Gospel

The word “gospel” is an old English word that simply means “good news.” The content of the good news is that Jesus died for our sins, freeing us from bondage and the consequence of our sins and reconciling us to God.

The Gospel message may be summarized as follows:

All people are sinners by birth. (See Psalms 51:5)

Consequently, since it is our nature to sin, there is nothing we can do to stop sinning, anymore than we could stop breathing. (See Romans 3:10-12)

Therefore, God had to take care of the problem. (Isaiah 63:5, 43:11)

He did this, by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for the sins of humanity. (Romans 5:7-10)

If we decide to accept the gift of his death, and turn our lives over to God, then he puts his Holy Spirit inside us, making us Christians. Becoming a Christian is entirely the work of God; we do not contribute to it ourselves. No amount of being good will make a person a Christian, because being good has nothing to do with it. (Galatians 3:1-5 and
Ephesians 2:8-9)

Becoming a Christian results inevitably and automatically in obedience to Christ. The first act of obedience is baptism — being immersed in water — to signify to friends and family that one has died and been buried with Christ, raised to live a new life in Him. (Ephesians 2:10, Acts 2:41)

Good works are the consequence of becoming a Christian, not the cause. The good works that are done are the work of God through the Christian, not the Christian’s own efforts. Therefore there is no place for pride or self-righteousness. (Galatians 6:14, Romans 3:27-28, Galatians 2:20-21)

Grace is the gift of God –eternal life– given to us even though we do not deserve it. It is the gospel, as distinguished from the law.

Grace is a difficult concept for people to understand because it runs counter to our daily experience. In life, rewards come as a result of performance. We get paid for our jobs because we work; we get grades in school because we do our work. Even our friendships are made or kept based on how we behave. If someone hits me in the face every time I see him, I’ll soon start avoiding him. But our relationship with God is counter to all else that we know.

Look at what Paul writes in Romans:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:6-10)

Jesus died for our sins while we were still his enemy. Our relationship with God is independent of our behavior, good or bad. Jesus’ death on the cross is what has reconciled us to God. There is nothing left for us to do or not do. Jesus did it all; we are paid in full. There is nothing more due, no more payments to make. (see also Ephesians 2:8-10, Galatians 2:20-3:1-6).

It is a significant mistake to imagine that there is something that a person must do in order to become or remain acceptable to God. It is a mistake to imagine that behavior has anything to do with one’s relationship with God in this sense: you are a child of God, filled with the Spirit. You can’t get any closer to God than having him live inside of you. The New Testament explicitly teaches that salvation is by grace, through faith. The Old Testament illustrates it. Take, as an example, Lot. In 2 Peter 2:7-8 Lot is called a righteous man. But there is not one righteous act recorded for Lot in the Bible. In Genesis 19, this is what we find out about Lot: he did not want to leave Sodom. Once out of Sodom, he lived in a cave, got drunk more than once, and impregnated both of his daughters.

How is it that Lot is a righteous man? Did he perform some noble act that the Bible doesn’t record?

It doesn’t matter.

Lot is not righteous because of what he did or did not do. He is righteous in the same way that any human being is righteous (whether in the OT or NT): because of the cross of Christ.

…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. (Philippians 3:9)

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe… (Romans 3:21-22)

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:19-21)

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? (Galatians 3:1-5)