After nine months of hard language work, China Inland Mission missionary James Outram Fraser had arrived at the point where he could now preach in the street chapel. It was his first chance to give the Gospel to an audience. But what should he preach? What was the Gospel, true and simple? What did it look like from the mouths of its earliest preachers?

Fraser decided to find out for himself by studying Acts and a few other New Testament passages. As he compared the various times the Gospel was presented by the Apostles, he boiled it down to four elements. Other elements came and went, but these four elements were presented every time (all words, punctuation, and emphases are his in the four points below):

1. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ—no theological explanation needed.
2. The resurrection of Jesus Christ—most important of all. The Gospel was never preached without this being brought in.
3. Exhortation to hearers to repent of their sins.
4. Promise to all who believe on Jesus Christ that they will receive remission of sins.¹

Fraser describes the impact of his study in these words: “I never imagined the Gospel was so simple. Why, Peter and Paul both preached the Gospel in words which would not take one minute to say.” And again, a few sentences later: “the Gospel as preached to the unsaved is as simple as it could be.”²

The simple Gospel. I like it.

The Gospel, although profound and incredible, is simple. True, we as fallen people are complicated, and our knotty hearts only compound a proper response to the Gospel. Yet to stray from the Gospel in all its unadorned simplicity is the difference between heaven and hell. As Fraser put it, “I should not care to take the responsibility of preaching ‘another Gospel.’”³

Fraser’s analysis of the simple Gospel impacted me in at least two major ways. First, it confirmed for me what I have believed for a long time: mentioning the Resurrection in our gospel presentations is decidedly not optional. We can so emphasize the death of Christ, as important as it is, that we fail to mention the Resurrection. But from the very first chapter of Acts, the Apostles understood their mission to be witnessing to Jesus’ Resurrection (v. 22), and they seemed to make this a central focus in their evangelistic preaching (Acts 2:31; 4:2, 33; 17:18; 26:23).

Second, I was struck by the focus in apostolic gospel preaching on receiving remission of sins. This is something I had also noticed myself in recent musings on Great Commission passages: two of the four gospel accounts of the Great Commission key in on forgiveness of sins.

Luke 24:46–48.⁴ “Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things’” (emphasis added).

John 20:21–23. “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (emphasis added).

Perhaps, in our gospel presentations, we start off on the wrong foot by asking whether people are sure of heaven when they die. Maybe we would lean more on the God-given conscience in mankind if we were to ask whether people have any assurance that God has forgiven them for their sins against Him. “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart” (Proverbs 20:27). Our spirit (literally, “breath”), here a reference to what we might call conscience, registers guilt for sins committed as readily as the moral twinge we feel when a radar speed sign flashes our speed for all to see. Focusing on forgiveness of sins gets to the heart of our fractured relationship with God and is what we internally know we desperately need!

Years ago, my wife and I were visiting Cambodia and listening to local believers tell of the hardships they face for following Christ. After hearing numerous “hardship” testimonies, I casually asked why they did not return to Buddhism since following Christ was so hard. Their answer stuck with me: Because in Christ, we received forgiveness for our sins. These dear folks had laid hold of the simple Gospel.