“Gospel” means “good news,” and surely, good news is welcome not just at Christmastime but anytime. However, the Gospel is not just any good news. It is a specific good news from a definite source about a particular subject.

Identifying the Gospel

Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines “Gospel” as “the message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation.” The word “gospel” is also defined as “an interpretation of the Christian message (the social gospel)”; “the message or teachings of a religious teacher.” Do all these definitions apply? No, not if we are speaking of the Gospel. The real Gospel is based on the Bible; hence, only the first of those three definitions is accurate. The last two merely reflect the way that the word “gospel” has come to be used today.

In harmony with this thought, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says that in the Christian Greek Scriptures (the “New Testament”), the Gospel “denotes the good tidings of the Kingdom of God and of salvation through Christ, to be received by faith, on the basis of His expiatory death.”