The term “Gospel” is a very popular one in Christian circles today. “Together for the Gospel” is a bi-annual conference held on the campus of Southern Theological Seminary to encourage conservative pastors to stay true to the Biblical Gospel.1 Books such as A Gospel Primer for Christians2 and What is the Gospel3 have been written in recent years to explain the Gospel in simple terms. Any browse through a Christian music store will display various music genres such as “Southern Gospel” and “Bluegrass Gospel” and “Black Gospel” and “Caribbean Gospel” and just plain old “Gospel.”
But all of this leads us to the question: what is “the Gospel”? What are we saying when we say that we are “Together for the Gospel” or that there is a “Hole in Our Gospel” or that we are listening to “Bluegrass Gospel” music? What are we trying to communicate when we use the word “Gospel?”
The Greek word for “Gospel” simply means “Good News.” Our English word “evangelism” comes from the Greek word euangelion, which means “to proclaim the Good News.”4 An Evangelist is someone who “proclaims the Good News.” An Evangelist is someone who preaches the Gospel.
But what “Good News” is it that Evangelists are supposed to proclaim? What “Gospel” are they preaching to others?
That question could be answered several different ways5 but here is one way. Here are 5 key components to the Christian Gospel.
I. Man is Sinful
In Romans 3, the Apostle Paul gives a summary of the spiritual condition of mankind. In Romans 1, he tells his audience about the spiritual condition of the Gentiles.6 In Romans 2, he tells his audience about the spiritual condition of the Jews. And now, in Romans 3, Paul tells his audience about the spiritual condition of everyone – Jew and Gentile alike. And this is what he says in verses 9-18 and verse 23.
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
“All have turned aside, together they have become useless;There is none who does good,
There is not even one.“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving.
“The poison of asps is under their lips;
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;
Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
AND the path of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
That is a pretty sad outlook on mankind. No one is righteous. No one seeks God. Men’s throats are open graves and their feet are swift to shed blood. If the Apostle Paul was trying to boost our self-esteem, he failed miserably in these verses. But our self-esteem notwithstanding, Romans 3 is the spiritual biography of every person who has ever lived.
Now many people read that last statement and say, “Now, come on, I’m not all that bad.” “I mean, I am a sinner and all but my tongue doesn’t practice deceit.” “My mouth is not full of cursing and bitterness.” “I seek after God.” “I go to church.” “I’m a moral person.” “Paul could not possibly be describing me in this passage, could he?”
Some people form their argument this way: “I’m not a bad person because I haven’t killed anybody.” “I’ve never stolen a car or robbed a bank or hurt children.”
But listen to what Thomas Aquinas said about this line of reasoning in the 13th Century.
The magnitude of the punishment matches the magnitude of the sin . . . Now a sin that is against God is infinite; the higher the person against whom it is committed, the graver the sin – it is more criminal to strike a head of state than a private citizen – and God is of infinite greatness. Therefore an infinite punishment is deserved for a sin committed against him.7
If you slap me in the face, nothing bad will happen to you. I will take you off my Christmas list but that will be the extent of your punishment. But if you slap the President of the United States in the face, you will go to jail. Why? Because his office is higher than mine and the higher the office, the higher the offense. It is much, much worse to insult the president than it is to insult me. When his high office is offended, the result is a high punishment.
In a similar way, man’s sins are an insult to God. They are akin to slapping Him in the face. He has given us His law to tell us how we are to live and when we break His law, it insults Him. It offends Him and one day every man will have to answer for that offense.
All of us have feet that are “swift to shed blood.” All of us have throats that are “open graves.” All of us have tongues that “keep deceiving.” And while that might be a small thing in our eyes, it is not a small thing in God’s eyes. There is no such thing as a “little white lie” to Him.8 Every lie . . . Every sin . . . is dark and worthy of the fires of Hell because it is ultimately against our Creator. It is a slap in His face.
And one key component of the Gospel is understanding that. Part of the Good News is hearing and receiving the Bad News.
Here is some more Bad News.
