I'm in the process of attempting to summarize the gospel of Christ with words I could use on a street corner or share with a mom on a park bench or prisoner in a jail cell. I've known the "good news" of Jesus Christ since I was a baby. I grew up with it and yet—maybe because it's so comprehensive—it's unbelievably hard to put it in words that we Christians could all share concisely and compellingly.
My background is marketing, so I know that for something to spread, it needs to be concise and memorable. We call this a tagline. A bit longer version is something we call the "elevator pitch"—something you can say to express what needs to be expressed to compel interest. And while I would never reduce the Gospel to a marketing principle, marketing principles are at work because we're dealing with people.
I've searched the scriptures, a large number of books, and even more videos to find the elevator pitch for the Gospel. The Apostle Paul explains the Gospel well, but uses up a lot of words to do so, lawyer that he is. (It would have to be a long elevator ride to work.) Most books and videos focus on how to start evangelistic conversations and ask diagnostic questions—which is NOT the gospel. A few theologians summarized with "Who Christ is and what He has done" (which wouldn't work for someone who has no idea of either). Then they took sooooooo long to explain both of those things with so much theology that it would only be useful if you were explaining it to a professor over dinner!
I'm looking for a concise, objective definition of the full gospel of Christ.
Christ's gospel of servant-hood is so counter-culture, how do we explain it simply? How do we communicate that the future age is breaking in and we, being in Christ are partakers of it? What does this inheritance include? How do we communicate the "downpayment" of this inheritance that is already happening (e.g. the Fruit of the Spirit and signs and wonders)? How do we communicate that we are sealed because we belong to him and he is responsible to complete the work? How do we communicate the Great Exchange that the Gospel provides?
R. C. Sproul said that in his seminary classes, he often asked his students (who are pastors and seminary students) to provide a concise definition of the gospel and he was pleased when 10% could actually do so. Seriously.
This concerns me: How can we expect to communicate what we've been tasked to preach, drive out demons, heal the sick, and so on, when we cannot say what the gospel is?
Many of the videos I watched also share their own testimonies and stories—which is also NOT the gospel, though it's useful in communicating with our lives and interaction with those we influence that Christ is still doing something. None of this is the Gospel.
You may have heard a saying, "Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words." It's often mis-attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, who evidently, never said it. While I get the importance of living what we preach, this saying is contrary to Bible. The Gospel has always been verbal (then followed by signs and wonders):
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" - Romans 10:14
Please hear me, I'm an advocate of living the Gospel. It is good to live as though we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, here, now. I love to study the -ification words! I love to learn how to walk out the Kingdom of Heaven and the Lion-and-the-Lamb future age to come. But what if we don't have a lifetime to communicate it? And what if our subtle living is totally missed because the people who are supposed to be paying attention to it can't or won't care. Or our elevated brethren who make glaring mistakes drown out our humble living? I experienced this in the Pacific Northwest, which had such a persecuted church that they looked and talked like shell-shocked people. Most of the Christians I encountered were testifying very quietly...if at all. All but a very small few were quite efficiently shut up.
This post is a CLARION CALL to understand and walk in the gospel and full understanding of what Christ did when his Kingdom broke in, what he is doing now, and what he will do in the future. It is necessary to preach the gospel so that we can appropriate the Kingdom of Heaven into the now. If we cannot do this, we cannot expect to live in equality, rest, joy, righteousness, or anything else promised to us, must less "endure to the end."
We must know, understand, and preach the gospel:
"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." - 2 Timothy 4:1-5
After we can say the gospel of Christ concisely and know it effectively, then we can spend a lifetime plumbing the depths of it.
Grace will prepare us to share His gospel.
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In case you are interested, here's my working draft (feedback welcome):
Motivated by love, Jesus Christ seeks out the suffering, sick, and rejected, frees us, restores us, heals us, adopts us, and proves we are his by extending himself—his holiness—in an exchange that makes us whole. He suffered and died on the cross to free us from the bondage and misery of pursuing our own selfish desires and the destruction it brings. He rose from the grave to free us from the curse of death. He ascended into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of the Father, praying for us who will follow the path he blazed as we are transformed into a new creation by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, whom he sent as a deposit on his kingdom to come. We receive by faith and repentance all that he does for us so we might joyfully do the same for others, which is the will of God, our Father.