Wright’s ‘The Gospel’

In conversations/discussions I’ve been involved in surround NT Wright, objection have been raised to his ‘redefinition’ of ‘the gospel’. Wright summarizes (or, perhaps, compacts is a better word) what the gospel is into the simply phrase ‘Jesus is Lord’. It is said that in this, Wright guts the gospel of all it’s meaning and importance. It no longer deals with sin and redemption, and cannot save anyone. That the statement is insufficient.

This objection was raised by someone that claimed to have read WSPRS. But in that book (p.60) Wright gives some basic conclusions about ‘the gospel’. I’ll quote him here:

My proposal has been that ‘the gospel’ is not, for Paul, a message about ‘how one gets saved’, in an individual and ahistorical sense. it is a fourfold announcement about Jesus:

1. In Jesus of Nazareth, specifically in his cross, the decisive victory has been won over all the powers of evil, including sin and death themselves.

2. In Jesus’ resurrection the New Age has dawned, inaugurating the longawaited time when the prophecies would be fulfilled, when Israel’s exile would be over, and the whole world would be addressed by the one creator God.

3. The crucified and risen Jesus was, all along, Israel’s Messiah, her representative king.

4. Jesus was therefore also the Lord, the true king of the world, the one at whose name every knee would bow.

It is, moreover, a double and dramatic announcement about God:

1. The God of Israel is the one true God, and the pagan deities are mere idols.

2. The God of Israel is now made known in and through Jesus himself.

Thus, I believe Wright clearly addresses the objections raised above, only, in a way that is much broader and larger than need be. He deals with all evil power, not just the individual’s personal sins.