There are different words and ways that we describe exactly what the Gospel is. Understanding it correctly is of paramount importance because Paul said the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). Paul also said that any other “gospel” is not gospel at all. False gospels do not save; they end up damning adherents for eternity (Gal. 1:6-9).
With that in mind, this page is devoted to defining the Gospel. The definition provided by Southside is built around three words. A description of each word and Scripture texts are provided.
Following the definition will be the desired response of sinful people to the Gospel. If a person is to be saved, there must be a right and proper response to the Gospel.
Included in this page will be various definitions of the Gospel by pastors and theologians from Church History, as well as contemporary pastors and theologians. While these definitions vary in length and description, you will see common threads.
What is the Gospel?
Objectivity
The Gospel is outside of us. The Gospel is not so much about what happens to us as it is about what happened for us. These accomplishments were by Jesus. He accomplished all that was necessary to make the news good news. It is about His coming, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, and His return. The Gospel is Christ-centered, not man-centered. It is not about my subjective, personal experience. It is not about what I need to do; it is about what Christ already did.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 – “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: 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.”
Acts 2:22-24 - “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”
Substitution
He took upon Himself the punishment for all of the sin of His people, and He earned a perfect righteousness that is accounted to them as a gift. He was a substitute for us in absorbing the wrath of God for sin. It was the wrath due us. He also obeyed every aspect of God’s Law, thereby meriting a perfect or righteous standing that is credited to believers.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Galatians 3:13 - Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
Philippians 3:8-9 - That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
1 Peter 3:18 - Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
Isaiah 53:4-6, 11 - 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. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Faith
The way we receive Christ and all He accomplished is by faith alone. That means a trusting, looking, and relying only on Him. His work and His promises are our only source and ground of hope for being accepted by God. We trust and rely that He paid the penalty for our sin, and we are clothed in the righteousness that He earned for us. His work is where all of our confidence rests in being accepted by a holy God.
Romans 3:21-26, 28 - But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Galatians 3:8, 11, 14 - The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed…Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith…in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Philippians 3:8-9 - That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
How a person is saved by God through the Gospel
Salvation begins when a person realizes, admits, embraces, and confesses that he or she is a sinner deserving only of death and condemnation for hating God and breaking His law. It is realizing that salvation by God is because of His grace and goodness alone. It is not because of any merit on behalf of the sinner.
Salvation involves the person’s repenting or turning away from his or her life of sin and rebellion against God. This certainly involves a definitive turning at the beginning, but it also is evidenced by a life of repentance every day. There will be sins and failures in the life of a Christian, and these must be repented of on a daily basis in one’s life as a Christian.
Salvation also requires a looking away from all objects of hope, trust and confidence except for Christ alone. It is a looking away from all things that I have done or could do and looking to Christ alone. This looking is a belief or trust that Christ died for my sins and was raised up for my justification. He now clothes me in His perfect righteousness. The sole means or way this work of Christ is received is by faith alone. Faith is not a one-time act. It, like repentance, has a starting point, but it continues on throughout life. The Bible states clearly “The just shall live by faith.”
As a result of believing the promise of the Gospel, receiving Christ, and trusting in Christ alone for salvation, Scripture calls believers to:
Die to self, take up their cross, and follow Christ. (Luke 9:23)
Confess Christ before men. (Mark 8:38)
Be baptized as a sign of being united to Christ. (Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27)
Assemble together with other believers for worship, service, fellowship, and encouragement. (Heb. 10:24-25)
If you have never embraced Christ as your only hope of salvation, heed the words Scripture:
2 Cor. 6:2 - “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Hebrews 10:26-31 - If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Romans 10:11, 13 - “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame… everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
John 6:37 – “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeremiah Burroughs
The gospel of Christ is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ. As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of death, God, though He left His fallen angels and has reserved them in the chains of eternal darkness, yet He has thought upon the children of men and has provided a way of atonement to reconcile them to Himself again.
The second Person in the Trinity takes man’s nature upon Himself, and becomes the Head of a second covenant, standing charged with sin. He answers for it by suffering what the law and divine justice required, and by making satisfaction for keeping the law perfectly. This satisfaction and righteousness He tenders up to the Father as a sweet savor of rest for the souls that are given to Him.
