What is the gospel?

The extract below is from DB Knox looking at the question, what is the gospel?

"To sum up, the gospel was the news that God has fixed the judgement day when he would judge the world in righteousness, and he had appointed a judge, Jesus, whom he had sealed in this office by the resurrection from the dead and by his exaltation to the throne of God as Lord. He was king and judge, and not only king and judge, but saviour from the consequences of the judgement of God on sinners. For God in his graciousness had sent his his son Jesus to be the saviour of the world, so that all who call on him for salvation, all who recognise his lordship and seek his help, will receive that salvation, which consists in the forgiveness of sins and justification in the eyes of the judge."

That paragraph from Knox in The Gospel of the New Testament is striking isn't it. It is, he contends, the gospel John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul and the other Apostles taught. It provokes the question is that the gospel I teach?

It is not a hard message to get across to those around us but it is one which our society would take issue with, which would meet with outright hostility and anger. But then that was John the Baptists experience, that was Jesus experience, that was the fate of James, Paul, Peter and the others. That's not bad company to have an experience in common with as you preach the gospel.