What is the Gospel?

Christianity is fundamentally different from any other religion. Most religions that have a concept of heaven and hell teach that you can enter heaven with either your good works or through entering some enlightening state. These religions teach you to focus on your own strength and intelligence to achieve salvation.

Christianity is different in the sense that it teaches salvation cannot be achieved on your own merit, in fact it is impossible. While other religions teach that man is good enough, Christianity shows that man will never be good enough. If man can never attain salvation through works or effort then what hope is there?

God has promised to give us and indeed has given us a solution to this problem. He has sent His “only begotten Son, [Jesus] that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” – John 3:16. This is the huge distinction between all other religions out there. It’s the only one that doesn’t pander to man and truly shows the truth behind why we are here and what our purpose is. The Gospel can be effectively explained by answers 4 main fundamental questions: Who is God?, Who is Man?, Who is Jesus?, and What do we need to do?

1. Who is God:

To understand our state in this world and our need for the gospel we must first understand who God is. Before there was anything even the universe we live in now, there was God. It’s hard to fathom but God just always was; He wasn’t created or made. There are many mysteries in this world that we will never have answers to nor could we probably even comprehend the answers if given. The reality is, the complexities of this world, the minuscule chance of everything coming together to produce not only human life but all life on earth could not be possible without a creator.

This creator God is above all, omniscient, omnipresent and all-powerful. The bible describes God as creating everything simply just by speaking things into existence; “let there be light” -Genesis 1:3. There are no limitations to what God can do. Because of who God is, He sets the standards for what we should be like. The bible describes God as Holy, Holy, Holy and when it repeats something 3 times in a row it really emphasis the repeated word or phrase, “In a vision, angels cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory!” -Isaiah 6:3, “This same worship is heard from the four living creatures around God’s throne: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” -Revelation 4:8. 

God is so holy and pure that nothing can approach Him, “who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” – 1 Timothy 6:16. Nothing dark or hidden can be around God, His presence alone illuminates all and everything, “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” -Isaiah 60:19. No man can see God and live, He is that separated from us, “But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me and live” – Exodus 33:20. This is who the God of the bible is.

2. Who is Man:

Man was created by God, “then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” – Genesis 2:7. The creations were created by a creator; it seems like an obvious statement but we seem to forget this concept pretty easily and frequently. In the beginning man was created in the image of God, able to think and reason, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” -Genesis 1:27.

We were created without sin and had a direct pathway to communicating with God, something we cannot fathom today. This amazing relationship was broken one day when man decided that he wanted more from God, more than the perfection that God had already given him. God had set him in the garden of Eden where he had everything he could possibly need and had set him over all creation. However, we wanted more, we wanted to be like God and we allowed ourselves to be tempted by satan, leading to man’s first sin and ultimately his everlasting downfall – Genesis 3.

Now man was eternally separated from God, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” -Romans 3:23. We could no longer communicate with Him directly like we were able to before. Everyone born after Admin and Eve would be born into sin, born into spiritually dead bodies no longer able to please God, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” – Romans 5:12. With sin comes punishment, sin separates man from God, “for the wages of sin is death” -Romans 6:23a. This is who man is and his contribution to the world.

3. Who is Jesus:

The problem of sin is eternally problematic and man alone cannot fix this problem. To be with God, one needs to be righteous and we’ve already established that man is born into sin. Not only are we born into sin, but we do not even want to seek after God on our own, “None is righteous, no, not one;¹¹ no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” -Romans 3:10-12. Even if we were to believe that good works can bring us into salvation, we would still have the problem of us not being to do good on our own because of our sin. What hope is there then for any of us?

Jesus’ disciples asked the same question when a man asked Jesus what he must do to be saved. His disciples listened to the answer and understood how impossible it was to be saved by their own deeds and asked who then can be saved, “²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? ²⁶But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” – Matthew 19:25-26. There is a price to pay for sin, that price is death. The Israelites in the Old Testament represented this with utilizing a scape goat which they would sacrifice as a sin offering to pay for their sins. However, this was only meant to be a temporary solution, it could not fully pay for the sins of man.

This is why Jesus was born into the world. Jesus was born to be a perfect sacrifice to save sinners, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” – Luke 19:10. Jesus lived a perfect life, one that we could not live. He became a new Adam and our new representative to God, “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” – 1 Corinthians 15:45. Only the righteous can be with God, and since we cannot be righteous because of our sin, it is only by Jesus’ righteousness that we can be save, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” – 2 Corinthians 5:21. How can we obtain this righteousness from Jesus?

4. What do we need to do:

We’ve already covered that we cannot get into a right standing with God on the basis of our own works. It is only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus that he died for our sins, can we be made right with God, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” – Romans 3:21-22, “and be found in him, 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. It really is that simple.

We do not have to be perfect, in fact we cannot be. God asks that we put our complete faith in Jesus and follow his words and actions in order to obtain salvation. He wants us to have faith in Him like children have faith in their parents, ^“14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” – Mark 10:14-15. This gift of salvation is free and is for anyone that puts their faith in Jesus, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” – Romans 6:23

Since salvation is a free gift from God, no one can boast that they achieved it, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast” – Ephesians 2:8-9 . No one can pretend to be better than anyone else. Grace is not earned, it is given under the discretion of the person giving the gift. There is nothing special you need to do to be saved, no ritual that needs to be performed. It’s as simple as accepting the truth that you are a sinner, that you are in need of salvation, that you cannot save yourself by your works and that you are putting your faith in Jesus’ sacrifice that it was good enough to save you once and for all.