The Gospel

The Good News

The word “gospel” literally means “good news". Specifically, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Savior who has come. Our need for a savior began when sin entered into the world through Adam and Eve.

The Problem of Sin

Adam and Eve committed the first sin against God when they ate the forbidden fruit, and all of humanity inherited the consequences: distance from God, toil, pain, death, and a fallen, sinful nature (Genesis 3).

Sin is failing to meet God’s standard, or breaking His law. Scripture declares, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). By breaking the law, we deserve punishment by the law, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). 

Jesus Christ: The Answer to Sin

Life

Jesus was born of a virgin, with God as His Father and a woman as His mother, making Him fully God and fully man.

Jesus is God manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). He is the exact representation of God’s person (Hebrews 1:3), the image of the invisible God made visible (Colossians 1:15). In Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Colossians 2:9, NIV).

He was tempted just as any other human being, yet he did not sin. During His life, he taught with authority, healed the sick, and performed many miracles wherever he went.

Death

Despite all the good Jesus did, he was accused of blasphemy by Jewish leaders and was put to death by crucifixion for truthfully claiming to be the messsiah. However, this was all part of Jesus' divine mission. These are passages written 700-800 years before Jesus was born:

"...he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities...He was oppressed, and he was afflicted...he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter...his soul an offering for sin" (Isaiah 53:3-5,7,9-10)

"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel...for they shall all know me...I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. " (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Just as under Moses' law, animals had to be sacrificed to atone for sin, Jesus became the spotless Lamb of God, the once and for all offering for sin (1 Peter 1:19).

Ressurection

Three days after His burial, Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples and over 500 others (1 Corinthians 15:6). His final commands were to make disciples and baptize believers:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 28:19)

Responding to the Gospel

Faith

Faith is trusting in God enough to act on what He has said. Scripture describes faith as more than intellectual belief; it is confidence in God that produces obedience. Faith begins by believing who God is, but it is proven by how we live in response to His Word. Scripture tells us that faith and obedient action are inseperable:

• “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).
• “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26).

Having faith includes believing in God: "...without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists..." (Hebrews 11:6), but it also requires:

• Following Jesus's teachings
• Turning away (repenting) from sin.
• Being baptized.

Faith is a living, active response to who God is and what He has spoken. True faith produces repentance, obedience, love for others, and a transformed life empowered by the Spirit. As scripture teaches, those who walk by faith bear fruit to joy, peace, patience, and eternal life (Galatians 5:22, Romans 6:22)

Baptism

The Apostle Peter—to whom Jesus gave the "keys of heaven", and promised to "build my church" upon (Matthew 16:18–19)—understood that Jesus' command was to baptize believers in the name of Jesus Christ, not literally "the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost". When asked "what shall we do?" by believers, Peter's command was this:

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38)

Furthermore, every baptism recorded in the New Testament was done in Jesus name (Acts 8:16, 10:48, 9:5), and when the Apostle Paul writes about baptism, he writes to an audience that was "baptized into Jesus Christ", indicating that Paul taught the same baptism as Peter (Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:12). 

Conclusion

When we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we are “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3), and “our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed” (6:6). 

Jesus suffered the most undeserving death on behalf of humanity so that we could be saved from our sin. Through faith, repentance, and obedience, we receive the salvation of our souls and reconcilliation with God. 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. " (John 3:16)

This is the good news of Jesus Christ.