A Voice from the Past: What Is The Gospel? -- By: H. A. Ironside
Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 11:1 (Spring 1998)
Article: A Voice from the Past: What Is The Gospel?
Author: H. A. Ironside
JOTGES 11:1 (Spring 98) p. 47
A Voice from the Past:
What Is The Gospel?a
“Moreover brethren I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 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 Cor 15:1-4).
It might seem almost a work of supererogation to answer a question like this. We hear the word gospel used so many times. People talk of this and of that as being “as true as the gospel,”2 and I often wonder what they really mean by it. What is the gospel? First I should like to indicate what it is not.
JOTGES 11:1 (Spring 98) p. 48
I. What the Gospel Is Not3
A. Not the Bible
In the first place, the gospel is not the Bible. Often when I inquire, “What do you think the gospel is?” people reply, “Why, it is the Bible, and the Bible is the Word of God.” Undoubtedly the Bible is the Word of God, but there is a great deal in that Book that is not gospel.
“The wicked shall be turned into Hell with all the nations that forget God.”4 That is in the Bible, and it is terribly true; but it is not gospel.
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”5 That is in the Bible, but it is not gospel.
Our English word gospel just means the good spell and the word spell is the old Anglo-Saxon word for “tidings,” the good tidings, the good news. The original word translated gospel, which we have taken over into the English with little alteration is the word, “evangel,”6 and it has the same meaning, the good news. The gospel is God’s good news for sinners. The Bible contains the gospel, but there is a great deal in the Bible which is not gospel.
B. Not the Commandments
The gospel is not just any message from God telling man how he should behave. “What is the gospel?” I asked a man this question some time ago, and he answered, “Why I should say it is the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, and I think if a man lives up to them he is ...
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