I like your thoughts on this, but I am struggling with how to square this with other teachings of Scripture. I’m thinking specifically of I Corinthians 15:3 – “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures…”
Or earlier in I Corinthians: “But we proclaim Christ crucified…”
And even in the Gospels, while Jesus certainly did great amounts of good for people, didn’t He ultimately see the crucifixion as his “hour” – i. e., the whole point of His ministry?
I guess what I’m asking is, is “doing good” really a PART of the Gospel, or is it the RESULT of living out the Gospel?

Jeff,
I think that it is impossible to separate the gospel from the result of the gospel. The result isn’t “optional”. Following Christ must lead to transformation – not perfection – but certainly to genuine commitment.
So I would look at it this way: the gospel that Christ died for our sins and did for us what we could not do for ourselves, that in so doing he inaugurated the kingdom of God – continuing and with a future hope.
But the kingdom of God – the work of the cross and resurrection is not just that Jesus died for my sin – but that he died for “our” sin – collective humanity as well as individuals. The kingdom of God is characterized by placing equal value on each and every person. Jesus’s life in the gospels is “doing good” … but is is doing good that demonstrates and teaches how the kingdom life is to be lived. The letters of Paul and James and Peter and John…also deal with how to work out living the kingdom life.
Any attempt to separate gospel from transformation and kingdom life is an exercise in definition that should have no effect on the Christian or the church.

Jesus sent out the apostles to spread the good news. This has been done, those who are meant to know the Lord know him. It is our contemporary duty to create a relationship between Him and us on an individual basis. To read His word to figure out what He wants from us. I believe conversion was already commanded and done when the Lord was on the earth. Is conversion a duty of contemporary Christians?