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What is the Gospel? It's a question that has echoed through history and continues to stir hearts today. The word "gospel" means "good news," but what exactly is this good news, and why does it matter? Simply put, the gospel is the transformative message about Jesus Christ and His work to save sinners. The apostle Paul summarizes it perfectly: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). But to truly grasp why this is the best news you'll ever hear, we must first understand the bad news it addresses. Keep reading as we uncover the life-changing truth of the gospel!
The Bad News
In the beginning…
To understand the bad news, we need to go back to the beginning, the very beginning. Jesus said, “From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6). In other words, when God created the world (Genesis 1:1), he made Adam and Eve too. His creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and Adam and Eve were innocent: “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). But, the one prohibition God gave them—not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16–17)—they broke; and when they broke it, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7), and in their shame they hid themselves from God’s presence (Genesis 3:8). Sin had entered the world.
The judgment for sin was death. God had warned Adam, “In the day that you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:15–17). As a result of their sin, God cursed the man (Genesis 3:17–19), the woman (Genesis 3:16), and the serpent who had tempted them to sin (Genesis 3:14–15); then, he sent them out from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22–24). Adam and Eve were cursed, removed from the presence of God, and would eventually die (Genesis 5:5).
Death Spreads to All
This death for sin doesn’t stop with Adam and Even. As the apostle Paul writes, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). And that’s exactly what we find as the history recounted in the Old and New Testaments unfolds:
In the days of Noah, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Even after the flood, God announced, “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21).
David repeatedly said in the Psalms, “There is none who does good, not even one” (Psalms 14:3; 53:3; cf. Romans 3:9–18). At the dedication of the temple, king Solomon declared, “There is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46).
The prophet Isaiah claimed, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6).
Jesus taught that “what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:18–20). He added, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34), and “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5).
James asserted, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2).
The apostle John warned, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
Perhaps the apostle Paul sums it up best: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); and, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Not a Result of Works
It’s no wonder, then, that no one can be saved by doing good or by keeping God’s law. If our hearts are evil from our youth (Genesis 8:21), if no one does good (Psalm 14:3; 53:3; Romans 3:12), and if everyone sins (1 Kings 8:46) and falls short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), then how could we ever think that we could save ourselves by doing enough good?
Paul confronts this false notion (of saving oneself by doing good) when he contends, “By works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). He’s even so bold as to claim, “If righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2:21)!
James puts it another way in his letter:
“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.” (James 2:10–11)
Jesus also met this problem head-on in his own teaching ministry. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). He even pointed out that although his hearers knew how to give good gifts to their children, they were evil nonetheless (Matthew 7:11). And on another occasion, Jesus taught that all sorts of evil come from people’s hearts (Matthew 15:19).
Condemnation for Sin
Finally, the Bible teaches that condemnation for sin doesn’t simply end in physical death. To the contrary, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). This judgment that comes after death is called hell, a place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). As theologian Wayne Grudem defines it, “Hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment.” Jesus calls it “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41) and “the fiery furnace,” adding that “in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41–42). The apostle John calls it “the second death” and “the lake of fire,” and it is for anyone whose name is not written in the book of life (Revelation 20:14–15).
Everything we’ve seen up to this point makes it clear that the bad news is really bad: we’ve all sinned against God, every one of us; we’ve broken his law and deserve death, judgment, and hell; and, we’re beyond the hope of ever saving ourselves or making ourselves right with God. That’s a lot to take in. But, that’s exactly what makes the good news so good!
The Good News
Now that we have a clear picture of the bad news— the condemnation of sin and the judgment of hell—it’s time to turn our attention to the good news. The gospel is the good news that God, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, deals with our sin and reconciles us to himself. “In Christ,” explains Paul, “God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). That isn’t just good news; it’s the best news ever! But we still have to ask, how does Jesus’s death and resurrection deal with our sin?
Christ Died for Our Sins
In 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, the apostle Paul gives a concise statement of the gospel which he preached: “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.” In fact, it’s not uncommon for Christians today to describe the gospel in these exact terms, “Christ died for our sins.” But, what does that even mean?
Perhaps the prophet Isaiah gives the clearest explanation of what it means that Jesus died for our sins:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4–6)
In other words, when the Bible says that Jesus died for our sins, it means that he died in our place, as our substitute! We were the ones who deserved to die and go to hell (Romans 3:23; 6:23); but, God poured out on Jesus all his wrath against our sins instead of pouring it out on us. The Scriptures go on to explain,
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13–14)
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
You see, when Jesus died on the cross as our substitute, our sin was attributed to Jesus—that is, God dealt with Jesus as if our sin belonged to him. As C.H. Spurgeon profoundly stated, “The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.” But on the flip side, for those who believe in Jesus, God attributes to them the righteousness of Christ—that is, God deals with us like Jesus’s righteousness belongs to us! This reckoning of Christ’s righteousness to those who believe is how Paul can proclaim that he does not have “a righteousness of [his] own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9). The imputation of the believer’s sin to Jesus and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer is spelled out in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
“The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.” – C.H. Spurgeon.
By Jesus’s death and resurrection, God not only forgives us for our sins, but he also reconciles us to himself (Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18). In other words, in Jesus, we go from being weak and ungodly and sinners against and enemies of God, to being justified and saved and reconciled and rejoicing in God (Romans 5:6–11)! “Through our Lord Jesus Christ,” maintains Paul, “we have peace with God” (Romans 5:1).
By Grace through Faith
If no one can be saved by doing good or by keeping God’s law, and if God deals with our sins and reconciles us to himself through Jesus’s death and resurrection, then it should come as no surprise that this salvation must be by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And that’s exactly what we find all throughout the Bible—salvation comes to those who believe in Jesus!
“And [Abraham] believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)
“The righteous shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
“To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:43)
“Through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:38–39)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)
Our Response to the Gospel
So, how should we respond to the good news of the gospel? Or, to put it another way, what should a sinner do in order to be saved? A jailer from Philippi once asked the apostle Paul that same question: “What must I do to be saved” (Acts 16:30)? Paul’s answer to him wasn’t that he should do good or do better or keep God’s law. No, his answer was exactly what we’d expect by now: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Jesus taught the same things when we went about preaching, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14–15). He even illustrated his point by telling a story about a man who prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” About that man, Jesus declared, “This man went down to his house justified” (Luke 18:13–14).
So, What is the Gospel?
Still asking "What is the gospel?" It’s the good news that sinners can be saved from God’s wrath against sin by believing in Jesus! It’s the good news that, even though you deserve the condemnation of death and the judgment of hell because of your sin against God, you can actually be forgiven and be reconciled to him and have peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection! So, will you too believe in Jesus and be saved?
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9–10)
What is the gospel?