What Is The Gospel?

Now more than ever the integrity of the Biblical Gospel is being threatened in America. You may have heard that you need to "ask Jesus into your heart" or "accept Jesus". This is, however, not the Biblical way of presenting the Gospel Truth. Many say that you must contextualize the Gospel and to an extent I agree. I believe the primary way in which we must contextualize the Gospel is in presenting it in such a way that we do not take any prior knowledge of the Bible for granted. We must begin with the bad news.

We are sinners and God hates those who practice iniquity (Ps 5:5). That puts us in a very precarious position to begin with. Many would admit the truth that they are sinners but there are those who would deny it so I will ask you, the reader, the following questions. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever dishonored your parents? Have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever looked upon a man or woman with sexual desire (lust)? Have you ever put anything in front of God in your life (idolatry)? The answer of course is yes to at least one and most probably all of those questions. Those actions or even thoughts are what constitute sin. When you disobey God's law, which is contained within the Bible and is written upon your God given conscience, you sin. The Bible says that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). This death is both physical and spiritual. We are born spiritually dead and physically dying. We all have an unavoidable appointment with death looming ahead. The reason this is true is because God is a god of justice and holiness. His very nature demands punishment for sin and because our offenses are against such a holy and righteous being who is infinite and eternal the punishment exacted is also infinite and eternal. If you die in your sins you will spend eternity in Hell in conscious, physical torment paying the penalty for your life of disobedience to your creator (Rev 20:11-14). So the bad news is summed up in 3 statements:

1. You have sinned
2. God hates those who sin (psalm 5:5)
3. God punishes sinners in Hell for eternity

Now if the Spirit of God is at all working on you, you will be desperate for the Good News. The Good News is what is called the Gospel in Scripture. God from eternity has purposed to save men. He is by nature just, holy and righteous but also loving, merciful and gracious. His purpose in creating this Earth was to display all the wonders of His glory which includes all of the previously mentioned attributes. He is a savior. The problem is that He cannot just forgive or forget sin because that would not be just and remember He is wholly just. What He did to uphold his justice was send His Son, the God-Man, Jesus Christ to come to Earth and live the holy and perfect life that we failed at and then die at the hands of wicked men in order that He might purchase men back from slavery to sin. On that cross, some 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ took all the punishment and all the wrath of almighty God for all those who would ever believe. Those who believe in Christ and repent (turn away from their sin) of their sin have His righteousness given to them and their sin put on Him and eternal life is granted to the repentant sinner solely by grace through faith. To demonstrate the truthfulness of this and the power He had, God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day according to the Scripture. This is a wonderful offer of a gracious God who could have left men in their sin, damned them to Hell forever and still been just. That men reject this offer simply shows their pure hatred for the God who created them. May you, dear reader, not be of those men. To sum up the good news:

1. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life that men fail to live
2. Jesus was murdered and took the wrath of God for His people's sins
3. Jesus was raised on the 3rd day and triumphed over sin and death
4. We must Repent and Believe in the Gospel will be saved

If you have done this please email me or visit www.gomvc.com and call Murrieta Valley Church and let them know that you have been saved by God and wish to be discipled. If you are not in the area please contact your local Bible teaching church. Please begin reading the Bible starting with the Gospel of Mark.

Soli Deo Gloria