Salvation is not a reward for the righteous it’s a gift for the guilty. —

The gospel is Jesus Christ himself. The heart of the gospel is that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The Bad and Good news

Before we get to the good news, we need to realize that the Gospel presupposes that there is bad news…there is no good news unless you first know the bad news. Romans1 begins with this. The gospel includes a message about sin, Sin is anything that goes against God’s commandments, his will, your intuition per say, etc. The wages of sin is death. Period.

What SHOULD happen to sinners is eternal hell and damnation; sinners can’t be with a holy God. There must be an understanding in the gospel that we are under divine judgment, wrath, where we are separated from God and there’s nothing I can do to remove the condemnation of that sin, your only hope is found in Jesus Christ who died upon the cross for your sins. And this is why we need the gospel.

We can even add other aspects of how do we know Jesus is our savior and not some random guy; his virgin birth by Mary, his sinless life, his substitutionary death, his bodily resurrection, his present intersection in heaven and soon return, this is all interwoven as to which Christ we call upon and believe. Galatians 1. Yes, there’s proof of all of this if you do your research. It is your choice to believe it or not, but YOU not believing doesn’t mean there is a lack of proof and it is all not real. You just lack the ability to have faith, and instead tread through pride and self glorification, there’s a difference.

Origins of the Gospel

“Gospel” translates the old testament Hebrew verb ‘Bisser’ and the noun ‘Besorah’. The Greek New Testament equivalent is ‘Euangelion’, which is a compound word. EU means ‘good’ and ANGELION means ‘announcement’. All of these words mean good news…but what kind of good news?

In Hebrew, Bisser, is what we call national news or a royal announcement. The prophet Isiah announced the good news that one day the God of Israel would come as the cosmic king to confront all corrupt and violent kingdoms and restore his rule over all nations.

So when Jesus of Nazareth hit the ‘public stage’ he continued Isaiah’s gospel. When he went around announcing the euangelion of God’s kingdom. Jesus proclaimed that God was restoring his reign over his people of Israel and over all nations and he was the one bringing it all about.

The euangelion (gospel)about a new king in charge means a new way of life. Jesus said that living in God’s kingdom meant following him by putting down hatred and seeing peace and goodness through generosity and forgiveness even towards your enemies. His good news required evil to make a decision. Jesus even took his euangelion to Jerusalem to confront the corrupt kingdoms of his day…but he challenged them with the power of God’s generous love.

As Jesus was being executed by his enemies he received his crown of mockery; he was mocked as a fake king. But he displayed exact and true royal authority forgiving his tormentors. How many people do you know can be brutally beaten and tortured and ask for God to forgive them during their execution? Jesus was in charge by giving his life for the sins of others. A few days later Jesus rose from the dead, showing his love was stronger than death itself.

He appeared to hundreds of his followers and told them to spread the gospel; that all authority in heaven on earth belongs to him. And they did share the good news all over the ancient world! They did this by writing the 4 accounts of Jesus life; which is the gospel. They go on to tell the story of how Jesus brought God’s kingdom. How he lived for others, died for their sins and then rose from the dead. They all also shared the good news by talking about it, some traveled sharing the royal announcement,

The good news is that the crucified and risen Jesus is the true lord of the world. The king of all creation. The real leaders are the servants, the last are first and the first go to the back of the line. The homeless are welcome, the hungry are fed. Love is the most powerful reality of God’s kingdom. This good news is not easy to accept or even believe, it comes unnatural to us. It is something that we learn to understand, comprehend, and practice. But something happens when we hear this gospel and follow God’s way, and that’s when the gospel becomes the best news that you’ve ever heard.

Warning

There’s other gospels…

Yes there are other gospels out there in the world. Those that are corrupted by the addition of humans work to our salvation. A damnable gospel. A bridge that doesn’t get you to the other side. A log that won’t save you while you’re drowning. It is not the true saving gospel, this is the ONLY true saving gospel. And that is through grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. In Rome they would say ‘grace and through faith and Christ and.’ The reformers Took out the word and added the word alone (Sola). This frames the essence of th4e gospel of Christ; any addition human word, human goodness, religiosity is a corruption of the gospel.

If you don’t believe what people have to say…read the bible for yourself. Remember, your flesh is sinful, do not lean on your own understanding it will fail you; like it always has. What is Gods word. Your choice to believe it or not is your choice remember this, his word is right there. He is waiting for you to come to him, God as always been there.