GOSPEL - It’s a message from God saying, “Good news! God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ, and have eternal life.

What is the Gospel?

Greg Gilbert

A Message from God

What exactly do Christians mean when they talk about the “gospel of Jesus Christ”?

Since the word “gospel” means “good news,” when Christians talk about the gospel, they’re simply telling the good news about Jesus! 

It’s a message from God saying, “Good news!

Here is how you can be saved from My judgment!” That’s an announcement you can’t afford to ignore.

Why Is the Gospel Good News?

So, what is the good news about Jesus Christ?

Since the earliest Christians announced the good news about Jesus, it has been organized around these questions:

1.  Who made us, and to whom are we accountable?

2.  What is our problem?

3.  What is God’s solution to our problem?

4.  How can I be included in his solution?

Christians through the centuries since Christ have answered those questions with the same truth from the Bible.

1.  We are accountable to God.

2.  Our problem is our sin against him.

3.  God’s solution is salvation through Jesus Christ.

4.  We come to be included in that salvation by faith and repentance.

Let’s summarize those points like this: God, Mankind, Jesus Christ, and Our Response.

God

The first thing to know about the good news of Jesus is that “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Everything starts from that point, so if you get that point wrong then everything else that follows will be wrong.

Because God created everything—including us—He has the right to tell us how to live. You have to understand that in order to understand the good news about Jesus.

To understand just how glorious and life-giving the gospel of Jesus Christ is, we have to understand that God is also holy and righteous.

He is determined never to ignore or tolerate sin. Including ours!

Mankind

When God created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, he intended for them to live under his righteous rule in perfect joy—obeying him and living in fellowship with him.

When Adam disobeyed God, though, and ate the one fruit that God had told him not to eat, that fellowship with God was broken.

Moreover, Adam and Eve had declared rebellion against God. They were denying his authority over their lives.

It’s not just Adam and Eve who are guilty of sin. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Sin is the rejection of God himself and his authority over those to whom he gives life.

Once you understand sin in that light, you begin to understand why “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

That’s not just physical death, but spiritual death, a forceful separating of our sinful, rebellious selves from the presence of God forever.

The Bible teaches that the final destiny for unbelieving sinners is eternal, active judgment in a place called “hell.”

But . . .

Jesus Christ

The word “Christ” means “anointed one,” referring to anointing a king with oil when he is crowned.

So, when we say “Jesus Christ,” we’re saying that Jesus is a King!

When Jesus began his public ministry, he told the people, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news!”

As Jesus died on a cross, the awful weight of all our sins fell on his shoulders. The sentence of death God had pronounced against rebellious sinners struck.

And Jesus died. For you and me!

But the story doesn’t end there. Jesus the Crucified is no longer dead.

The Bible tells us that he rose from the grave.

Jesus’ rising from the grave was God’s way of saying, “What Jesus claimed about Who He is and what he came to do is true!”

Our Response

What does God expect us to do with the information that Jesus died in our place so we can be saved from God’s righteous wrath against our sins? He expects us to respond with repentance and faith.

To repent of our sins means to turn away from our rebellion against God.

Repentance doesn’t mean we’ll bring an immediate end to our sinning. It does mean, though, that we’ll never again live at peace with our sins.

Not only that, but we also turn to God in faith. Faith is reliance. It’s a promise-founded trust in the risen Jesus to save you from your sins.

If God is ever to count us righteous, he’ll have to do it on the basis of someone else’s record, someone who’s qualified to stand in as our substitute.

And that’s what happens when a person is saved by Jesus: All our sins are credited to Jesus who took the punishment for them, and the perfect righteousness of Jesus is then credited to us when we place our trust in what he has done for us!

That’s what faith means—to rely on Jesus, to trust in him alone to stand in our place and win a righteous verdict from God!

Would you want God to change your life?

God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ, and have eternal life.

Say the following prayer:.

“Father God, I confess I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from You.

I am truly sorry. I now want to turn away from my past sinful life and live a new life pleasing to You.

Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again.

I believe that Your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer.

I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Thank You that according to Your Word, I am now born again.

Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. I promise to study Your Word – the Bible.

Use me for Your glory.                                                                 

In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.”

Greg Gilbert (MDiv, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is senior pastor at Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the coauthor (with Kevin DeYoung) of What Is the Mission of the Church? and the author of What Is the Gospel?, Who Is Jesus?, and James: A 12-Week Study.
http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/what-is-the-gospel.html 

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lyrics

Time measured out my days
Life carried me along
In my soul I yearned to follow God
But knew I'd never be so strong
I looked hard at this world
To learn how heaven could be gained
Just to end where I began
Where human effort is all in vain

Chorus
Were it not for grace
I can tell you where I'd be
Wandering down some pointless road to nowhere
With my salvation up to me
I know how that would go
The battles I would face
Forever running but losing this race
Were it not for grace

Verse 2
So here is all my praise
Expressed with all my heart
Offered to the Friend who took my place
And ran a course I could not start
And when He saw in full
Just how much His love would cost
He still went the final mile between me and heaven
So I would not be lost

Repeat Chorus
Forever running but losing this race
Were it not for grace