The Gospel

The Gospel

What is the Gospel?

"Gospel" literally means good news. At its core, Christianity is not good advice, good teaching, or good feelings. It is good news! It’s all about a historical event; an event that occurred 2000 years ago when God entered our world as the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Here He lived a sinless life, died on the cross as a substitution for us, and was raised back to life on the third day. His death and resurrection made us right with God. And now all who believe in Him will recieve the gift of eternal life.

Bad News and Good News

The Bad News

The Bible tells us that we are all born separated from God because we are sinful (rebellious) by nature and by our actions. Whether you're a good person or not, the fact is – you are not perfect. And perfection is what is required to be in the presence of God (go to heaven). We all must pay the price of sin – death (hell); and we don't have the ability to save ourselves.

The Good News

God in His great love and grace wants to save us! He offers a way to live with Him forever. The death of the God-Man Jesus in our place and his conquering of death and sin at the resurrection becomes a gift offered to us for free. His death satisfies the wrath of God against all sin and it pays the sin debt that we owe to the God we have offended. All we have to do is accept His gift.

The New You

The death and resurrection of Jesus, isn’t just something that happened to Him. It also happened to you. You died with Jesus and you were buried with Him spiritually – the old you is gone. On top of that, you were raised to life with Christ in His resurrection – the new you has come. That is, the life of Jesus is being lived through you. You have everything He has—love, freedom, righteousness, sonship, inheritance, acceptance, and peace. The Father delights in you just as He delights in Jesus! You have Christ's perfect record so there is nothing you can do to make God love you any more or any less than He already does. Knowing that we died once with Jesus and were raised once with Jesus then becomes the motivation of our choice to daily serve our Savior by faith and love.

Is Being a Good Person Enough?

No one can ever be good enough to earn or deserve the eternal, abundant life that God offers. God is not glorified when you try to earn something that He is offering for free; and He isn’t glorified when you try to gain what only He can accomplish—perfection.

Trying to earn your way to God through morality robs you of the joy-filled life that God offers. It is a life of guilt when you fail. And a life of pride when you succeed. At the end of the day it is a selfish life. If you believe in God and are trying to earn Him through religion, the gospel offers you real joy, real peace, and real freedom because it is not about what you do. It's about what God did. If you are simply trying to “be good for goodness sake” the gospel offers you a reality that gives meaning to your existence and a hope for the future that brings lasting joy. At the end of the day what we all need is forgiveness, the death of self, and a new heart to fill us with the life of God. That is what Jesus and His good news offers!