What is the Gospel?

Everything that the Christian church does is centered around the Gospel. The church exists to glorify the God of the Gospel and spread His glory throughout the world. So the Gospel’s importance is quite clear – but what is it? Simply put, the Gospel is good news. It is the news that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of the world, was buried in a tomb, and rose from the dead three days after his death. Paul wrote to the believers in the city of Corinth:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you…that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. 
(1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4)

That is the content of the Gospel – the Gospel facts. And Scripture tells us how to appropriate those facts so that they impact our lives for eternity:

Acknowledge your sin. The good news of the Gospel loses its impact without first confronting the bad news. In fact, “bad news” does not adequately describe the situation. Scripture tells us that we are all born in sin. We are, as Ephesians describes us, dead in our trespasses and sins, and children of wrath. We have no spiritual life because we are in bondage to sin and therefore we are in danger of God’s judgment. The book of Romans tells us that the wages of sin is death – eternal death without Christ in Hell. The state in which we are born is a perilous one. Romans describes our condition:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12)

If the first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem, as is so often stated, then the first step to spiritual life is admitting you are a sinner. There is no other way to put it. You must come to grips with the fact that you have offended an infinitely holy God by your evil disobedience. You must acknowledge your sin, and therefore your need of forgiveness.

Turn from your sin. Once we have acknowledged that we are, in fact, in desperate need of a remedy for our sin, Scripture calls us to repent. To repent means to turn away from sin and embrace Christ as Savior from that sin. Acts 17:30 tells us that God:

…commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness…

It is not enough for you to simply feel sorry for your sins. You must turn from them. Doing so reveals that you have understood the gravity of your sinful situation and God has made you willing to abandon your sinful ways.

Believe in the Savior. Believing in Jesus Christ means you trust him alone for your eternal salvation. Believing is the second half of repenting. Jesus told the crowds in Galilee to:

…repent and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1:15)

These two words are the most concise way to explain the path to Heaven: repent and believe. You repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ. This is where you appropriate the Gospel facts. You trust Christ to save you from your sins because you believe and accept that he died, was buried, and rose again.

Follow the Savior. The proof that God has indeed transformed your life through the Gospel is that you follow Christ. Belief that simply claims to accept the Gospel facts but does not produce a transformed life is not truly belief. Paul wrote:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you have genuinely given your life to Jesus Christ, God has given you a new heart – one that will be eager to learn his word, obey his commands, and be around his people.