What is the gospel

When proclaiming the gospel, people must first understand there is a God who has revealed himself in Scripture. The issue of sin, the person of Christ, and the need for faith all rest upon the fact that God exists and he’s the kind of God the Bible describes. So whenever you witness to people, you need to begin with God, either establishing his existence (if they are atheists), or if they do believe there’s a God, being clear about his character.

There are two aspects to God’s character that are especially important. First, God is a holy God. This means God is set apart from sin. Everything about God – His character, His thoughts, and His actions – is righteous and pure in every way. God does not sin and cannot stand to have sin in his presence. As a result, if we’re to have a relationship with God, then we also need to be holy. God’s holiness sets the standard for how we’re to be if we hope to be pleasing to him. God clearly presented his expectation in Leviticus 19:2 saying, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Just as God is set apart from sin and is without sin, so also should we be without sin.

Second, God is also our judge. In 1 Peter 1:17 God is described as our “Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds.” Every one of us will stand before God one day and he’ll judge us against the standard of his holiness. If we’ve never committed a sin and lived our lives in perfect obedience, then we will be rewarded with eternal life. If not, if we’ve sinned in any way, even if it was only one little lie, then God will judge us for our sins because he cannot allow sin into his presence. The result of God’s judgment against sin is eternal separation from him in hell.

Unfortunately none of us have lived the perfectly obedient life God requires of us. Some of us have sinned in large ways that have caused great destruction to ourselves and others and sometimes we’ve sinned in small ways that nobody knows about. But no matter how you slice it, we’ve all fallen short of the standard of holiness God expects of us.

None of us come remotely close to loving God perfectly with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Even the deeds we think are good really aren’t because they’re tainted with sinful self-centered desires and motivations. As a result, the prophet Isaiah said of us, “All our righteous deeds are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:4). This means even the most righteous, charitable thing you’ve ever done in your life is still tainted with sin. Our sins of pride and self-centeredness so taint all we do that even in our finest moments, we still fall short of God’s holy standard.

Yet God provided a way for us to fulfill his command of perfect obedience and at the same time still be just in punishing sins. God sent his Son, the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ to become a man and He lived the perfect, sinless life we should have lived. As a result, Christ had no guilt for sins committed. Nevertheless, Jesus suffered for our sins on the cross as God’s wrath was poured out on Him instead of us. He took the punishment we deserved for the wrongs we had done. Then three days later Christ rose from the dead and promised eternal life to those who respond to him in faith.

The final component of the gospel message is a call to faith, to believe that God’s wrath against sin was satisfied with Christ’s death. Christ’s atoning work on the cross is not automatic; it must be received by faith. But because we often use the words faith or belief rather loosely, it’s important we’re clear what is meant by the term.

We can use the word believe in the sense of “giving mental assent to some factual truth.” For example, you might say, “I believe George Washington was the first President of the United States.” When you say you “believe” that, you’re saying you recognize that fact to be true. But “believing” or “having faith” in Scripture means far more than that. Lots of people will say they “believe” in God much the same way they believe in George Washington, which basically means they believe in the fact that he exists. But even demons have that kind of belief. James 2:19 says even demons believe certain factual truths about God, but that doesn’t help them in any way. Real biblical belief is closer to the idea of trust. For example, it’s one thing to say you believe your friend can fly an airplane, but it’s another thing entirely to get on board the plane and allow him to take you up 12,000 feet! Biblical belief involves trust. To believe in God is to entrust to God something of value to you, namely your life. 

When God calls people through the message of the gospel to believe in Christ, he’s not merely asking for people to give mental assent to facts about Jesus, although recognizing certain facts about Jesus are important. He’s calling them to entrust themselves to him with their lives. It’s a call to stop trusting in their own works or the false idols of the world to provide salvation and entrust their lives to Christ by turning away from those things and living instead for him.