And now this mediation of Christ is, by the appointment of the Father, preached to the children of men, of whatever nation or rank, freely offering this atonement unto sinners for atonement, requiring them to believe in Him and, upon believing, promising not only a discharge of all their former sins, but that they shall not enter into condemnation, that none of their sins or unworthiness shall ever hinder the peace of God with them, but that they shall through Him be received into the number of those who shall have the image of God again to be renewed unto them, and that they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
That these souls and bodies shall be raised to that height of glory that such creatures are capable of, that they shall live forever enjoying the presence of God and Christ, in the fullness of all good, is the gospel of Christ. This is the sum of the gospel that is preached unto sinners.
Martin Luther
At its briefest, the gospel is a discourse about Christ, that he is the Son of God and became man for us, that he died and was raised, and that he has been established as Lord over all things.
This much St. Paul takes in hand and spins out in his epistles. He bypasses all the miracles and incidents (in Christ’s ministry) which are set forth in the four Gospels, yet he includes the whole gospel adequately and abundantly.
This may be seen clearly and well in his greeting to the Romans, where he says what the gospel is, and then declares: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” etc.
There you have it. The gospel is a story about Christ, God’s and David’s son, who died and was raised, and is established as Lord. This is the gospel in a nutshell.
- Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, pg. 94
Richard Sibbes
“What is the gospel itself but a merciful moderation, in which Christ’s obedience is esteemed ours, and our sins laid upon him, wherein God, from being a judge, becomes our Father, pardoning our sins and accepting our obedience, though feeble and blemished? We are now brought to heaven under the covenant of grace by a way of love and mercy.”
- Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The Gospel is not merely a statement of what God desires and expects of us. It is no mere ethical and moral program or social scheme. It is not simply a call to a higher and nobler kind of life. That was true, in a sense, of the Old Testament and its revelation, but mankind had completely failed to respond to it. The Gospel of Christ is not a repetition of that in a still more impossible form. It is not, then, solely the revelation of what God expects of us, and the pattern of life to which He would have us conform. It is that, but according to Paul it is something still more wonderful. Were it merely that, it would be something to boast of and to glory in, for it is a mode of life which is infinitely higher than anything ever produced by man. But, finally, we could not exult and glory in it, for it would simply spell our damnation and proclaim our final failure and doom.
No, the glory of the Gospel is that it is primarily an announcement of what God does, and has done, in the Person of Jesus Christ. That was the essence of Paul's Gospel. That was the Gospel which was preached by all the Apostles. They preached Jesus as the Christ. They made a proclamation, an announcement. Primarily, they called upon people to listen to what they called "good news." They did not in the first instance outline a program for life and living. They were not setters forth of a point of view which they called upon people to accept. They did not go round the world in the first instance propagating a new order or a new scheme for living. They began by stating facts and explaining what they meant. They preached, not a programm, but a Person. They said that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God come from Heaven to earth. They said that He manifested and demonstrated His unique deity by living a perfect, spotless, sinless life of complete obedience to God, and by performing miracles. His death on the Cross was not merely the end of His life but the result of His rejection by His own countrymen, it had a deeper and more eternal significance. It was something that had to happen in order that mankind might be reconciled to God. It was a transaction between God the Father and God the Son. It was the Son bearing our sins "in His own body on the tree," and the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, who had said that the Messiah would be "bruised for our transgressions," and that "by his stripes we shall be healed." Indeed, as Paul put it elsewhere, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" and making "him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5. 21). But that was not all. He had risen from the grave, had manifested Himself unto certain chosen witnesses, and then ascended into Heaven. From Heaven He had sent the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the early Church, and He had brought unto them not only new understanding, but new life and power. Their lives had been entirely changed, and they now had life which was life indeed. That was the message. Its entire emphasis was upon what God had done. Its content was God's way of salvation and of making men righteous. Man had but to accept it and submit to it.
The Plight of Man and the Power of God
R.C. Sproul
There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.
Alistair Begg
Here’s the gospel in a phrase. Because Christ died for us, those who trust in him may know that their guilt has been pardoned once and for all. What will we have to say before the bar of God’s judgment? Only one thing. Christ died in my place. That’s the gospel.
Mark Dever
“Here is what I understand the good news to be: the good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God. Now that is good news.”
- from The Gospel and Personal Evangelism
Heartcry Missionary Society
The Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16) and the preaching of the Gospel is the great “means” and “methodology” of missions. The Gospel is, first and foremost, God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19). It answers the eternal question of how a just God can rightly justify wicked men (Romans 3:26). It points to Christ alone, who bore the sins of His people upon the cross, was forsaken of God, and crushed under the full force of His just wrath against sin. The Good News of the Gospel is that through Christ’s death, the justice of God was satisfied, and salvation was won for a great multitude of people. This is evidenced by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).
