What is the gospel, and why does it matter? In this interview, Matthew Bates, author of multiple books on the gospel, takes us on a tour into the center of the Christian faith: the gospel of Jesus.
Q. Gospel Allegiance. The Gospel Precisely. Why the Gospel?. I’m sensing a theme in your latest book titles. What is it about studying the gospel that never gets old for you?
It is a heartbreaking disaster out there: violence, addiction, sexual abuse, bullying, depression, gender dysphoria. The gospel is how God is bringing about his powerful rescue (see Romans 1:16-17).
And let’s face it even more squarely: it is a huge mess in here too. I’ve failed. You have too. Our churches are complicit. We do not always live up to our King’s pattern and commands. This still happens.
My personal experience of rescue has been an up-down-up process. I first recognized my sinful rebellion against God and God’s ways as a child, but this didn’t take root in my life in a significant way until I began to study Scripture and got involved in an inner-city ministry during my undergraduate years.
I’ve also experienced devastating brokenness in the church: back-stabbing, power-grabbing, relational angst. Church is where the brokenness hurts the most, because we have every reason to hope and expect better there.
Yet all along the way, I can personally testify: hints here, glimpses there—restoration! I’ve tasted and seen the eternal quality of life that is sourced in King Jesus. I’ve experienced his goodness. There have been highs and lows, but I’ve recovered significantly. Many others bear witness to King Jesus too. So I know King Jesus can bring healing for others and for our broken world. I’ve seen how this restorative work happens not simply in individual lives, but in Jesus-shaped communities, spilling out from there to the world. And it happens in no other way than through the gospel.
“I’ve tasted and seen the eternal quality of life that is sourced in King Jesus. I’ve experienced his goodness.”
But recovery doesn’t happen fully when the church presents half-baked versions of the gospel. We need the whole gospel, for the sake of the church and the world, and the need is desperate. So in my various books, I keep pressing to keep the complete gospel, the one found in Scripture, front and center.
Q. Are there any key gospel concepts we might have left behind in trying to package the gospel as simply as possible?
Yes. We tend to make the gospel all about finding forgiveness at the foot of the cross. In so doing we neglect other themes as gospel:
Incarnation.
Resurrection.
Enthronement.
Spirit-sending.
That is to say, the church, past and present, may be fully aware of these additional themes, but they are relegated to the category of doctrine or additional church teaching rather than imperative as gospel. The church is harmed when these are not considered integral to the gospel itself. Later in this interview, I’ll treat just one of these themes briefly, incarnation, to illustrate why.
Q. What has studying the gospel taught you about the heart of God?
A quote from my most recent book captures well what I’ve learned about God’s heart. God’s love is shocking and restorative:
“The purpose behind all other gospel purposes is simply this: God’s extraordinary love. The cross unveils the astonishing height, depth, and breadth of God’s love. Not only do Father, Son, and Spirit love us despite our sins, God loves us so much that the Son was willing to suffer in that unbelievably cruel way for us. Why the gospel? Beyond all else, the gospel is motivated by God’s cross-shaped, self-emptying love for us.”[1]
In other words, God’s heart is radically giving: it is for us and for creation as a whole. God is not just sort of for us, but is to the extent of the pierced wrists and ankles, the crown of thorns, and the gaping side of Jesus.
“Why the gospel? Beyond all else, the gospel is motivated by God’s cross-shaped, self-emptying love for us.”
Q. How has studying the gospel helped you strategize how to help the spiritual “nones” and “dones”?
I speak to this issue extensively in Ch. 6-7 of Why the Gospel? Here I can only say a few words. “Nones” are those who have never had a religious affiliation. “Dones” are those that previously identified as Christian or who were in some fashion attached to the church, but can’t be described that way now.
Sociological research performed by the Barna group (and others) indicates that there are common reasons why nones and dones are presently opting to remain in that category. The main reasons include hypocrisy in the church, intellectual doubts, and partisan politics. In every case—surprise!—the true gospel that we find in Scripture, once it is clarified and grasped, proves to be the necessary antidote.
