The Gospel in Two Words

Jesus commanded the church to go and preach the Gospel to every creature. But what is the Gospel? Why is it important? Out of all the messages this world can conceive and spread, religious or otherwise, why is the Gospel distinct from them all?

Jesus Christ knew something of this commission to proclaim the Gospel. He boldly declared, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18, 19).

The setting for Jesus to quote this passage from Isaiah is telling (Isaiah 61:1-3). He went to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. It appears his custom was to read from the sacred scrolls. On this particular day, however, there was going to be a great disturbance as the Word of God came alive. Apparently, the anointing of God’s Spirit on the words uttered by our Lord captivated the people. All eyes were “fixed” upon Him. It was during this holy moment in redemptive history that Jesus dropped the bomb. He stated, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

When Christ came of age and the time had come, he started His ministry with these anointed words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” His forerunner, John the Baptist, who was called to prepare His way also proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

When Christ came, he did not come alone. He came to establish the glorious Gospel of the Kingdom. We must remember, it was not just the Gospel that he proclaimed, it was the Gospel of the Kingdom that he preached. He demonstrated its truth by miraculous healings and delivering power.

Matthew 4:23 verifies, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Leaving no doubt about the arrival of His Kingdom, our Lord testified, “if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

This article is designed to explore two aspects of the Gospel. There is one aspect that pertains to the personal salvation of individuals who are saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8, 9). The other characteristic concerns God’s loving and just rule in earth, otherwise known as the Gospel of the Kingdom. These two distinctions are captured in the two words that define the Gospel.

The first is called the Evangelion or the Evangel. It means the GOOD NEWS. What is the essence of this aspect to the Gospel? The Apostle Paul reveals it in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

Notice the veracity, strength, and significance of God’s salvation amongst men and nations is directly connected to the Gospel. What is the source of the Gospel? It is in accordance with the Scriptures and the Scriptures cannot be broken (John 10:35). God’s Word is foundational to the Gospel. It provides the anchor that fasten our souls to God’s salvation.

What is the essence to the Evangel, the GOOD NEWS? Christ died, was buried, and on the third day He arose from the grave. These three aspects of the Evangel, the GOOD NEWS, were all prophesied hundreds of years before Christ was born. Our Lord fulfilled each one to the minutest detail. No other religious book or figure can duplicate this miracle.

How does the GOOD NEWS impact the sons of men? The Apostle Paul describes its power in the book of Acts. As Paul is recounting his conversion to King Agrippa, he not only tells of the heavenly vision that he obeyed, but he shared the essence of the Evangel. Acts 26:18 declares, “To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” This is the glorious GOOD NEWS sent to the sons of men.

To know the destructive power of sin can be broken in our lives is GOOD NEWS! To be translated out of the kingdom of darkness and placed into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son is GOOD NEWS! To know that through the sacrifice of Christ on the cruel cross we escape forever the torments of hell is GOOD NEWS! To know that our eyes have not seen, nor our ears have heard, nor has entered into our hearts the things which God has prepared for those who love Him is certainly GOOD NEWS. We can think of many things. Some of us have powerful imaginations and just when we think we can reach the zenith of it all, God is and has more.

Yes, in this poor, fallen world filled with sin, demons, sorrow, affliction disease, death and decay, the glorious Gospel has come and been proclaimed. It is indeed the GOOD NEWS!

Second Word for Gospel, Kerygma

The second word for Gospel is called the Kerygma! As way of illustration, picture a herald being sent by a king with an official proclamation to the king’s subjects. Throughout history monarchs sent their heralds to the public square to declare the king’s will on matters of state. They would go to the public square, unroll the official scroll, and make declarations by the authority of the king. A good example of this kingly practice can be found in Isaiah 37.

The Apostles got in a lot of trouble for being the King of kings and Lord of lord’s heralds. In Jerusalem, they brought the public proclamation of the Kerygma to the Temple. That was the main public square in Jerusalem, which was the epicenter of the religious world. It was there they preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, got arrested, and went to jail.

The Lord sent His angel, broke them out, and sent them right back to herald His message once again. The Apostle filled with the Holy Ghost and righteous boldness returned. They would not be intimidated. The King had come with his Gospel, the Kerygma, and it must be proclaimed, regardless of the cost.   

The Apostle Paul went to Athens in Acts 17. His spirit was stirred when he saw that the city was given over to idolatry. While there, he reasoned with the Jews in their synagogues that Jesus was the Christ according to the Scriptures. He also went to the marketplaces and engaged the Greek philosophers. There he preached the Gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord. They thought he was out of his mind. They considered him a babbler proclaiming foreign gods.

From there, he went to Mars Hill. This was the epicenter of philosophy, intellectualism, and statesmanship in Greece. It was at one of the many statues to the pantheon of gods, Paul found an altar to the “Unknown God.” Using this connection with the people of Greece, the Apostle Paul preached the Kerygma! He proclaimed, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

These two words that define the Gospel, Evangel and Kerygma, came alive for me when visiting Scotland. My daughter Shekinah and I went to the island of Iona. It is a small island off the coast of Scotland. This was the launching place for Christianity to impact Scotland. There are more Christian kings buried on that little island than all other places on earth combined.

An ancient church on the island is still operational today. It has a basement. It is in the basement where all the archeological artifacts of the island are stored. There were two coffins lids that had inscribed on them Bishops of the church. One had a staff pointed in and one had the staff pointed out. Little did I know this was going to provide a visual lesson for the Evangel and the Kerygma.

When I asked the tour guide about the difference, He explained, “When the staff is pointed in, this is the obligation of the church to save the lost and disciple them in the Word of God. This was the Evangel. When the staff is pointed outward, this is the obligation of the church to disciple the nations. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom; this is the Kerygma!

The Gospel, the Evangel, is the Lord’s appeal to individual men to be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 states:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The Evangel is God’s appeal to bring reconciliation between him and sinful man. The Gospel of the Kingdom, however, is the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20, reveals this Commission:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

If the church is going to regain her ministry as salt and light in our darkened and morally decayed culture, we must return to both aspects of the blessed Gospel. The Evangel is for the individual and the Kerygma is for the nations.

To listen on how God took me from Evangel to Kerygma in my ministry listen to this podcast episode