein the apostle Paul says, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.”
(2 nd Cor. 5:19) The result? “We implore you,” he adds, “on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to
him.”
The gospel invitation to repent, return, come home can be issued only if there is a home to
come home to. And there is such a home, and a way home, just because God’s condemnation
has been rescinded in the cross. As we seize in faith our Lord Jesus Christ whose crucified
arms have long seized us, we find ourselves at home, alienation overcome; at home gladly and
gratefully praising and obeying and living for the One who has always longed for us. For this
reason Paul reminds the congregation in Ephesus of the gospel of their salvation, as surely
as he reminds the congregation in Rome that the gospel is the power of God for salvation.
(Rom. 1:16)
II: — The same apostle reminds us in 2 nd Cor. (1:20) that the gospel is the fulfillment of all God’s
promises. All God’s promises find their ‘Yes’ in Jesus Christ. Our Lord is the fulfilment and the
guarantee and the declaration of all God’s promises.
What are God’s promises? How many are there? His promises are as manifold and varied as
human need is variegated. In the time that remains today we shall look at only one.
Think of the promise made to Israel concerning a king, a king who is to rule (what else do
kings do), yet rule effectively, mercifully, in a godly manner. Everywhere in the the Older
Testament the king is also to be a shepherd (or else the king is tyrannical) and the shepherd is
to be a king (or else the shepherd is ineffective.)
To be sure, some kings were better than others. Most, however, were deplorable.
David was Israel’s greatest king. David was the anticipation of the Messiah. David was the
man after God’s heart, we are told. And David was also an adulterer and a murderer. Therefore
God’s promise of a righteous king who is also the good shepherd could be fulfilled only in Jesus
Christ.
Now there can’t be a king without a kingdom; neither can there be a kingdom without a king.
Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and living among us now, is in our midst. Therefore his
kingdom has to be in our midst. When the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will
come (Luke 17:21), Jesus replies, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.”
But don’t we pray, in the Lord’s Prayer, for the coming of the kingdom? We do. But since the
king and his kingdom are in our midst right now, in truth we are praying for the coming
manifestation of the kingdom, when the kingdom that is here, now, will be beyond dispute,
beyond contradiction, beyond denial. Since Christ is king, with us here and now, the kingdom of
God has to be here and now. For this reason Matthew tells us, “Jesus went through all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every
disease and every affliction among the people.” (4:23) Note that: the kingdom of God, in our
midst right now, ultimately entails relief of disease and release from affliction.
The kingdom of God, most simply, is shalom, the creation of God healed. The kingdom of
God is the creation of God released from its molestation by evil and sin, the creation of God
relieved of the distortion evil visits upon it and the disfigurement by which sin mars it. As Jesus
proclaims the gospel of the kingdom he heals the diseased and restores the afflicted.
The kingdom of God is the creation of God healed. Therefore the kingdom of God means the
eradication of sickness, poverty, injustice, and, not least, war. When we open the newspaper or
listen to the news broadcast are we not re-acquainted every day with sickness, poverty,
injustice, and war? Then the kingdom isn’t in our midst, and neither is Christ king.
Christ Jesus, however, is king; raised from the dead, ruling in our midst, that good shepherd
who will never fail us or forsake us. Then his kingdom has to be in our midst too. And so it is.
Nevertheless, the presence of the kingdom is disputable. Unbelievers who deny the kingdom
are not stupid. They are, however, kingdom-blind.
Think of what it is to be colour-blind or colour-sighted. Imagine a sheet of paper festooned
with green dots. On the paper as well are red dots that spell “Drink Coca-Cola.” The colour-
sighted person immediately sees the message: “Drink Coca-Cola.” The colour-blind person,
however, cannot distinguish green dots and reds, and therefore fails to see what the colour-
sighted person finds undeniable. The colour-blind person sees a myriad of nondescript dots
spelling nothing.
Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, crowned king, and now lives for us and with us
and among us. As king he has brought his kingdom with him. Kingdom-sighted Christians
discern that kingdom, shalom, the creation-healed, superimposed on a fallen world no one is
going to deny. Kingdom-blind people, on the other hand, see only a fallen world (which they
wouldn’t describe as ‘fallen’ but merely the world as it is.)
