What is The Gospel?
The Gospel is Gods’ sovereign and loving provision for the forgiveness of human sin.
The word Gospel is an English transliteration of a Greek word (euangelion) meaning quite simply;
Good News. However, if we want to do justice in proclaiming what The Gospel is, we must realize that the Gospel is actually the revelation of Jesus Christ. This revelation is specific to Jesus birth, His life as a human being, Jesus death, and resurrection.
In the beginning, the first two human beings were created people, directly through the power of God.
Genesis 1: 26~31 (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
God Himself declared that everything in His creation was “Very Good”; this included Adam and Eve.
The intention of God was that humanity would begin with His first two created people, and that these two would be the parents of all of us. From this time forward, all people were procreated through birth; this being a natural act between a man and a woman.
So what went wrong? How did sin enter into a perfect and “Very Good” world?
A simple truth remains; the potential for sin has always been present, and that potential is a predisposition to rebel against the very God Who made us in His own image. Adam and eve had a perfect relationship with God, and yet a testing had to occur. Not to trip them up, and not to tempt them into the first sin.
No! God created us with our own minds, freewill, and ability to choose God, or to go our own way without Him.
Genesis 2: 15 & 3: 1~17 (KJV)
15 Adonai, God, took the person and put him in the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate and care for it. 16 Adonai, God, gave the person this order: “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.”
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any wild animal which Adonai, God, had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3 but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘you are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “It is not true that you will surely die; 5 because God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it had a pleasing appearance and that the tree was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her; and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths. 8 They heard the voice of Adonai, God, walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai, God, among the trees in the garden. 9 Adonai, God, called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I ordered you not to eat?” 12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me
— she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Adonai, God, said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate.”
14 Adonai, God, said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all livestock and wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and eat dust as long as you live. 15 I will put animosity between you and the woman, and between your descendant and her descendant; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
16 To the woman, he said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth. You will bring forth children in pain. Your desire will be toward your husband, but he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to what your wife said and ate from the tree about which I gave you the order, ‘You are not to eat from it,’ the ground is cursed on your account; you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat field plants. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground — for you were taken out of it: you are dust, and you will return to dust.”
This scripture is a tough task master; however, for those who desire righteousness, truth and forgiveness, these words speak right to the core of our being. We can side step the matter in so many ways, and this is indeed the direction our world has been heading through our entire history. To those who can accept these things, the first step is in place; the nature of Gods’ own true word speaks to our soul and begins to draw us to a need for forgiveness. We realize that we have sin in our lives, and that sin separates from The True and Living God who has no sin, or unrighteousness.
For those that deny these truths; their very nature testifies against them!
Romans 3: 9~18 (NRSV)
None Is Righteous
9 What then? Are we any better off?[c] No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, 10 as it is written: “There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.”
13 “Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of vipers is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery are in their paths,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
The evidentiary nature of sin is that people under its control deny that they suffer from it. Before sin entered into the bloodline of humanity Adam and Eve were truly free beings; they had no realization that anything wrong or evil could exist, because at that time there was no awareness of it, and there did not need to be. It was only after they chose to “be like God” that the comprehension of sin came to be. We now have the disease; how do we receive the cure?
Praise be to God for His own loving and gracious provision to be cleansed of our own sinful nature, restored to right relationship with Himself, and gain back the eternal life as He intended us to have in the beginning.
Finally, the answer… what is the Gospel?
To start with, let’s look into what Jesus the Messiah has to say on the matter:
Johns 3: 1~19 (NRSV)
3 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus[a] by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3 Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, and no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’[b] 4 Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ 5 Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.[c] 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You[d] must be born from above.”[e]
8 The wind[f] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9 Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10 Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you[g] do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.[h] 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.[i]
16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light,
so that their deeds may not be exposed.
21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’[j]
This scripture is the most proclaimed testimony about the salvation provided by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When John: 3, 16 is proposed to the world, it speaks to the gift of free forgiveness of sin to all who chose to accept it.
That acceptance is the most amazing and yet challenging thing that human’s must come to terms with. There is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. The wages of sin is death; the life giving blood of Jesus Christ atones for that sin through His sacrifice. You and I cannot pay for our sin, because simply stated, we are not pure, and free of that sin.
Only someone who is perfect, holy and sinless can offset the penalty… we are unable to, even if we wanted too.
This is the singular most important and necessary decision in the life of a human being. Don’t let your day of salvation pass away void. Accept God’s free gift of forgiveness through Jesus death and resurrection, and you will gain life eternal.