In the middle of the book of Revelation we find an angel who proclaims the eternal gospel.  “Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth– to every nation and tribe and language and people.   He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”” (Rev 14:6-7).

The gospel is eternal.  In every occurrence of ‘eternal’ in the Gospel of John the word refers to eternal life.  Revelation 14:7 (above) is the only instance of the use of ‘eternal’ in Revelation.  However, a related phrase usually translated ‘forever and ever’ is many times connected to life.  Jesus is described as living forever and ever (1:18).  God the Father is described several times as the one who lives forever and ever (4:9-10, 10:6, 15:7).  Both Jesus and the Father are ascribed praise, glory, wisdom and honour forever and ever (1:6, 5:13, 7:12).  The Messiah (11:15) and the saints (22:5) will reign forever and ever.  This glorious eternal life and honour and dominion of the both our God and of the saints is contrasted with what happens forever and ever to the enemies of God.  “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever” (14:11, cf. 19:3).  The devil and the beast and the false prophet are tormented forever and ever in the lake of fire (20:10).

Although the book of Revelation does not connect eternal with the Holy Spirit, there are clear connections elsewhere in the New Testament.  To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to be guilty of an eternal sin (Mark 3:29).  On the opposite hand, the Holy Spirit gives eternal life to those who sow to the Spirit and not the flesh (Gal 6:8).  Finally, he is the “eternal Spirit” through whom Jesus offered himself as sacrifice (Heb 9:14).

The eternal gospel is proclaimed so that sinful, mortal human beings can share in the eternal life of God: Father, Son and Spirit.  As Father, Son and Spirit live forever, so too will the saints who obey the gospel.  Those who reject the gospel have no share the life which God has within himself.  This is true also of God’s glory and his reign.  The Father has shared his glory with the Son (John 8:54; Heb 1:3) and the Spirit (2 Cor 3:8), and through the eternal gospel he shares it with the saints.  The saints also share in the reign of the Father and the Lamb.  The Holy Spirit must be obeyed, since blasphemy against him cannot be forgiven.  He enabled Jesus to go to the cross and works in the saints to bring them to eternal life.  The eternal gospel, then, is good news because of its association with life and worship and the reign of God.  The consequences of opposing the gospel are also eternal.

The proclamation of the eternal gospel in Revelation (14:6-7) is firmly centred on the Father.  This seems so different to the way in which Paul describes the gospel in 1 Cor 15:1-4 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” (ESV).  However, on closer examination these two descriptions of the gospel are in accord, yet shedding light on two different persons of the trinity.  Further careful examination of the New Testament shows that all three persons of the trinity are vital to the nature of the gospel.

The gospel is called both the gospel of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.[1]  Mark begins his Gospel with the announcement of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God (Mark 1:1), but Jesus himself proclaimed the gospel of God (Mark 1:14).  Paul calls himself an apostle “set apart for the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1) and that gospel concerns the Son Jesus (Rom 1:3).  A few verses later Paul writes that he serves God by declaring the gospel of God’s Son (Rom 1:9).  In 2 Corinthians the gospel is predominantly called the gospel of Christ (2 Cor 2:12, 4:4, 9:13, 10:14), but reception of the gospel glorifies God (9:13).  It is also called the gospel of God (2 Cor 11:7).  In Thessalonica Paul proclaimed the gospel of God (1 Thess 2:2, 2:8-9) and sent Timothy to proclaim the gospel of Christ (1 Thess 3:2).  Those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus will be judged (2 Thess 1:8).

The gospel is never called the gospel of the Holy Spirit, but there are clear associations between the gospel and the Spirit.  Paul ministered the gospel so that the gentiles might be acceptable to God through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:16).  The proclamation of the gospel was done by the power of the Spirit of God (Rom 15:19, 1 Thess 1:5).  Having heard the gospel, believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13).  It is therefore not possible to make the gospel into something which pertains to only one of the persons of the Trinity.  It is the good news of both God the Father and God the Son, proclaimed through the power of the Spirit.

This goes some of the way towards making sense of the two rather different ways in which the gospel is described in Rev 14 and 1 Cor 15.  I think we must go further.  In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul is clear that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are central to the gospel.  Yet Rev 14:7 implies that the gospel is about the worship of God the Creator.  These two emphases are not opposed to one another.  The Gospel of John gives us a picture of Jesus as the one who came to reveal the Father to the world.

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

“not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father” (John 6:46).

“I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father” (John 8:38).

“Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?’” (John 14:9 ESV).

All the work that Jesus did in his incarnation, particularly his death, burial, and resurrection – which Paul focuses on in 1 Cor 15:1-4 – was done in order to show people the Father.  The reason for which the Son of God became incarnate was to enable sinners to turn from their sin and turn to the living God.  This emphasis in gospel proclamation is exemplified in Acts 14:15, where Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra.  The people wanted to worship them because of the miracle they performed, but they said, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you in order that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them” (NAS).  The death and resurrection of Christ makes possible the true worship of the Father, who is Creator of the world.

In all that Jesus said and did he pointed people, not to himself, but to the Father, because it is for intimacy with the Father that we were created.  It is the work of the Spirit to take us to the Father in Christ.  This is why the gospel is both the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ.  It is the gospel of God because it is the good news that the purpose of humanity, to know and worship the Creator, has been again made possible.  It is the gospel of Jesus Christ because his work of obedience to the Father means that humanity can know the Father.  All this takes place through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the gospel, as in all that God does, there is a three-fold work.  The desire of the Father is to have worshippers and those worshippers will worship him in [the Holy] Spirit and in Truth [Jesus] (John 4:23).  The gospel is the good news that human destiny and purpose is restored.  Human destiny and purpose is none other than to fear God and give him glory, to worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.  This is what Jesus came to restore for us.  This why the Holy Spirit moves human hearts.  The purpose of God is one purpose.