Thursday, September 25, 2008

Descriptors of the Gospel in the Bible

With the use of e-Sword, a great free bible study software program for PC's, I went through the New Testament and looked up all the instances of the words "gospel" and "good news" in the NKJV. I made a list of all the words nearby that were used to describe them. Below is what I found. I also looked through the NT for other words used instead of "gospel" and "good news" but meaning the same thing. I would expect there are more of them so if you know of any please let me know and please include the Bible verses. If you would like to know the Bible verses where I found these descriptors you can find them here.

Gospel
1. of God - Mark 1:14, Romans 1:1, Romans 15:16, 1 Thessalonians 2:2,8,9,1 Peter 4:17
2. God's - 2 Corinthians 11:7
3. of the blessed God - 1 Timothy 1:11
4. of the grace of God - Acts 20:24
5. of Jesus Christ Son of God - Mark 1:1
6. of Christ - Romans 15:19; 1 Cor 9:12; 2 Cor 2:12, 9:13, 10:14; Gal 1:7, Phil 1:27, 1 Thess 3:2
7. of our Lord Jesus - 2 Thessalonians 1:8
8. of His Son - Romans 1:9
9. of the glory of Christ - 2 Corinthians 4:4
10. of the kingdom - Matthew 4:23, 9:35, 24:14
11. of peace - Ephesians 6:15
12. of your salvation - Ephesians 1:13
13. not man's - Galatians 1:11
14. word of the gospel - Acts 15:7

Good News
1. of a great joy - Luke 2:10
2. of peace through Jesus Christ - Acts 10:36
3. kingdom of God - Luke 4:43, 8:1, 16:16; Acts 8:12
4. about Jesus - Acts 8:35

Other Descriptors Found
1. eternal - Revelation 14:6
2. glorious - 1 Timothy 1:11
3. law of liberty - James 1:25, 2:12
4. message of reconciliation - 2 Corinthians 5:19
5. message of salvation - Acts 13:26
6. mystery of Christ - Colossians 4:3
7. power of God for salvation - Romans 1:16
8. wisdom of God – 1 Corinthians 1:24
9. word of the cross – 1 Corinthians 1:18
10. word of faith - Romans 10:8
11. word of life - Philippians 2:16
12. word of truth - Ephesians 1:13
13. word of the truth - Colossians 1:5
14. word of God - Acts 6:7, 8:14,11:1,12:24,13:46,17:13; Col 1:25, 1Thes 2:13,1Peter 1:23
15. word of Christ - Romans 10:17, Colossians 3:16
16. word of the Lord - Acts8:25, 13:48-49; 15:35-36; 16:32; 19:10,20; 1Thes 1:8; 2Thes 3:1; 1Pe 1:25

These words tell us a lot about how the writers of the NT viewed and understood what the gospel was. In the future I will write out a summary of what I learned from meditating on these words and what they say about the gospel. I would encourage you to do the same. If you do I would love to hear from you.

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