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 and be given eternal life!” 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 first Christians announced the good news about Jesus, it has been organized around these questions:
- Who made us, and to whom are we accountable?
- What is our problem?
- What is God’s solution to our problem?
- 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:
- God made us, so we are accountable to him.
- Our problem is our sin (rebellion) against him.
- God’s solution is salvation through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.
- We come to be included in that salvation by faith in Jesus and repentance (turning away from) our sin.
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” (Gen. 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. Just like an inventor has the right to decide where a certain spring or power button will go on the widget he designed. He made it so he decides.
You must understand God as Creator and Owner in order to understand the good news about Jesus. You also need to know that God is also holy and righteous, meaning all that he does is good and pure. He is determined never to ignore or tolerate sin/rebellion - from anyone. Including yours!
Mankind
When God created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, he intended for them to live under his good rule in perfect joy—obeying him and living in fellowship with him. In fact, he made us "in his own image" so that we would display "this is what God is like" to the universe. When Adam, the first man, disobeyed God 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 and his authority over us.
Once you understand sin in that light, you begin to understand why “the payment of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That’s not just physical death, but spiritual death, a forceful separation of us from the presence of God forever. The Bible teaches that the final destiny for sinners who reject God is eternal, active judgment in a place called hell.
But that's not all. . .
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 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 sin fell on his shoulders. The sentence of death God had pronounced against rebellious sinners (who deserve it) struck Jesus (who did not deserve it). 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’s 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!” The power of sin and death were broken.
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; it's a 180 degree change. 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, trust, leaning on him. It’s a trust in the promise that a risen Jesus will save you from your sins and unite you to God. If God is ever to count us righteous and worthy of entering his presence, he’ll have to do it on the basis of someone else’s record, someone who is 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!
Adapted from original blog post on Crossway.org: "What Is the Gospel?" by Greg Gilbert. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.
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