About the Good News¶
The Gospel or Good News is the divine message revealed to humanity through Jesus Christ. It is an immutable and eternal message. Christianity as a religion is based on this message.
Announcing the Gospel to everybody¶
The purpose of the Church is to announce the Gospel to all peoples[1]. But in Tell me the Gospel in 60 seconds I conclude that there is no executive summary of the Gospel because it is a divine message.
The only available summary of the Gospel is the Bible, which is far too long for a typical announcement. How then are we supposed to announce this Gospel to everybody? How to announce something without even being able to formulate it in a reasonably understandable text?
I grew up in a Christian family in a Christian society, so the Bible is kind of my native language for thinking about reality. And there are texts and statements where I feel “This is the Gospel! This is what we are called to explain to everybody!”. And there are other texts and statements to which I react by saying “If this is the Gospel, then I am not a Christian!”[2]
And then I see that some people agree with me when I say “this is the Gospel and this isn’t”, while other people disagree with me. Do these other people misunderstand the Gospel? Is there more than one Gospel?
Jaan Lahe (a Lutheran pastor from Estonia), has written a book of 383 pages about the Gospel (“Message from another world”, “Sõnum teisest maailmast”), which ends with a three pages summary “What is the basic message of Christianity?”, which contains 22 theses and specifies that it is valid only for those who are “familiar with his book as a whole”.
Nijay Gupta (a theologian from North Carolina) suggests at least three “dimensions” of what Christians mean when they talk about “the Gospel”: It is (1) the person of Jesus Christ and/or (2) the Christian world view and/or (3) the mission of Christianity.[3]
More about the Gospel¶
One thing seems clear: the Gospel is neither an advice nor a commandment, but a news, an announcement. It doesn’t say “You must do this in order to go to Heaven”, it says that Heaven is already now and here, that the door to Heaven is open, because something has been done for you” [5]. The something that has been done for us is the life of Jesus Christ on Earth, which brought a new element into our way of understanding reality.
The Gospel has fundamental consequences at theological, political, economical, social and psychological level. It causes a fundamental change in our thinking and our way of understanding the world. It sheds a new light on the way we live together.
The Gospel is universal: it is not only for a particular nation or class of humans, it is for every nation and for every single human. Jesus told his disciples to explain the Gospel to every human, to every people, to every culture, not only to their own people.
The Gospel says that Jesus Christ has redeemed us forever from the idea that humans will have to pay for their debts or get punished for their sins after their death (see About atonement). It calls us to understand that mistakes are good.
The Gospel says that the Kingdom of God is not after our death but already now and here. It calls us to understand that Life is a gift.
The Gospel encourages us to civil disobedience where needed. It calls us to refuse human laws and teachings that promote the opposite of what God wants.
Henry Nouwen writes “The gospel is a radical liberation from death, which enables us to love without fear.” (in Jesus Sinn meines Lebens, p.43)
My summary of the Gospel¶
The Gospel calls you (1) to be realistic, and (2) to love yourself and others, (3) including those who don’t love you.
That last part is the most important, maybe the only important part of the Gospel. Because being realistic and loving your friends is kind of trivial, you don’t need a religion to understand it.
Loving others seems easy and clear in theory: help each other, don’t kill or hurt each other. Don’t destroy what others have built. Don’t steal things owned by others. Don’t tell lies about others, don’t cultivate jealousy and hate. Make love, not war. It’s easy in theory.
The Gospel is about what is beyond theory. What when it’s not easy. What to do with those who do not love you. It calls you to love them and to forgive them.
The EU is the best political implementation of the Gospel. Remember that the EU was born after WW2 when a few wise people sat together and asked “how can we avoid war in the future?”.
Creeds¶
Christians developed creeds, short texts that can be learned by heart. They are a testimony useful to identify as a member of the Church.
They are a kind of “entry exam”: if you agree to say them aloud in front of witnesses, then we assume that you understood the Gospel, that you are ready to get “baptized”, in other words to become a “certified Christian”.
Creeds are some kind of summary of the Gospel, but they make sense only for somebody who has received basic teaching about the Gospel. They are not useful for introducing the Gospel to a newcomer.
What the Gospel is not¶
The Gospel does not give instructions about how to organize the visible world. Jesus has no problem with big contrast between rich and poor (Luke 17:5-10), neither with slavery, nor with the dictator-like Roman emperor (Mt 22:15-22) nor with the Roman occupation of the Jewish territory or that the Romans forced Jews to join their army (Mt 5:41).
The Gospel does not ask us to live in traditional families or to protect this way of living within our societies.
The Gospel does not ask us to protect unborn children from abortion, it asks us to not kill other humans. The question when an embryo starts to be a human remains controversial even among Christians.
The Gospel does not say “If you don’t want to burn in hell forever, repeat this prayer and believe that Jesus died on the cross for sins, rose from the dead and is coming back to destroy sinners and rescue the Christians.”[4] See saviorism.
The Gospel does not say “Here is how to get to Heaven”, but “The Kingdom of God is already here, it has come to you via Jesus Christ” [5]
The Church and the Gospel¶
Excerpt of a speech held by pope Francis in October 2015 in his conclusion to the synod on the family:
The Synod experience also made us better realize that the true defenders of doctrine are not those who uphold its letter, but its spirit; not ideas but people; not formulae but the gratuitousness of God’s love and forgiveness. This is in no way to detract from the importance of formulae – they are necessary – or from the importance of laws and divine commandments, but rather to exalt the greatness of the true God, who does not treat us according to our merits or even according to our works but solely according to the boundless generosity of his Mercy (cf. Rom 3:21-30; Ps 129; Lk 11:47-54). It does have to do with overcoming the recurring temptations of the elder brother (cf. Lk 15:25-32) and the jealous labourers (cf. Mt 20:1-16). Indeed, it means upholding all the more the laws and commandments which were made for man and not vice versa (cf. Mk 2:27).
My summary of this paragraph:
Humans are more important than ideas
The spirit of the Gospel is more important than the letter
Explaining God’s love and forgiveness is more important than maintaining formulae
Christians must overcome the recurring temptations of the elder brother (cf. Lk 15:25-32) and the jealous labourers (cf. Mt 20:1-16).
Realizing that the laws and commandments were made for man and not vice versa (cf. Mk 2:27) encourages us all the more to uphold them.
Klemens Stock SJ writes [6]: “Es ist zentraler Inhalt der Verkündigung Jesu, dass es nicht nur das irdische Leben gibt, das wir alle aus unserer unmittelbaren Erfahrung kennen, sondern dass es darüber hinaus das ewige Leben gibt. Der Tod ist (…) nicht das absolute Ende, das Versinken im Nichts, sondern ist der Durchgang zum ewigen Leben. Dieses besteht darin, dass wir am ewigen, unvergänglichen Leben Gottes teilnehmen dürfen. Von diesem Leben haben wir keine Kenntnis aus unserer menschlichen Erfahrung, sondern wir hören von ihm durch das Wort Jesu.”
There is more to say¶
I have lots of questions. Is there a difference between saying “You will be saved” and “You will go to Heaven”? Will you be saved unconditionally? If yes, why should I bother you with this mysterious Gospel, which I claim to believe in? Will you be saved if and only if you believe in my gospel? From what will you be saved? And why would my message use the future tense if a gospel is an announcement of a victory that has happened?