There's been a lot of talk recently about what the Gospel is in its essence. Some partisan Christian groups with a particular theological viewpoint want to define The Gospel as their specific theological perspective—effectively rendering all other expressions of the Gospel error.

So what is the essential Gospel? Well, if we say it is the message delivered unto the early church by Jesus, how would one discover the content of that message?

I propose that one method would be to survey the content of the preaching and descriptions of the preaching of the apostles in the book of Acts.

The book of Acts is the second part of Luke's two-volume account of what Jesus did and taught—the first volume being his Gospel. In this second part, Luke picks up the story after Jesus has suffered, died, rose again, and has given the apostles instructions to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will empower them to spread the good news throughout the world.

To better discern what this good news message is in its essence, I recorded the points made by Luke and the apostles in every occurrence of their preaching or a summary about their preaching. From this survey I was able to find 23 categorizes:

1) Christ (Messiah, Righteous One, Anointed One…)
2) Lord (King, Kingdom)
3) Son of God
4) Savior
5) Crucified (killed, suffered, hung on tree…)
6) Resurrection (raised from the dead…)
7) Miracles (healing, good...)
8) For everyone (no favoritism, accepts everyone…)
9) Foretold (by prophets, by God, fulfilled prophecy, promised…)
10) Creation (made the world…)
11) Judgment (judge, judgment to come…)
12) Forgiveness (of sins…)
13) Repentance (turn to God, turn from evil/wikedness…)
14) Believe (in his name…)
15) Baptism (baptized…)
16) Faith
17) Grace
18) Justification
19) Peace
20) Righteousness
21) Restoration
22) Salvation (saved…)
23) Holy Spirit (gift of, receive…)

From these 23 categories, I tallied which concepts were preached the most. Here are the results:

19 - Christ (Messiah, Righteous One, Anointed One…)

14 - Resurrection (raised from the dead…)

12 - Lord (King, Kingdom, Prince…)
     - Crucified (killed, suffered, hung on tree…)

 9 - For everyone (no favoritism, accepts everyone…)
    - Repentance (turn to God, turn from evil/wikedness…)

 7 - Forgiveness (of sins…)
    - Foretold by prophets (fulfilled prophecy, promised…)

 5 - Faith
    - Believe (in his name…)

 4 - Salvation (saved…)

 3 - Judgment (judge, judgment to come…)
    - Holy Spirit (receive, gift of…)

 2 - Savior
    - Miracles (healing, did good…)

 1 - Son of God
    - Creation (made the world…)
    - Baptism (baptized..)
    - Grace
    - Justification
    - Peace
    - Righteousness
    - Restoration

The essential Christian Gospel has to begin where the content of the early apostolic preaching begins:

Jesus is the Messiah (Christ). He died on a cross, he rose from the dead, and he is the Lord. The forgiveness of sins that was foretold by God through the prophets is available to all people through repentance and faith in Jesus.

Download the Results Chart (.JPG)