The gospel is very important to us as Christians. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. Paul wrote in Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” I believe Paul is saying that the gospel message tells us how God in His mighty power gives us salvation. Since we should all want salvation, the gospel is important to all of us. But what is the gospel? The meaning of the word gospel is “good message” or “good news”. The good message is typically preached or proclaimed to all who will hear the good news. But what is the good news? There is no one place that I can find in the Bible that tells me the complete message of the gospel. We develop our understanding of the gospel from how it is described in different places. Let us piece together some of the things that we can understand about the gospel.
The gospel was first preached to Abraham. Galatians 3:8 “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’” Jesus was born in the flesh as a descendent of Abraham. Through Jesus, and thus through Abraham, all peoples of the world are blessed. That is a truth of the gospel. All nations have the opportunity to receive this blessing from God.
The gospel also tells about the judgement that men will face. Romans 2:16 “in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” The gospel is also a description of the grace of God. The apostle Paul addressed the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:24b “the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” The gospel tells us of God’s plan for mankind and His grace in giving us salvation. In describing the Christian armor of God, the gospel is described as a gospel of peace. Ephesians 6:15 “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” I understand that to mean that the gospel describes how we can have peace rather than enmity with God.
The gospel describes what we hope for. Colossians 1:23 “If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” What we hope for is eternal life. The fact that the gospel includes a message about eternal life is also supported by 2 Timothy 1:10 which tells us about “our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Therefore, the gospel includes a description of how Jesus brought us life and immortality.
The gospel also includes things that must be obeyed. Romans 10:16 “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” Judgement is upon those who do not obey the gospel. 1 Peter 4:17 “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” We are told about the return of Jesus in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 “In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospelof our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since it is important to obey the gospel, what must be obeyed? To answer that, let us look at several scriptures that I believe are statements of the gospel. The first scripture that describes the gospel is John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” This scripture is a statement of the gospel. It informs us that God loved the world and gave His Son that whoever believes would have everlasting life. I conclude that the first thing that must be obeyed about the gospel is to believe the good news and the message about Jesus Christ.
The next scripture is Acts 17:30-31 “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” This scripture tells us that God commands all men everywhere to repent. So the next thing that must be obeyed is to repent in light of the coming judgement.
The next scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” This scripture tells us that the gospel includes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. This is a major theme of the gospel. Since the gospel tells us of the death, burial and resurrection, this is also something that we need to obey. How does one obey the death, burial and resurrection of Christ? Romans 6:3-5 “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” When we are baptized, we obey the gospel. In baptism, we die to our sins, just as Christ died on the cross. We are buried in water just as Christ was buried in the tomb. We rise out of the water to walk in newness of life just as Christ was resurrected from death and is now with the Father. In baptism, we obey the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
The gospel is perhaps the greatest message on earth. It tells us how God sent His Son to the earth to die for our sins so that we can have peace with Him and receive eternal life. It is important for us to believe and obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. I encourage you to tell others.