What Is The True Gospel of Jesus?

In middle school, I used to go out with church members from the church we attended on what was called "Visitation."   

Visitation was nothing more than going out into our neighborhood to knock on doors and ask people if they died right that moment, would they go to heaven or hell. 

I looked like the kind of person who would knock on doors and ask that question.  I wore a clip-on tie and a short-sleeved dress shirt with slicked-back hair courtesy of Bryl-Creem.  

Additionally, I  carried a giant Bible, not because I was trying to be super pious, but because it was a large-print version that my parents got me for Christmas one year because I couldn't see the small print in a regular Bible. 

That last bit was lovely and choked me up a bit.  I'm not entirely jaded about my former fundamentalist Christian past, and my parents went to great pains to get me a Bible that was easy to read.  

Still, that must have been a real sight to those who answered their doors when I knocked.  

Going door-to-door selling salvation was never comfortable for me.  I often wondered what difference any of it made, except to learn what it meant to experience rejection that ranged from polite recusal to full-on cursing and door slamming.  

I wondered if the Gospel was somehow bigger than what we were pitching.  I wondered if we were just turning people off to Christianity.  As it turns out, I was right to wonder.  

The "Gospel" we were peddling was nothing more than a "get out of jail free" card; only the jail was supposed to be eternal, and the punishment was fiery, grim, largely imaginary, and had nothing to do with what Jesus actually declared as "good news."

You see, in a world saturated with challenges—social injustices, environmental degradation, and the fragmentation of community—the true Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us not merely to the saving of individual souls but to the transformative healing of our global community. 

Author and creator Rob Bell once said, "The Gospel is an embodied reality—it’s not a magic bullet that you hand someone.” 

This statement underscores the essence of the Gospel: it’s not just a set of beliefs or doctrines; it is a living, breathing force that compels us to engage with the world authentically and passionately.

In Luke chapter 4, we encounter a profound declaration from Jesus that encapsulates the heart of his mission. Jesus declares that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him “to proclaim good news to the poor… to proclaim freedom for the prisoners… to set the oppressed free.” 

Jesus articulates a vision of the Gospel that extends far beyond individual salvation—it's an active commitment to address the societal needs around us. His mission defines a holistic approach where spiritual, physical, and emotional realms are intertwined, urging us to see the struggles of others as our own.

N.T. In his book, The Challenge of Jesus, Wright elaborates on this, asserting that Jesus’ work was about establishing God’s kingdom on earth—restoring what was broken and setting things right. This is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Further, this vision calls us to participate in this divine mission. When we follow Jesus, we are invited into a profound partnership to join Jesus where the world is hurting and seek justice, repair relationships, and steward creation.

The problem is that embodying this Gospel in our daily lives presents its own set of challenges. It demands that we confront our comforts and complacencies instead of leaning into the discomfort of advocacy and active service. 

We need to listen more than we speak, act more than we observe, and love more than we judge. This is where the real beauty of the Gospel manifests: in the tangible acts of kindness and the radical embrace of those who feel marginalized or forgotten.

As we reflect on what it means to follow Jesus, remember that each act of love, each effort toward justice, and every moment of compassion is a thread in the larger tapestry of God’s redemptive work in the world. 

We are called not just to receive the Gospel but to embody it. 

Let our lives be a testament to hope and a beacon of change as we share the transformative power of Christ’s love. In doing so, we not only change lives—we help to save the world. Embrace this calling with courage, and let our actions echo the heart of the Gospel.

May it be so, and may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever.  Amen.