Has anyone ever asked you, “What is the gospel?” Or have you ever heard a preacher command, “You need to believe the gospel”? Do you know what the gospel is? Perhaps you would define the gospel as good news. That would be true. Perhaps you would define the gospel with the well-known ABC’s. Accept, Believe, Confess. That would not be true. So then, what exactly is the gospel?
The gospel is the message of good news concerning Jesus Christ. God created the first man and woman as holy human beings who delighted in knowing God and living in communion with him. However, Adam and Eve sinned by rebelling against God’s good commands. As a result, except for Jesus, everyone born into this world enters life as a guilty sinner cut off from fellowship with their Creator and condemned to death.
But God, being rich in mercy and love toward sinners, sent his eternal Son, Jesus Christ, to take on our human nature so that as the God-Man Mediator he might work salvation for all those whom the Father loved. On behalf of his people, Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life keeping all of his Father’s commands. When he died on the cross, he took on himself the sins of all of his people in order that he might bear the punishment of God’s wrath as their substitute. He also rose from the dead and ascended into heaven where he now sits as King over heaven and earth. Soon Christ will come again to earth in order to judge those who wickedly refuse his salvation and to bring those who love him into his presence forever.
The benefits of Christ’s work are given as a free to gift to all who come to Christ himself by faith, trusting in him alone for the forgiveness of all their sins. This faith is itself a gift of God which he gives freely to all who ask. The gospel is a wonderful message because it tells sinful human beings what God Himself has done in accomplishing salvation for His people. The gospel is a wonderful message because it reveals the greatness of God’s grace and gives Him all the glory for a person’s salvation. The gospel is a wonderful message because it speaks hope to all who experience the guilt, power and pollution of sin and cannot save themselves.
I would like to invite you to come and hear the gospel preached at Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church. We love the gospel. We enjoy responding to God’s greatness in worship and obedience. If you want to praise God for His grace toward sinners, please join us in thanking God for the good news about Jesus Christ.
–By Allen Beardmore