With that in mind, this page is devoted to defining the Gospel. The definition provided by Southside is built around three words. A description of each word and Scripture texts are provided.
Following the definition will be the desired response of sinful people to the Gospel. If a person is to be saved, there must be a right and proper response to the Gospel.
Included in this page will be various definitions of the Gospel by pastors and theologians from Church History, as well as contemporary pastors and theologians. While these definitions vary in length and description, you will see common threads.
What is the Gospel?
Objectivity
The Gospel is outside of us. The Gospel is not so much about what happens to us as it is about what happened for us. These accomplishments were by Jesus. He accomplished all that was necessary to make the news good news. It is about His coming, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, and His return. The Gospel is Christ-centered, not man-centered. It is not about my subjective, personal experience. It is not about what I need to do; it is about what Christ already did.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 – “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: 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.”
Acts 2:22-24 - “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”
Substitution
He took upon Himself the punishment for all of the sin of His people, and He earned a perfect righteousness that is accounted to them as a gift. He was a substitute for us in absorbing the wrath of God for sin. It was the wrath due us. He also obeyed every aspect of God’s Law, thereby meriting a perfect or righteous standing that is credited to believers.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Galatians 3:13 - Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
Philippians 3:8-9 - That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
1 Peter 3:18 - Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
Isaiah 53:4-6, 11 - 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. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Faith
The way we receive Christ and all He accomplished is by faith alone. That means a trusting, looking, and relying only on Him. His work and His promises are our only source and ground of hope for being accepted by God. We trust and rely that He paid the penalty for our sin, and we are clothed in the righteousness that He earned for us. His work is where all of our confidence rests in being accepted by a holy God.
Romans 3:21-26, 28 - But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Galatians 3:8, 11, 14 - The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed…Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith…in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Philippians 3:8-9 - That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
How a person is saved by God through the Gospel
Salvation begins when a person realizes, admits, embraces, and confesses that he or she is a sinner deserving only of death and condemnation for hating God and breaking His law. It is realizing that salvation by God is because of His grace and goodness alone. It is not because of any merit on behalf of the sinner.
Salvation involves the person’s repenting or turning away from his or her life of sin and rebellion against God. This certainly involves a definitive turning at the beginning, but it also is evidenced by a life of repentance every day. There will be sins and failures in the life of a Christian, and these must be repented of on a daily basis in one’s life as a Christian.
Salvation also requires a looking away from all objects of hope, trust and confidence except for Christ alone. It is a looking away from all things that I have done or could do and looking to Christ alone. This looking is a belief or trust that Christ died for my sins and was raised up for my justification. He now clothes me in His perfect righteousness. The sole means or way this work of Christ is received is by faith alone. Faith is not a one-time act. It, like repentance, has a starting point, but it continues on throughout life. The Bible states clearly “The just shall live by faith.”
As a result of believing the promise of the Gospel, receiving Christ, and trusting in Christ alone for salvation, Scripture calls believers to:
Die to self, take up their cross, and follow Christ. (Luke 9:23)
Confess Christ before men. (Mark 8:38)
Be baptized as a sign of being united to Christ. (Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27)
Assemble together with other believers for worship, service, fellowship, and encouragement. (Heb. 10:24-25)
If you have never embraced Christ as your only hope of salvation, heed the words Scripture:
2 Cor. 6:2 - “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Hebrews 10:26-31 - If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Romans 10:11, 13 - “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame… everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
John 6:37 – “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeremiah Burroughs
The gospel of Christ is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ. As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of death, God, though He left His fallen angels and has reserved them in the chains of eternal darkness, yet He has thought upon the children of men and has provided a way of atonement to reconcile them to Himself again.
The second Person in the Trinity takes man’s nature upon Himself, and becomes the Head of a second covenant, standing charged with sin. He answers for it by suffering what the law and divine justice required, and by making satisfaction for keeping the law perfectly. This satisfaction and righteousness He tenders up to the Father as a sweet savor of rest for the souls that are given to Him.
And now this mediation of Christ is, by the appointment of the Father, preached to the children of men, of whatever nation or rank, freely offering this atonement unto sinners for atonement, requiring them to believe in Him and, upon believing, promising not only a discharge of all their former sins, but that they shall not enter into condemnation, that none of their sins or unworthiness shall ever hinder the peace of God with them, but that they shall through Him be received into the number of those who shall have the image of God again to be renewed unto them, and that they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
That these souls and bodies shall be raised to that height of glory that such creatures are capable of, that they shall live forever enjoying the presence of God and Christ, in the fullness of all good, is the gospel of Christ. This is the sum of the gospel that is preached unto sinners.
