Read more
Paul's gospel is misunderstood. Paul's gospel is seen as his message, perhaps an empowered message; he saw it differently. His gospel can be many things: tradition about Jesus, Jesus Christ himself, the ministry of Jesus, the replication of the ministry of Jesus, God's salvific drama, the salvation experience of people, a message, and something that can (and should) be embodied or lived. And the gospel does not come to people in Paul's preaching. He says it comes or takes place in both his message and the miraculous. Without the involvement and acts of God (in the miraculous), for Paul, there would have been no gospel, only preaching. It is not that the miraculous was simply a proof or demonstration of the gospel; it was integral to it. In the gospel's coming or establishment, it is clear that, at heart, the gospel is God's salvation--the presence of God himself--in Christ, experienced in the symbiotic relationship between Paul's message about God's Son, Jesus Christ, and the activity of God in the miraculous. Not surprisingly, then, Paul rarely talks of preaching the gospel. He sees himself as "gospelling."
About the author
Graham H. Twelftree is the Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the London School of Theology. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Paul and the Miraculous: A Historical Reconstruction (2013), and he is editor of and contributor to The Nature Miracles of Jesus: Problems, Perspectives, and Prospects (2017).
