If you've gotten anything out of this series I hope it's pushed you to ask questions about the content of the gospel. In your estimation, what is "Good News" in the gospel? What's "good" in the gospel? And of particular interest in this series: What is "news" in the gospel? What is given to us in the gospel that is something we don't already possess? Or could possess independently of the gospel? Those are the sorts of questions this series has been interested in.
For example, atheists can share your same political views. So those views don't really need the gospel. And if the message "God loves you" provides us with inner peace and tranquility, what if you possess that peace and tranquility by other means? Again, what would come as news to you in these situations?
I've shared some answers to that question over the last three posts. Summarizing, I said the gospel shares soteriological (Part 4), ontological (Part 5), and eschatological (Part 6) news. In this final post I'll suggest the gospel shares pneumatological news.
By pneumatology I mean news about the Holy Spirit.
The gospel proclaims the presence and power of God in our lives through the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit. The actual spiritual union we experience with God in the Holy Spirit goes well beyond a declaration that God loves you. Again, love is an affection, a feeling. And while feelings are important, something more is available to us in the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit God is with us and empowers us. Presence and power. These gifts are available to all who believe the Good News.
To be sure, Christians display a lot of diversity about what sort of "power" we have access to through the Spirit. But for this post, we can keep it simple and stick to what all Christians believe, that the Holy Spirit gives us a strength to carry the burdens of our lives that we would not otherwise possess on our own. The gospel is more than a message of God's affection. The gospel is the offer to share in God's very own life.
