Why is the gospel important to Christians?

Answer 1

A:The New Testament was written and compiled by Christians for Christians, and is the story of the emergence of Christianity as a new faith. It is not just especially important for Christians, it is only important for Christians, since other faiths have their own scriptures.

Answer 2

Like the other Gospels the Gospel of Mark contains much on the life, miracles, teaching and particularly the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Mark has a fast - moving kind of style using terms such as immediately and straightaway, as well as the conjunction 'and' frequently. This was thought to be for the benefit of his Roman audience who would have appreciated this style. Mark has somewhat less of Jesus teaching as well as of fulfilled prophecy since these would not have been known by the Romans and would have required additional and at times lengthy explaining. Thus, in a sense Mark is writing for gentiles (non-Jews) generally and so it is all kept relatively simple.

Sometimes there are discussions about Mark having what is called a 'low Christology' in his work. This is suggestive of him not making it clear that Jesus is God. In actual fact scholars are now recognizing that the reverse is the case and some are even suggesting that he has a more advance and 'higher' (as in more exalted) Christology than even John.

Two examples of this occur in the healing of the paralytic man and in the account of Jesus walking on the water. In the former, Jesus forgives the man's sin before healing him. The Jewish religious leaders who were there thought 'who can forgive sins but God alone.' This is a correct thought and an acknowledgment on their part that Jesus was here claiming deity. This comes from the fact that they recognized that all sin was ultimately against God and so Jesus was here acting as God (He did not bother praying to God to ask Him to forgive the man but did it Himself). Secondly, Jesus evidently read their mind -they did not state this out loud. Thirdly, Jesus stated that His performing of the miracle was that they might know that He had the authority to forgive sins -in other words that He was in fact what they thought He was claiming to be. See Mark 2:1-12.

The second example is the episode of Jesus walking on the water and when the disciples saw Him they were afraid. As fishermen they knew that people do not usually walk on the surface of the sea of Galilee. When Jesus spoke to them to tell them not to be afraid He said this, as normally translated 'It is I, be not afraid.' In the Greek he actually said "I am (ego eimi), be not afraid' - this 'I AM' being the name of God from the Old Testament, where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush (translated into Greek of course). Further to this, the miracle of power over nature demonstrated His divinity - no sleight of hand possible here. See Mark 6:45-51 (esp. v 50) Thus Mark's Gospel is important in that it gives an exalted picture of who Jesus is. Further to this, the fast moving style creates an atmosphere of activity as well as closeness to the action. It also demonstrates that Jesus was constantly involved with people, teaching them, talking with them, touching them, healing them, rebuking them. So, in addition to the divine aspect of Jesus it gives a picture of Jesus as one who was involved with people and cared about people.

Answer 3

Mark's Gospel is important because it was the first New Testament gospel to be written and therefore the closest gospel to the events in the life and mission of Jesus. All the New Testament gospels were originally anonymous and were only attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John later in the second century. We do not really know who wrote the gospels, but by reading Matthew, Mark and Lukesynoptically (in parallel - 'with the same eye') in the original Greek language, it has been established thatMatthew and Luke were substantially based on Mark. It has also been established that John was loosely based on Luke, with some material taken direct from Mark. Thus, if we really want to understand the gospels, we need to understand Mark's Gospel.

By studying Mark, we can see that the story of Jesus is developed as a parallel structure, a literary sequence in which an opening set of events is contrasted with another, parallel set of events that mirrors the first:A . John explains the coming of Jesus(Mark 1:1-8)

B .The baptism of Jesus (1:9)

C . The voice of God from heaven, "Thou art my beloved son" (1:11)

D . The forty days in the wilderness as an allusion to Elijah and Moses (1:13)

E . The people were astonished at what Jesus taught (1:22)

F . Jesus casts out an unclean spirit (1:23-26)

G . Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians how they might destroy Jesus (3:6)

H . Demons, whenever they see Jesus, fall down and say that he is the Son of God.

