What Is The Gospel?

To sum up, then, we may say that, according to the general consensus of New Testament teaching, a gospel is not a gospel when -

1. it is detached from the Jesus of history;
2. it gives little or no place to the passion;
3. it exalts human achievement in place of the grace of God;
4. it adds other conditions to the one which God has declared acceptable (even if those additions be things good and desir­able in themselves);
5. or it treats righteousness and purity as things which the truly spiritual man has outstripped.

On the other hand, a gospel is a gospel when:

1. it maintains contact with the Jesus of history, affirming that “this same Jesus “who came in the flesh and died is the vindicated and exalted Lord;
2. it embraces and proclaims “the stumbling-block of the cross”;
3. it extends the grace of God to men for their acceptance by faith;
4. it relies upon the power of the Spirit to make it effective in those who hear it; and
5. it issues in a life of righteousness and purity which is sustained and directed by the love of God.

–F.F. Bruce, “When is a Gospel not a Gospel?” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 45 (1963): pp.319-39 Tip of the hat to Kendall Harmon.