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What the good news really is

In modern Christian vernacular, “Gospel” means “salvation message”, according to Aaron Couch in his book Beyond Salvation. But in the New Testament, the “good news” is described as the good news of the Kingdom of God or the good news of Jesus, and never as the good news of salvation. Jesus did not just come to save us; he came to show us how to live in a way that is aligned with God’s agenda. Salvation is not the good news, but it is what gives us access to the benefits of the good news.

According to the author, the current problems with discipleship in the church are attributable to an inaccurate understanding of the Gospel. When we reduce the message to simply inviting Jesus into your heart, we overlook the core of what a relationship with Jesus is meant to be. The Gospel is an invitation to trust God’s story and the goodness in it. Fighting temptation is not a matter of exercising willpower, but a matter of trusting God’s goodness.

The implications identified in the book include:

  • Discipleship classes run by churches cannot by themselves create disciples
  • Accountability groups which involve trying harder do not give people real power over sin
  • Our Gospel message should start with the goodness of God, not the fallenness of man
  • Our testimonies should be more about who saved us than what we were saved from

One of the difficulties of saying that the Gospel requires something more than merely trusting in Jesus for forgiveness is that it starts to sound as if salvation is dependent upon works rather than faith alone. In my view, a careful reading of the book reveals that the author is not arguing that good works are necessary for salvation, but that they are a necessary part of an authentic response to the Gospel. This short ebook provides a very useful challenge to several current church practices. It is available for free download at: http://blog.exponential.org/2012/09/beyond-salvation-by-aaron-couch.