Mark 16:15, “And then he told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.”
If we are going to talk about evangelism, we should start at the beginning. What is the Gospel? What is the substance of what we are trying to share with people? When talking about evangelism, we often jump to evangelism styles and metaphors and methods for sharing our faith without giving any thought to what our “faith” really is.
The word “gospel” shows up 91 times in the New Testament. The Greek word euangelion is translated into the word “gospel” in most English versions of the Bible, and it literally means “breaking headline” or “newsflash.” In its ancient use and the New Testament context, it was used to declare that an event was ushering in a new world situation. It marked the beginning of a new rule or a new world order. The word repentance has to do with allegiance. It is about reorientation and realignment.
In short, Gospel = Good News
But what is this “good news” that we have attempted to communicate?
In the book Static, Ron Martoia described our usual approaches to sharing the gospel as follows: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life—but if you don’t respond appropriately, you will burn in hell when you die.”
How well does this kind of language describe the good news of Jesus Christ? Is it good? Is it even news?
On the other hand, Isaiah 52:7 describes the gospel or the good news in this way: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns.”
That is the good news. That God reigns. Martoia goes on to say that we have “reduced the Gospel and abbreviated the story.” Did Jesus die for our sins? Absolutely. Must we repent of our sin and accept the grace and forgiveness that he offers us from his sacrifice? Absolutely. Will we spend eternity with him if we do that? Yes. Is that the entire Gospel? I don’t think so.
The Gospel includes an entire worldview. One in which we are partnering with God to usher in the Kingdom of God and where God’s rule is being established in culture.
The Gospel includes an entire lifestyle- one in which Jesus is not only Savior, but also Lord of our lives.
What is the Good News? It is more than fire insurance. I think Jesus summarizes it pretty well here:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Can you imagine living in that reality? The reality that Christ preached would make headline news, indeed. If we are going to spend two months exploring the idea of imaginative evangelism, then we must begin by allowing the Holy Spirit to capture our imaginations and paint for us the picture of the Gospel that is possible through life in Christ. We need to develop a more full-orbed and Biblically accurate theology of the Gospel. And we’ve got to start living that way. Only then will we have first-hand knowledge of the good news. And only then will we have something worth inviting people to join.
heather as always great translation. glad and honored you are getting mileage. go for it lady. and just an fyi transformational architecture: reshaping our lives as narrative, the follow up to Static is out with zondervan in november.
ron
June 13th, 2008