At the heart of Christianity is the gospel of Jesus Christ (simply termed “the gospel”). Without the gospel there is no Christianity. And there is no Christianity with a gospel other than the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The most succinct description of the gospel is found in 1 Cor 15:3-4. Paul writes,
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
The gospel is the message of the person and the work of Jesus Christ – He is at the center of the gospel. And as the verse points out, it is for our sins. Let’s look at what it means.
The literal definition of the word ‘gospel’ is ‘good news.’ But a news can only be good if it fixes or changes a bad situation, like a cure for a disease. So, what is the bad situation the gospel is addressing? It is our sins. The biblical definition of sin is “missing the mark.” We, humans, have missed God’s mark, His standard.
God created the universe and everything in it. He is the Lord over all creation, and He determines how things should be. He created humans (male and female) on the earth in His own image and gave them every good thing to enjoy. But humans rebelled against Him in the one thing He told them not to do. Because of their rebellion, humans became subject to sin. The effects of sin are far reaching including corrupting the image of God in man. People are born with sin inherent in their nature and this sin nature causes humans to commit more sins. Thus, mankind rebels against God and His standards every day. We suppress the truth about God and do not honor Him as God or give thanks (Rom 1:18, 21). We go on our own way (Is 53:6) and define reality in our own terms.
However, God is perfect in all His being. He is perfectly holy, and He is perfectly just. If that were not so, there would be no bad news since mankind would not be guilty. Because God is perfectly holy, no sin can be in His presence. And His perfect justice demands that all sin be dealt with accordingly; it would be against God’s nature if He simply allowed His Law to be broken. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) and there will be distress for every soul that does evil (Rom 2:9).
Hence, the real bad news is that mankind is living in rebellion to God and God, being holy and just, will hold us accountable according to His standards. The worst part is that mankind is incapable of rescuing themselves. We cannot do anything that will be acceptable to appease God’s judgement. We can never keep God’s Law perfectly and by the works of the Law no flesh will justified in His sight (Rom 3:20). Our most righteous acts are like filthy rags before God (Is 64:6), because they are stained with sin. Our sin nature makes us spiritually dead (Eph 2:1) and unless it is dealt with, we have no hope.
Now, in this context, is where the gospel is good news!
God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ (Eph 2:4-5). Jesus Christ is God’s solution to our sin problem; He died for our sins. He took the punishment that we deserved, and He stood under God’s judgement in our place. Jesus was the only One who could do this on our behalf. He was not born with a sin nature since He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). He did not commit any sin though He was tempted in every way (Heb 4:15). He lived a perfect life and was blameless before God. But He took our sins upon Himself and suffered God’s wrath which we deserved. In this way, God’s justice was displayed when Jesus laid down His life on the cross for our sins.
He was buried in a tomb. But it was impossible for Him to be held in death’s power and God raised Jesus up again (Acts 2:24). His resurrection is proof that God’s justice was satisfied and that our sins are forgiven. It is a work that is accomplished by God through Jesus Christ from beginning to end. The gospel is the perfect demonstration of God’s justice and God’s love and mercy.
Now, the call to humans everywhere is to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1:16); it becomes a reality to us through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:22). This is what the verses previous to what we read in 1 Cor 15 talk about – “the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain” (1 Cor 15:1-2). Standing completely in the righteousness of Jesus through faith is the only way we can be righteous in the eyes of God. It is not in our own good deeds, neither in the good deeds of another human, nor a mixture of Jesus and something else, but in Christ alone.
Moreover, it is not something that we believe once and check the box; it is a continuous state – “we received, we stand, and we are being saved.” The gospel changes our nature by replacing our heart of stone with a heart of flesh.
What does that mean?
The Gospel changes our status before God, it changes our actions, and it changes our habits.
1. We are now reconciled to God through Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:18, Rom 5:1, Eph 2:13).
2. We are given the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13, Rom 5:5).
3. We are a new creation and the old is gone (2 Cor 5:17).
4. We are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ (Col 1:13).
5. We are adopted as God’s children in Jesus (Eph 1:5).
6. We are built into God’s family (1 Pet 2:9-10).
7. We are freed from the bondage of sin (Rom 6:6-7).
8. We are renewed in our thinking (Eph 4:17-24).
9. We are able to worship God (1 Pet 2:5, Heb 13:15).
10. We are able to do good works (Eph 2:10).
11. We have peace and true fellowship with all Christians (Eph 2:14, 1 John 1:7).
12. We have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (Eph 1:11, 1 Pet 1:4).
13. We have eternal life in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:11-13, Rom 6:23).
If you have not turned away from your sins and believed in God’s only way of salvation, Jesus Christ, right now is the best time to do that! You don’t need a sophisticated prayer or a meeting with a priest/pastor. Turn away from your sins and put your faith in what God has done in and through Jesus Christ. Confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Rom 10:9-10).
If you have placed your trust in Christ alone, then :
1. Rejoice in what God has done in your life!
2. Know that you are secure in the finished work of Christ and there is nothing more for you to do to be justified before God (Gal 3:3).
3. The gospel has freed you from your sin and you don’t have to live under its power (Rom 6:2).
4. Glorify God in all things (1 Cor 10:31).
5. Discipline yourselves for the sake of godliness (1 Tim 4:7)
6. Proclaim the gospel to the world (Matt 28:19-20).
