Summarizing the Gospel (in 7 words)

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inThe Gospel

I saw this the other day and then noticed Scot McKnight had picked up on it on his blog also. Over at The Christian Century, David Heim reports on an invitation the publication gave to their authors. They asked them to come up with a concise summary of the Gospel message in seven words or less, and then to expand upon that in a few sentences.

So, for example, Martin Marty said,

God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you anyhow.

The gospel begins and ends with God. Jesus makes God’s action good news. But the word “Jesus” alone doesn’t help me; such Jesus is a nice guy, but I need Jesus Christ, God’s anointed. God welcomes (or “accepts,” etc.) you. According to Luther, the words “for you” are the most important in the sacraments (and preaching). “Anyhow”–fill in sin, guilt, pride, the misfires of “spirituality”–implies that you weren’t welcome without this transaction, and that you bring nothing to it.

Then there’s Lammin Sanneh (BTW: I really like this one!):

God was in Christ reconciling the world.

By his atonement, Christ effected our reconciliation with God and invested in us–without counting the cost–so that we may become teeming vessels of witness and service to others. God was in Christ to show that the only acceptable offering we can give God is ourselves. And we give God only the life that is already God’s. Christ showed that self-giving is self-abnegation. In hymn writer Augustus Toplady’s words: “Nothing in my hands I bring/ Simply to the cross I cling.”

You can go to the article and get links to other authors’ and readers’ responses.

* * *

Scot McKnight made these comments:

Not one apostolic sermon in the Book of Acts focuses on the gospel as God’s love for us in spite of who we are. Read the sermons in Acts 2, 3, 4, 10-11, 13, 14, and 17. The focus is on Jesus. The gospel is about Jesus.

The gospel in three words: Jesus is Lord (or King). Five words: Jesus is the expected Messiah (or King, or Lord). Seven words: Jesus is the expected King who redeems.

* * *

My turn. Let me give you a list of twelve seven-word summaries I came up with:

  • Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. All are welcome.
  • Jesus is the Promised King. Repent! Believe!
  • Jesus died and lives again as King.
  • Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures. He is Lord.
  • Jesus has introduced a New Creation. Come!
  • Jesus invites everyone to enter his Kingdom.
  • Jesus the King brought grace and peace.
  • Jesus the King forgives, redeems, and recreates.
  • God sent Jesus to make everything new.
  • Jesus, Messiah of Israel, is everyone’s King.
  • God’s grace comes to everyone in Jesus.
  • God did what he promised, sending Jesus.

You’ll note several emphases that may be brought out in different ways:

  • Israel, Messiah, King, Lord
  • Fulfillment of the promises given in the First Testament
  • Purpose of his coming: new creation, grace and peace, forgiveness, redemption.
  • The response the King calls for: repentance, faith, coming to Jesus
  • Jesus came for everyone, not just Israel

If I could make the broadest possible seven-word summary, I would say:

The Gospel is the story of Jesus.

* * *

Now it’s your turn.

Or, if you like, you could follow the lead of an article by Allen O’Brien and its comments: “What the Gospel is NOT, in seven words or less” and give us some seven-word descriptions of the false or inadequate “gospels” that you hear today.

112 thoughts on “Summarizing the Gospel (in 7 words)”

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  11. The Gospel is both racial and political since Jesus is the “King of the Jews.” Those words have gained a bad reputation in our time but the Gospel is racial and political in all the best ways since the offer is for us to become a citizen in His kingdom and a member of His family.

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  15. Nah, Jesus has to love either one or the other. He can’t possibly be a God of love that transcends our petty political whinings.

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  17. Here’s the gospel from the perspective of Benny Hinn, or Paul Crouch.
    😉

    “Give me money, money, money, money, money!!!” 😯

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  18. Ted…I’d offer these alternatives.

