The Gospel

The gospel is the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.

The Bible shows that all human beings everywhere are in rebellion against God, and are therefore under His judgment (John 3:17-18). But, despite the fact that human beings rebel against God in sin, He still amazingly loves us.

The gospel is the good news of that love being shown perfectly in Jesus Christ; in what God has done by sending His own Son to die for our sins (John 3:16). Jesus bore our sin on the cross, taking the penalty we deserve on Himself, so that we might be saved from God’s just wrath against us (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:4). God’s own Son had to die in our place (1 John 3:5) because we could never be righteous enough to cover up our sin (Romans 3:24-25).

Our sin deserves eternal punishment (Matthew 10:28; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10). We are without excuse, we need to be rescued.

What do we have to do, then?

You might be tempted to think that we need to do something to earn a rescue. But, instead of us having to do something, we only have to trust that Jesus supplies it. By trusting (or having faith) in this good news, we are reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:17-19). To be “reconciled” means that we have had our debts paid by Jesus. We don’t earn this rescue because, if we could we would pridefully boast of our worthiness (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Remember, the gospel is the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Because of what He has done, we repent from our sin (Acts 3:19; Matthew 3:8). This is a life-long process, but God promises something infinitely better than whatever sin offers (Psalm 16:11).

You and I can be reconciled to the God we rebel against. Even though we have rebelled against Him, He loved us and died to rescue us.

That really is good news.