Martin Luther
At its briefest, the gospel is a discourse about Christ, that he is the Son of God and became man for us, that he died and was raised, and that he has been established as Lord over all things.
This much St. Paul takes in hand and spins out in his epistles. He bypasses all the miracles and incidents (in Christ’s ministry) which are set forth in the four Gospels, yet he includes the whole gospel adequately and abundantly.
This may be seen clearly and well in his greeting to the Romans, where he says what the gospel is, and then declares: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” etc.
There you have it. The gospel is a story about Christ, God’s and David’s son, who died and was raised, and is established as Lord. This is the gospel in a nutshell.
- Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, pg. 94
Richard Sibbes
“What is the gospel itself but a merciful moderation, in which Christ’s obedience is esteemed ours, and our sins laid upon him, wherein God, from being a judge, becomes our Father, pardoning our sins and accepting our obedience, though feeble and blemished? We are now brought to heaven under the covenant of grace by a way of love and mercy.”
- Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The Gospel is not merely a statement of what God desires and expects of us. It is no mere ethical and moral program or social scheme. It is not simply a call to a higher and nobler kind of life. That was true, in a sense, of the Old Testament and its revelation, but mankind had completely failed to respond to it. The Gospel of Christ is not a repetition of that in a still more impossible form. It is not, then, solely the revelation of what God expects of us, and the pattern of life to which He would have us conform. It is that, but according to Paul it is something still more wonderful. Were it merely that, it would be something to boast of and to glory in, for it is a mode of life which is infinitely higher than anything ever produced by man. But, finally, we could not exult and glory in it, for it would simply spell our damnation and proclaim our final failure and doom.
No, the glory of the Gospel is that it is primarily an announcement of what God does, and has done, in the Person of Jesus Christ. That was the essence of Paul's Gospel. That was the Gospel which was preached by all the Apostles. They preached Jesus as the Christ. They made a proclamation, an announcement. Primarily, they called upon people to listen to what they called "good news." They did not in the first instance outline a program for life and living. They were not setters forth of a point of view which they called upon people to accept. They did not go round the world in the first instance propagating a new order or a new scheme for living. They began by stating facts and explaining what they meant. They preached, not a programm, but a Person. They said that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God come from Heaven to earth. They said that He manifested and demonstrated His unique deity by living a perfect, spotless, sinless life of complete obedience to God, and by performing miracles. His death on the Cross was not merely the end of His life but the result of His rejection by His own countrymen, it had a deeper and more eternal significance. It was something that had to happen in order that mankind might be reconciled to God. It was a transaction between God the Father and God the Son. It was the Son bearing our sins "in His own body on the tree," and the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, who had said that the Messiah would be "bruised for our transgressions," and that "by his stripes we shall be healed." Indeed, as Paul put it elsewhere, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" and making "him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5. 21). But that was not all. He had risen from the grave, had manifested Himself unto certain chosen witnesses, and then ascended into Heaven. From Heaven He had sent the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the early Church, and He had brought unto them not only new understanding, but new life and power. Their lives had been entirely changed, and they now had life which was life indeed. That was the message. Its entire emphasis was upon what God had done. Its content was God's way of salvation and of making men righteous. Man had but to accept it and submit to it.
The Plight of Man and the Power of God
R.C. Sproul
There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.
Alistair Begg
Here’s the gospel in a phrase. Because Christ died for us, those who trust in him may know that their guilt has been pardoned once and for all. What will we have to say before the bar of God’s judgment? Only one thing. Christ died in my place. That’s the gospel.
Mark Dever
“Here is what I understand the good news to be: the good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God. Now that is good news.”
- from The Gospel and Personal Evangelism
Heartcry Missionary Society
The Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16) and the preaching of the Gospel is the great “means” and “methodology” of missions. The Gospel is, first and foremost, God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19). It answers the eternal question of how a just God can rightly justify wicked men (Romans 3:26). It points to Christ alone, who bore the sins of His people upon the cross, was forsaken of God, and crushed under the full force of His just wrath against sin. The Good News of the Gospel is that through Christ’s death, the justice of God was satisfied, and salvation was won for a great multitude of people. This is evidenced by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).