According to the Gospels, the gospel is not about the afterlife, but what “kingdom” you belong to here and now. Jesus talks a lot about the “kingdom of heaven” (or “of God”), and this is commonly misunderstood as a kingdom “up there” somewhere. But read what Jesus says about the kingdom. It is about the rule of God on earth, with Jesus as king.

David Williams has two recent posts (here and here) on the question, “what is the gospel?” [FYI, with a captial ‘G’, Gospel refers to one or more of the four Gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. With the lower case ‘g’ it refers to the concept, as in “preaching the gospel.” I usually charge good money for this information, but I’m in a good mood today. You’re welcome.]

Some people roll their eyes, no doubt. “What a silly question, only the kind eggheads or confused people ask. The gospel is the good news that Jesus was crucified to save sinners so they can get to heaven. Period. Let’s not make it complicated.”

Fair enough, but the question “what is the gospel?” is a big topic nowadays. No, they are not trying to make something simple into something complicated to confuse people needlessly. Rather, the common Christian way of answering the question–like the example I give above–misses a lot of what the New Testament says about the gospel. Which, if true, is a big problem.

That is what Williams is getting at in his posts, and they’re well worth reading.

Williams points out that “gospel” as it is commonly understood, at least among conservative Protestants, is tied to issues that were big during the Reformation. Martin Luther and others were struggling with the question of how we are made right before God, or as we might put it today, “how do you get saved?”

To make a long and complicated story short and simple, Luther argued that we are justified before God by faith alone, not by works. As we might put it today, “good deeds don’t get you to heaven.” Luther got that idea from the New Testament, especially Paul’s letters–or better, how Luther understood Paul’s letters given the kinds of questions he was asking, but I digress…

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