Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere (Lk 9:6).
This verse simply says that the twelve disciples went around "preaching the gospel." Verse 2 of this same chapter explains how the Lord had sent them "to proclaim the kingdom of God." They could not have been preaching "the word of the cross," as Paul later did (1 Cor 1:17-18), because it wasn't until at least two years later that the Lord began to tell them how He must suffer and die (Matt 16:21) and Peter "began to rebuke Him" (Matt 16:22) and none of the twelve even knew what He was talking about (Lk 18:31-34).
The gospel is the gospel and there’s only one, right? Don’t be too sure about that. The phrase "the gospel" simply means "the good news." And God has proclaimed more than one item of good news down through the ages. The "gospel of the kingdom" and the "gospel of the grace of God" are not the same. So when we see the phrase "the gospel" without any qualifying title, we must look at the context to see which one is being spoken about. It seems obvious to me that good news of the millennial kingdom is being spoken of in Luke 9:6. And don't forget, this gospel was given to the twelve to proclaim to the nation Israel, whereas "the preaching of the cross" was later given to Paul for us all (Acts 20:24; 1 Cor. 1:14-18; Rom 16:25; Gal 2:6-8; 2 Tim 2:8).
ReplyDelete