What is the Very Essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

The Very Essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

When I was in junior college, I had a friend, George, who was a music major.  George and I had similar tastes in music and we were talking about our preferred choice—rock and roll.  George told me that one of his professors asked the class what people liked about rock and roll.  Eventually, everyone agreed it was the beat.  The professor pointed out that the beat meant basically that percussion is the essence of rock and roll.  Strip away the guitars, the vocals, the keyboards, the harmonies, and all you wind up with is the beat.

Of course, rock and roll—all genres of music, really—cannot be boiled down to just one element.  None of life can be peeled back to a core issue that makes life interesting.  Try to define your love for someone using just one characteristic of that person.  It can’t be done.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is in the same vein.  It cannot be culled down to just one element, so rich is it in meaning and learning.  We have the benefit of centuries of learning, study and testimonies of faithful Christian men and women to rely on, and still we find new discoveries every day.  There is so much depth to the faith that we can spend twice as many centuries learning and living and would still only scratch the surface.

Still, there are certain building blocks that we can use as a foundation of living the faith in Christ.  As I have come to my understanding, I believe that the foundation of the Gospel is God’s love for us revealed through Christ and His Church through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

1. God’s Love for Us

If a person watched live sporting events in the late 70’s and early 80’s, you would inevitably see some guy in a rainbow wig waving a sign around with the words “John 3:16” written on it.  It is one of the more familiar verses in the New Testament.  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The Gospel tells us that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into our world as an expression and as a result of His deep love for all people.  The sending of Jesus into the world had so many ramifications.  It is through Jesus that we are introduced to the full meaning of Scripture (see Matthew 5:12-20), the fullest revelation of God Himself (see John 14:8-11; Hebrews 1:1-3) and the fullest expression of God’s love to a lost and dying world.  Because all this was a result of God’s love for us, then it seems reasonable to see God’s supreme and unconditional love for us is the very foundation of the Gospel.  This is confirmed as well by other verses of the New Testament:  1 John 4:9—This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him; Romans 5:8—But God demonstrated His own love for us in this:  while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  A few other verses to consider can be found in John 15:12-15 and John 10:17-18.  The love of God for us is a running theme throughout the Bible, from the creation stated in Genesis 1 through the ultimate triumph in Revelation 22.

2. Christ’s Expectation

Since God’s love is the basis for the sending of Jesus into our world, He had expectations that we would accept Jesus as the true revelation of God’s love to us and that we would put our faith in Him and His teachings.  We would be brought into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and would therefore seek to follow Jesus’ teachings in our daily living.  Since God’s love is the primary reason for the sending of Jesus, Jesus also expects love to be that which governs our daily lives.  When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Love God with everything we have, and exhibit that love in the way we relate to other people.

On the night Jesus knew He was to be betrayed and later crucified, He spent the last moments with His disciples giving them, and us, last minute instructions and encouragement.  He began that night by demonstrating ministry and love in the washing of the disciples’ feet.  When Judas left to betray Jesus, Jesus began teaching the disciples the essence of the Gospel.  He began with this commandment:  John 13:34-35—“A new commandment I give you:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so must you love one another.  By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”  The basis of the gospel is found in living a life of love as demonstrated by Jesus.  It is a love that is unconditional, as Jesus’ love was unconditional.  It is also a requirement of the faith:  “so must you love one another.”  And it is the defining element that distinguishes the Christian from the non-Christian—“by this [living a life of unconditional love as reflected in and through the ministry of Jesus Christ] will all men know you are My disciples.”

The apostle John took this to heart and sought to live it out in his life.  Tradition tells us that John lived a long life, focusing his ministry in the area of Ephesus.  We are told that near the end of his life, he was too feeble to do much, so he spent his strength repeating this phrase:  “Little children, love one another.”  He also wrote in his first letter these words:  1 John 4:16b-18:  “God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out all fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Jesus, who was sent into the world as the ultimate expression of God’s love, demonstrated that love throughout His ministry and His life.  He expects us to carry on that love through the new commandment, and He expects us to obey His commands out of our love for Him (John 14:15-16 and John 14:23-24).

3. Acting Out God’s Love

It’s one thing to know that God expressed His love for us by sending Jesus.  And it’s another thing to know that Jesus expects us to carry out the ministry of love in our daily lives.  But what is that love?  How do we do it?

1 John 4:7-8—“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  1 John 4:19-20—“We love because He first loved us.  If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, who he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”   This love comes to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is made available to us as we lay ourselves before God and yield ourselves to Him.  Love is the first element of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul lists in Galatians 5:22-23.  Jesus tells us at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that we shall be known by our fruit.

Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us that love is to extend to those who are looked down upon in our society.  Perhaps in our world, Jesus may have substituted illegal alien or married gay couple or Muslim for Samaritan, but the lesson still applies.  No one is to be excluded from this love.

Paul gives us a meaningful definition of the unconditional love that is to be the cornerstone of our relating to all people.  In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us, “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).  Looking at the way we relate to our world and the people in it, we need to ask ourselves if we are living according to this definition of love.  It is the unconditional love of God as demonstrated in Christ Jesus and made available to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  It is not an emotion; it’s a way of life.

I believe that the very foundation, the very essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to live a life that is centered in loving God by loving other people.  Without this love, the message of the Gospel is lost in the world.