The Essense of the Gospel

Introduction 1. What is the core essence of the gospel? This is a question many Christians never ask themselves, but the most common answer given by Church of Christ (CoC) members is that Jesus died to take away our sins. This answer never fully satisfied me, however, because I felt God could just forgive me if he wanted to, and Jesus forgave numerous people's sins long before he died on the cross. Why did Jesus have to die as a substitutionary atonement? I also felt that Jesus rarely explained the gospel in the way I heard many Christians explain it. Why do many CoC members summarize the gospel in ways that seem so different from the way Jesus talked about his own mission and purpose? I still believe Jesus died for our sins, but I am not sure we should default to explaining the essence of Christianity in this way. After hosting Bible studies in China for several years, and realizing that this popular version of the gospel does not resonate or sound reasonable to most Chinese people, I began pondering how I should explain the core message of Christianity to myself and others. This outline grew out of my attempt to answer that.

Introduction 2. "Gospel" means good news. So, what is the good news? From my own readings of the gospels and book of Acts, and through my own attempt to tally up instances when the gospel was explained, I have come to think the essence of the gospel consists of three things: Jesus demonstrated who God was (image), Jesus proved death is not annihilation (life), and Jesus is building a better community (kingdom). Each of these three elements is also interrelated.

Image 1. Most ancient humans believed the gods were evil. Homer portrayed the gods as mired in their own selfish whims, and Greek philosophers admitted we should avoid connecting morality with the gods. The Canaanites sacrificed babies to blood thirsty Moloch. The Aztecs hated their gods and thanked the Conquistadores for destroying their many temples of human sacrifice (as recorded by Bernal Diaz). However, humanity did not want to think badly of the gods. There were often attempts to ascribe good moral order to heaven's will. In ancient East Asia, many early philosophers claimed that Tian ("Heaven") awarded leaders who behaved righteously. The Zhou dynasty philosopher Mozi wanted everyone to believe in ghosts (lower gods) because humans would only avoid evil if they thought ghosts could punish their secret sins. However, the reason Mozi had to argue about this point was because many of his contemporaries disbelieved in ghosts, and they felt that evil people went unpunished and good people went unrewarded. In this amoral world, the most wretched people are the righteous poor who have no hope of reward in this life nor the hereafter. The ruthless rich "win" this life and suffer nothing. There is no hope for a righteous society or community because there is no incentive for being a righteous person when doing the right thing interferes with one's personal lusts and ambitions. Zhuangzi, another philosopher from the late Zhou dynasty, went even further than the ghost skeptics. Zhuangzi believed that nobody could know whether we are living in reality or just an illusionary dream. He extrapolated that, because humans know so little, they cannot guide their actions, know the purpose of their lives, or create solid ethical rules. Zhuangzi pointed out that even the winning side of most debates is wrong: "It is clear that neither you, I, nor anyone else can make decisions like this amongst ourselves. So should we wait for another?" His response was negative: "To wait for one voice to bring it all together is as pointless as waiting for no one… learn to grow old… forget about worrying about right and wrong. Plunge into the unknown and the endless and find your place there." Life has no discernible meaning. Laozi, in dialogue with Confucius, discussed the cycle of natural phenomenon and reincarnation: "Maybe there is one who controls and ensures all this, but if so, then no one has seen any form or shape… Beginning and end follow each other inexorably and no one knows of any end to this. If this is not so, then who is the origin and guide?" What these ancient philosophers needed was the "form or shape" or the "voice" of a "guide" to come down from Tian (Heaven) and "bring it all together." What humans needed was for the gods to lead them into meaning and righteousness. However, this guide was missing, and we lacked any reason to believe the gods expected humans to be moral. Without meaning or morality, life was just chaos followed by death. Even in the Jewish context, in which the people had received promises and law, God still had no image, and the Jews were forbidden to make one.

