Jesus Is the Gospel

The Christ-event is the gospel: Jesus of Nazareth manifests the kingdom of God in his life and mission. His ministry reflects in deeds his verbal preaching of the kingdom of God. . . By a life of sinless obedience to the Father and then as the Crucified One alive from the dead he attests his triumph over Satan and sin and death and over the law’s condemning grip on mankind. The risen Jesus exemplifies the kind of humanity that God approves in his eternal presence. He is the model of a new humanity, and all godly persons will be conformed to his image ( I John 3:2). His resurrection identifies him publicly as the divinely appointed Judge of all mankind (Acts 17:31). The good news of Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord, certifies that no one need permanently resign himself or herself to the tyrannical powers of sin and forces of oppression that would do us to death. The crucified and risen Jesus so confronts and challenges the crush of evil powers that they are even now already dated and doomed.

Carl F. H. Henry, “The Content of the Gospel,” God, Revelation & Authority, 3:5, p. 68.