And while the Bible is gospel-centered, the gospel is Christ-centered. Even Mark does not call his book, as we do, “the gospel of Mark” but “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” There is no good news outside of Jesus Christ. There may be philanthropy or religiosity, but there is no true gospel.

The Bible is gospel-centered. The Bible is not primarily calling you to be a good person, but to trust in the grace of God to make you good enough for heaven.

The Gospel In Both Testaments

After describing the wickedness of the earth in Noah’s day, the biblical narrator interjects, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. [then] … Noah was a righteous man … Noah walked with God.” Noah’s walk with God flowed out of God’s grace to Noah.

In Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, both sons (the promiscuous one who left home, and the self-righteous one who stayed home) had wandered away from and displeased their Father. The older son was full of rules, trusting in his own excellent record, confident in his position in his Father’s house because of his good behavior — and so was just as wrong as the younger son who had run away and recklessly spent his Father’s inheritance.

The point of the story, then, is not how good either son was, but how good the Father was to them in spite of themselves. It is the story, as Tim Keller reminds us, of the prodigal (prodigious spender) God! The Bible is “good news” precisely because it is gospel-centered.

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