2. God is Holy
God’s holiness refers to His “absolute moral perfection.”9 God always does what is morally right and He never does what is morally wrong. His morality is impeccable. His ethics are perfect. Every action and word of God is unquestionably right because God is perfectly holy. He is separate from sin and is morally blameless.
If you are wondering what God’s holiness has to do with the Gospel, James 2:10-11 says,
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
I had a professor in Seminary who was amazingly strict in his grading. Every student dreaded his class because it seemed impossible to do well in it. He gave us a quiz every day and graded on a 4-point scale. If you got 70%, he gave you a 1. If you got 80%, he gave you a 2. If you got 90%, he gave you a 3. And if you got 100%, he gave you a 4. But if you got 69 % or lower, he gave you a 0.
A big fat goose-egg.
If you didn’t get at least 70% on his quizzes, you did not score at all. It was the most frustrating thing to study and study and study and miss 5 questions on a quiz and walk away with no points at all for your effort.
James 2:10-11 says that, in regards to our personal holiness, God’s grading scale puts my professor’s to shame. God’s scale is infinitely stricter. To God, if you score 99% on your personal holiness, you get a 0. If you score 99.99999999% on your moral purity, you get a 0.
Why?
For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
If you do not commit adultery but you do commit murder, you have broken God’s law. Period. If you never dishonor your parents but you do make an idol out of something in your heart, you have ignored His commands. If you never covet your neighbor’s possessions but you lie, you are now a law-breaker.
Why? Why is God so strict? Why is He so picky? Why is close enough not good enough for Him?
Because God is holy. He has absolute moral perfection and His standards for us are the same. God’s requirement for us to enter Heaven is moral blamelessness. Utterly perfect behavior. Psalm 15:1-3 says,
O Lord, who may abide in Your tent?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness,
And speaks truth in his heart.He who does not slander with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor takes up a reproach against his friend.
If you want to go to Heaven and enter God’s presence when you die, you must walk with integrity and speak truth in your heart. You must be morally perfect as God is morally perfect. You have to keep every one of the ten commandments in every aspect of your life for the entirety of your life if you want to please God.
65% is not good enough for God. 83% will not earn you an eternal reward. 99% will send your soul straight to Hell when you die.
Eternally speaking, it does you no good to be perfect in your sex life if you are a thief in your business life. God will not reward you for honoring Him on Sundays if you dishonor Him Monday through Saturday. You must score 100% every day of your life if you want to go to Heaven when you die because Heaven is where God is and God is completely holy. He has absolute moral perfection.
And this is also part of the Bad News that someone must hear in order to understand the Gospel. You must believe that God is perfectly holy and you must believe that you fall perfectly short of His holy standard for your life.
3. God is Angry
Most people today, professing Christians included, believe in a God that would never get angry with anyone. To them, God is a big warm fuzzy. He is kind of like Santa Claus on steroids. All He exists to do is give us toys and make us feel good.
But the God of the Bible is very different from all of that. In fact, the Biblical God is scary. At times, He is downright frightening. It may shock you to read this but in the Old Testament alone, God’s wrath is referred to more than 580 times and there are more than 20 different words used to describe it.10 The Bible is very clear about the fact that God is mad.
Let me just mention a few passages to you that describe God’s anger.
Psalm 5:4-6 says,
For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
No evil dwells with You.The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity.
Psalm 90:11 says,
Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
Romans 1:18 says,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in righteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
Romans 2:5 says,
But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Revelation 6:15-17 says,
Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”
Revelation 19:11-16, describing Jesus’ return, says,
And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.
He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
The Bible makes it very clear: God is angry. He is much more than angry but He is not less than angry. God is mad. God is wrathful. God is full of intense rage.
Why? Why is God so upset? What could possibly make the Lord of all the earth so furious?
The answer is our sin. God is angry with our sin. He is furious with our disobedience. Every time we break His law, it fills Him with intense rage because He is holy. Every sin is an attack against God’s holy nature. Every time we look at our neighbor with hatred, God is angry.11 Every time we steal something, God is angry.12 Every time we lust13 or gossip14 or lie15 or covet16 or murder17 or do anything to transgress His perfect law, God is furious.
