The Gospels

The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’.  The four gospels are accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  They tell us the good news of how God fulfilled His promise.  This promise was to bring into the world one who would confirm the covenants He had made with the Jewish Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Romans 15:8).  God had sworn to these faithful men that He would give both them and their descendants the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession (Genesis 17.8, 26.3, 35.12).  He also promised that through one particular descendant all nations would be blessed (Genesis 22.18, Galatians 3.8, 16-18 Darby).

Jesus was ‘raised up’ (i.e. begotten by the power of the Holy Spirit on Mary) to be God’s one and only Son.  He was God’s ‘lamb’ to take away the sins of the world (John 1.29).  The ‘new covenant’ established by Jesus’ sacrifice was thus an ‘enabling’ covenant.  It opened up the way to eternal life, so that the promise of eternal inheritance (of the land) could be honoured.  Christ’s victory over sin and death has paved the way for his return to the earth to reign supreme.  In reigning as king he will fulfil these solemn promises.

These four historical records are very valuable.  They tell us about an important stage in the development of God’s purpose.  Three of the gospels (Luke being an exception) are written by eyewitnesses.  The differences and variety in the gospels show that the writers were independent of each other.  There are many 'undesigned coincidences', and these greatly enhance their truth and reliability.  The sheer volume of all four records put together (some ninety chapters), also testifies to the importance of the subject.  This seems to be the rule throughout Scripture.  Many chapters are devoted to other faithful men such as Moses, David, Hezekiah and the Apostle Paul, to name only a few.

It is only to be expected that in modern times critics and unbelievers have accused the gospel writers of inaccuracies and contradictions.  Some have gone so far as to allege that these accounts are largely second century inventions.  They claim that the church of that era invented miracle stories and sayings of Jesus.  This was done, it is claimed, in order to suit what they imagined he might have said and done! However increasing numbers of scholars believe that the gospels were written within a few decades of the events they describe.  We can therefore safely ignore the critics.

The four gospels are Spirit-guided accounts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.  The first three are often called the ‘synoptic gospels’.  This is because, generally speaking, they describe the events from the same point of view.  Nevertheless, each gospel has its own distinctive features, some of which will be mentioned in due course.  In fact, what is expressly stated in John’s gospel is true of all four:

Each gospel is an inspired selection and arrangement of the words and actions of Jesus in their Palestinian setting in the first century AD.