For example, the gospel proclamation, “Jesus is King,” naturally aligns a person’s body with their mind, fronts allegiance to the King rather than certainty of belief, and constitutes an alternative political body—the church.
What is the gospel? “The gospel proclamation, ‘Jesus is King,’ naturally aligns a person’s body with their mind, fronts allegiance to the King rather than certainty of belief, and constitutes an alternative political body—the church.”
Researching this portion of the book bolstered my hope: as the church removes impurities that attend its present gospel articulation, refining it in light of Scripture, I’m convinced that the nones and dones will respond. The gospel is what the church and world need in order to recover from their terminal illness, so it remains the best possible news for nones and dones today.
Q. Okay, so what is the gospel?
The gospel is the proclamation, “Jesus is the Christ”—that is, the rescuing King. As the Christ, Jesus brings many benefits to the world and to his people. I’ve described the gospel as a ten-part narrative about Jesus as the Christ.[2] Each one of the ten parts is explicitly said to be part of the gospel or appears in a presentation of the gospel in the New Testament more than once. I’m not sure I can presently improve upon that description:
“The gospel is that God is in the process of restoring glory through Jesus the rescuing King, who:
- preexisted as God the Son,
- was sent by the Father,
- took on human flesh in fulfillment of God’s promises to David,
- died for our sins in accordance with Scripture,
- was buried,
- was raised on the third day in accordance with Scripture,
- appeared to many witnesses,
- is enthroned at the right hand of God as the ruling Christ,
- has sent the Holy Spirit to his people to effect his rule, and
- will come again as final judge to rule.”[3]
Although all ten elements deserve treatment (and I do this in various books), let’s briefly unpack the significance of #3, taking on human flesh.
We tend to miss why the incarnation is essential to the gospel. All too often we celebrate the incarnation during Christmas merely as the necessary prelude to Jesus’s death on the cross. But Jesus’s human life, not simply his death, is essential to our salvation because full human rescue is a transformative process that includes the restoration of our human glory.
What is the gospel? “The gospel is the proclamation, ‘Jesus is the Christ’—that is, the rescuing King.”
The Word takes on human flesh precisely to unveil God’s glory (John 1:14). Jesus is God the Son, but he is also the apex of what it means to be fully human within God’s creation project. Jesus’s actions are signs that pull back the veil, showing us what it means for a human to image God in a glorious fashion (John 2:11). When we intentionally gaze upon Jesus—upon his whole pattern of life—this gives us access to the glory, and through that the opportunity to give loyalty to King Jesus, to find life, and to begin to experience our own restoration of glory (John 20:30-31; 2 Corinthians 3:18). In other words, the incarnation is good news not simply because it leads to the cross. It is good news because it gives us access to transformative glory—and this is essential to the fullness of salvation.
Q. What pushback have you gotten for your definition of the gospel, and how do you respond?
Since I am simply seeking to synthesize Scripture, my work has not been particularly controversial. To the degree it has been encountered, my description of the gospel has been widely accepted by scholars and pastors. Yet pushback has come from a specific pastor-theologian, Greg Gilbert. In a published keynote address at the Together for the Gospel Conference (2020), Gilbert critiqued my definition of the gospel as well as Scot McKnight’s. Gilbert claimed that we “take the story of Jesus’s kingship and divorce it from the realities of personal salvation, forgiveness, atonement, and justification.” Since McKnight and I felt misrepresented, and that a public conversation could lead the church to a healthier place, we penned responses to Gilbert. It turned into a social media frenzy, with many pastors and scholars weighing in.
