The seminar opens by testing the true gospel against the ancient world’s own “good news”: the Roman imperial gospel of Caesar’s messianic claim, contrasted with Jesus’ announcement in Nazareth that He is the King ushering in God’s kingdom (Luke 4; Isa. 61). It surveys the gospel across both testaments, arguing that the gospel is not only an offer of grace but also a command – God’s declaration that all people everywhere must repent (Acts 17) – and a warning, since believing a different gospel (2 Cor. 11:4; Gal. 1:6-9) leaves a hearer with no real gospel at all.
It then turns to Christ Himself as the content of the gospel – “the Word” who was with God and was God (John 1), the person the whole message serves – and to the cross, where God’s justice met His mercy: sin cannot simply be shrugged off, it must be judged, and Christ bore that judgment in the sinner’s place (1 Cor. 1:22-25; Rom. 6:23). The series closes by condensing the gospel to its essential content: the message of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection “according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-4), calling ministers to hold fast to that gospel rather than any substitute.