What’s in a word?
What is this word of the gospel? In a word, it’s an expression. We say, “May I have a word with you?” Of course, we mean a complete conversation and not just one word. We read in the Scriptures about the word of this salvation, the word of grace, the word of faith, the word of reconciliation, the word of truth, and the word of life. These all have to do with expressing the fullness of a message, yet they are referred to as just a word. So, if you had to sum it all up in a word, what would that word be?
The context in which this word of the gospel is given was that the message had gone forth and many Jews trusted in the Lord Jesus as their promised Messiah. The Word of God spread, grew, and multiplied. But when the door opened to the Gentiles through the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, some Jews sought to bring these Gentile converts under the law through circumcision. Thus, Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles about this question (Acts 15:2). The question would be answered in a word.
It was amidst this dispute that Peter declared, “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe” (Acts 15:7). The word of the gospel refers to the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter, the one to whom the Lord had promised the “keys of the kingdom,” had used those keys on three separate occasions. First, on the day of Pentecost, he opened the door to the Jews. Next, he opened the door to the Samaritans through Philip’s ministry. Lastly, at the house of Cornelius, Peter unlocked the door to the Gentiles. It was only fitting that he answered this question with the word that he had preached. It was the word of the gospel.
It is also certainly clear by the expression “the word” that it was the same word given all three times Peter preached. The Jews, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles all heard the same message. Read Peter’s sermons in the book of Acts. His word, the message of the gospel, was always the same. He presented Christ crucified, buried, and risen again, according to the Scriptures. What a word it was!
The word and the Word
If you had just one word to say, what would it be? Ask John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, for a word on this matter. He wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Follow the thought as John revealed, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:1, 14).
Even in his first epistle, John still wrote of the Lord Jesus saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life” (1 Jn. 1:1).
Not only John, but throughout the Old Testament, all the promises and all the prophets spoke of the Messiah. Their word was that He was coming. After all was said and done, the writer to the Hebrews concludes, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). In other words, God had the last word, and Jesus is God’s final Word!
After nearly two thousand years, it’s the same today. The word of the gospel, and the gospel in a word, is Jesus.