-- Jesus commands that they tell no one of this (3:11-12)

I .. Jesus calls the 12 disciples (3:13-19)

J .. Jesus rejects his own family: he has a new family, his followers (3:31-35)

K . Jesus rebukes the wind (4:36-41)

L . The demoniac, wearing no clothes (5:15), cries out that Jesus not torment him and Jesus sends out the demons (5:1-20)

M . Jesus comes into his own country (6:1)
-- Where he was brought up

N . The people misunderstand Jesus and he can do no mighty work (6:2-6)

O . Jesus sends out the disciples and curses those who will not receive them (6:7-11)
-- in sending the disciples with authority and expecting all to receive them, Jesus is asserting his own authority

P . Herod thinks that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead (6:14)

Q . Herodias and her daughter conspire to kill John the Baptist (6:16-29)

R . Feeding the thousands, and related miracles and discourses (6:33-8:21)

S . Who do people say that I am (8:27)

T . Peter affirms faith in Jesus as the Christ (8:29)

U . Whosoever shall be ashamed of me: of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed (8:38)

V . The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes (8:31a)

W . Be killed and after three days rise again (8:31b)

X . Prophecy of second coming (9:1)- Jesus tells the disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God coming with power.

B' .The Transfiguration of Jesus (9:2-3)

C' .The voice of God from heaven, "This is my beloved son" (9:7)

D' . Jesus talks to Elijah and Moses then to the disciples about Elijah (9:4-13)

E' .A great multitude was amazed at Jesus (9:15)

F' .Jesus cast out a dumb spirit (9:17-27)

G' .They shall kill the Son of man and he shall rise on the third day (9:31)

H' .Jesus clarifies his divine status, saying that he is not God: "Why call me good? There is none good but God" (10:18)

I' . Peter says the disciples have left all and followed Jesus (10:28)

J' . Those who have left their family for Jesus have a new family: all Jesus' followers (10:29-30)

K'. Jesus rebukes the 'sons of thunder', James and John (10:35-45 - cf 3:17)

L' .Blind Bartimaeus cries out for mercy and casts off his clothes, then Jesus heals him (10:46-52)

M' .Jesus comes into Jerusalem (11:1-10)
-- Where he will die

N' .Jesus misunderstands the fig tree that can provide no fruit (11:13-14)

O' .Jesus casts out them that sold and bought in the Temple and curses them for making the Temple a den of thieves (11:15-17)
-- Jesus is asserting his authority

P' .Jesus asks whether the baptism of John is from heaven or of men, and the priests, scribes and elders can not answer (11:30-33)

Q' .Parable of husbandmen who conspire to kill the vineyard owner's son (12:1-9)

X' .Prophecy of second coming (chapter 13)

-- on clouds of glory, within the lifetimes of some of those to whom he was speaking

R' .The Last Supper (14:17-25)

S' .Art thou the Christ, Son of God (14:61)

T' .Peter denies Jesus three times (14:66-72a)

U' .And when he thought thereon, Peter wept (14:72b)

V' .The chief priests, elders and scribes delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate (15:1)

-- Delivering Jesus is a similar concept to rejecting him.
-- Both parts of the pair involve chief priests, elders and scribes

W' .Jesus dies and on the third day rises again (15:37, 16:6)

A' .The young man explains the departure of Jesus(16:6-8)

This structure can provide scholars a good insight into the development of the Christian story.

Answer 4

The Gospels are the books written by the people who knew Jesus, the most impotant man in The Bible. So if there were no gospels, then Christians would be Jews.

Answer 5

Because they tell of the Good News of God's coming to die for our sins so that we could have a chance to be with him in heaven.

Answer 6

The gospel is very important , as it gives us everything in detail of Jesus from birth to the reserection.

Answer 7

Mathew tells of the second coming of christ and about the apostasy from gospel truth. He also tells of the gospel being preached throughout the world.

Answer 8

It is the only way people restore their relationship with God. And by having a right relationship with God escape the judgment to come