    “Whatever John Piper says is The Gospel”

    or…

    “Piper is greater than God; Heed Him”

    or…

    “Crap has more value to God than you”

    Nuts that last one is 8, I tried to capture the doctrine of total depravity. You know…where the maggots crawling in the dog crap in your backyard mean more to God than you, I, or anyone else.

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  19. I’ve been thinking about this off & on all day. I can’t improve on, “Gpd was in Christ reconciling the world.” It is biblical (of course!) & includes incarnation & atonement. It is deep, not shallow. Love it.

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  24. I’m not sure whether or not that would be good news. At first, I suppose it should be comforting, but then again, you may conclude that Jesus is smoking crack!

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  27. I hope this won’t get me kicked off the board…. 😉

    “Apart from God mankind is incredibly _______”

    Use your imagination for the blank spot!! 😀

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  30. Absolutely, Chaplain, we are dealing with translation here. But what is it we are translating? Obviously we aren’t working with the original Aramaic nor even the Greek translation. But if we don’t start with our English translation of what Jesus reportedly said as his own summary, we aren’t building on a solid foundation. We aren’t even translating, we are floundering around in the world of subjectivity and opinion.

    There’s nothing wrong with expanding on the original foundation. That’s what Jesus himself did for three and a half years. But he started with the foundation. We should too. Otherwise the discussion rings hollow because it is hollow. If the center is missing, how can you expand on it?

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  31. Some points from the cross;
    The dying thief didn’t get Jesus name.
    He didn’t know the four spiritual laws.
    He didn’t follow the evangelical formula.
    He couldn’t meet any requirement except a change of heart.
    He was promised same-day acceptance.
    He didn’t even say “Thank you Jesus!”

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  35. Well, I was just going to use the first part, Jesus loves me this I know. Then I realized I was counting syllables, not words, and it was only 6. But I was going to use it anyway!

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  41. Charles, all proclamation involves translation. Otherwise every sermon and teaching you hear would simply be quoting Scripture. Putting things into our own words or rephrasing or paraphrasing things can help us see the essence of a concept, a saying, a truth. I don’t think people are “inventing” anything. They are trying to summarize what they understand Jesus and the apostles to have said.

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  45. “Jesus is free bread for the hungry.”

    Slightly narrows the perspective, but I figured we’ve got the Kingdom, salvation, and forgiveness motifs covered already.

    Or, if we’re not going to be sticklers about excluding “law” from the gospel statement:

    “Jesus is bread for the hungry. Eat.”

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  47. I think there is a difference between political platform and political crisis. If Jesus is Lord, Ceasar is not. But, Jesus is not Ceasar either!

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  48. I have a much more trivial challenge for y’all: The Gospel in 7 words, AND an acronym. OR, do it in two rhyming, even metered lines. If you can do both at once, you’re a genius.

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  51. “The Kingdom of God is near” resonated with Jesus. It’s hard for us, because it’s still full of mystery and our propositional theology never does a very good job explaining it.

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  54. We don’t have to do anything. We can chose to follow a command, requirement, instruction or not. I can still choose to love (or not, as I do at times), but when Jesus says THIS(!) is my commandment, I take it seriously. And, quite possibly, His command to love is more for us than others in the long run…to experience joy and something outside ourselves (this is an extremely oversimplified answer, btw).

    It is good news that we can love by the power and example of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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  55. The beauty of an exercise like this is that it totally strips away the unimportant. For instance, no mention of total water immersion baptism. No mention of speaking in tongues. Feel free to add whatever man-made denominational “musts” you want to, those all go away when you try to boil the Gospel of Jesus down to 7 words.

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  63. Or perhaps, “Jesus is stopping God from killing you”… 🙂

    (It’s actually something I’ve heard someone say!)

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  64. Miguel, you’ve done the “amplified” version of a 7-word statement. That has to score some bonus style points!!!

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  66. These “seven word” kinda things are awesome exercises for us writer types, who are often told to use as few words as possible to tell (or “show”) our story. Reduce the Gospel to 7 words? I love it!

