The Gospel
One gospel, one Saviour, and a promise issued to every nation on earth.
Primary Texts
Mark 1:1 • Romans 1:1 • Romans 3:23 • Ephesians 2:1-9 • 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 • Romans 10:13
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not an American gospel.
That has to be said plainly, because it is easy for any believer anywhere to read his own country into the text. A man raised in a Christian home in a Christian nation can come to assume, without ever once deciding to assume it, that the promises of God run along the same lines his passport does. The gospel was carried into America. It did not come out of it.
The Gospel Has an Owner
Mark opens his account with a sentence that functions as a title over everything that follows.
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Mark 1:1 (KJV)
Paul introduces himself in Romans with the same message under a different name.
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.”
Romans 1:1 (KJV)
Put those two verses side by side and the ownership is settled. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is the gospel of God. Scripture never once calls it the gospel of a people, a place, or a period of history. It belongs to God, it concerns His Son, and God gave it to be carried into the world.
That matters more than it may first appear. A message that belongs to God cannot be edited by the culture that receives it. The receiving culture is the one under examination.
What the Word Gospel Carries
The Greek word behind gospel is euangelion, which means good news, and specifically the announcement of something that has already happened. A herald brought word of an accomplished fact, and the hearers had to reckon with it.
That is the shape of the Christian message. The gospel announces what God has done in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a report of an event, and the event took place in history, outside Jerusalem, under a Roman governor.
A Problem That Crosses Every Border
The gospel reaches every nation because every nation needs it. Paul establishes that before he ever states the remedy.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23 (KJV)
The word to hold on to is all. Paul has spent the preceding chapters closing every exit. He has examined the openly wicked, then the morally respectable, then the religiously advantaged, and he arrives at the same verdict in every case.
“There is none righteous, no, not one.”
Romans 3:10 (KJV)
That word reaches every nation on earth, and it includes this one. No national history, no founding document, and no church attendance figure moves a people out from under it. The standard in Romans 3:23 is the glory of God, and measured by that standard the nations stand together on level ground.
Paul states the principle behind the verdict elsewhere in the same letter.
“For there is no respect of persons with God.”
Romans 2:11 (KJV)
The Condition Beneath the Problem
Sin is what men have done. Ephesians 2 goes underneath that to describe what men are apart from Jesus Christ.
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
Ephesians 2:1 (KJV)
The word is dead. Paul describes the man outside of Jesus Christ as dead in trespasses and sins, and that is the diagnosis in every nation on earth. A dead man has no capacity to improve his condition, which is exactly why the remedy has to come from outside him.
Paul continues the sentence by naming the influences at work in that condition, the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and he ends with a phrase that removes any thought of national exception. Men are “by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
But God
Then Ephesians 2 turns, and the turn is made on two words.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
Ephesians 2:4-5 (KJV)
Everything hangs on those two words. The subject of the sentence changes from what men were to what God did, and every verb after that point belongs to God. God loved. God quickened. God saved.
Paul makes the point explicit four verses later, in the clearest statement in Scripture of how a man is saved.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)
A gift closes the door on national merit along with every other kind of merit.
The Gospel Stated in a Single Paragraph
Paul states the content of the message in words he says were handed to him before he handed them on.
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (KJV)
Three facts carry the whole gospel. Jesus Christ died for our sins. Jesus Christ was buried. Jesus Christ rose again the third day. Paul anchors the first and third to the Scriptures, which means the plan was written down long before the event took place, and the burial stands between them as the proof that the death was real.
Through that death and that resurrection God provides forgiveness, reconciliation, eternal life, and salvation to every person who believes on Jesus Christ. Those four words describe one work of God, applied to individuals, in every nation where the message is carried.
Whosoever
Having established that the problem crosses every border, Paul draws the conclusion.
“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:12-13 (KJV)
Whosoever is the widest word in the sentence. It sets no boundary of nation, language, ancestry, class, or history. The same Lord is Lord over all, and the same call brings the same salvation from anyone who makes it.
Paul says the same thing again to the Galatians, in terms that dissolve the categories men usually stand on.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28 (KJV)
The Multitude John Saw
If there were any question about the reach of this gospel, the answer is settled by what John was shown at the end of the Bible. The redeemed are described by the blood that bought them and by where they came from.
“Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”
Revelation 5:9 (KJV)
John later sees the result of that purchase.
“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb.”
Revelation 7:9 (KJV)
That is the finished work of the gospel, shown in advance. All nations, all kindreds, all people, all tongues, standing before one throne and one Lamb.
What This Means for a Believer in America
An American believer holds the same gospel as a believer in Nigeria, Peru, Korea, or Iran, on the same terms, purchased at the same price. Gratitude for the freedom to hold it openly is right and proper. That freedom is a mercy from God, and the message itself still belongs to God.
The commission settles the posture.
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15 (KJV)
Every creature. That is the reach of the gospel, and that is the size of the field.
Praise the Lord. Every believer in Jesus Christ carries this news, and God has sent it to the world.
Amen.
Salvation is only through a personal relationship with God the Father by grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. At the moment of saving faith, the believer is instantly and permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who regenerates, seals, leads, guides, empowers, and sanctifies in their walk with God.
If this study helped you, please share it. • The Prevailing Word of God
Related Teaching
The Blood of Jesus Christ Was Shed for the Forgiveness of Sins
Common Questions
Is the gospel an American gospel?
No. It has an owner, and He is not a nation. One gospel, one Saviour, and a promise issued to every nation on earth.
Is it possible to read your own country into the Bible without meaning to?
Yes, and it happens easily. A believer raised in a Christian home in a Christian nation can assume, without ever deciding to assume it, that the promises of God run along the same lines his passport does.
Who is the promise for?
Whosoever. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13), and John saw a multitude out of every nation.
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
Watch the teachingNew verse by verse studies go out every week on YouTube, King James Version, with the passage on the screen. Subscribe to The Prevailing Word of God, taught by Pastor John Kempf of Melbourne, Florida.