What is the Gospel?
Gospel means “good news”. What is the news and why is it good? Let’s go back to the beginning of all things to better understand the Gospel. We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God. Therefore, it is true, right, and authoritative. It tells us that there is one God who created all things, including people. He created people to know, enjoy, worship, and glorify Him. The beginning of this relationship between God and man was very good. It was meant to last forever and contained no death or brokenness of any kind. Unfortunately, the first people (Adam and Eve) disobeyed God’s Word and sinned against Him. The result was catastrophic. Sin broke or tainted everything in existence except God. The relationship humanity had with God was broken beyond human repair. God rightly condemned humanity to die physical deaths and worse, the relationship people had with God was broken. The sin born in Adam and Eve then passed down to every human, rendering each person incapable of earning any merit with God. All people have sinned against God and are rightly judged guilty to everlasting punishment by God.
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But God, in the midst of pronouncing just judgment against sinners, promised to one day send a Savior who would undo the curse of sin and remove the punishment of death for His people. It was a proclamation of love. It was good news in the making. Thousands of years later the Savior came and His name is Jesus. Jesus is God’s own Son; He is fully man and fully God. He lived a perfect life and yet willingly took the sins of His people upon Himself. The result of Jesus bearing our sins was that God punished Him instead of us, so that we could have forgiveness. Jesus effectively paid for the sins of His people in His death. He died so we can live. In a powerful act to show that Jesus is God and that His Father accepted His death as a permanent sacrifice, Jesus resurrected from the dead on the third day having defeated sin, death, and the grave. He lives! As a result, all who believe that Jesus Christ is God and Savior and trust in Him alone for their salvation are forgiven of their sins and given peace and life with God. This is good news!
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The Bible says we are saved by the grace of God. It is a gift. Our only addition is not an addition at all: we simply, yet authentically, trust in Jesus Christ. At the moment of our salvation God sends us His Spirit to give us a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We then belong to God and always will. What comes next? Our call is to turn away from our sins and follow Jesus by faithfully obeying His Word. Jesus promises to return to gather His people to know, enjoy, worship, and glorify Him forever, just as He intended in the very beginning. The Gospel is good news because it is God’s work of eternal love to save us from our sins and punishment through Jesus Christ our Lord.