Image 2. The form, shape, voice, guide appeared with Jesus the Word. Jesus repeatedly asserted that he was the image of God, that if we heard his voice and saw him then we had also heard and seen the Father. Jesus was the Son of God, the perfect image of God in human form. The gods were neither evil nor apathetic, Jesus' incarnation proved that when deity took human form it did so as a perfectly righteous and empathetic man. There was one God, and he was a loving Father. The son was the image that proved who God was and what he wanted. Jesus was the image that brought everything together and interpreted reality for those who might otherwise despair of existential meaning. Jesus was the answer to Zhuangzi's question about whether humanity should wait for a voice to explain and unite everything. The creator God's form and shape had finally appeared to arbitrate reality and morality. Tian (Heaven) was so concerned with humanity that he became a human in order to show solidarity and intimacy with us. The image of God walked among us, and his presence proved the gods are neither evil nor apathetic to our meaning and morality. 

Life 1. Life loses if death is final. Entropy ensures that all life will eventually die. Earth will be a dead rock in a dead universe. In a world ruled by death, righteousness is absurd. Why should anyone care about righteousness when everything is doomed? Why should we sacrifice anything for righteousness when this life is the only life? What is wrong with being wicked when life can only be seen as a short period of indulgence and suffering followed by eternal black nothingness? An impoverished righteous man has no hope of being rewarded, so why would he choose to be righteous instead of amassing status and wealth through wickedness? Without eternal life, human righteousness is absurd, self-sacrifice is absurd, and even existential meaning is absurd. The ancient Greeks believed that everyone's soul descended into Hades as a shade, a pale weak shadow of what they were in life. The greatest dead man is still worse off than the poorest living man. Some ancient East Asians believed ghosts could become gods. Mozi believed that people would not have enough motivation to do the right thing if there was nothing beyond death to hold us accountable, but his belief was mostly just utilitarian. Even the ancient Jews were conflicted about the afterlife because their Old Testament expressed little hope for the dead. However, this was all just speculation.

Life 2. Jesus repeatedly asserted that he came to bring eternal life. Those who believe in him have the promise of eternal life after death, and Jesus demonstrated that promise by rising from the dead. This is good news for the righteous who now have a logical reason for their courage to suffer in this life in pursuit of the ultimate good. Negative earthly consequences, like poverty and social ostracism, no longer mean as much when eternal glory is waiting. Good actions will be rewarded, evil actions will be punished. Eternal life emboldens the righteous to stand up for good in every situation. Before Jesus, there was no evidence that justice prevailed either in this life or the next. New hope appeared with Jesus that empowered the righteous over the wicked. Blessed are the poor and persecuted because they now have hope for justice, they now have hope their righteousness will be rewarded. 

Kingdom 1. Most human societies, especially ancient tyrannical ones, but even many democracies, are dominated by sociopathic people who lack morality and are willing to say and do anything for power. This wicked element of the population often dominates secular society because there is little holding them back. They can do things no righteous person would do to achieve their ambitions. Studies show there are a disproportionate number of sociopaths among our elites. Wickedness seeps down through society and furthers an unjust social order that makes righteousness a harder and more lonely endeavor. It produces structural evil. Humans have always longed for just society and righteous leaders. 

Kingdom 2. Jesus explained the gospel as being the declaration of God's coming kingdom. He told people to repent and purify themselves so they could enter this kingdom. Jesus was the founding king, and he proved his worthiness by personally dying to establish his kingdom (rather than forcing others to die for it). This kingdom is the church, and the church is an alternative society sustained by the mutual love Jesus' followers feel for God and one other. This kingdom will last forever, and it will provide community and dignity for righteous people who would not succeed in a secular world operating on wickedness. This kingdom is composed of soldiers who have no fear of dying for the sake of righteousness because they have a King who died for them and his promise of eternal life. Secular society follows the example of the pagan gods, they allow their ambitions and lusts to dominate and drive them. The citizens of God's kingdom, however, follow the true God through his image Jesus. Armed with knowledge of God and hope for eternal life, we should expand this kingdom of righteousness around the world. Since ancient times, across the world, in every civilization, people have sought for and prophesied the coming of a great king who would rule righteously. Confucius was disappointed because he could not find a righteous king in his era, and many have felt the same sorrow; but Jesus came, the fulfillment of this ancient desire, and he is leading his kingdom. Today, his kingdom is the largest and longest-lived in human history. Jesus overthrew the old gods, he replaced them with the one true loving righteous God. The Iliad was replaced with the gospels. Jesus triumphed over the world, a righteous king has reclaimed the throne.

