What Is Paul's Gospel? Chester McCalley on 1 Corinthians 15:1-5

Some non-traditional Free Grace proponents of the Duluthian faction have redefined the biblical gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 by saying that it doesn’t include the burial of Christ, nor his resurrection appearances afterwards. But what does the Bible say? 

In the following article by Chester McCalley, he explains the biblical definition of “the gospel” from the Apostle Paul himself, and ultimately from the Lord Jesus Christ by whom Paul received his gospel message (see Gal. 1:11-12). Here is the entry for the term “Gospel” in Chester McCalley’s book:

“This is a compound word made up of eu, meaning well or good in the sense of being pleasant, and angello, meaning to announce. Together they convey the idea of a pleasing announcement, good news, or as in our translations, gospel.

     Outside the New Testament, it may be good news from one person to another. It is interesting to note, however, that in the New Testament it is always good news from God to man. It is therefore used only of a divinely conceived message of hope directed to man by God.

     If one gathers all the passages using the word, they may be divided into two classes. First, there are those passages that concern God’s kingdom (Matthew 4:23, 9:35; 24:14; Mark 1:14-15, and 10:28-30). The good news concerned the coming of Jesus to be Israel’s king, assuming the throne of David. Second, the word euangelion is used in connection with the salvation provided in Jesus Christ. Peter speaks of God’s choice of himself ‘that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe (Acts 15:7).’

     In Acts 20:24 Paul says he was specifically commissioned to preach the ‘gospel of the grace of God.’ While we often speak of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as ‘the gospels,’ the verb form of this word is found only ten times in Luke and once in Matthew. The noun form occurs no more than fifteen times in the four ‘gospels.’

     When one turns to the writings of Paul, the word gospel is found over sixty times! Paul is the explainer and definer of the gospel of the grace of God. It is the consistent theme of all his writings. 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 is his most condensed statement of its content. In this passage, he uses four verbs with Christ as the subject of each. Christ ‘died,’ ‘was buried,’ ‘was raised,’ and ‘appeared’ (literally, ‘was seen’). It is important to note that the words for our sins are connected only with the verb died. The significance of the death of Jesus is found in its dealing with the sin problem. The guilt and penalty of our sin was paid fully by Him; this is truly euangelion–‘good news’!”[1]

Reference:

[1] Chester A. McCalley, Words of the Faith (Kansas City: Word of Truth, 1997), pp. 33-34, italics his.