The story of the life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return of Jesus of Nazareth was called the euangelion, or “good news” (e.g. Romans 1:16). But how might it have been understood as good news?
The question which always ought to be asked about the prospect of “good news” is: good for whom? Those who lived in the Mediterranean world in the first century would have constantly heard the most recent “euangelion” proclaimed by the Roman Emperor, generally the “good news” of Roman victory in some recent conflict. The victory might have been “good news” for the Roman elite, but it would have hardly been understood as “good news” by those who had just suffered the brutality of the Roman army. Likewise, all would have been bombarded with various forms of propaganda expressing the “good news” of the Pax Romana, or the “Peace of Rome,” which of course was maintained at the end of the spears of the Roman army. Such “good news” might not have seemed so “good” to the many thousands who lived as slaves or Roman subjects highly burdened by oppressive taxation.
Therefore, we must confess how “good news” to some is not understood as “good news” to others. And the message of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return was really not “good news” for everyone in the first century. The Gospel was not “good news” for Satan or the powers and principalities over this present darkness, since Jesus triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). The Emperor would not have been amused: he claimed to be “Lord” and the “Son of God,” and if Jesus were truly the Lord and Christ, the Son of the living God, then Caesar assuredly was not (John 20:30-31, Acts 2:36). The Gospel was certainly not “good news” for the Jewish religious establishment, since Jesus foretold their humiliation and the destruction of all they held dear (cf. Matthew 23:1-24:37). Most of the wealthy and powerful would not have found the Gospel to be “good news,” since Jesus condemned the love of money and power and embodied love and humility instead (cf. Matthew 19:16-24, 20:25-28).
And yet, as the Apostle Paul would confess in 1 Corinthians 1:26, many other people perceived very good news in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return: in it they found love, belonging, acceptance, and liberation. The Gospel was eagerly received less by the educated, wealthy, and wise, and far more so by those degraded and dehumanized in Roman society: the poor, slaves, and women. Many of these, including sinners and tax collectors, had been attracted to Jesus during the days of His ministry (Matthew 9:10, Luke 15:2). Whereas the religious and social authorities did everything they could to remain separated from the masses, Jesus welcomed everyone to come and learn of Him.
Therefore, many thousands of people who had been considered and deemed less than human, or less than ideal, found acceptance in Christ. Jesus had lived like they did, and Christians regarded them all as having equal value in the sight of God, and acted like it (cf. Galatians 3:28, 6:9-10).
In that very way, the church became part of how Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return was understood as good news. The church at its best became the community of the people of God, and those who committed themselves to the Way and Life of Jesus shared what they had, provided for those in need, visited the sick and imprisoned, and did so without regard to class or social standing (e.g. Hebrews 13:1-19). People would hear the story of Jesus and would then see the transformation in life of those who had accepted its truth. Persecution and martyrdom would only add to the reputation of the Christians: whatever they believed about Jesus must have been very serious and important to them if they were willing to suffer and die for it, and in the process many others would hear and likewise become convicted.
It was not as if Christians had the best public relations in the first century and afterward. From almost the beginning false teachers arose and promoted distorted versions of the Gospel which appealed to various subgroups within the Roman Empire, whether the Judaized message of the Ebionites, Gnosticism for those enraptured with the prospect of secret knowledge, and the like. Scandalous rumors were spread about what Christians did in their assemblies: they were accused of cannibalism on account of the Lord’s Supper and for incestuous orgies because of joint participation in “love feasts” and identifying one another as “brothers” and “sisters.” Some early Christians would write apologies, or defenses, trying to explain the truth of what God accomplished in Jesus and how Christians live to explain to others, but these kinds of treatises probably worked more to encourage Christians than they would have been found persuasive to outsiders. The Christians resisted the rumors about them by living according to the Gospel: they continued to love one another, provide for those in need, and would bear witness to their commitment to Jesus even unto death. And despite all the salacious rumors, people would come to hear and accept the story of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return as the “good news” it was always intended to be.
Over time the Gospel would thus spread and many thousands would become Christians. Within and after the fourth century, Christianity would gain standing within the Roman Empire and would become its official religion. The good news of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return would be appropriated to serve the interests of the state and its elite for generations. In the Western world, people would be just expected to accept Jesus as Lord and serve the king and whatever religious and secular establishments existed in the land, and to understand how all of that worked together well.
