Day 20: What is the gospel?

We Christians tell ourselves we ought to share the gospel more often. It's our mission to do so, we ay, and we really ought to seek out the opportunities wherever we go.

I'm not going to argue against this, but the opportunities like the one that Christ had with Nicodemus (someone actually seeking you out to ask you about your spiritual beliefs) are rather few and far between. What happens more often is that someone will engage you in conversation about some difficulty they're going through. That's a perfect opportunity to share some Biblical wisdom and the hope that is available in Jesus Christ. I know I've missed many such opportunities in my time.

And then there's the question of content. When we say, "share the gospel," what do we actually mean? What would we actually be telling them? We should all the answer to this question don pat, right? But do we?

I have been at pains to say, here at A Stranger Here, that the gospel, contrary to the way we often hear it presented, is not coterminous with the doctrines of substitutionary atonement and justification by faith alone.

I think the gospel has to include these things: 1) who God is, what he's like, and what his purpose is for creation; 2) who we are, the nature of the problem we face, and our need for a rescuer; 3) who Jesus is, how he lived and what he did, and why he did it; and 4) where it all leads in the end.

I think the following presentation does a pretty good job of putting all this together. It's interesting and helpful that they start with a brief explanation of the trinity (which would fall under number 1 above.