Greg Gilbert follows and seeks to build upon John Piper’s work. Piper asserts that apart from the receipt of personal forgiveness first, “The Lordship of Jesus is terrifying, not good news.”[4] This was seconded by Gilbert. But this is not how gospel language is used in the New Testament or the wider Graeco-Roman world. Outside the New Testament, gospel language (euangelion; euangelizomai) pertains especially to a new Caesar—it is empire-wide good news—irrespective of whether a new emperor means good news personally for this or that citizen.[5]
The situation is the same in the New Testament. A new king is “good news” regardless of whether it will prove to be personally advantageous for this or that person. So gospel language is used in the New Testament to describe the proclamation of King Jesus even among mixed audiences that include those who reject Jesus’s kingship (e.g., Luke 3:17-18; 4:43; 10:15; 20:1; Romans 10:9-16).
“Gospel language is used in the New Testament to describe the proclamation of King Jesus even among mixed audiences that include those who reject Jesus’s kingship.”
The gospel is about Jesus’s kingship first. On the basis of Jesus’s kingship, God constitutes a forgiven people as part of the gospel (“the Christ died for our sins”—1 Corinthians 15:3). Contra Gilbert and Piper, Jesus’s kingship is objectively good news (gospel) whether or not any individual responds to it, because it brings the possibility of forgiveness for any who choose to respond. A key benefit of the gospel of Jesus’s kingship is the forgiveness of sins for all the king’s people, but this benefit is conditional. It is enjoyed only by each person who declares “faith” (allegiance) to Jesus as the Christ, so that he or she becomes part of his forgiven people when the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of salvation to that individual.
Q. I know it isn’t fair of me to ask you to answer this in a short space (since you wrote an entire award-winning book[6] answering it), but I’m going to ask it anyway. Why the gospel?
Yes, this is unfair! Since God’s purposes in giving the gospel in Scripture are multifaceted, Why the Gospel? seeks to burnish each facet, so that all the manifold purposes of the gospel shine brightly. Rather than answer fully, I’ll simply give two clues: (1) I am a horrible king of my own life—and doubtless you are a horrible king of yours; (2) to a surprising degree, the gospel is about the restoration of fame. Paul describes the good news as “the gospel of the glory of the Christ, the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). This is a neglected gospel-defining verse, but once Scripture’s “glory cycle” is understood, this verse unlocks many of the mysteries about how salvation works.
Q. You taught me a new word: “gospeling.” What is “gospeling” and why might we consider adding this to our vocabulary (and lifestyle)?
In the New Testament, the gospel (euangelion) is not simply a noun but it is also a verb: euangelizomai. “Gospeling” involves testifying that Jesus is the king. The church has fallen into problematic habits with regard to its gospeling. Here’s the key: we must learn how to gospel in reverse. In Why the Gospel? I give four practical suggestions for how to gospel backwards. Here’s one:
“Incorrectly ordered content: Because he offers you forgiveness, Jesus is your Savior. Accept his salvation. Next he wants to be King of your life.
Reverse it!
Correctly ordered content: Jesus is the King. Accept his kingship, because through it Jesus is offering you saving rescue, including the forgiveness of your sins.”[7]
I also have suggestions for how to begin evangelism in a better way: how to lead with our own personal stories of brokenness and King Jesus’s restorative power.
“The gospel is what the church and world need in order to recover from their terminal illness, so it remains the best possible news for nones and dones today.”
My prayer is that Why the Gospel? will help the church to more fully proclaim Jesus, the rescuing King, so that everyone has the chance to encounter his life-giving power.
[1] Matthew W. Bates, Why the Gospel?: Living the Good News of King Jesus with Purpose (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023), 86.
[2] See Matthew W. Bates, Gospel Allegiance (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2019), 86-87; Bates, The Gospel Precisely: Surprisingly Good News About Jesus Christ the King (RENEW.org, 2021), 34.
[3] Matthew W. Bates, Why the Gospel?, 74.
[4] John Piper, The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2007), 86.
[5] For example, Josephus, War 4.618; 4.656.
[4] Bates’s book Why the Gospel?: Living the Good News of King Jesus with Purpose won the Christianity Today Book Awards 2024, in the category of Popular Theology.
[5] Matthew W. Bates, Why the Gospel?, 160-161.
