What is the Message of the Gospel?
This is a 2-part message. If you want to understand the word “gospel” read the previous article in this column.
I was super frustrated after I surrendered my life to Jesus. After experiencing deep uncertainty, lack of peace and a suffocating emptiness, surrendering my life over to Jesus gave me complete freedom - everything became clear, I was overwhelmed with peace and I was completely fulfilled. It was the most incredible thing that could have ever happened to me! After my new reality settled in, I became so frustrated that no one had told me about this before! No one had told me I had a CHOICE. People talked about God as if he was just there. I didn’t know that a one-on-one relationship with God was a thing. I had been around Christian messages, but they seemed more like platitudes to me than clear, direct truth that explained what God had done and what choice I had in life. So, I write this to make sure that anyone who reads this can say that someone told you and you knew. The rest is between you and God. (see prayer at the bottom)
When Christians use the word “gospel” what are they referring to?
First of all, the gospel is a message, and there are many ways to articulate a message, so what you are going to read here is simply my way of articulating this message of good news. Someone else may use different words or expressions to communicate the same message. If fact, if I write this same article next year, I’ll describe things in a new way. It’s hard to articulate such a remarkable, complex, yet simple, message of grace, hope and love. But, what’s important to me is for the message to not get tired or cliché or disconnected. This is real – it’s true – and it is good news for all because we are hopeless and helpless without it. I’ll try to break it down here in the way that makes sense to me.
Ground Rules: Don’t put God in a box!
To start out, please understand that we can’t try to fit God into our very limited ability to understand and perceive. In order to really appreciate God, you have to accept that he’s bigger than you could imagine, his ways are not like our ways, his understanding is higher than our understanding, and he exists in a realm that is not limited like ours. Of utmost importance is to understand that his being is not restricted to the limitations of human form.
Here's Jessica’s version of the gospel message:
God’s Design
God is a relational God. The God of the universe is a triune God – basically that means that God is a multifaceted God who exists as 3 in 1 (AKA “the Trinity”) of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. – This means God has deep “relationship” at the core of who He is!
Humans were created to know God personally. That's how we live our best life! If we are not in relationship with God, we are not complete.
God created humans to experience joy, peace, love and eternal life with Him.
Every human longs for these things and when they are missing, deep down, we know it. I’ve traveled to over 20 countries and I’ve lived in a few of them. I also have interviewed dozens of people from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. I can testify that language and culture does not change this truth. Everyone on earth longs for this.
God designed humans to live in paradise (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual paradise). According to God’s perfect design, there was no death, no chaos, no illness, no hate, no tears, no pain – everything worked in perfect order.
God gave humans instructions for living, which were pretty simple – enjoy it all and just don’t do this one thing or you’ll die. From the beginning, God was protecting humans from death.
Man! Sounds like he really loved his creation!
The Devastating Reality
Unfortunately, humans fell into the temptation to not trust God’s instruction and to believe that maybe he didn’t have their best interest in mind. (Has that ever been you?) They decided it would be better if they could be like God and know all things. (Sound familiar? We live in the age of information and this is pervasive.) They chose to turn from God (sin) and they did the one thing that God said not to do, believing their understanding was more trustworthy than his.
This sin created a separation between God and humans – a holy and pure God cannot become one with anything unclean or imperfect. This separation results in spiritual death and separated humans from being in this perfect union/relationship with God for eternity.
Because of this sin, instead of having complete and utter peace, joy, love and eternal life with Him, humans became separated from God's presence (hell).
Apart from God's presence, there is no light - darkness.
Apart from God's presence, there is no peace - chaos.
Apart from God's presence, there is no love - hate.
Apart from God's presence, there is no life. - death - like God said would happen.
Spiritually dead people cannot live forever in heaven – heaven is for those who are spiritually alive and our sin results in spiritual death. Putting a spiritually dead person in heaven would be like carrying a corpse around with you to work, school, and home – could you imagine a dead person being in the presence of people who are alive, smelling up the place, rotting right in front of your eyes, leaving uncleanliness everywhere it goes? A dead person doesn’t belong amongst the living. In the same way, a spiritually dead person can't be with those who are spiritually alive forever. Heaven is for those who are alive. Hell is for those who are dead.
As humans, we have no way to just make ourselves alive spiritually. You can do all the yoga or community service you want, but you’ll never be able to save your soul! We're doomed and we have no way out. We can’t rescue ourselves from this eternal separation from God. There’s no way we’ll ever be good enough or be able to work our way back into the relationship with God. We keep on NOT being perfect, holy and pure, no matter how hard we try. On our own, the perfect union with God is never going to be possible again. - What a hopeless situation!
THE GOOD NEWS
God is grieved by our sin and has compassion on us.
God actively reaches out to humans to offer a solution to this devastating problem! – Oh man! That’s amazing!
