Jonathan Pennington's definition of the gospel

I got this definition of the gospel in my inbox this morning. It's from Jonathan Pennington in his book "Reading the gospels wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction" (pg 5, 16-17):

"Consistently throughout the New Testament Epistles the 'gospel' refers to the oral proclamation about Jesus the Christ (meaning the anointed Davidic King) - who he was; what he accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection; the promise of his future return to establish God's reign; and the concomitant call to repent and have faith. This is not a message of moralism or a call to greater religious obedience but rather is a proclamation of God's grace and the invitation to hope. This is why it is rightly called 'good news.'"

"The New Testament authors, building especially on the Isaianic vision, define the 'gospel' as Jesus' effecting the long-awaited return of God himself as King, in the power of the Spirit bringing his people back from exile and into the true promised land of a new creation, forgiving their sins, and fulfilling all the promises of God and the hopes of his people. This Isaianic vision is itself based on God's work at the exodus, which the prophets take up and reappropriate to describe God's future work. Because of this vision, described as the proclamation of good news, the apostles call their kerygma 'gospel,' and it is why the evangelists likewise describe the work of Jesus and the narratives about him as euangelion. In this there is univocality; Paul and the Gospel writers all understand their message to be one of God's reign coming in the person of Jesus through the power of the Spirit. The 'gospel,' whether in oral or written form, is the message of God's comprehensively restorative kingdom."

Thanks to Trevin Wax for his diligent work on this subject.
Check out his blog for more on this and other subjects:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/

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Early Christmas Card

Here's a bonus post! (Because I got mail)

Perhaps it should be called a Saviour-mas card? If you look at the card, you'll notice the word 'Saviour' has been made exceedingly larger than the rest of the text. I know it's not a 'big deal,' but I can't help myself because it epitomizes the rampant subtle diminishing of the rest of the message of the gospel, which includes Jesus' birth. Why isn't "Christ" larger? It is called Christ-mas after all...

This is one of my favourite passages on the gospel because it defines it clearly and succinctly. It is one of the ones I used as a basis to construct my definitions. The whole quote from the angel reads as follows:

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Lk 2:10-12 (NIV)

In the discussion about my short definition of the gospel earlier this week, I pointed out why I use "saves" instead of "Saviour" in my definition. It doesn't get used much in the Bible's gospel summaries let alone the entire New Testament. This verse is the only time it occurs in Luke, it appears once in John, and is absent from Matthew and Mark. Jesus's name means "God saves" and the verb is all over the place so I'm not saying to remove the concept.

However, the emphasis in the passage, and meaning for these Jewish shepherds is clearly bent toward understanding any type of salvation or saving being done by the promised King from the line of David who will rule the world (hence Lord). The fact that the future King and Lord of all who will bring joy for all people is born in an animal's feeding trough and is announced to lowly shepherds stuck in the fields working graveyard shift is the thing we should be noting. The saving action is incredible because of who he was, how he entered the world, and that all people, even the least, will benefit.

But let's not decrease the font size of "Saviour" either. It's one of the only instances we've got, and the act of saving is humbling and great to behold. Merry King-mas everyone!

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