Scot McKnight, a New Testament scholar, popular author, and outstanding blogger, has just published a must-read article in Christianity Today. It’s called “The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel,” and is part of The Christian Vision Project. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a more concise and powerful explanation of what the good news really is all about.

To whet your appetite, I’m going to quote the first few paragraphs of McKnight’s article. Then, by all means, go and read the whole piece. It is truly excellent.

“The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel” by Scot McKnight.

Our problems are not small. The most cursory glance at the newspaper will remind us of global crises like AIDS, local catastrophes of senseless violence, family failures, ecological threats, and church skirmishes. These problems resist easy solutions. They are robust—powerful, pervasive, and systemic.

Do we have a gospel big enough for these problems? Do we have the confidence to declare that these robust problems, all of which begin with sin against God and then creep into the world like cancer, have been conquered by a robust gospel? When I read the Gospels, I see a Lion of Judah who roared with a kingdom gospel that challenged both Israel’s and Rome’s mighty men, gathered up the sick and dying and made them whole, and united the purity-obsessed “clean” and the shame-laden “unclean” around one table. When I read the apostle Paul, I see a man who carried a gospel that he believed could save as well as unite Gentiles and barbarians with Abraham’s sacred descendants. I do not think their gospel was too small.

I sometimes worry we have settled for a little gospel, a miniaturized version that cannot address the robust problems of our world. But as close to us as the pages of a nearby Bible, we can find the Bible’s robust gospel, a gospel that is much bigger than many of us have dared to believe . . . .

To keep reading, click here.