"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me" (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).
Today, it is the twenty eighth day of June in the year of our Lord two thousand and ten. The current time is 4:17 p.m. (EST). It took me 43 minutes to get to work today. I have three hours left here at my job. For lunch, I had Mexican dinner leftovers which we brought home from our visit to my sister's work last night. My right leg is wrapped up due to a running injury and I have my blue Nalgene bottle empty on my desk. I need to fill it with water. There have been two things that have really excite me today. First, for the first time, Lydia and I ran together. Officially, I was running and she was laying "cool" in the running stroller. I am so happy that she really enjoy it. Second, one of my co-workers' (Larry) granddaughter placed very high in her karate tournament. This morning Mandy, Lydia and I prayed together and we sang "Here I am to Worship". The point to all this is that I, as well as you do to, live in time, space, and history. We are made of body and soul after God's image (Gen. 2:7; 1:26-27). I am a person. I have a mind, feelings, expressions, and relationships. And so are you.
Therefore, the Gospel must happen in time and space. It must be a historical event for it to be good news. And it was. Jesus Christ, the God-man, humble himself, came down from heaven to earth and live among us. He ate, drank, slept, had relationships, and worshiped God perfectly. Furthermore, He went to the cross, in history, to take away all the sins of those who would believe in Him. I have sinned against God in history and so if God is merciful, He must deal with my sin in history. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). The Gospel is a historical, redemptive work by God.
Take this event (and all the other redemptive acts) away, turn Christianity into a system of beliefs, and you don't have the Gospel. It is not an ideology, philosophy, or system of belief. It is not a set of truths which have been thought up by the best minds in the world or a man on a journey under a tree. It is not abstract thoughts. The Gospel, the "good news", is that God has broken into history and has acted decisively in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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