What is a Gospel?
The Problem of Sin
Before reviewing the answer of what is a gospel, one needs to have a firm understanding of the greatest problem that mankind has ever faced. An often-used phrase that is found in nearly every form of advertisement or marketing, goes something like this: “Now that changes everything!” While usually being overly dramatic, there is one thing that did change everything, literally everything, and that is sin. Some might say, “Well that depends on your definition of sin.” No, it doesn’t, there is only one definition that counts, and that would be God’s definition. As a result of sin, death came into existence and all of creation was changed (see Genesis chapter three). That certainly qualifies as being something that changed everything. The problem of sin is also responsible for disease, decay, discomfort, aging, and the list goes on. But unquestionably the worst aspect of sin is eternal condemnation, the complete separation from God.
The problem of sin is so serious that there is nothing any human being can do to save themselves from that condemnation. Sadly, many people have tried a wide variety of rituals, protocols, traditions, methods, etc., in order to reverse that inevitable outcome. But no effort of any kind or quantity will be effective. Sin created a gap between eternal condemnation and spending eternity with God so great, that it would be easier to jump to the moon. Do you see now how sin changed everything? When created, mankind was destined to spend eternity with God, but now mankind is destined to spend eternity in hell. Don’t believe in hell? Well, that doesn’t change the truth, sincerely believing in something doesn’t change reality, or the truth.
Why would God create humans knowing they would sin? Did He not see this coming? Of course, He did, the Bible teaches He is omnipresent, omniscient, and all powerful. So why not make humans incapable to choose freely and always be obedient to Him? Think about it, how can one truly show affection and love if that is only the response of one’s programming? Humanity was given a choice, but it only took one sin to corrupt all of mankind, so now all are sinners begin sinning when they are born. So, if God knew this was going to be the result, why did He create the human race? Is He a sadist? No, He loves everyone. So why not fix the problem of sin? The “good news,” is that He did! Since there is nothing mankind can do to solve this problem of sin. He sent His Son Jesus to live a sinless life, suffer, die, and rise to life again, so that all of humanity could be saved from spending eternity in hell.
The Solution to that Problem
The solution to the problem of sin is a person named Jesus, the prophesied Messiah from the Old Testament. What did He do that couldn’t be done by other human beings? And how does what Jesus did provide salvation (when one’s destiny has been changed from an eternity in hell to an eternity with God, it is commonly referred to as being saved, salvaged by God, or given salvation) for humanity? First of all, Jesus was and still is without sin. Then He suffered and died for our sin (He paid the entire price) and arose from the dead. And since He is the Son of God and lives (and will continue to live), the sacrifice He offered (His own life, since only innocent blood can provide atonement, see Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22) was only necessary once for all time and for all people. Jesus offers salvation freely to everyone that chooses to believe and trust in Him, also known as having faith in Jesus.
The Announcement
Now that God sent His Son Jesus to save humanity, the world needed to know what Jesus had done for them as they still needed to accept the free gift from Him. Instead of a press release, the Holy Spirit inspired four different writers to write an account of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection (the reason why four accounts will be discussed below). These four ‘books’ will be referred to as the, “Good News,” which in the Greek language is ‘euangelion’ or ‘euaggélion’[1] (the root word of the English word ‘evangelism’, the Greek letters Epsilon and Upsilon create a diphthong that makes an ‘ev’ sound). The English word ‘gospel’ comes from the Old English, ‘gōd’ (meaning good) and ‘spel’ (meaning news or story).
The Content
The gospels primarily contain the story of Jesus’ ministry, however there is some information regarding His birth and one other event that occurred before His ministry began. The gospels also provide the necessary connections into the Old Testament text and prophecies. Without those connections these ‘stories’ could have been about the Messiah, but since these gospels do indeed connect the Old Testament to the New Testament (see Jeremiah 31:31),[2] there should not be any doubt that Jesus is the one and only Messiah that was prophesied in the Old Testament and promised by God. The “good news” of the gospels is that they contain the greatest and most important story for all humanity and history, if someone accepts the gospel message, it will change everything in their life now and for eternity!
Why Four Gospels?
There are a number of potential reasons why God chose four different people to write four different accounts of the ministry of Jesus. The truth is that we are only speculating, guessing if you will, as to the reasons, since that point is never specifically answered in Scripture. However, with that said, many good teachers, theologians, scholars, commentators, etc., have made some very interesting observations over the last nearly 2,000 years. We will discuss some of them in the commentaries, the following is a quick overview.
