The Gospel of God
In Romans 1, Paul describes himself as being “set apart for the gospel of God.” What is the gospel? Today the word “gospel” has several different meanings in various contexts. Sometimes it is “used to denote a particular sort of religious meeting (a ‘gospel rally’), and as a metaphor for utterly reliable information (‘gospel truth’).” In a strict sense it is commonly understood as the “order of salvation.” It is an explanation of how one obtains salvation, a description of the means through which one personally appropriates the redemptive work of Christ. In frequent usage, one “Admits they are a sinner, Believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and gave His life for their sin and Confesses that He is Lord of their life, giving everything to Him.”
Nevertheless, however one understands “the gospel” we must stop and ask what Paul meant when he used the word, what he sought to communicate under the inspiration of the Spirit, rather than assume the connotative meaning we have in our specific cultural and sub-cultural context. In Romans 16:25 Paul says it is “the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ.” Rather than being the “steps of salvation,” or a new way to order our personal spirituality, the Gospel is news about something that has happened, specifically the redemption God has accomplished in Jesus.
The Greco-Roman understanding of gospel (Gk. euangellion), was the announcement of a great military victory by an emperor beginning a new era of peace. When such happened, the emperor would send messengers (evangelists) to proclaim their reign. The Roman gospel was “Caesar is Lord.” The Christian gospel, rather than “you can be forgiven” is “Jesus is Lord” (Romans 1:4). In being raised from the dead, Jesus has triumphed over the powers of darkness and death (Col 2:15) and is designated as the Lord of the world. Jesus however, is far from being a tyrant like the Caesars and Herods of their day or the Hitlers and Stahlins of our own. Rather Jesus is the crucified one, who offered his life unto death in passionate self-giving love. He is also the resurrected one, having defeated the powers of death in his own life and for all those who give him allegiance. The cross and the resurrection radically reorient our understanding of lordship and authority. That Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not truly is great news. He will come in tender love to us, he will deal with our shortcomings in deep compassion and will heal our brokenness with his resurrection life.
