The Gospel

1Co 2:1-2  When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with superior eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony of God. (2) For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Col 1:27-28  God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (28) We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ.

“Jesus did not come to deliver a gospel, but to be himself that gospel. The gospel is the good news of God’s own coming. The cumulative event of the sending, coming, living, dying, and continuing life of this incomparable One is the gospel. The gospel does not introduce an idea but a person—“we proclaim him!” (Col. 1:28). The “him” proclaimed is one whose life ended in such a way that all before and after has become decisively illumined. What was written about him was not written simply as biography, for biographies are written of persons who are dead and quite deactivated. A biography is a written history of a person’s whole bios (“life”). A biography of a person still alive is by definition incomplete. Rather the gospel is the account of a person who remains quite active, palpably present, whose heart still beats with our hearts, one who died who is now alive” Thomas Oden