Gospel means “good news.”
The gospel is at the heart of Christianity. What is so good about the good news? The following will give you the basics about the gospel, including God, Jesus Christ, and mankind.
First, the Bible tells us important truths about the existence and character of God. God the Father is holy and loving. He created us in His image. Although we had this place of dignity, we were also forever changed by sin. Our human nature is one of sinfulness.
Our central problem is that we have been separated from God because of our sinfulness. Consider the following verse:
Isaiah 59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers.
However, the good news is that “God demonstrated His love for us through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:8). Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, died for us because the Bible declares that all men are sinful. Sin can be defined in many ways, and one definition means “to miss the mark.” In other words, our sin separates us from God. Because God is completely holy, righteous, and just, He must judge sinful man. The following picture illustrates our plight:
Another reason the gospel is the good news is because the emphasis is on Jesus. Therefore, the Bible teaches that no amount of human goodness, human works, human morality, or religious activity can gain acceptance with God or get anyone into heaven. The moral man, the religious man, and the immoral and non-religious are all in the same boat. Consider the following verses and diagram:
Romans 3:9-10: “there is no one righteous, not even one.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not of works, so that no one can boast.
Titus 3:5-7 he saved us, not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.
Finally, the gospel is the good news because God provided the solution to our sinful condition.
God is perfect holiness, and He is perfect love and full of grace and mercy. Because of His love and grace, He has provided us with hope and a solution. God sent His only Son Jesus to become man (the God-man), to live a sinless life, to die on the cross for our sin, and to be raised from the grave proving both the fact He is God’s Son and the value of His death for us as our substitute. The following verses and diagram describe this glorious truth:
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made the one who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 3:18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.
Your response!
Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross, the Bible states “He that has the Son has life.” We can receive the Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior by personal faith, by trusting in the person of Christ and His death for our sins. This means we must each come to God the same way:
1) confess that you are a sinner who recognizes his sinfulness,
2) realize that no human works can result in salvation
3) rely totally on Christ alone by faith alone for our salvation.
If you spoke these words from your heart, congratulations, you are now a Christian, a new follower of Jesus. Your life will never be the same. Find a church, be a part of a local congregation, and follow your Savior and Master, Jesus!
John 3:16-18 For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in Him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.