The Gospel

Gospel means simply "good news." Many of us have probably been asked whether we believe the gospel. The better question would be do we live it. Let me explain.

I belong to a Christian tradition -- Presbyterian -- that has equated gospel with the watch words of the 16th Protestant Reformation, namely "justification by grace through faith." Those are good watch words. They are true. They are right out of Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. But they don't equate with the gospel.

According to Jesus, the gospel is embodied in his words "The kingdom of God is at hand." Jesus says these words repeatedly right before very important things happen in the gospels of the New Testament. In other words, the kingdom is in and through him. The kingdom announced by Jesus is a new way of life, that looks and sounds and feels like the life Jesus lived.

Affirming theological truths has its place, but it's only one patch on the quilt. Living in the way of Jesus, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, is the quilt's border that gives meaning to each and every patch within the quilt.