D.A Carson’s contribution to For the Fame of God’s Name : Essays in Honor of John Piper is a must read essay entitled, “What Is the Gospel?—Revisited”. Carson emphatically defines the gospel as that which God has done for us in Christ Jesus and nothing else. He says,
The heart of the gospel is what God has done in Jesus, supremely in his death and resurrection. Period. It is not personal testimony about our repentance; it is not a few words about our faith response; it is not obedience; it is not the cultural mandate or any other mandate. Repentance, faith, and obedience are of course essential, and must be rightly related in the light of Scripture, but they are not the good news. The gospel is the good news about what God has done. Because of what God has done in Christ Jesus, the gospel necessarily includes the good that has been secured by Christ and his cross work. Thus it has a present and an eschatological dimension. We announce the gospel. [1]
Read the table of contents of this book, and Carson’s essay here:
Or download the free, 32-page PDF here.
Footnotes
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[1] D.A Carson, For the Fame of God’s Name (Crossway, 2010) pg 162
