7. Gospel

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

We refer to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as the Four Gospels. But where does the word Gospel come from, and what does it actually mean?

The word we know as Gospel has an interesting history. It is a combination of two words from Old English: ‘God’, and ‘spel’, which once had the meaning to tell, to talk, or to share news or a story. So ‘Gospel’ literally means something along the lines of ‘to tell the good news of God.’ These books of the Bible which tell us the good news of Christ give us an amazing overview of the life Jesus lived on the earth, and the hope that his life continues to offer us today.

Interestingly enough, the word Gospel is an English word that developed over time, and does not actually appear in the original Scripture writings. The word that translates as Gospel was originally written in Greek as euaggelion. You may recognize that this is where we get our word ‘evangelism,’ which also means to ‘tell the good news.’ The writings about the life of Jesus are indeed good news, and it is a joy to share this news as everyday evangelists to the world around us!

8. Resurrection

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die’” (John 11:25).

There is one thing that we all have in common, and that is that no matter what we do in life, we all must die. This is the one ending that none of us escape. Yet, death does not have to be the end of the story.

After Jesus had been crucified, his dead body was placed in the tomb. What happened next would forever change history. Jesus was fully dead, and on the third day he was resurrected from the dead –  fully alive! The Bible teaches that this defeat of death was now available to those of us who believe in him.

The resurrection of Jesus stands far above any other event as the single most import event in all of human history. His resurrection is the one event in which we find hope, strength, peace, and courage to continue striving towards Christ in a fallen world. And because of the resurrection, we have hope that death is not the end, and we too will one day be raised to eternal life in Christ.

Photo credit: Pixabay/Congerdesign