Some believe that the greatest difference in these writings is perhaps their audience (or focus). The gospel according to Matthew appears to be addressed to the Jews, focusing on Jesus being the long-awaited Messiah, using terms such as “Son of David,” and providing a genealogy that goes back to Abraham, considered the father of all Jews. The gospel written by Mark appears to emphasize Jesus’ role as a suffering servant, leaving out any reference to lineage, and highlights how Jesus came to serve, not to be served. The gospel of Luke is unique as it was not written by someone who witnessed first-hand, but was able to assemble the whole story from others that were eyewitnesses. It appears that Luke, referred to as a physician, focused on Jesus’ humanity often using the phrase, “Son of man,” and included a genealogy that goes all the way back to the first human being, Adam. The gospel written by John, while containing some of the same stories as the other three gospels (since Matthew, Mark, and Luke share similar accounts they are often referred to as the ‘synoptic’ gospels), this book includes a significant amount of additional theological material. Primarily focused on Jesus being divine, John not only offers a very close first-hand view of things, he emphasizes the supernatural aspects of Jesus’ life pointing out that Jesus is clearly God.
While these gospel accounts are never contradictory, they often tell the same stories slightly different. Some like to criticize the text for not being more in alignment with each other, however many point out that since they are different supports the idea that the writers did not get together to get their stories straight. Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853), an American lawyer who once set out to disprove Christianity, later became a believer after closely examining the gospels for himself, he wrote:
There is enough of discrepancy to show that there could have been no previous concert among them; and at the same time such substantial agreement as to show that they all were independent narrators of the same great transaction, as the events actually occurred.[3]
In summary, Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is the Messiah, Mark proclaims Him as a humble servant, Luke accentuates His humanity, and John calls Him God. Four very different aspects of Jesus, each very important.
Only God Can Set Things Right Again
As every Christian should know, each book of the Bible offers insight to God and His plan for salvation. However, there are none as potentially life changing as the four gospels. Sin may have changed everything, but that doesn’t mean that our existence has to remain infected with sin and be eternally condemned. The message of the gospel story offers new hope and life eternal for everyone who believes.
Plus, the story of Jesus not only presents God’s plan for salvation, it offers a perspective of God that only believers can appreciate and understand. In simple terms, as mentioned above, Jesus came to serve humanity, not the other way around. Before exploring these four books, we as readers, should take a moment and think about what that means. In the gospels we learn that Jesus is not only eternal and was involved in the creation of all things, He willingly suffered and died for us. This is a good place to stop and realize that at any time Jesus could have rearranged the molecules of His enemies removing them from existence or done whatever He wanted to do without restriction, but He didn’t. We will discover in these gospels that this was the only way salvation could be offered and even though being divine, Jesus came to live a sinless life as a servant, suffer, die, and rise from the dead to live again so that we could spend eternity with Him. He loves you that much, always remember John 3:16!
This set of commentaries was written primarily to assist Christians gain a greater insight and knowledge of the gospel message so that they may enjoy a closer walk with Jesus and possibly be able to serve Him better, after all, His instruction to us is clear: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18b-20)
Old Testament Quotes and Citations
All of the Old Testament quotations or references in the gospels (as well as most found in the other books of the New Testament) are from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh (the Old Testament). The name was derived from the Latin word for the number 70, as it is believed to have been translated by a team of seventy Jewish scholars (there are some references that the number was possibly 72) that were assembled and hired by King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC) to translate the Hebrew Old Testament to Greek. It is often referenced with the Roman numerals LXX.
The Septuagint is not free of controversy. First of all, the history of the document is not consistent and what we call the Septuagint today may not be the original work, as today’s version contains some of what scholars refer to as Apocryphal (questionable origin) and Pseudepigraphal (the claimed author is not the true author) books that are not considered part of the accepted Biblical canon (the word ‘canon’ refers to a ‘rule’ or standard). Secondly, if we disregard the extra books, we can see that the text of many Hebrew manuscripts varies slightly from the Greek text in the Septuagint. Most of these differences would be considered significant. These variations will be carefully reviewed in the commentary.[4]
(Introduction/Index) Next Chapter⇒
[1] Strong’s Greek 2098.
[2] See commentary under Matthew 11:11.
[3] Greenleaf, S. (1847. Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice. With an Account of the Trial of Jesus (2nd ed., p. 29). London: A. Maxwell & Son.
[4] See Considerations under John 18:17-18 regarding Extra-Biblical Writings.