What is the simple Gospel?

3/9/19        Gio

I often find the need to remind the church attenders I meet during gospel outreach conversations of just what that basic gospel is.  At a Target Starbucks recently, I needed to ask a young churchgoing man named Gio many leading questions in order to help him remember what I’m pretty sure and hope he has been hearing at church all along.

Paul, after having written several chapters on church conduct to the believers in Corinth, felt the need to remind his readers once again of the simple Gospel when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 – “ Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”

Paul wasn’t writing to the Church universal, as in strictly to born-again believers.  He was writing rather to the gathered church at Corinth, so he would have been well aware that there would be believers of many different levels of maturity and understanding and even some unbelievers in their midst.  He didn’t want the “church stuff” he had been discussing to distract from the Gospel, so he paused his message to give a reminder of that simple message. 

What was that basic gospel?  Paul went on:  “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  

The Gospel is primarily about Jesus, and His death and resurrection on our behalf.  Let’s never forget that, and keep reminding one another, lest we drift away from it into the dangerous waters of easy-believism or works righteousness.  We must hold firmly to the Word, or, as Paul put it, “Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”

Thanks for allowing me to record our conversation Gio! It can be seen at https://youtu.be/DqWM2psnV4w on my YouTube channel.