Is it a Christ-Centered Sermon? Appendix Three: News vs. Ethical Instruction

Tim Keller writes:

“When the early Christians chose the Greek term ‘ev-angelion’ they immediately distinguished the Christian message from that of all other religions. An ‘angel’ was a herald or messenger that brought news of some historical event that had already happened, and that had changed our condition. The most common examples in Greek literature are ‘evangels’ about a victory in war or the ascension of a new king.

When Christians chose evangelion to express the essence of their faith, they passed over words that Hellenistic religions used, such as ‘illumination’ (photismos) and ‘knowledge’ (gnosis) or that Judaism used such as ‘instruction’ or ‘teaching’ (didache) or ‘wisdom’ (Sophia). Of course, all of these words were used to describe Christianity, but none achieved the centrality of ‘gospel’. What does that mean? First, it means that the gospel is news about what God has already done for you, rather than instruction and advice about what you are to do for God. The primacy of his work, not our work, is part of the essence of faith. In other religions, God reveals to us how we can find or achieve salvation. In Christianity, God achieves salvation for us. The gospel brings news primarily, rather than instruction.

Second, it means that the gospel is all about historic events, and thus it has a public character. ‘It identifies Christian faith as news that has significance for all people, indeed for the whole world, not merely as esoteric understanding or insight.’ In other religions, the stories of miracles and other special events in the lives of the founder are not essential. Whether or not Buddha did Miracle X does not affect whether the 8-Fold path to enlightenment works or not. But if Jesus is not risen from the dead, Christianity does not ‘work’. The gospel is that Jesus died and rose for us. If the historic events of his life did not happen, then Christianity does not ‘work’ for the good news is that God has entered the human ‘now’ (history) with the life of the world to come.

This public, historical aspect of the gospel is especially seen when the term ‘the gospel of Christ’ or “of Jesus Christ’ is used. Often the word ‘gospel’ and the life and work of Christ are essentially synonyms. Particularly significant is how Luke links ‘gospel’ to ‘Jesus’. In Acts 5:42, it reads, literally, ‘they never stopped…evangelizing Christ Jesus’. Obviously, Jesus is not the object of their evangelism (they are not trying to convert him!). But the word ‘evangelizdomenoi’ means, all by itself, ‘to preach the gospel’ or literally ‘to gospelize’. So in the places in Acts where it says, literally, ‘they evangelized Jesus’, the English translations have to render it ‘they told the gospel about Jesus Christ’ or ‘they told the good news that Jesus was the Christ’ (cf. NIV Acts 5:42). But the Greek construction clearly has a stronger meaning than that. Its intentional redundancy aims to say that that the good news they preached was Jesus. His very life, and all his works, is what saves us. To declare Jesus and to declare the gospel is the same thing. Jesus does not bring the gospel—he is the gospel, because the gospel is that God has broken into history and accomplished everything necessary for our salvation.

Summary: The gospel is news that Jesus Christ’s life and death and resurrection in history has achieved our salvation. Unlike the founders of other religions, who could be said to bring good news, Jesus is the good news" (Preaching the Gospel in a Post-Modern World, 56-57).