He started by establishing new instructions (the law) for his people to follow under these new circumstances of sin and being separated from God.
One of the things they needed to do under this instruction was to make a sacrifice on an alter (an animal (like a lamb), the best of the flock, without blemish) as a payment for their sin, so that their sins could be forgiven and they could come before God. The blood of the animal temporarily paid the price/debt for their sin. Also, they didn't have direct access to God - they had to go before a high priest (someone specifically anointed for this role) in order to access God. – Sounds exhausting!
Humans kept on falling short and sinning. They just couldn't pull it together. They were prone to wander, to take matters into their own hands, and to be forgetful of God's commands and his promises.
God never stopped desiring a restored relationship with us. He was orchestrating a remarkable plan to rescue his people once and for all.
Remember how God is a triune God (3 in 1)? Well, when the time was right, God himself came to rescue us. God the Son (Jesus) came to earth to stand in as our advocate. He lived a perfect life (no sin), and then he sacrificed himself as the perfect lamb of God without blemish to be the ultimate sacrifice. He took our sin upon Himself to pay the penalty of our sin once and for all and his blood was shed as the final sacrifice - mankind's debt was paid off by Jesus' death.
Jesus (God the Son) was buried, but the story doesn’t end here. It is a remarkable, loving and selfless thing to stand in for someone and take their punishment for them, but if it means that Jesus is now confined to a grave forever, doesn’t that kind of mean that sin and death are still winning? Well, God the Son (Jesus) didn’t let sin and death win. He took care of business! Three days after he was buried, he rose from the dead, defeating death! He appeared to those who knew him (eye witnesses to his resurrection), and then in his final proclamation of his Deity, he ascended back to heaven (whoa! Very supernatural!) where he continues to live and govern the Kingdom of God from his throne of grace.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection defeated sin and death for good.
Our God is alive, not dead. And he came to save you from your darkness and to bring you into the glorious light.
How to Respond
He gives life to those who believe in him.
Repent and believe. He offers forgiveness for sin and the opportunity to live as victors over sin and death. He gives everlasting life in heaven.
Have faith in Jesus to be saved from our sin and the penalty of our sin.
We can’t have the gift of life (salvation for our dead souls) that Jesus has for us without coming to him and surrendering our life of spiritual darkness and worldly brokenness over to him, so that he can redeem it and make it new.
Being in this saving, redeeming relationship with God is a choice. You must decide:
To confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
To believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.
And you will be saved.
It is a choice to accept the gift (it cannot be earned) and to trust Jesus as the savior of your soul. It doesn’t just happen. You have to knock on the door in order for it to be opened to you. We play a part in this relationship. Read Matthew 7.
When you believe this, you can simply say, “Jesus, you are Lord of all things. I want you in my life. I need you for life itself. Please forgive me. I turn from my way and I want to go your way. I give you my life. It’s yours. Please help me! Save my soul and come into my life.”
A Redeemed Life
Through faith and trust in Jesus, we are forgiven. Our relationship with God is restored.
We no longer have to go to an alter to sacrifice animals as a payment for our sin so that we can be forgiven because Jesus paid for our sin for good – it is finished! And we no longer have to go to a high priest to communicate with God. Now, Jesus is our high priest. When we surrender to him, he moves into our life through the Holy Spirit and resides in us.
We can come before God confidently (now and on judgement day) because when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our sin, he sees Jesus (God the Son/himself) in us, and he the doors are opened wide. As believers in Christ, we have an open invitation to sit at God’s table as his adopted children and we share in his inheritance for eternity.
When you turn from your way and follow Jesus, he pulls you from the pit and he places your feet on solid ground. He fills you with peace, love and joy – an unexplainable peace. And he abides in you as you abide in him – producing growth and fruit in your life. Nothing can pluck you from his hand. You are forever his and he is forever yours. You have received eternal life.
God is at work to redeem and restore all creation and one day everything will be restored to the way God designed it to be. By surrendering your life to him, you become part of that restoration process.
This is incredible news! We are not helpless anymore. He made a way for us! Through faith in him, we have freedom!
What does the Bible say?
Please understand, the entire narrative of the Bible is pointing to Jesus and the gospel (salvation of mankind), but the verses below will help you identify simple references that speak this truth.
John 3:16 – "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (Jesus said this)
Romans 3:23 – "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Ephesians 2:1-3 – “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”
Romans 6:23 – "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 5:8 – "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Matthew 9:36 – “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 – "Christ died for our sins... he was buried... he was raised on the third day."
Ephesians 2:8–9 – "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith... it is the gift of God—not by works."
Acts 3:19 – "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out."
2 Corinthians 5:17 – "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
Romans 10: 9-13 – “because, 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. For the Scripture says*, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
In the next message, I share some of the reasons why I’m convinced all of this is true.