Now think of the mentally ill among us, especially the chronically ill. Then recall the N. T. story
of the deranged fellow in the neighbourhood of Gerasa. The man was violent, able to rip off
whatever restraints others had forced on him. He lived in the graveyard, devoid of community.
He cried out repeatedly in a howl that horrified others. He lacerated himself repeatedly. The
townspeople were rightly afraid of him and wanted as little as possible to do with him. Jesus
asks him his name. (‘Name,’ in Hebrew, always has to do with identity. To ask someone for his
name is to ask him who he is.) “My name is legion,” the man cries pathetically, “for we are
many.” The man doesn’t know who he is. Not knowing who he is, he doesn’t know how to
behave, especially how to behave in his society. Not knowing how to behave, he can’t be
trusted. He can’t be trusted because he’s uncommonly wicked? There are no degrees of
sinnership: all of us are sinners alike and sinners to the same degree. He can’t be trusted,
rather, in that he doesn’t know how to act in conformity with who he is, and this because he
doesn’t know who he is. It’s little wonder he’s marginalized many times over: he is feared, he is
suspected, he is a mystery to himself and to everyone else.
Our Lord heals the man. Then we are told that the villagers find him “seated, clothed, and in
his right mind.” ‘Seated, clothed, right-minded’ in Greek are three pithy past participles that leap
off the page of the Greek N.T. Each is hugely significant.
To be seated, in biblical understanding, is to possess authority. (You must have noticed, in
the sermon on the mount, that Jesus sits to teach.) The healed man is self-possessed. He has
jurisdiction over himself. He exhibits self-mastery. He is the rightful subject now of his action,
endowed with authority in the affairs of his life, no longer driven by his illness and no longer
identified with it.
To be clothed, in biblical understanding, is to belong, to belong to a community. (You must
have noticed, in the parable of the prodigal son, that when the youngster comes home he is
given a robe: he belongs in the family.) The healed man in our story now belongs in the
synagogue and belongs as well in the wider community.
To be in one’s right mind; to be right-minded, in biblical understanding, is to be sane. But
it’s more than this: to be right-minded is to be righteously-minded; it’s to think in conformity
with the kingdom of God; it’s to think in conformity with the reality of Jesus Christ and the reality
of that renewed creation he has brought with him.
Throughout my several decades of ministry, but especially during my 21 years as a pastor in
Mississauga, my ministry involved me significantly with mentally ill persons, especially the
chronically ill. Did I pretend they weren’t ill after all? I never pretended anything. Thanks to
the kingdom-sightedness Jesus Christ has granted me I simply cherished those people in terms
of their kingdom appointment, in terms of their kingdom-destiny and kingdom-destination.
What do we see when we come upon such people? Of course we see their illness; we don’t
live in a fantasy world. Their illness is indisputably actual. Kingdom-sighted people, however,
see not merely what is actual but also what is real, ultimately real. In other words, kingdom-
sighted people see the ill person as someone whom Christ has appointed to be found, one day,
seated, clothed, and in their right mind. In other words, we see the reality of kingdom-healing
superimposed on the actuality of everyday suffering, and we relate to those people not by
fleeing them or marginalizing them or avoiding them; we relate to them by cherishing them as
those who have been appointed to a future better than anything they have ever imagined. What
they are guaranteed on the day of our Lord’s glorious appearing you and I are anticipating for
them now.
Remember our Lord’s word in Matthew 4: the gospel of the kingdom entails relief of disease
and release from affliction.
Let’s think about the women and men currently housed in Canada’s jails and prisons: 39,000
of them on any one day. To be sure, they are in prison inasmuch as they have behaved
unacceptably; they have behaved in a manner no society can tolerate lest society collapse into
chaos. They have behaved in a manner that society must respond to in some way lest civility
give way to savagery.
