What Is the Gospel?

The word "gospel" means good news. This good news is the heart of Christianity. If we want to understand Christianity, we must understand Jesus Christ. If we want to understand Jesus Christ, we must understand the cross—his very purpose for being born.

Starting with the beginning

To understand the cross, we must begin with the fact that we were created by God. Because he created us, we belong to him. He is the King and we are his subjects. He gives the law, and we have to obey. The law he gave us can be summarized in two commands: 1) Love God with all your heart, and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself.

Our failure and God's standard

There is a big problem: none of us have kept these! We do not love God: we live for ourselves, money, success, women/men, parents, etc. We do what we want with our lives and don't care much about what God thinks about it. We do not love one another: we are filled with pride, self-love (i.e. selfishness), greed, hatred, anger, lust, etc. We lie and speak words that hurt others. We steal things and desire other people's things that are not ours. The Bible calls this sin. Our sin is not just what we do, but what we are. Our hearts, the core of who we are, is infected and corrupted.

Because of God's righteous character, he must punish us for our sin. We have offended an eternal God who offers infinite love, and thus we deserve an eternal sentence. The Bible calls this hell. It is forever to be separate from God, in a place filled with darkness, sadness, loneliness, regret, and pain. Nobody wants to go there. The opposite place is called heaven: to be forever with God enjoying his perfections, a place filled with love, happiness, peace, joy, satisfaction. Every good thing we enjoy about this life is good because it comes from God and shows us a small glimpse of his fullness.

This is a problem. If I am a sinner, and God judges sinners, then I am in trouble. At this point you should be thinking: Is there any hope for me? Is there any way to be saved?

The Gospel

The good news of Christianity is that, yes, God provided a way for us to be forgiven through Jesus Christ.

Who is Jesus Christ? In short: he is God and he is man. At the same time he was tired sleeping in a boat in a storm, he was also governing the entire universe and the storm shaking his boat. He is God become flesh—both.

Jesus Christ lived a perfect life; he lived the life we were supposed to live. And then he died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, to bear our punishment that we deserved, to die in our stead. And then he rose from the dead to conquer death, prove he is God, and prove that he had indeed paid for our sins (which also proves, by the way, the penalty of sin is very costly!).

The Gospel: Though we have offended a holy God and rightly deserve his just punishment, God also loves us and sent his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place and thus pay the penalty for our sin and exhaust the wrath of God due to us, and then to rise from the dead in victory, so that if you turn from your sin (repent) and place your trust in Christ (faith), you will be forgiven by God and be adopted into his family, so you can know his love and worship him both now and forever! It is all a gift of his grace!

Your response

Faith and repentance are two sides of one coin. Jesus requires you bow the knee and reach out and grab his hand. He requires you stop trying to swim to shore and to grab onto his hand so he can bring you into the boat.

To repent is to hate your sin and confess them to God and ask for forgiveness. To believe is to place all of your trust in Jesus, to entrust all of yourself to him.

It is not enough to feel bad about your sin. It is not enough to think Jesus is a good guy or even to agree that Jesus is alive. Repentance and faith are required; they are two aspects of one action: turning to God away from idols. (1Th 1:9)

So believe! Confess your sin to God, repent of your wrongs you've done and of your wrong heart, and you will be accepted on the basis of Jesus' work. Place your trust in Jesus to save you! Give up the useless task of trying to good to make God accept you. He did for you in Jesus what you could never do yourself. Jesus' resurrection proves he is the only way of salvation. He is your only hope, and he is a sure hope.

You need nothing less than a new birth to have this kind of faith and repentance, this change of heart. Just as a tree cannot change its own root, you cannot change your own heart. Apart from knowing Jesus your heart is hard, and your eyes are closed. The Bible even says you are already spiritually "dead" (Eph 2:1). Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

So, read the Bible (try Psalm 51, Psalm 32, Luke 15, Luke 7, the book of John, the book of Romans) and plead that God would open your eyes and soften your heart to trust in Jesus Christ with all your heart. Cry out to him for mercy, and trust in him and you will be saved and spend all of eternity enjoying and understanding more of "the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).