Isaiah and the Gospel
August 7, 2022
As a principle, the central part of the Gospel can only, ever, and always be the work of God. The most important part of the Gospel, the key part, the part we cannot ignore without losing the very nature of the “good” referenced by the “good news” (which is what Gospel means), is God’s work. This is more or less the way the idea of Gospel is used throughout the book of Isaiah. But what does that have to do with us?
So let’s take it a step further—the Gospel is God’s work in and through Jesus. A brief summary of this work can be found in places like Luke 1.46-55 (Mary’s song) or Luke 1.67-79 (Zechariah’s song). You could also go to Luke 4.14-21 (Jesus’s sermon in Nazareth) or Luke 7.18-23 (Jesus’s response to John the Baptist’s disciples). In Jesus, God is turning the world upside down. In Jesus, God is bringing down the powerful and lifting up the lowly, remembering his promises to the ancestors of the Jews, undoing all the brokenness in the world. Interestingly enough, when Jesus is describing God’s work that he is doing in his ministry, he turns to Isaiah. The Gospel in Isaiah is the Gospel we see in Jesus.
The Gospel is that, in Jesus, God is starting to restore creation to what God always intended for it to be. What could be better news than that? In Jesus, we see the truth about how God wants us all to live. We see a way of living that results in healing, reconciliation, love, and holistic goodness. We see light.
Having seen this light, we are invited to respond to it the same way we respond to any light shining in an unwelcome darkness—run to it! Who, given the opportunity, wouldn’t jump at, in one moment, being healed and being transformed into an agent of healing?
Actually, not everyone. Some people fall in love with the darkness. Some are so broken they can’t see the light in the first place. Some have followed other lights for so long that they cannot imagine trying to follow a different one. And some see the light, want it, and start to follow it, only to be yanked back by the chains of darkness.
So let’s take it a step further—the Gospel is God’s work in making Jesus of Nazareth the Christ, the king of kings, giving all authority in heaven and on earth to him. The Light of the world doesn’t just invite; he empowers. He heals those wanting healed. He frees those needing freed. He transforms people from agents of darkness into agents of healing, and forms us into communities of joy, hope, and peace, where all can come and see what it means to walk in the light.
The invitation of the Gospel is open to all, and is deceptively simple. Having heard this Gospel, believe it to be true, turn toward Jesus’s way of living, confess Jesus is the king of creation, and embrace the watery tomb of baptism, that you may be raised to walk in the newness of life, following the Way of light.
—John Coffey
