Gospel means “good news” and is all about Christ. Firstly, about Christ dying for our sins. Sin is the word to describe our resistance to God and His requirements. Our sin offends God and separates us from the God who made us—and it keeps us from experiencing life as God intended for us to live.

Sin leads to death, it’s called sin’s wages, and means more than physical death—it means separation from God now and for all eternity.

God loves His sinful people, but He cannot just overlook our sin. There’s nothing we can do to rectify this awful situation. But, He can. He stepped into the world to do something about it. He sent His Son, Jesus, to live as people were intended to live. The result was a perfect life that pleased God and showed how guilty and sinful we all are.

Jesus was mistreated and rejected and ultimately was killed. He was powerful enough to overcome His enemies, but He did not. Jesus paid the price for our sin and died in our place, willingly, so that we can be forgiven and our lives could be put on a proper basis with God.

If we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and died for our sins and if we repent our sins, God sees us as forgiven. He withholds the punishment we deserve. We receive eternal life because of what Jesus did for us.

This is the first part of the gospel and it’s really good news!

The second part of the gospel is that Christ was buried. Nothing surprising about that—He was dead. But to show that He was dead, and many witnesses including the authorities could testify to that fact, He was placed in a tomb which was sealed and a guard was put in place.

Christ’s burial might not seem very important until we note the third part of the gospel—that Christ was raised on the third day. This remarkable statement refers to the fact that upon inspection the tomb was found to be empty, the body had disappeared, and then time after time people started to say that Christ had appeared to them. He appeared to many people in different places and situations and word began to spread that what Jesus had only hinted at had actually happened—Jesus who had died for our sins and had been buried has raised from the dead and is alive! This is really good news!!

You see the big enemy that we all face and which we have never mastered is death. It happens to everyone eventually. We might try to delay it but we cannot overcome it. But, when Jesus was raised from the dead, God showed what He could do and how powerful He was. He took the fear out of death because Jesus showed that there is life after death.

Raising Jesus from the dead showed that God approved of what His son had done in dying for our sins, that God accepted His sacrifice, and forgiveness was now available to all, because Jesus died for all. And all who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting Life.

We can’t save ourselves. Only Jesus saves. He saves us from death and punishment for our sin. This doesn’t mean we won’t ever sin again. We’re not perfect. But, it does mean that we are forgiven when we do sin.

It also doesn’t mean that we’re free to sin. We’re accountable to God for what we do, but His Spirit provides the ability for us to resist sin. The Holy Spirit transforms us and helps us endure temptation and suffering—we never face life alone.

There’s much more but this is the basis of the good news. The big question then becomes—what do we do about this good news? The apostle Paul explained that we need to receive the good news—to believe it wholeheartedly. Then we take our stand and hold firmly to it—letting people in our sphere of influence know that we’re forgiven sinners who are now God’s saints, who rejoice in God’s love and grace and seek to live fully in the conscious enjoyment of being empowered by the living Lord Jesus to live a life that honors God and blesses people.

This is the gospel—and it’s good news all round!

How Can I Be Saved?

The messages and articles below dive deeper into what the Gospel is.