What is the Gospel?

Last week I attended a conference put on by Advance the Church that centered around the theme of “The Revolutionary Gospel.”  The word “Gospel” is tossed around alot these days.  I’ve seen people freeze in class when asked to define it, I’ve heard two hour lectures on it, and I’ve seen myriads of books focused upon it.

I believe that a robust Gospel is important for the church moving into the future.  Yet in the Mainline churches I frequent, I fear that we often forget some of the basic truths about this message (1 Cor 15:1-8).  At the conference,  Tim Keller proposed a simple definition of the gospel which I believe is a great starting point as we seek to participate in God’s saving work throughout our world:

The gospel is that sinners are saved by Jesus’ work and not their own works.

Some other good quotes from the conference:

• “Discipleship to what or whom? – How we answer this determines our lives.” – Alan Hirsch
• “The gospel saves us to be disciples.  The great commission isn’t evangelism text but a discipleship text.” – Alan Hirsch
• Jesus must be both Savior of your life and Lord of your life.  You can’t separate these two. – Alan Hirsch
• “Law can tweak behavior but only the spirit can change the heart.” – Darrin Patrick
• How do I know if I’m doing behavior modification or my character is being changed?  Answer this question: Who is more impressed with you right now, the people who know you the most or people who know you the least? – Darrin Patrick
• If we aren’t led by the spirit then the result is self-righteousness and behavior modification – Darrin Patrick
• We know how to market impact but we don’t know how to make impact.” – Eric Mason
• We defend defend Christianity with urgency but do we live it out with passion? – JD Greear
• “Many of us may not be doctrinally where Rob Bell is but we practically are where he is.” – JD Greear
• “The disconnect isn’t between the power of God and the mission of God but between the people of God and the mission of God.” – JD Greear
• “Until you know the size of the debt and the cost of the payer you don’t know whether to say thank you or to fall on the floor and say command me.” – Tim Keller
• “There will be no joy in the grace of Jesus unless one sees that they are lost.” – Tim Keller
• “If you can define the church without Jesus then you can do the church without Jesus.” – Alan Hirsch