The gospel is the most important news that anyone could ever believe. The gospel means good news, and the content of the message lives up to its name! It is the good news that is necessary to believe to know God personally and to inherit eternal life.
1. God
The gospel begins with a God who is perfectly holy, loving and just. He is perfectly holy. Isaiah 6 verse 3, the angels cry out to this God and say. “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory.” He is perfectly loving. Scripture says He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness… forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” But he is also perfectly just, “who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7). To appreciate how great and glorious the Gospel is, you must remember that God is so Holy and righteous that he cannot tolerate sin - that includes our sin.
2. Mankind
God created the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, without sin. He created them to live in perfect harmony with him. Yet, Adam and Eve sinned against God, and fellowship with God was broken. Since Adam and Eve all human beings have sinned against God. Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
And because God is holy, he must punish each and everyone us for our sins. Scripture says, “For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). That is not just physical death, but spiritual death. The Bible teaches that the final destiny for unbelieving sinners is eternal, active judgment in a place called “Hell”. Scripture says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment," (Hebrews 9:27).
But thankfully, that is not the end of the story!
3. Jesus Christ
God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man. Unlike us, Jesus Christ never sinned, never rebelled against God the Father, but he fulfilled God’s law perfectly. He did not deserve death or punishment. But God appointed that Jesus Christ would die. And in his death, Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God and died for the sins of the unrighteous. Scripture says, “Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18). Jesus Christ was the divine substitute in our place. He was dying in the place of or for someone else. Then Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to the Father.
4. Response
The gospel message demands a call for obedience. We are supposed to do something when we hear this good news. We are to repent (agree with God that we are sinners, renounce our sins and turn our back on that old way of life) and to believe (put all our confidence in the person of Jesus as our substitute whose death was enough to rescue us from the hell we deserved).
Have you done that? You can do it now! This is what it means to be a Christian.
Now, that is GOOD news!
*This gospel summary was helped by Greg Gilbert's tract, "What is the Gospel?" and Paul Washer's booklet, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ."