What Is the Gospel According to Jesus?

In Galatians 1:11-12 the apostle Paul says that he received his gospel by a "direct revelation from Jesus Christ." Thus, the gospel according to Jesus is the gospel according to Paul! What is Paul's gospel? Donald K. Campbell, the third president of Dallas Theological Seminary, has well said: “The gospel message is simply that ‘Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve’ (1 Cor. 15:3-5). Paul said this was the gospel he preached to the Corinthians and it was the message by which they received salvation.”¹ Similarly, George Meisinger, the founder and first president of Chafer Theological Seminary, has written the following statements which are also very good:

“Paul reveals in [1 Corinthians 15] verses 3b-5 what he considered top priority gospel content. The gospel includes many truths, but 15:3b-5 are the crucial priority of the gospel, which he would preach if he preached nothing else. ‘The stress is on the centrality of these doctrines to the gospel message.’”²

“Now [1 Corinthians] 15:3b-5 forms a unit that answers the question, what is Paul’s priority gospel content…With four ‘that’ (hoti) clauses, the apostle boldly puts forth what he preached/delivered and what the Corinthians received/believed for eternal salvation.

First Aspect of the Priority Content: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (15:3b)….

Second Aspect of the Priority Content: He was buried (15:4a)….

Third Aspect of the Priority Content: He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (15:4b)….

Fourth Aspect of the Priority Content: Christ was seen by multiple eyewitnesses….

The Corinthians, as did all audiences to which the other apostles preached, believed/received the gospel in keeping with the priority content identified in [1 Corinthians] 15:3b-5. It is this content the Corinthians received/believed so that Paul may elsewhere say that they are sanctified in Christ Jesus (1:2, cf. 1:30), washed and justified (6:11), and forgiven (15:17)....1 Corinthians 15:3b-5 when received/believed results in forgiveness.”³

“Paul plainly makes known a sufficient gospel. He received it (from Jesus Christ Himself, Galatians 1:11-12), preached/delivered it as did other apostles, and the Corinthians as thousands of others throughout the Roman Empire received/believed it. What did they preach and receive: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, rose the third day according to the scriptures, and was seen by multiple eye-witnesses.”⁴

 

This is the gospel according to Paul, the gospel according to Jesus! 

Are you misquoting Jesus on the gospel?

References:

¹ Donald K. Campbell (DKC), entry for "Gospel", Charles R. Swindoll, General Editor, Roy B. Zuck, Managing Editor, The Theological Wordbook (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), p. 142.

² George Meisinger, "The Gospel Paul Preached: A Church Age Model of Evangelistic Content," Chafer Theological Seminary Journal (vol.?, #?), p. 5. Cf. George Meisinger, "First Contact: A Church Age Model of Evangelistic Content," CTSJ 13 (Fall 2008). 

³ Ibid., pp. 5-9, 12, emphasis his.

⁴ Ibid., p. 13.