What Is the Gospel?

By Ian Hamilton, Editor

Reprinted from the January 2023 Issue #712 Banner of Truth Magazine

In this my final editorial, I would like to ask the question, What is ‘the gospel’? I imagine that many Christians would answer that basic, but deeply profound, question by saying, ‘Read John 3:16; there is the gospel in a nutshell.’ There can be no doubt that John 3:16 is a brief, beautiful and concise summary of ‘the gospel.’ It is, however, a deceptive text. It is easy to parse, but there are depths to the words that can only too easily be missed. Remember Augustine’s wise saying that the Gospel of John is shallow enough for a child to paddle in and deep enough for an elephant to swim in.

In these memorable and imperishable words, Jesus (or perhaps John) introduces us to the love of God, which is the ‘fountainhead of the gospel’ (John Owen). He tells us that the possession of eternal life is predicated on one thing, ‘whoever believes.’ Faith alone, in Jesus alone, God’s only begotten Son, is what brings us into the possession of eternal life, life in unending fellowship with God. There is a third note struck by Jesus; he self-consciously presents himself as the one in whom alone salvation is to be found. ‘Whoever believes in him.’ It is this ‘in him’ that I want to focus on.

In his Institutes (the word could also be translated ‘Instruction’ or ‘Principles’) of the Christian Religion, John Calvin magnificently expounds the great truths that constitute the Christian religion. In some places he rises to heights of sanctified eloquence as his personal experience of the truths he is expounding shines forth. Nowhere is Calvin more affectionally eloquent than when he is writing on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The following passage is memorable for its beautiful glorying in the Saviour. I doubt there is a more complete and moving exposition to be found anywhere of the ‘so great salvation’ that God has given to us in his only begotten, incarnate Son. Calvin wants us to understand that Jesus himself is the gospel, ‘the good news of great joy’ that the angels sang about at his birth. The gospel is not about God giving us the blessing of salvation, it is about God giving us the blessing of his
Son, the Saviour. Calvin writes,

When we see that the whole sum of our salvation, and every single part of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must beware of deriving even the minutest portion of it from any other quarter. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that he possesses it; if we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, we shall find them in his unction; strength in his government; purity in his conception; indulgence in his nativity, in which he was made like us in all respects, in order that he might learn to sympathise with us: if we seek redemption, we shall find it in his passion; acquittal in his condemnation; remission of the curse in his cross; satisfaction in his sacrifice; purification in his blood; reconciliation in his descent to hell; mortification of the flesh in his sepulchre; newness of life in his resurrection; immortality also in his resurrection; the inheritance of a celestial kingdom in his entrance into heaven; protection, security, and the abundant supply of all blessings, in his kingdom; secure anticipation of judgment in the power of judging committed to him. In fine, since in him all kinds of blessings are treasured up, let us draw a full supply from him, and none from any other quarter (Institutes 2.16.19).

I doubt there is a more beautiful exposition of what the gospel is. The Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel. In him is to be found the justification before God that we need, because he is ‘the Lord our righteousness’ (read 1 Cor. 1:30). In him is to be found the redemption from sin and Satan that we need; he is our ‘redemption’ (1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:7). In him is the sanctification we need; he himself is our sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). When Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus into the temple, Simeon took up Jesus in his arms and blessed God: ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel’ (Luke 2:28-32). In the tiny bundle of humanity that was the Son of God incarnate, Simeon saw ‘your (God’s) salvation.’ The gospel is, before it is anything else, Jesus Christ. It is not so much that the gospel is ‘about’ him, the gospel ‘is’ him.

This is why Paul could write to the church in Colossae, ‘Him we proclaim’ (Col. 1:28). It is in Christ that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be found (Col. 2:3). This is what Calvin wants us to understand. More importantly, this is what God-honouring preaching should major on. It is only too easy to fall into the trap of preaching ‘about’ Christ and not actually preaching Christ himself. The trap can be subtle and ensnaring. Preachers can preach through a Gospel, say many helpful things, highlight certain valuable truths, but miss the fact that the Lord Jesus is the supreme content of the Gospel narratives. The touchstone of truly biblical preaching is that Jesus is always in the foreground and never in the background.

One last word. Preaching Christ is to come from men who have experienced the power and grace of the Saviour in the depths of their own souls. John Owen, among the most cerebral of Puritan theologians,
understood this sine qua non:

What am I the better if I can dispute that Christ is God, but have no sense of sweetness in my heart from hence that he is a God in covenant with my soul? … Let us, then, not think that we are anything the better for our conviction of the truths of the great doctrines of the gospel … unless we find the power of the truths abiding in our own hearts, and have a continual experience of their necessity and excellency in our standing before God and our communion with him (Works, vol. 12, p. 52).

With such concluding words, I bid you adieu.