The Gospel Doesn’t Need a Makeover.

Let me say it another way:

The Gospel doesn’t need a glow-up, a rebrand, or a marketing team. It doesn’t need to be wrapped in skinny jeans or delivered by someone with a TikTok following and a smoke machine. What it needs — what it’s always needed — is a person bold enough to live it out with honesty and imagination.

You.

Me.

Regular, middle-aged humans who’ve seen some things. People with bills, back pain, doubts, and decades of faith wounds.

We don’t need a better version of the Gospel. We just need a better version of us — one that’s brave enough to take Jesus seriously when He said, “Follow Me.”

Not a Selfie, a Story

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us traded the Gospel story for a spiritual selfie. We made it all about personal salvation, getting into heaven, and behaving well enough to earn a gold star. We trimmed the rough edges off of Jesus — those moments when He flipped tables, challenged religious leaders, and spent His days with the outcasts and the overlooked.

We made Him polite.

We made Him palatable.

But friend, Jesus wasn’t safe. He was love with legs. Fire with skin. He didn’t come to tidy up religion. He came to blow the hinges off the temple doors and let the riffraff in.

And He wasn’t asking for cosmetic changes. He was inviting transformation.

Gospel Means Good News — Not Good Behavior

So, what is the gospel? Well, the word “gospel” literally means good news. —

• Not good advice.

• Not good vibes.

• Not good intentions.

  
  

But, Good News.

Isaiah 52:7 (ESV)“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’”God’s love showed up in the dirt.The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14).

Rachel Held Evans said,

“God stoops. The God of Scripture stoops. He kneels. He writes in the dirt.”— From her reflections on John 8.

Rachel is also quoted as saying:

“This is what God’s kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table… not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, and because they said yes.”

The Gospel invites us to stop performing and start participating.

Honesty Isn’t a Liability

A lot of us feel like we’ve got to clean up before we show up. Even at church. Maybe especially at church. You walk in with grief, doubt, anger, or that nagging question you can’t shake — Does any of this still make sense?

And what do you hear?

“Just have more faith.”

“God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

“Everything happens for a reason.”

But honesty is not the enemy of faith. Pretending is.The Gospel is for real people with real problems. Not plastic saints. Not Pinterest-perfect Christians.

If you’re struggling, good. It means you’re alive. It means you care. The Bible is packed with people who wrestled with God — Jacob, David, Job, even Jesus in Gethsemane.

Jesus doesn’t flinch at our honesty. He knelt in the dirt with a woman caught in adultery.He let Thomas touch His wounds.He called Peter back after his betrayal — not with a lecture, but with breakfast.

So if your story feels a bit chaotic — or even more than a bit — you’re in good company. The Gospel was never a neat story. It was a true one.

Imagination Is Faith’s Playground

Now, let’s talk imagination.Not unicorns and glitter. I mean Spirit-filled imagination. The kind that lets you see the Kingdom of God breaking in around the edges of your everyday life.

Because let’s be honest, adulting is exhausting. We’ve got spreadsheets, errands, and a slow drip — and sometimes a river — of cynicism from the news cycle.

But Jesus said the Kingdom belongs to children — not because they’re naive, but because they still look for wonder.

Faith without imagination is just routine.

But with imagination? The Gospel becomes electric. A living thing. It turns interruptions into invitations, ordinary days into holy ground.

It asks:

• What if forgiveness isn’t weakness, but revolution?

• What if kindness to your cranky neighbor is sacred resistance?

• What if the slow, quiet work of love is more world-shaking than a viral sermon?

  
  

As Frederick Buechner put it,

“The world says, Mind your own business. Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business.”

When the Gospel Is Lived, It Doesn’t Need Hype

When you live the Gospel out loud, it doesn’t need PR.You don’t have to sell it.

Live like you believe love is stronger than hate.Live like grace is real, like second chances are normal, like no one is disposable.

Live like Jesus meant it.

You know what’s more powerful than a polished sermon? A life that smells like Jesus. That shows up when someone’s in the hospital. That listens instead of preaching. That loves without keeping score.

Galatians 5:6 says, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”That’s it.

Not perfect theology. Not church attendance. Not political alignment. Just love. Lived out in the real, raw, unfiltered middle of life.

Summary: It Never Needed a Makeover — Just a Mirror

If the Gospel feels stale or powerless, maybe it’s not the message that needs changing.Maybe it’s just waiting for us to live like it’s still good news.

We don’t need to modernize it.We don’t need to soften it. We just need to remember it. To embody it. To risk it — in conversations, relationships, everyday kindness, and bold love.

Because the Gospel still has the power to heal, restore, flip tables, and raise the dead parts of us to life. But only if we’re brave enough to stop editing it and start embodying it.

Key Takeaway:

The Gospel doesn’t need a makeover — it needs you to live it with honest doubt, wild grace, and a little holy mischief. Let the world see a love too stubborn to quit and a hope too loud to hide.

© Gary L Ellis