What is the gospel?
The word "gospel" means, "the good news."
What is this good news? The Christian good news is that we may be free of our sin and the death sin brings through faith in Jesus!
You are made in the image of God.
God made mankind in His image. Scripture says, "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27 LSB) What does this mean? It means that every human being has intrinsic value. God made the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. They were our first parents. When God created everything, it was good. There was no sin. This means there was no death or sickness. When God made Adam and Eve, He told them that they were to obey Him. If they disobeyed God by sinning, they would bring death into the world. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by sinning, plunging the world into sin and death. Because of their sin, we all are also sinners.
Sin Against a Holy God.
Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." (LSB) Romans 6:23 begins by saying "For the wages of sin is death..." (LSB) Because we are all sinners, we have a big problem. God has revealed He is holy and just. What does this mean? This means that God is perfectly good and is the ultimate judge over all. God made everything and therefore is the ultimate judge. This is bad news for sinners. This means that when we sin, we sin against God. And since God is perfectly good, He will not let the guilty go unpunished.
If a judge lets the guilty go, he is not a good judge. (Proverbs 17:15) God is a good judge. And because we are all guilty of sin, we are in big trouble. But there is good news!
The Good News!
We saw that Romans 3:23 and 6:23 contained some bad news for sinners. But let's look at what else those passages have to say.
Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (LSB) We saw what sin earned us, but there is hope! What is that hope? That hope is the gracious gift of God. What about Romans 3:23-24? That says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;" (LSB)
What these verses are saying is that we are sinners and are hopeless to save ourselves. We could never earn a right standing before God because of our works. But God did not leave us in this hopeless state! We can salvation from sin and the just wrath of God through Jesus! What did Jesus do? Jesus is God in the flesh. God came down and paid the price we owed. Our sin demanded death, but Jesus came and died in our place! He never sinned and therefore did not deserve to die. He was innocent. But He paid the price we owed. Now by trusting in what He did, we can be saved! Our sins will be forgiven and we will have life!
We no longer trust in being good enough on our own. We don't trust that we can somehow work hard enough to earn salvation. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone! This is good news. This means if you trust in what Jesus did, you can be forgiven and saved. What does this look like? The Bible uses the word repent. That word means to turn around. We turn away from sin and trust in ourselves, and we trust in Jesus!
Eternal Hope!
When we trust in Jesus, we are born again. (John 3) This means we die to our old sinful self and are made new. God brings us to life Spiritually. Because of this, we have eternal hope. Jesus did not stay dead. He proved what He did by rising from the dead. He promised this new life to all who believe. This is the hope we have. You can be forgiven of your sin and have an eternal hope.