At the same time, I learned a long time ago that most convicts come from wretchedness on
several fronts. Most have been subjected to overwhelming stresses in their childhood and
adolescence at the same time that they lacked the provision (to use a term my psychiatrist-
friends are fond of), the provision that younger people need and without which they will most
certainly be bent out of shape. Most convicts, I learned, were kicked around from pillar-to-post
as children, transferred from one foster home to another, abused physically and emotionally,
unable to trust anyone, rightly suspecting everyone, scrambling to survive by any means under
any circumstances regardless of any consequences.
And then I learned one thing more, this time about women who are prisoners in our federal
penitentiaries. Women are customarily given penitentiary sentences for only two offences:
narcotics and murder. Here is the point that will shock you: 90 % of the women serving
penitentiary sentences were sexually violated before they were eight years old. The are
horrifically damaged.
When these women are released (on average after 4.5 years – everyone in prison, we should
remember, is coming out) they are going to live among us. When these women are released,
what are we going to see? Are we going to see only a convict, ex-convict, with every negative
image the word entails? Are we going to see someone we are to fear? Or better, are we going
to see someone who was violated and victimized long before she victimized anyone else? Or
best of all, are we going to see someone seated, clothed, and in her right mind, appointed to a
future richer than anything she has ever been able to imagine for herself?
To say that the kingdom releases the afflicted is to say it releases the addicted. Addictions are
numberless. We shall discuss only one: alcoholism. Of course I knew, upon ordination, that my
ministry would include ministry to the addict as surely as it included ministry to any and all.
Soon I thought I had the alcohol-addicted figured out. When they were deep into the ‘sauce’
they were either jolly (the life of the party), or they were ugly (mean-spirited) or they were dirty
(they peed their pants and tossed their cookies) or they were lecherous (they groped anyone in
range).
Then one day, at a meeting of the ministerial association in Miramichi, New Brunswick, a
Roman Catholic priest, himself a recovering alcoholic, addressed us clergy. This priest was ‘on
loan’ to the NB government. He was charged with assessing the prevalence and distribution of
alcohol-addicted persons in the province. We New Brunswick ministers learned much from this
fellow; for instance, the incidence of alcoholism among New Brunswickers is three times greater
than that of Canada at large; five times greater if the New Brunswicker is French-speaking.
Then the priest said something that turned me around. “Never think, he said, “that the
alcoholic is stupid. If he is the president of a university he isn’t stupid. Never think that the
alcoholic is socially deficient; if she is the CEO of a bank she isn’t socially deficient. The
alcoholic,” he insisted, “is suffering; suffering uncommonly, suffering atrociously, suffering
unspeakably.” The priest’s address altered forever my approach to the addicted person.
There was a man in my congregation who struggled heart-breakingly with his addiction. Little
by little he told me of the abuse he had suffered since childhood, abuse at the hands of several
people on several fronts. Late one afternoon I called on him. He was intoxicated. While we
were talking, his wife came home from work. She was embarrassed to have the minister see
her husband in his state. Embarrassed? She was ashamed. She was humiliated. I said to
her, “You needn’t be humiliated because your husband isn’t shameful. Your husband is
suffering; he is suffering atrociously. And you are suffering no less yourself. She wept like a
child. And then she asked me if I would have supper with them. And our supper together was
an anticipation of the Messianic Banquet, when all God’s people will know themselves citizens
of the kingdom, and will glory in the relief of their diseases and release from their afflictions.
Conclusion: Perhaps you are wondering how the two aspects of today’s sermon are related,
how the gospel of our salvation is related to the gospel of the kingdom. We must remember that
there is only one gospel. The gospel is God’s remedy for everything that contradicts God’s plan
and purpose for his people and his world. This gospel remedies both the sinner’s predicament
before God and the sufferer’s assorted afflictions.
The truth is, all of us are sinners, and all of us are sufferers. The one gospel remedies both
our distortion arising from our sin and our disfigurement from our suffering. The one gospel is
ultimately Jesus Christ in his unique efficacy; he himself must be seized in faith, praised in
gratitude, and obeyed without hesitation. For then we who are Christ’s people will be a sign to
the world that the gospel is always and everywhere good news.
Victor A. Shepherd Glenbrook Presbyterian Church September 2024