What is the Gospel?
I’ve seen different versions or explanations of what the gospel is. It means the good news. I don’t think I can do an adequate job of summarizing the whole over-arching story within the Bible, but to give the big idea for those of you that may have stumbled across this site and don’t know what it is… There’s so much that goes into it, but I’ll try to briefly give an outline to get you started. Forgive me if I do an inadequate job of explaining the trinity (God as three persons in one God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and divinity/humanity of Jesus, but those are hard concepts to summarize/explain so I really will only touch on them briefly and mostly indirectly. I’ll try my best to explain the overall big ideas, but feel free to correct any errors or ask me if something is not clear.
God created everything and it was good. After Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden, the world became corrupt because of sin. God is just and holy, but nobody could completely keep God’s laws. According to God’s predestined plan, God sent Jesus to save those that believe and follow him. Jesus died for us when we were still sinners, but after 3 days rose again and reconciled us to God. If we repent and believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we can have eternal life. For those that believe and follow, when Jesus went to be with the Father in heaven he did not leave us orphans and sent his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our comforter and advocate, guiding us in the truth, sometimes giving us the words we are to say, and providing us with varied spiritual gifts. One day Jesus will return again and judge the world, separating some to live eternally with God and the rest to eternal torment. The world is already condemned. We don’t deserve it, but Jesus came to save by offering us the way to life.
God doesn’t rejoice when people die in their sins, but instead wants everybody to be saved. That’s why he always sent prophets to warn people, and in some cases they turned back to God like Nineveh did (see the book of Jonah). He is very patient in waiting for us to repent, but not everyone will. The Bible says the way to Him is narrow but the way to destruction is wide, so most will not be saved. Some try to earn their way to God, especially in other faiths. Yet, nobody can ever be good enough and work to save themselves because everybody still falls short of perfection and holiness. Even by telling one little lie we are guilty of having broken the whole law, and God said nothing unclean will enter heaven. Believers are being sanctified, but we won’t reach that until the afterlife. Our sins are only made clean through repenting and believing, trusting that the sacrifice of Jesus was enough. It is finished. That however does not give us a license to sin.
If we persevere in the faith and our walk with Jesus, we will get to spend eternity in joy, peace, and love in the presence of our loving Father. And we all suffer in this life, some more than others, but it won’t be forever. Satan is currently the ruler of this world, seeking to steal, kill, and destroy. He is the father of lies and there are many lies in the world. All of this was revealed to us so don’t let trials surprise you. God is still with us, even Jesus wept when Lazarus died, but hang in there. The rain falls on everyone, but God works all things for good for those that love Him, who are called according to His purpose. When Jesus suddenly returns the world will be carrying on in sin just like in the days of Noah, but believers can recognize the signs before he returns by the warnings in the Bible. Don’t be caught asleep and always be ready. After the final judgment, God will create a new heavens and a new earth and there will be no more death, pain, tears, or suffering. This life is temporary, but one day we will be home with God.
No other faith will take you to God as He said there is only one God and one way to him which is through Jesus. We can’t earn our way to heaven because that’s the equivalent of a criminal saying he gets to go free for doing community service when he’s still got a death sentence to pay for murdering somebody. They will not let him go free. We are all guilty, but Jesus paid your bail if you choose to accept. If not, you are choosing to remain in the worst prison there ever was forever. Where the fire is not quenched and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We don’t save ourselves with good deeds, but instead good works are the fruit and evidence of our faith. Jesus summarized the commands as love God and love your neighbor, and if we love him we obey and keep the commands which are not burdensome. This is all after believing. Salvation for those that believe is because of God’s mercy and is a gift.
All of that is part of the gospel (or good news) and the basics of what Christians should be able to agree on no matter what denomination or non-denomination they come from or what other beliefs they have about other things. This is where we get our unity, that we all believe in Christ and we can rejoice in that. Believers are not perfect, but we have placed our hope and faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus, like the Holy Spirit, was with God from the beginning before creation and became flesh, both God and man. He was without sin his whole life and is the only one that fulfilled the law completely because he was God. Jesus died as a man as he took on all of our sin, dying once for all that believe. Nobody took his life, he laid it down for us. But on the third day he rose again and in his physical body appeared to more than 500 people, including the disciples. Nobody else in history has ever done that. It was a sign he was the Messiah or savior the prophets had foreseen, but the world didn’t recognize him.
