We continue in our series of the meaning of the word “gospel” in the New Testament with how Peter uses “gospel.” Today we look 1 Peter 1:25.

22 Now
that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have
sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the
heart.  23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever.”

 And this is the word that was preached [gospeled] to you.

 There is so much in 1 Peter chp 1: there is the anticipation of salvation in the prophets and its arrival in Christ; there is the summons to holiness that is rooted in God’s utter holiness and in God’s redemptive ways — and he redeemed through the blood of Christ. And this redemption was to create a holy people and a loving people. This Christ was not only crucified; he was raised from the dead.

The gospel involves preaching of the word; this word creates the new birth. And Peter quotes from the book of Isaiah, chp 40, to affirm the eternal nature of God’s word.

And then Peter simply says that it was “this” word that was “evangelized/gospeled” to you. Peter and Paul are on the same page: gospel involves Jesus — died and raised — and redemption in him in order to create a holy, loving people.