What is the Gospel?
The word “gospel” literally translates to “good news”. The gospel that Christians preach is the gospel or “good news” concerning Jesus Christ and the way of salvation.
Before I can tell you what the good news is, I have to start with the bad news.
The first human that God created was Adam. He was made perfect. However, Adam chose to sin and disobey God which consequently doomed all of his descendants (including us) making us sinners. “Through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners.” -Romans 5:19
God provided the Israelites in the Old Testament, The Law. The Law can be thought of as a measuring stick of God’s standard. Sin is anything that falls short of “perfect” according to that standard. The Law shows that no matter how carefully we try to follow it, our sinful human nature makes it literally impossible to do so. No matter how good we try to be, we are all equally not good enough. Romans 3:23 says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. The purpose of The Law which has been given to us is not to save us. It is to show us that we have sinned against a Holy God (Romans 3:20.
To further help you understand, you need to understand that God is good and Holy, He is righteous and He is a JUST God. In order for him to be “just”, he MUST punish all sin.
Imagine that someone is in court for doing something really bad such as murder or theft. A good and fair judge will not let this person go freely- if they do then that is unfair to the victims. A good judge will demand that this person pays the price for their crimes, such as paying a hefty fine or even serving a long prison sentence. In the same way we, like the murderer and thief have sinned against God and need to pay the price for our crimes. Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death.
Now here is the good news.
The gospel is the good news that God loved us so much that he sent his perfect son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. He paid the penalty of our sins so we did not have to! Jesus was buried to prove that he died, He rose from the dead in order to show that He is the son of God that successfully defeated death, and He appeared bodily to many people to prove that He rose again from the dead. Now, there is no condemnation for those who place their trust in Him, but only everlasting joy! Believe in this good news, trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross, and you will be saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Repent (turn from your sin), live for God because he loves you and has saved you, and be baptized as He commands you.