Do you know who Jesus is and what he’s done for you? If not, I highly recommend getting a Bible somewhere and starting to read about the story of God and humanity and how we can be saved. God says that those who seek will find, so seek God and the truth about Jesus. It’s not about religiously following a set of legalistic rules, but about having a relationship with our loving Creator. Believers become children of God, who created us for His glory to love Him and each other. He doesn’t need us and doesn’t want programmed robots, but for us to serve and love out of our own free will. So seek and find out who God really is before deciding you don’t need or want Him. He is better than anything you can possibly conceive. Praying is just talking to God, so go ahead and ask Him about your doubts and if you genuinely ask and seek, you’ll start to find answers. We won’t know everything, but we can find many answers in God’s Word and through answered prayers. Nobody comes to the Father unless he is first drawn, so if you are curious maybe He’s already been trying to get your attention and now’s your time to turn and listen. One day it will be too late, so don’t put it off any longer.
The Bible is a huge book, but many recommend people start with the gospel of John. The 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) give 4 different eye witness accounts of when Jesus came. If 4 different people are at the scene of a crime, you will get 4 different accounts of what each saw, heard, perceived, and remembers and all written or said in their own particular style, emphasizing what is important or stuck out to them. That is what the 4 gospels are like. They aren’t contradictory stories, but complementary and were directed to different audiences with different purposes and authors behind them.
A lot of my personal favorite sections are from the gospel of Matthew, but people recommend starting with John because he gives more of an overarching story of God and Jesus. If you like things that are short and to the point, some people recommend starting with Mark. Luke is also said to be pretty straightforward as well. John may have some things that are hard to understand, but start wherever you are led. There’s really no “right” or “wrong” way to start. The Word of God was inspired through the Holy Spirit, so they are not just man-made words, but “God-breathed” and able to instruct or correct.
If you are able, join a church near you. Just make sure they are not contradicting Scripture because unfortunately many false teachers are leading people astray even today (e.g. with things like the prosperity gospel). They twist Scriptures, taking them out of context, misquoting, or ignoring the text completely and if you don’t read and know Scripture, you won’t recognize the deception. Others seem to completely ignore anything they think is “negative” like sin and hell and only preach “positive” things to people with itching ears. No church or believer is perfect, but a Biblical church is trying to follow Jesus and keeps God and His Word at the center of everything. This is just a word of caution to be careful where you go to be spiritually fed. I am continually learning as God leads me even now. I don’t know everything and never will, but if you think I can be of help in any way in your search please feel free to email me and I’ll try my best to answer you. May God lead you in your search to the truth that is found in Jesus.
God created everything and it was good. After Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden, the world became corrupt because of sin. God is just and holy, but nobody could completely keep God’s laws. According to God’s predestined plan, God sent Jesus to save those that believe and follow him. Jesus died for us when we were still sinners, but after 3 days rose again and reconciled us to God. If we repent and believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we can have eternal life. For those that believe and follow, when Jesus went to be with the Father in heaven he did not leave us orphans and sent his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our comforter and advocate, guiding us in the truth, sometimes giving us the words we are to say, and providing us with varied spiritual gifts. One day Jesus will return again and judge the world, separating some to live eternally with God and the rest to eternal torment. The world is already condemned. We don’t deserve it, but Jesus came to save by offering us the way to life.
God doesn’t rejoice when people die in their sins, but instead wants everybody to be saved. That’s why he always sent prophets to warn people, and in some cases they turned back to God like Nineveh did (see the book of Jonah). He is very patient in waiting for us to repent, but not everyone will. The Bible says the way to Him is narrow but the way to destruction is wide, so most will not be saved. Some try to earn their way to God, especially in other faiths. Yet, nobody can ever be good enough and work to save themselves because everybody still falls short of perfection and holiness. Even by telling one little lie we are guilty of having broken the whole law, and God said nothing unclean will enter heaven. Believers are being sanctified, but we won’t reach that until the afterlife. Our sins are only made clean through repenting and believing, trusting that the sacrifice of Jesus was enough. It is finished. That however does not give us a license to sin.
If we persevere in the faith and our walk with Jesus, we will get to spend eternity in joy, peace, and love in the presence of our loving Father. And we all suffer in this life, some more than others, but it won’t be forever. Satan is currently the ruler of this world, seeking to steal, kill, and destroy. He is the father of lies and there are many lies in the world. All of this was revealed to us so don’t let trials surprise you. God is still with us, even Jesus wept when Lazarus died, but hang in there. The rain falls on everyone, but God works all things for good for those that love Him, who are called according to His purpose. When Jesus suddenly returns the world will be carrying on in sin just like in the days of Noah, but believers can recognize the signs before he returns by the warnings in the Bible. Don’t be caught asleep and always be ready. After the final judgment, God will create a new heavens and a new earth and there will be no more death, pain, tears, or suffering. This life is temporary, but one day we will be home with God.