Why? Because God is holy. He does not tolerate sin. Like any good king, God is not pleased when His laws are broken.
While God is patient with sinners now, withholding His judgment and giving them time to repent, a day will come when God’s patience will run out. And nothing will stand between every sinner and a perfectly righteous judge.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:36 that God will remember every careless word you have spoken. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 10:12 that every one will have to give an account to God for their lives. And if all you have ever done is try to be a good person, then God will destroy you with His wrath because you could never be good enough to please Him.
This is scary stuff but, again, the Bad News is part of the Gospel. You cannot understand the Good News if you do not first understand the Bad. You must know about the disease before you can appreciate the cure.
4. God is Love
So far, we have looked at the Bad News. Man is Sinful. God is Holy. God is Angry. That is some pretty grave news. Let me give you some Good News. First John 4:7-10, 13-16 says,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins . . .
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Next to John 3:16, there is probably no verse in the Bible that is more familiar to a 21st Century audience than First John 4:16. “God is love.” God is agapei in Greek. God is unconditional, unmerited, unearned, unrelenting love.
New Testament Greek had four words for “love.” Eros from which we get our English word “erotic.” Eros meant physical love or physical attraction. Philios from which we get our word “Philadelphia.” The city of “brotherly love.” Philios meant mutual love or friendly affection. Storgei also referred to natural affection and served as something of a synonym to philios. And the Greeks had a fourth word for love which appears here in First John 4:16 – agapei.18
Agapei was love for love’s sake. It was love that was given even though there was no love extended in return. It was love given even though there was nothing worth loving in the other person.19 If you loved someone with agapei love, it was not because they deserved it. It was because you were a loving person. Agapei love was love that was offered whether any love was offered back or not.
First John 4 says that God is agapei. He is unconditional love. And verse 14 says that God sent Jesus into the world because God is love. Jesus was born because God is agapei love.
And here is what this has to do with the Gospel: Jesus Christ was God living as a man.20 He was born of a virgin and, as such, He was born sinless.21 And all throughout His life, He remained sinless.22 He never sinned. Where you broke God’s law, Jesus did not. Where you coveted your neighbor’s possessions, Jesus did not. Where you gossiped and lied and lusted and stole, Jesus did none of that. Jesus Christ was holy as God is holy. Where you got 80% or 60% or 40% in your personal holiness, Jesus scored a perfect 100% every day of His life.
He never worshipped an idol.23 He always loved God with all of His heart, mind, and strength.24 He had an absolute moral perfection and He deserved to go to Heaven when He died. When Jesus’ heart stopped beating and His lungs gave out, He had earned the right to walk into God’s presence and stay there forever. Jesus Christ deserved to go to Heaven.
But here is where all of this comes together. Here is where your sin and God’s holiness and anger and love meet.
At 30 years of age, Jesus began preaching and teaching and performing miracles in Israel.25 At 33 years of age, He allowed Himself to be captured by the Jews and crucified by the Romans.26 Crucifixion was a horrible way to die 2,000 years ago.27 It may have been one of the worst forms of death ever invented.
And it appears that the physical punishment of crucifixion matched the spiritual punishment that God used it for. Because on the cross, God took all His anger and fury and hatred towards our sins and He killed Jesus Christ with it. Isaiah 53:10 says that He crushed Jesus with it. He broke Him with it as the Hebrew word indicates.28
One pastor gave a good illustration of the meaning of “crushed” here in Isaiah 53.29 He said it was like standing on the wall of a dam with a lake underneath that was one mile wide and one mile deep and in an instant having the dam collapse under your feet. Or it was like putting a rock next to an atomic bomb and setting the bomb off. That is what God’s wrath did to Jesus Christ on the cross. It crushed Him. God’s wrath was the bomb. Jesus was the rock. And God’s wrath broke Him. On the cross, God punished His Son for every sin of every believer who would ever live. The punishment of every child of God was poured out on Jesus Christ at the cross. Jesus swallowed God’s wrath towards our sin in full.
