What is The Gospel?

I’ve come to realize the vast majority of people have no idea what “The Gospel” actually is. Though most people who live in the United States have experienced a sort of cultural Christianity, they do not know what “Jesus died for our sins” actually means. They believe in a Christianity that essentially boils down to “Do good things, believe the right things, love Jesus, and then God will judge your heart and realize you’re a good person.”

That is not what the Gospel is. The Gospel, and Christianity, is not about being a good person or even believing the right things. It is about God’s sovereign plan to save souls. So, I would like to offer a short summary of what “The Gospel” actually is.

The word Gospel itself means “Good news.” But before there is any good news there is very bad news. The bad news is that we are sinners deserving of damnation and death. Every single person. God makes this clear to us through the giving of the Law. The purpose of the Law is to highlight our great depravity. Take the 10 commandments for example. Who among us has perfectly kept the 10 commandments and the whole moral law? None of us.

Have you ever prioritized your own desires above God? Then You are an idolater.

Have you ever stolen? Then you are a thief

Have you used the Lord’s name in vain? Whether through cursing or through misusing his authority for your own cause? Then you are a blasphemer.

Have you ever even looked with lust? Then you are an adulterer

Have you ever felt hatred for another? Jesus says hate for fellow man is murder in the heart.

So then, you are a murderous adulterous blaspheming idolater who continually sins against God.

And you in your sad and miserable state will surely die, as God promised to Adam, and you will face God on judgment day. Now we know God is perfectly holy, he is perfectly just. And so he must punish sin. Just as a judge cannot allow a murder to walk free in court, God cannot both be just and merely allow sinners to walk freely into heaven and ignore their sin. The sin must be paid for.

This is why there isn’t a single soul in hell who deserves anything more. If we are to speak of what we “deserve” then the truth is we all deserve to burn in hell. We are bad. Very bad. And we cannot save ourselves, we are weak sinners in whom no good resides. No one seeks holiness, no one seeks after God (Romans 3). Even when we do good it is tainted by sin and vein glory. Our good works are like filthy rags to a just God (Isaiah 64). You do not deserve to go to heaven just because you think you are a “good person.” As God has proven to us, none of us are good people.

That’s the bad news.

But the good news is so glorious that it cannot be understated, so breathtakingly awesome it cannot be overshadowed. So tastefully sweet it is totally incomparable. And that good news is that a holy and just God has decided, out of the abundance of his mercy and grace, to provide the opportunity for the forgiveness of sins. He has provided the means by which sins can be paid for, thus satisfying the need for justice.

Jesus Christ. The God-man. He was born without sin and in whom no sin resided. He never once sinned against God, he lived the perfect life we never could. Though tempted, he never was deceived. Neither in mind nor in body. And in him dwells the full divinity of God. Jesus Christ was the only man to perfectly fulfill the law. Not one iota did he violate. He was the perfectly unblemished lamb.

Now, remember all those weird Old Testament commandments which required animal sacrifices? Those blood sacrifices foreshadowed the blood sacrifice of Christ. They made propitiation for the sins of Israel, yet no lamb, no oxen, no dove, could ever be enough to satisfy a perfect God’s holy need for perfect justice.

Which is why Jesus Christ living a totally blameless life, without any blemish, WAS the perfect sacrifice to atone for sins. God made him who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5). Jesus’ death on the cross actually paid the blood sacrifice my sins deserved.

That is why the statement “Jesus died for my sins” should never be uttered lightly. Some things should only ever be said with a quivering lip. That is one of those very statements. Jesus died for my sins. Jesus died for my sins? God himself died on a tree to save me? To atone for my wrong doing?

To understand the gravity of that, imagine yourself sitting in court, a guilty defendant. Guilty of murder, adultery, theft, etc. Fully deserving of the highest prosecution of the law. Yet a man comes in, totally blameless, having lived a wholly crime free and respectable life. And he says “Judge, I will pay for this man’s crimes. I will take his place.”

And you walk free.

Do you deserve to walk free? No? Do you deserve the fullest condemnation of the wrath of God? Yes. But Jesus! Christ paid in full the debts we never could.

So on judgment day lies 2 possibilities. Either we are to be judged by our own works and stand condemned accordingly, or Christ is to take our place on judgment day and we will be declared righteous by an alien righteousness imputed onto us from Christ.

And all who call upon the name of Jesus and believe will be saved. All who give their lives over to Christ shall be set free. All true believers inherit this remarkably beautiful gift of salvation bestowed upon us.

That my friends is the Gospel.

God creates man for glory.

Man sins and rebels against God.

God demands a just punishment for sin.

Man deserves the just wrath of God.

God, in his mercy, offered up his only begotten son to take the punishment of our sins.

Man is saved by placing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

And through this we can be declared righteous. As if we had never sinned before. All those in Christ are new creations, and are freed from the slavery and bondage of sin. We are given the holy spirit to fight and kill sin so that we may be sanctified. And God is on our side, helping us to defeat sin and become restored to the image God made us to be. Though we are in a sense sinners, we are no longer defined by it. Our identity is no longer “sinner” but “saint”. We are children of the most high God, and God never forsakes his children, leaving the 99 to save the 1. We can fight, laugh, feast, rest, battle, cry, and celebrate all to the glory of God and all in the confidence that we are a part of the family of God. A powerful, holy, gracious, and good God has decided to adopt us into his family and show us the riches of his kindness. That is good news. That is great news. That is the gospel.