The Gospel Plus Anything Is Not The Gospel At All

The term gospel can be a hopeful balm, a source of unity, or a lightening rod for controversy. At least, it’s used all those ways among evangelicals. However, in Scripture, the gospel is a fairly simple (though deep), straightforward concept. It is the “good news” of all Christ has accomplished for us through His death and resurrection. It is the juxtaposition between the wrath we deserve by our very nature (Ephesians 2:1-10) and the lavish grace we have received in the place of that wrath through Christ. It’s not that He just removed His hand against us, but that now His hand is so very much FOR us. All in, through, and by Christ. By His grace and not any work of our own.

And that’s about it.

The use of the term gospel is something about which I am doing a lot of thinking as I work on a potential study on The Gospel-Centered Woman. I see in myself a tendency to throw the term around in imprecise ways. Yet it is the precision of the gospel in its simplest terms that is the power of God for salvation. While the gospel informs everything else, it is NOT everything else. So I read today a criticism of a group of good conservative evangelicals with whom I agree on MUCH. I didn't agree with everything said in the series of criticisms (I HATE that I need to say that, but someone will inevitably point out some sub issue from the criticism and I don't want to focus on that). The overarching critique is valid. The group in question has chosen to center their title around the term GOSPEL. Yet their basic documents (which one must affirm to be a part of this group) extend way past the gospel. A more accurate title for their group would be along the lines of the “Gospel Plus Some Other Things Group.” I have no qualms with a group organizing themselves around shared doctrinal beliefs that extend past the gospel. Just be precise in how you say it.

I think the group in question does have a good grasp of exactly what the gospel is and is not. I hope that they will prayerfully hear this criticism (not that any of them are reading this blog) and correct the perception that they are including the gospel plus some things in the term gospel. Because the entire point of the gospel is that it is NOT plus some things. It affects all things, but it stands on its own as the good news precisely because it is effective for our total salvation apart from any other work. We who most want to uphold a correct understanding of what Scripture means when it uses the term may most undermine it if we are not precise with what it is and what it is NOT. The somber warning of Scripture is that the gospel plus anything is not the gospel at all.