Gospel Basics Series #2: What is the Gospel?

Alert, good news is coming in this post!

When we hear or say the word Gospel, what do we mean?  At the very core, what is the Gospel message?  As I mentioned in the introduction to this series, I believe most people have some sort of idea about the Gospel or Biblical message.  However, my fear is that many of us only have a very vague idea of what Christians actually believe, even MANY CHRISTIANS themselves!

Herein lies much of the problem, and part of why I want to do this series.

Anytime I see problems in someone else, I have to ask myself, is this same thing happening in me?  Most of the time it is.

That is one of the reasons write about the Lord.  I need to be clear about what the Bible says and then be able to clearly present it to others.  Writing forces me to dig into God’s word, to know it, know God, and share his truth with others.

Defining the word Gospel

Gospel literally means “good news.”   When someone refers to The Gospel, they might be referring to all of scripture found in the Bible, or they might be referring the Gospel message, which is the message of Jesus as the Messiah.

I won’t go too much into the Gospel as scripture.  I think we can all understand that concept regardless of it you believe it or not.  Basically, God reveals himself to us through the scriptures found in the Bible where we also find all the truth about the message of Jesus as the Messiah.  This is why the Bible is often referred to as the Gospel. 

With that said, let’s define the good news of Jesus as the Messiah.

Jesus Christ our Redeemer

The message of Jesus as our savior and redeemer goes like this:

People are sinful.  You can call it what you want evil, selfish, misguided, deceitful, proud, or irresponsible.  The Bible calls it sin.  It is in our nature to be sinful.   It is not a slip up here and there, but actually part of our being.  Left to our own devices, sin is where we land.

Sin began with Adam, Eve and Satan in the garden, and we see its effects throughout the Bible, throughout all of history, and certainly now.  Our most significant sin is that we do not want to submit to God.  We want to make up our own “truth” and become our own little gods attempting to rule ourselves and those around us.  It is critical to realize that from the very beginning, people have resisted God’s authority and tried to go their own way, and over and over and over and over again.  

God is holy.  This means he is perfect and set apart from this sin problem that we have.  In his perfection, he cannot tolerate sin. 

This poses a problem doesn’t it?  If we all sin, and he is perfect, how can he tolerate, love or want anything to do with humanity?

How can we, sinners by nature, ever know or pray to God?  In comparison to Him, even the best of us are really bad.  No one has pure motives all the time. 

Because God is loving AND just, he wants to be with us but he also needs us to be holy.  No matter how hard I try or you try, we clearly are not holy and never will be.

Enter Jesus, the Messiah.  God allowed his son to live on this earth for a short period of time to reveal his divinity to us, to experience temptation and death as we do, and then to conquer death by rising on the third day.  In all of this, he never sinned but rather was obedient to God even in death on the cross.  He was and is and will always be holy. 

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again.  No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again.  This command I received from the Father.”  John 10:17-18

Through His death on the cross, Jesus bore the burden of sin for all of us and through his resurrection from the dead 3 days later is now the means, the way, the bridge to come in confidence to God.  For those that believe in this Gospel message, God gives the right to be his child and he sees those who have faith in Jesus through the lens of Jesus.  When we repent of our sin, God no longer see our sin, but the perfection of His son instead.  We are made holy through Christ.

“Yet to all who did receive him (Jesus), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”  John 1:12-13

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can be forgiven for our sins and made right with God IF we receive him and believe and trust upon Him.  As children of God, we are then promised a great inheritance in Heaven when all things will be made new and right. 

“For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 6:23

This world will NEVER be made right. 

NEVER. 

For all of time rulers have tried and tried to create a utopian society that is “right” and “good.” 

Unfortunately sin reigns in rulers and in the rest of us. 

People reject God and his righteous decrees and follow their own selfish desires and no matter what we do, no matter what “equitable” program is put into place, this world will never be right.  

We are pilgrims living here on earth waiting for our eternal home that God will make right. 

This is the Gospel message in my words based on the Bible. 

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”  Hebrews 2:14-15

Do you live in fear of death?  It seems that many, even most of the world does. 

I don’t because I know the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Maybe that sentence sounds weird.  Maybe it sounds impossible, but with God all things are possible.  Maybe instead of dismissing these ideas, you want to walk in freedom too?

This is the good news. Indeed it is the best news ever! In this world right now, we all need some good news because it seems hard to find yet the best news ever is not “coming soon” but available to everyone all the time.

False Gospels

I think it is important to note that there are a lot of false “gospels” floating around.  Remember the concept of sin above and how we are all selfish and proud wanting to make our selves into little gods?

The Gospel message is from the Bible.  It is an ancient truth agreed on by pastors, disciples and theologians for thousands of years, and yet there have always been those that want to distort the true message because of what they as a mortal human being think or hopes or wants.  In our sin, we want to make our own rules, create our own god.

God’s message comes from His word, the Bible.  Man’s message comes from books, our own thoughts and our own deceitful desires. 

Be very aware of this. 

If your church is relying on books versus the Bible or picking and choosing only parts of the Bible to believe and then deciding on their own truth, then you are following man and not God.  It is time to find a church that teaches truth and not heresy.