And so various forms of theologies and doctrines were developed which claimed to be “good news,” but really were not. The marriage of convenience between church and state often meant many prickly aspects of the Gospel message were blunted or suppressed. Western theology began to make far more of the cross than the empty tomb, and theologians developed and later emphasized and prioritized the penal substitutionary atonement theory of Jesus’ death. In this framework, a wrathful God punishes His Son as opposed to people in the world; it is not terribly far off the mark to present this viewpoint as “God so hated the world He punished His Son,” and such did not really sound like “good news” whatsoever!
In recent years, the development of the marketplace of goods and ideas has tended to transform the way the Gospel was presented. The Gospel is often considered the “solution” to the “problems” mankind faces: a decision for Christ is marketed, promoted, and sold not unlike many other “lifestyle” products of the day. In our marketplace we can find marriages of convenience between the Gospel and the church with business and the cult of leadership; in this way, much of what you might hear from the pulpit or in small groups in churches sounds almost indistinguishable from what you might hear in the corporate boardroom. When there seem to be few qualms about the acquisition of goods and resources by the few at the detriment of the many, we have to wonder what has happened to the “good news.”
In our current predicament we might be tempted to think the Gospel just needs a good rebranding. Instead, we do well to consider what made the Gospel good news in the first century world, and then apply it to our current circumstances.
If the “good news” of the life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return of Jesus of Nazareth was not perceived as “good news” by the religious and social establishments of the first century, we should not expect our current religious and social establishments to really consider it “good news” either. In the first century, this meant rejection of the Gospel and the persecution of its adherents; today, it tends to look more like the appropriation of many of the themes of the Gospel to create a distorted Gospel, and the marginalization and persecution of anyone who would cry out regarding the points of variance between what Jesus was really and truly about and what those in positions of influence and power are trying to promote. The most hostile and vicious persecution will come from those who have convinced themselves they are God’s faithful people and are in the right: so it was in the first century, and so it is now.
If the “good news” of the life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return of Jesus of Nazareth was primarily perceived as such by the marginalized and poor in the first century, and if we do not see the marginalized and poor of today hearing and heeding the message, we do well to wonder what has happened. James the Lord’s brother expected most Christians to be numbered among the poor (cf. James 2:5). If the marginalized and poor are not coming to faith in Jesus, in what ways are those who promote the Gospel failing them? Have churches become so enamored with middle class members and values as to prove hostile and uncomfortable for those who are among the marginalized and poor?
If the “goodness” of the “good news” was confirmed in the testimony of the transformed lives of the Christians who confessed Jesus as Lord in the first century, can people today see testimony to the lordship and power of Jesus in His disciples today? Wherever the church is generally living up to the message it proclaims, and people are loved and welcomed into the life God has provided in Jesus, care and provision are made for those in need and in distress, and Christians jointly participate in life in Christ, will not many see the difference in their lives and want to share in that life? Even if Christians and the church are everywhere maligned, if we are trusting in Jesus as Lord and are better displaying the fruit of the Spirit rather than the works of the flesh, will not our light shine, and many will want to share in Christ on account of it?
Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return is good news because God in Christ has liberated us from the power of sin and death. The Gospel is good news because God has done all He could in Christ to reconcile us to Himself and to share in His life now and forever. The Gospel is good news because God has given His people of His Spirit so they might grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and manifest the fruit of the Spirit to a world awash in demonic wisdom and selfish endeavors. The Gospel is good news because in Christ God has overthrown the powers and ways of this world, and Christians are invited to jointly participate in His Kingdom to display to the world a very different way of relating and living.
At the same time, the good news of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return is not good news at all for any and all who remain committed to the ways of the world in its corruption and decay. Therefore, we all do well to commit ourselves to the ways of God in Christ through the Spirit, and to resist the ways of this world in its futility. May our lives bear witness to our confidence in the life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return of Jesus of Nazareth as good news; may we embody that message well so others may see its goodness and share in its goodness; and may God give us strength and wisdom to hold fast to this testimony as good news if we encounter the hostility and persecution which comes from those forces for whom the Gospel is less than ideal. In all things may we believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and have eternal life on account of the good news of all of what God has accomplished in and through Him!
Ethan R. Longhenry