What is the Gospel?

There is much that one can say when he sets out to define the Gospel. In this post, I will try to keep it simple. The Gospel is simply, “Good News.”  What is that good news? It is that God has made a plan to save us from ourselves. “Why is such a plan necessary,” you ask? Because each of us is sinful and, very simply, our sin separates us from God. At this point, I could detour through creation and the occurrence of original sin, but instead, let me justify man’s sinfulness by simply suggesting that you look at today’s news (I have enough faith in humanity that it can be any day’s news, the day that you read this will serve just as well as the day on which it was written).   What you see in the news will suggest that man is very sinful; you will find murder, every kind of sexual perversion, destruction of the family, overt attacks on decency, and unethical conduct at every turn. Your response may be, “I’m not doing any of that stuff, how does this apply to me?” I challenge you, when was the last time that you used God’s name inappropriately, cast a lustful eye on someone who wasn’t your husband or wife, or looked at material that carried your thoughts to a lustful place?  Have you put money into savings that might have helped someone “in Jesus’ name“, or have you lusted for more stuff, a car with more whistles and bells, perhaps? We all sin, and we do it because we are human. This is an inescapable fact. We are not righteous (righteous means living right) … and we are far from Holy.

The problem with sin is that it separates us from God. To die, separated from God, simply means that we cannot be with God in the afterlife, and not being with God in the afterlife, is definitely not a good thing.

The Gospel is God’s plan to save us from a nasty alternative, that’s why we call it His “plan of salvation”. We access that plan by believing that Jesus died in our place and by honestly asking God for forgiveness.

The Gospel is a very good thing … for now … and it is an even better thing, when our body is dead, and we are a spirit.

To take advantage of the Good News, look here.