Scot McKnight of jesuscreed.org (one of the best blogs around) defines the gospel as follows:
The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of a community, for the good of others and the world.
Scot sees the gospel as the unleashing of an endless cycle of grace which reverses what Philip Yancey calls the “cycle of ungrace” in our hearts and world. The flow of the gospel is:
God embraces you and me and
God embraces others and
God embraces the whole created order.
Then:
You and I embrace God back and
We embrace others and
We embrace the entire created order.
What I like about Scot’s formulation is the understanding that the gospel is about forgiveness, about justice, and about the community of faith. The gospel is centered in relationships that are Godward (loving God) and otherward (loving others), and outward (loving creation) to the world in which we live.
In other words, the gospel is about every one of the three dimensions of our life. God is restoring broken people to full humanity in loving community with God and with one another, for the salvation of all creation.
Theologically, this thinking reflects a convergence between the two major evangelical wings of progressive dispensationalism and covenant theology in the last 40 years. This convergence happened as both wings embraced a better understanding of the “kingdom” message of the New Testament.
As I hinted at last month, the message of the gospel is not just get forgiveness and go to heaven when you die. We don’t just preach a Genesis 3 message (fallen sinners) followed by the redemption story of Good Friday (Christ’s atoning death) and its accompanying Easter story (Christ’s resurrection).
As Scot argues, while the gospel certainly embraces the Fall, the Cross and the Empty Grave, it must also include the biblical emphasis upon the beginning and ending of the Story–the Creation and the Eternal Kingdom.
The gospel, beginning with Creation, sees us as created to relate to God, to relate to others, and to govern the world as “image bearers.” God is working in the gospel to “restore and undo and recreate what we were designed by God to do and be”–in relation to God, others, and the created universe.
The gospel, ending with the Kingdom, then envisions a worshipping fellowship. As Scot says, we’re “packed like sardines into a banqueting hall of God, sitting at the table with another” in a renewed creation.
The gospel moves us ultimately into a “worshipping fellowship” in a renewed and restored creation–not into a individualized salvation story of going to heaven someday. We’re helping establish a kingdom in which Jesus is Lord of everything.