What is the Gospel of Christ?

"The Gospel literally means ‘good news’ and is concerned with Jesus, who  is identified by name and title.

"Gospel -- Greek word, euangelion. In ancient Greece euangelion designated the reward given for bringing good news. Later it came to mean the good news itself. In the New Testament the word includes both the promise of salvation and its fulfillment by the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Euangelion also designates the written narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."

Romans 1:16:

"The theme of this epistle is that Paul was not ashamed to speak about the gospel because he knew it had power to bring people to salvation. This happened when people trusted, or put their faith, in Christ to save them.

Mark 1:15:

"Jesus announced the inauguration of a new era of salvation, of which repentance and belief in the gospel were prerequisites."

"The gospel concerns the rule of God evidenced in the person and proclamation of Jesus (see 1:1).

In Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary the definition of "Gospel" is:

"The joyous good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. The Greek word translated as gospel means ‘a reward for bringing good news’ or simply ‘good news.’ In Isaiah 40:9, the prophet proclaimed the ‘good tidings’ that God would rescue His people from captivity. In His first sermon in Nazareth, Jesus used a passage from the Old Testament (Isaiah 61:1) to characterize the spirit of His ministry: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor" (Luke 4:18).

"The gospel is not a new plan of salvation; it is the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation which was begun in Israel, was completed in Jesus Christ, and is made known by the church.

"The gospel is the saving work of God in His Son Jesus Christ and a call to faith in Him (Romans 1:16, 17). Jesus is more than a messenger of the gospel, He is the gospel. The good news of God was present in His life, teaching, and atoning death. Therefore, the gospel is both a historical event and a personal relationship.

"Faith is more than an intellectual agreement to a theoretical truth. Faith is trust placed in a living person, Jesus Christ. When the apostle Paul warned Christians of the dangers of following ‘another gospel’ (II Corinthians 11:4), he was reminding them that any gospel different than the one he preached was no gospel at all.

"In the second century, the word gospel came to be used for certain writings in which the ‘good news’ or story of Jesus Christ was told. These writings were written in the first century, but they became known as ‘gospels’ much later. Mark was the first to write such a story (Mark 1:1), and in so doing he invented a literary form that we call a ‘gospel.’ The New Testament has four versions of the one gospel: the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

"A gospel is more than a biography intended to provide information about a historical character. It is the presentation of the life of Jesus to show His saving significance for all people and to call them to faith in Him."