“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” – 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (NIV)
Have you ever heard of Lake Itasca?
You might not have. Lake Itasca is a very modest lake up in Clearwater County Minnesota, about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. Looking from the outside, the lake doesn’t look like much, just one more marshy body of water in an area filled with them.
But Lake Itasca is very significant indeed, since it happens to be the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River! From this plain little lake, 2000 miles of mighty river flow and wind southward, finally emptying out into the Gulf of Mexico. This of course means that what goes into that lake is extremely important. Pollution has a massive effect on the downstream waters, and all the ecosystems that grow around them.
Wellsprings are precious, and need to be taken care of.
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the original wellspring of the Church.”
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the original wellspring of the Church. Out of this simple message, everything we know that is called “Christianity” flowed down through the river of time and into the present day. When we take care to preserve and clarify this message, we are preserving and clarifying everything that it feeds and nourishes as well.
Why does the Apostle Paul take pains to give this Gospel message with such clarity? Because polluting it or getting it wrong could have dire effects. Paul even seemed to think that this message provided the hinge on which ultimate salvation swung for all people (See Galatians 1:6-9).
The Greek word translated “Gospel” itself can point us to a pertinent reason why getting it right is so important.
“Euangelion” means “good news,” which on the surface doesn’t seem very significant. In fact, one of the ways the Gospel can be polluted is by downplaying the contextual significance of this word in favor of a generalized “good news” that means “anything that makes us feel happy or uplifted.” While we could all certainly benefit from reading more good news on a regular basis, the “good news” of the euangelion has layers of meaning that need to be clarified, not made generic. So what does it mean?
First, its context in the Hebrew Scripture points to the proclamation of a military victory. Isaiah 52:7 gives us a very typical picture of a messenger running day and night across the mountains in order to deliver the message of victory to a beleaguered people. To those who are waiting to hear whether their king is victorious or defeated, whether they have been rescued or all is lost, the messenger serves as the most significant voice they will ever hear:
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation..” Peace, good tidings, salvation…all of these things are now the reality for those whose king has won a victory. But if that king has lost, well, they’re on their own. Conflict, a succession of terrible news, and delivery into the hands of the enemy are now their reality.
“Your God reigns!“
Isaiah 52:7
We would be missing the point, however, if we kept the meaning of the word focused on human battles and human victories. The last part of this verse directs us into a whole new understanding of what these ancient authors meant when they referred to this good news:
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those…who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
The proper frame for understanding the Gospel, then, is as a proclamation of a victory won by God himself. The messenger in Isaiah comes racing over the mountains, feet bleeding, breath raggedly wheezing from hours and hours of running, to tell a beleaguered and fearful people that God has defeated his enemies, and a new reality has come.
Any conception of Gospel, therefore, has to begin with this idea as its foundation.
Secondly, euangelion had a specific political meaning in the first century.
The Greeks in the province of Asia in 9BC put forward this celebratory message to announce the birthday of Caesar Augustus:
“It is a day which we may justly count as equivalent to the beginning of everything – if not in itself and in its own nature, at any rate in the benefits it brings – inasmuch as it has restored the shape of everything that was failing and turning into misfortune, and has given a new look to the Universe at a time when it would gladly have welcomed destruction if Caesar had not been born to be the common blessing of all men…..Whereas the Providence which has ordered the whole of our life, showing concern and zeal, has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving to it Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men, and by sending in him, as it were, a savior for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere….”
“This Gospel is the wellspring out of which ‘you are saved.'”
When people of this time and place called something “euangelion”, it referred to the victories, policies, and accomplishments of the Caesar, the “god-man” whose cunning had brought prosperity and peace to the far-flung citizens of the Roman frontier.
Two different kinds of “good news” from two different time periods.
One focused on a victory God wins, the other on a victory a “god” wins.
And it’s in the mashing together of the Jewish hope for the proclamation of God’s victory and the Greco-Roman belief that Caesar had accomplished it all himself that we find the Apostle Paul referring to a “gospel” that he’s preached to the Christians in Corinth.
This Gospel is the foundation on which they have “taken their stand.”
This Gospel is a message that has been passed on and delivered to many.
This Gospel is the wellspring out of which “you are saved.”
So what is it?
In the next few posts, we’re going to explore exactly what makes this Gospel so unique, precious, and powerful. We’re going to dive deeper into its content, the multi-faceted truths it contains and what exactly it means that God has won a victory.
The Gospel is the wellspring of everything that has come before us, and will be the wellspring for the faith of generations to come. We must guard it, know it, and proclaim it.
For without, we have “believed in vain.”
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