We continue our series on the meaning of the word “gospel,” a word I think has been so reduced in meaning that it will take serious efforts to recover a fully biblical perspective. Romans 15:14-20 reads:

14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done- 19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.

Paul’s gospel is the “gospel of God” (16) – it is the work of God to include the Gentiles in the gracious redemption of God.

The gospel is something Paul preaches – Jesus is Lord, redemption for all by faith, including Gentiles. Paul’s gospel involves powerful signs and miracles.