The Gospel

The question: What about those people who live in some far corner of the world and have never heard the gospel? Will they be saved if they “live up to” the knowledge of God they naturally have? Can they be “anonymous Christians” who somehow believe in Jesus even though they’ve never heard of him? Or is conscious faith in Christ necessary for salvation?

The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners by living in their place, dying in their place to bear God’s wrath against their sins, and rising from the grave in order to give his people eternal life and usher in a new creation.

It’s very popular these days to talk about “the gospel of the kingdom.”

Many people claim that when Jesus came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 4:23) he was preaching a message about the overthrow of evil government powers, the transformation of society, and the lifting up of the poor. All kinds of revolutionaries can get behind these ideas.

But is that what the Bible means when it speaks about the gospel of the kingdom? Not exactly.

Some church leaders today argue that the gospel addresses shame rather than guilt. Or they say that shame is a more primary category in Scripture and that we should de-emphasize the idea of guilt when we share the gospel.

Is the gospel fundamentally about meeting our needs? Fulfilling our desire for meaning? Transforming society? Teaching us to live better lives? Lifting up the poor? Making us rich and healthy? All of these ideas about the gospel latch onto a perceived problem and say, “That’s what the gospel is all about!” But are any of those things what the gospel is all about? Are any of those things the fundamental problem the gospel addresses?

Have you ever heard the following? “God is love! He would never judge anyone or send anyone to hell! That’s just not loving!” Pitting God’s love against God’s wrath is as common these days as the biblical illiteracy which feeds such a sentiment.

Sin is fundamentally rebellion against God (Rom. 1:18-32). Sin is refusing to acknowledge God as God and putting ourselves in the place of God. Sin is any act that does not wholly conform to the will and law of God (1 Jn. 3:4).

The gospel is the good news about what Jesus Christ has done to reconcile sinners to God. Here’s the whole story:

The short answer is that some individuals identifying themselves as “emerging” get the gospel right and some don’t. And often it’s not easy to tell whether someone has “crossed the line” and denied the gospel. Some individuals affirm the right things but emphasize the wrong things. Others affirm the right things but entirely redefine them. Still others affirm parts of the truth and say nothing about the rest of the truth.

Absolutely not. The main point of the gospel is the forgiveness of sins through the death of Christ (Luke 24:47).  One promise of God that is bound up with the gospel is that one day God will graciously re-create a new earth in which his people will dwell with him in perfect harmony (Rom. 18-25; Rev. 21:1-22:5). So, one day there will be a totally transformed culture, composed entirely of God’s perfected people dwelling in a new earth.