The clue is in the word. Gospel. Good news. 

Jesus is crystal clear that embodying good news is the purpose of His life. At the beginning of His ministry He identifies Himself as the person who will bring Isaiah 61 into present reality: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has anointed me to tell the good news to the poor’ (Luke 4.18). 

In the flesh an encounter with Jesus was always good news. People were healed, not virtually or theoretically but physically, right there in front of your eyes. People were set free from a lifetime of mental anguish. People, thousands of very hungry people were fed. A child was brought back to life. A woman who was about to be stoned was saved. 

A gospel that brought healing and freedom, a gospel that reconnected people with their full humanity, a gospel that was the good news expression of the love of God.

 How did Jesus summarise living out the gospel?

When asked to sum up what that meant in terms of a rule for living, Jesus didn’t dive back into Leviticus, He was simple and radical. Love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40).

The freedom of the gospel

Unsurprisingly the religious mafia hated Him. After His sermon on Isaiah 61 they wanted to kill Him. It seems there is such a deep urge to control one another, to exert power, that the freedom of the gospel is always going to be hard to get right, especially within an institution.

There is a little verse in Luke that is hardly noticed: ‘Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?’ (Luke 12:57). That sort of freedom terrifies many Christians; they would rather be under law and be told what is right.

Some of the greatest freedoms have been gospel driven. Slavery had been justified on biblical grounds until some people began to take Jesus literally and judged for themselves that is was wrong. Liberation Theology arose from a fresh recognition that the gospel is good news for everyone, even, indeed especially, the poor and oppressed.

No bad news in the gospel

So why are so many Christians still locked into a good news-bad news scenario?

The good news is that God loves you; the bad news is that you are a miserable sinner. The good news is that God loves you; the bad news is that He requires you, if you are female, to be submissive. The good news is that God loves you; the bad news is that you are not acceptable if you are true to your own God-given sexuality. The good news is that God loves you, the bad news is that He can help with your poverty of soul but doesn’t care that much about your empty belly.

Of course we don’t frame it like that, but rest assured, that is how our message is perceived. The reason our society is falling out of love with Christianity is because we have managed to convince them that the word ‘gospel’ means bad news. We might manage to justify ourselves by claiming to be faithful, but when we fail to express and live out the joyous, radical love and freedom of the gospel we betray our faith and our Lord.