The Gospel Introduction
Christianity is not a religion, let alone one religion among many. It is God’s good news for the world. The Christian gospel has both a divine origin (it comes from God) and a human relevance (it speaks to our condition). So, before we ask the question, ‘What is the gospel?’, we must explore the logically prior question, ‘What is a human being?’
Chapter 1 (‘The human paradox’) is an attempt to do justice to what the Bible teaches and our own experience endorses. We will see both the glory and the shame of our humanness, both our dignity as creatures made in God’s image and our depravity as sinners under his judgment. Chapter 2 then presents what is traditionally called ‘salvation’ in terms of ‘Authentic freedom’.
Chapters 3 and 4 handle the central themes of the death and resurrection of Jesus which secured our freedom. I begin by tackling the five main objections to the gospel of Christ crucified and then the denials of his bodily resurrection. Then I argue that the significance of the resurrection of Jesus set out in the New Testament depends on the traditional belief that it involved the raising and transforming of his body.
In chapter 5, we look at the far-reaching implications, for both faith and life, of the seemingly innocent affirmation that Jesus Christ is Lord. Taking Christ’s lordship seriously leads to radical discipleship.