What is The Gospel?

New Telugu Audio Bible is being added to Telugu Christian Media.
Check out the Telugu Audio Bible

What would you think of a surgeon who just started "cutting away" at a patient without really knowing what he was doing? You would probably wonder how that doctor even came to practice surgery. If he were to make one mistake, his patient could be disabled for life—or even killed. Yet, when it comes to sharing "the gospel," many people are as inept as an incompetent surgeon even though people's eternal destinies hang in the balance.

Why Do We Need to Understand the Gospel?

What is the gospel? You might say, "I'll leave that to you preachers and theologians to figure out. All I know is that I'm already saved and going to Heaven!"

But wait—we all need to know the gospel for two very important reasons:

• We want to make sure that we have heard and responded to the true gospel, lest we have a false hope concerning a salvation that we think we have.
• Jesus told us to go into all the world and "preach the gospel" (Mark 16:15). Those words are not merely addressed to pastors, teachers, evangelists and missionaries; they are addressed to every follower of Jesus Christ!

We cannot be disengaged or disinterested in this subject, for it has eternal ramifications.

How Can We Distinguish "False Gospels" from the Real Thing?

The Apostle Paul recognized the importance of understanding and guarding your beliefs when he told Timothy, "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Timothy 4:16).

Paul also strongly urged his fellow believers to stay away from "false" or counterfeit gospels: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" (Galatians 1:6-8)

False gospels usually fall into one of two categories:

The "Watered Down" Version:

• It offers God's forgiveness, telling you that all you must do is believe, without any mention of repentance.
• It presents Jesus Christ as though He were some mere "additive" to make one's life a little better.
• It tells you of heaven, but leaves out the message of hell.

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, wrote of the dangers he saw facing the message of the gospel in the 20th century. Among other things, he saw a "gospel" that would present:

• Christianity without Christ
• Forgiveness without repentance
• Salvation without regeneration
• Heaven without hell

The "Rule-Laden" or Overly Complex Gospel

• It strips the gospel of its simplicity and power.
• It comes laden with rules and regulations that you and I must keep to find forgiveness.
• It is so complex, no one can unravel it.

What are the Essential Elements of the Gospel of Christ?

Scripture reminds us to "rightly [divide] the Word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). We must be careful to accurately present the gospel. For that reason, we must be able to identify its key elements.

We All Stand As Sinners before a Holy God

A technical definition of the word "gospel" is "good news." Yet, just as a jeweler displays a beautiful ring or necklace against a dark velvet background to accentuate its beauty, so God first tells us the "bad news" to show just how "good" the good news of the gospel really is. That "bad news" (as we have already established in our previous studies) is that we have all sinned—sometimes in ignorance, but often knowingly.

Seeing our complete weakness, and our inability to do anything to alleviate our wretched condition, God did the ultimate for us:
"For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8).
Because there was no other way to satisfy the righteous demands of God . . .
Because of our inability to improve ourselves (much less save ourselves) . . .
Because we faced a future in hell because of our sin . . .

God, in His great love, sent His own Son to come down from heaven and to die on the cross in our very place.

Paul personalized this by saying, "[Christ] loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Jesus Christ Is the Only Way to the Father

We know that God is perfect. We know that man is imperfect and sinful. The only way God could resolve this serious sin issue was to send His Holy Son, Jesus, to take our place and to pay the price for our sins.

Why Jesus? Because Jesus, the "God-man" without sin or fault, was uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between sinful humanity and a Holy God:

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5: 18- 19).
The gospel is not about what you or I did to please or reach God; we did everything to displease Him. Rather, the gospel is about how God reconciled Himself to us through Jesus Christ.

Quite simply, Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father.

• Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way—yes, and the Truth and the Life. No one can get to the Father except by means of Me" (John 14:6 TLB).
• The Apostle Peter echoed Jesus' words: "There is salvation in no one else! Under all heaven there is no other name for men to call upon to save them" (Acts 4:12 TLB).
• Paul said the same thing: "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5).

If we, as Christians, were to say that God could be reached through any other means, we would be guilty of misrepresenting the gospel! For on that cross some 2000 years ago, all of the sin of the world was poured upon Jesus Christ as He became the sin sacrifice for us. Scripture says, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The "Cornerstone" of the Gospel Is Christ's Death and Resurrection

Jesus' final words on the cross "It is finished!" can be translated several ways:

• "It is made an end of."
• "It is paid."
• "It is performed."
• "It is accomplished."

What was made an end of?

Our sins and the guilt that accompanied them.

What was paid?

The price of redemption.

What was performed?

The righteous requirements of the law!

What was accomplished?

The work that God had given Jesus to do.

What was finished?

Satan's stronghold on humanity (see Colossians 2:14-15).

Paul puts the gospel in a nutshell in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He . . . was buried, and He rose again the third day ...."

A Simple Summation of the Gospel

The gospel is the message that we are all separated from God because of our sin. The result of this sin is an emptiness, an ever-present guilt and a certain fear of death. Yet, because God loved us, in spite of our rebellion, He sent His own Son to die in our place and to bridge the gap between Him and ourselves.

How Should the Gospel Be Presented?

The Apostle Paul was a brilliant orator and communicator. He was deeply schooled in biblical law, as well as in the wisdom of Greece. If anyone could have "leaned upon his intellect," it would have been Paul. Yet, as you read the accounts about Paul's encounters with powerful government leaders in the book of Acts, you'll find that he kept his presentation so simple.

Paul would typically begin with his personal testimony, then he would always zero in on what happened when Jesus died on the cross. He tells the Corinthians, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:1-2; see also 1 Corinthians 1:17-18). In the book of Romans, Paul reminds us about the distinct power in the simple message of the life, words, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. . ." (Romans 1:16).
Don't underestimate the raw power the gospel has in reaching even the most hardened heart.

• Don't underestimate its appeal.
• Don't be ashamed of its simplicity.
• Don't add to it or take away from it.
• Just proclaim it and stand back and see what God will do.

How Does One Enter into That Relationship with God? Jesus dearly lays out the way one must accept the message of salvation offered in the gospel in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

We must come to Him.

Conversion is not some long, drawn out process. It is immediate and instantaneous. You don't need to "clean up" your life before you come to Christ. You simply come with all of your problems, sins and shortcomings and He will accept you as you are (see John 6:37).

We must take up His yoke.

When Jesus spoke these words, people readily understood, as animals (such as oxen) were often placed under yokes to work in the fields. In essence, Jesus is asking us to come under His direction for our lives. Many have their own plans for their lives, and they just ask the Lord to "come along for the ride." But Jesus has no interest in this kind of arrangement. You either come on His terms or you don't come at all.

What are Jesus' terms?

• First, we must believe.
  To believe literally means "to take hold of something." We must admit that we are helpless sinners in desperate need of a Savior.
• Second, we must repent.
  To repent literally means "to let go of something." We do this when we put our trust and faith in Jesus and turn the direction of our lives over to Him. That means turning away from our old, sinful lifestyles and being willing to change and become a different person.
• Third, We must learn of Him.
  As we walk and talk with Jesus Christ in our heart and lives, and as we begin to read His Word, we begin to see things the way Jesus does. We have "new eyes" because we have become a new creation.

Perhaps you already know everything we have covered in this lesson. If you do know it and you believe it, when is the last time you declared it? God wants to use you to spread the "gospel of peace" to those around you (see Romans 10:14-15).