Spirit. The Holy Spirit might be added as a fourth core element of the gospel. The gift of the Spirit is mentioned numerous times throughout the gospels and Acts, and he is certainly good news for humans who want to experience God's personal presence and work in the world. Humans are weak, and we need his help to guide and strengthen us. The Spirit is further proof of God's benevolent intimate connection with us, his indwelling makes us sacred centers where heaven and earth meet, and he is a constant repudiation of the pagan interpretation of the gods as malevolent beings in need of pacification with sacrifices and praise. The Spirit also guides the development of the kingdom community, and he is the pledge God has given that he will resurrect us to eternal life.

Objections 1. Most low church Protestants would summarize the gospel in a very different way. They would talk about how Jesus died as a substitutionary sacrifice to wash our sins away and make us right with God. I do not deny the truth of this expression of Jesus' meaning, but I do not think it is the core essence of the gospel. The good news was not communicated in substitutionary atonement language in the four gospels or Acts. Jesus spoke of himself as guiding us via his identity as God's son, giving us eternal life, and bringing God's kingdom. Jesus talked about sin, but he did not talk specifically about washing our sins away with his death on the cross. When he established the Lord's Supper, he drew comparison between himself and the Passover lamb; but the original lamb was not a sin sacrifice, its blood protected God's chosen people from the death angel. The most important verse people might cite in opposition to my perspective is Matthew 26:28: "For this [wine] is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." However, this verse is one sentence out of five books, and the parallel gospel accounts of the same conversation do not even mention the forgiveness of sins. However true substitutionary atonement might be, it cannot be considered a core element of the gospel when the three elements mentioned above are discussed at length throughout the first five books of the New Testament. In fact, whole gospels appear to be dedicated to the kingdom (Mark) and to Jesus being the image of God (John). One or two verses should not override these bigger elements. Orthodox Christianity does not teach any form of substitutionary atonement, and this half of Christendom was the larger half in early Christian history. Should we, as modern western Christians, claim that half of Christendom entirely missed the essence of the gospel for thousands of years? Furthermore, the Apostles Creed, the earliest extra-Biblical summery of Christianity, makes no mention of substitutionary atonement. This theory only emerged in the Protestant Reformation.

Objections 2. Some might criticize my interpretation for emphasizing the gospels and Acts over the epistles. However, I think this emphasis is appropriate for several reasons. Firstly, because the gospels are "the gospels." Secondly, because the gospels were written as stand alone summaries as opposed to the often confusing epistles about which we lack significant context. Thirdly, because I think we need to interpret the epistles through Jesus rather than trying to smash Jesus into the box we probably misunderstand the epistles to be smashing him into. I personally struggled to understand Jesus' life and words until I stopped trying to filter him through Protestant interpretations of the epistles.

Objections 3. What, then, is the forgiveness of sins? Acts 26:18-20 suggests the forgiveness of sins comes about by turning towards God in repentance. Jesus' passion obtained via his blood the repentance and restoration of everyone who joins the church because they believe in his gospel story. Jesus had to die because it was through his being "raised up" that people were drawn to him through the hope his death and resurrection story gave them. Peter said twice, in Acts 2:38 and 1 Peter 3:21, that our sins are washed away in the pledge of baptism. God forgives our sins because we have returned to him by pledging fealty to his image and son Jesus. Humanity is like the Army of the Dead in The Lord of the Rings, we rebelled against God the first time around, but when his son, Aragorn, descends into Hades and calls us to fulfill our oaths we follow his call and find redemption and forgiveness.

Objections 4. We should not mistake metaphors for the essence of the gospel. There are numerous images used in the New Testament to communicate the meaning of Jesus' atonement work, but we should not exclusively elevate any of these to the supreme position (especially those not found in the gospels).

Conclusion. The three core elements of the gospel listed above work together as a package of good news that provide everything humanity needs for renewal. We now see God and his will in the world, we now have hope for eternal life that gives us courage to live righteously, and we now have a kingdom community founded on love rather than sociopathic self-interest. This is my personal perspective on the essence of the gospel.