No other faith will take you to God as He said there is only one God and one way to him which is through Jesus. We can’t earn our way to heaven because that’s the equivalent of a criminal saying he gets to go free for doing community service when he’s still got a death sentence to pay for murdering somebody. They will not let him go free. We are all guilty, but Jesus paid your bail if you choose to accept. If not, you are choosing to remain in the worst prison there ever was forever. Where the fire is not quenched and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We don’t save ourselves with good deeds, but instead good works are the fruit and evidence of our faith. Jesus summarized the commands as love God and love your neighbor, and if we love him we obey and keep the commands which are not burdensome. This is all after believing. Salvation for those that believe is because of God’s mercy and is a gift.
All of that is part of the gospel (or good news) and the basics of what Christians should be able to agree on no matter what denomination or non-denomination they come from or what other beliefs they have about other things. This is where we get our unity, that we all believe in Christ and we can rejoice in that. Believers are not perfect, but we have placed our hope and faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus, like the Holy Spirit, was with God from the beginning before creation and became flesh, both God and man. He was without sin his whole life and is the only one that fulfilled the law completely because he was God. Jesus died as a man as he took on all of our sin, dying once for all that believe. Nobody took his life, he laid it down for us. But on the third day he rose again and in his physical body appeared to more than 500 people, including the disciples. Nobody else in history has ever done that. It was a sign he was the Messiah or savior the prophets had foreseen, but the world didn’t recognize him.
Do you know who Jesus is and what he’s done for you? If not, I highly recommend getting a Bible somewhere and starting to read about the story of God and humanity and how we can be saved. God says that those who seek will find, so seek God and the truth about Jesus. It’s not about religiously following a set of legalistic rules, but about having a relationship with our loving Creator. Believers become children of God, who created us for His glory to love Him and each other. He doesn’t need us and doesn’t want programmed robots, but for us to serve and love out of our own free will. So seek and find out who God really is before deciding you don’t need or want Him. He is better than anything you can possibly conceive. Praying is just talking to God, so go ahead and ask Him about your doubts and if you genuinely ask and seek, you’ll start to find answers. We won’t know everything, but we can find many answers in God’s Word and through answered prayers. Nobody comes to the Father unless he is first drawn, so if you are curious maybe He’s already been trying to get your attention and now’s your time to turn and listen. One day it will be too late, so don’t put it off any longer.
The Bible is a huge book, but many recommend people start with the gospel of John. The 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) give 4 different eye witness accounts of when Jesus came. If 4 different people are at the scene of a crime, you will get 4 different accounts of what each saw, heard, perceived, and remembers and all written or said in their own particular style, emphasizing what is important or stuck out to them. That is what the 4 gospels are like. They aren’t contradictory stories, but complementary and were directed to different audiences with different purposes and authors behind them.
A lot of my personal favorite sections are from the gospel of Matthew, but people recommend starting with John because he gives more of an overarching story of God and Jesus. If you like things that are short and to the point, some people recommend starting with Mark. Luke is also said to be pretty straightforward as well. John may have some things that are hard to understand, but start wherever you are led. There’s really no “right” or “wrong” way to start. The Word of God was inspired through the Holy Spirit, so they are not just man-made words, but “God-breathed” and able to instruct or correct.
If you are able, join a church near you. Just make sure they are not contradicting Scripture because unfortunately many false teachers are leading people astray even today (e.g. with things like the prosperity gospel). They twist Scriptures, taking them out of context, misquoting, or ignoring the text completely and if you don’t read and know Scripture, you won’t recognize the deception. Others seem to completely ignore anything they think is “negative” like sin and hell and only preach “positive” things to people with itching ears. No church or believer is perfect, but a Biblical church is trying to follow Jesus and keeps God and His Word at the center of everything. This is just a word of caution to be careful where you go to be spiritually fed. I am continually learning as God leads me even now. I don’t know everything and never will, but if you think I can be of help in any way in your search please feel free to email me and I’ll try my best to answer you. May God lead you in your search to the truth that is found in Jesus.