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  69. Well, loving God is not exactly about good works tho partly, like Jesus pointed out in his illustration of the sheep and goats. But you’ve got the rest of it pretty much right.

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  70. Wow, it is amazing how much this silly little exercise can quickly place us all on the theological spectrum map. I’ll have to try this at church. Here’s a very Lutheran attempt:

    Jesus gives forgiveness, life, and salvation freely.

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  72. According to Jesus and Paul, the command to love is the summary of the law. How could this possibly be good news, if it’s something I have to do?

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  73. “How do I get in? …Love God, your neighbor, and yourself.”

    Oh, so the Gospel is about doing good works to get in? This whole time, the church has done nothing but screw it up and get that message backwards.

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  74. I was listening to Over the Rhine this morning, and I think they sum up the Gospel pretty well:

    “All my favorite people are broken”.

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  75. God incarnated, was excruciated, propitiated, escalated, pontificated.

    Winner of “how many loaded words can you squeeze into a sentence” challenge! For all you Reformed folks 😛

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  78. In order for something to be good news, it must be news. News is in the indicative form, your sentence is in the imperative form. “Do this” is law, not gospel. Gospel says “it is done.”

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  79. This used to drive me crazy. Still would if I would let it. The question is meaningless as evidenced by all the disparate answers above. The question should be, “What is the Gospel according to who?” Yes, I see that hand. Yes, that should be “whom”. Thank you for pointing that out.

    I’m sorry people, but Jesus trumps Paul and all the apostles. He trumps Scot McKnight and Chaplain Mike and even Tom Wright. He trumps all the people above who have presented the Gospel according to themselves, not that they aren’t all nice thoughts in expansion of the core. So what was the Gospel according to Jesus?

    The Kingdom of God is near. Six words, don’t know how many that would have been in Aramaic. Jesus didn’t invent this. His cousin, John the Baptist, said it first. That was his job. Jesus spent three and a half years proclaiming this announcement and expanding on it. When he sent his disciples out to proclaim the Gospel, he told them exactly what to say. “The Kingdom of God is near.

    Now the first response to that would probably be, Oh, yeah? Who’s the king? Jesus wasn’t at liberty to answer that openly, but I am. Jesus of Nazareth. Three words. Oh, yeah? How do I get in? I can answer that too. Love God, love your neighbor and yourself. Seven words.

    Let me point out that the Gospel changed when Jesus breathed out his last breath proclaiming that it was finished. After arising and today he would say, “The Kingdom of God is here.” Most folks are still standing around looking up into the sky with their mouths open waiting. Go figure.

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  80. Jesus…living, loving, redeemer. You…made new.

    Jesus who died, lives to redeem. Believe!

    What happens in Jesus stays in Jesus.

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  82. The eighteenth century church leader and accidental founder of the Moravians, Count Zinzendorf, played a similar game, arguing that everything essential in the Christian faith can be written on one sheet of paper in large handwriting; he further summarised it as “worship the Lamb and the Spirit will work” (eight words, but he hadn’t read the rules).

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  84. There isn’t a perfect summary statement, so all have their flaws and strengths. But this one resonated with me as a child, and still does when we sing it at church. It’s a bit old fashioned for modern mega churches, but:

    “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

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  85. Hey, Michael, here is a gospel haiku for you:

    For God so loved you
    That Jesus made all things new.
    Live in the Spirit!

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  94. N.T. Wright may disagree, since he likes to emphasize that “Jesus is Lord” means that “Ceasar is not”.

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  99. Steve, summary statements are a common Jewish way of communicating the essence of complex matters. Think “the greatest commandment” for example, or one of my favorites — Micah 6:8.

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  103. Very thought provoking. I am going to cheat. My seven words are:

    Romans chapter one verses sixteen and seventeen.

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  107. Interesting that none of the descriptions contain the word “love”

    Even in our admirable attempts at reduction and clarity, we still find a way to miss the fundamental message.

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