And here is the Good News. Here is the Gospel: God’s holiness was satisfied on the cross because Jesus was perfectly holy. He made a sacrifice to God that was morally perfect. There was nothing lacking in his character. He never sinned. And on the cross, God’s anger was satisfied on Jesus because God poured His anger out on Him in full. There was no anger left over to pay. In regards to wrath and judgment, the cross paid it all.30
And to go even further than this . . . God’s love was shown because while we cannot get into Heaven on our own, God provided a way for us. While we missed the mark of God’s holiness completely, Jesus met it completely. And, after meeting it, He rose from the grave to live again.31 His resurrection proved that He had defeated sin32 and that God approved of His sacrifice33 and that His followers will one day rise with Him in new resurrected bodies.34 Which leads us to fifth key component to the Christian Gospel.
5. Man is Responsible
Romans 14:12 says, “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” In light of man’s sinfulness and God’s holiness and God’s anger and God’s love, man has a great responsibility. One day every man will stand before God and answer for his response to the Gospel. Every man will be judged by the Lord for what he did with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What is man asked to do? Romans 10:9 says,
That is you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Every man is asked / commanded to believe that Jesus Christ was crucified for his sins and that he was raised from the dead to give eternal life. You must believe that you are sinful and that God is holy, angry, and loving if you would have your sins forgiven. And you must confess “Jesus as Lord.”
Romans 10 does not go into much detail about what it means to confess “Jesus as Lord” but Luke 9:23 does. In Luke 9:23, Jesus says,
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
“Lord” is another word for “ruler.”35 To confess Jesus as your “Lord” is to confess Jesus as your ruler. It is to give your life in submission to Him. It is to bow to Him and give Him complete control over your life. It is to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him.
You must do that if you would be saved. You must respond to the Gospel if you would enter Heaven. The Gospel is not a Good News suggestion. The Gospel is a Good News command. Obey this command and you will enjoy God’s pleasure for all eternity. Disobey this command and you will suffer God’s wrath for all eternity. Believe the truth – Bad News and Good News – and turn away from your life of sin and you will change your eternal destiny.
That is the Gospel.
- www.t4g.org is the website for this organization. [↩]
- Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians (Focus Publishing, 2008). [↩]
- Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2010). [↩]
- New Bible Dictionary, 3rd. Edition, ed. by J. D. Douglas (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996) 426. [↩]
- For some different explanations of the Gospel, see Milton Vincent’s A Gospel Primer for Christians and John Blanchard’s Ultimate Questions (Webster, New York: EP Books, 1987). [↩]
- The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982) 443. The term “Gentile” referred to anyone who was not Jewish. [↩]
- Summa Theologiae, Blackfriars (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974) Ia2ae. 25. [↩]
- Consider the fact that in Revelation 21:8, all liars “will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [↩]
- Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Carlisle, Penn.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2003 ed.) 73. This definition is taken from several descriptions of God’s holiness in Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. Berkhof writes that God’s holiness “has a specifically ethical aspect in Scripture.” It includes such ideas as “absolute unapproachability,” absolute overpoweringness,” or “awful majesty.” [↩]
- Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, Third Edition (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1965) 149. [↩]
- Matt 5:21-24. [↩]
- Eph 4:28. [↩]
- Matt 5:27-30. [↩]
- Rom 1:29; 2 Cor 12:20. [↩]
- Col 3:9. [↩]
- Rom 1:29; Rom 13:9. [↩]
- Mk 7:21; 1 Tim 1:8-9. [↩]
- All of this information regarding the Greek words for “love” is found in G. Abbott-Smith’s A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2001) 3-4. [↩]
- Ibid. [↩]
- Jn 1:1; Col 1:19; 2:9. [↩]
- Lk 1:26-38. [↩]
- 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15. [↩]
- Acts 15:20; 1 Jn 5:21. [↩]
- Matt 22:35-37. [↩]
- Luke says that Jesus was about 30 years of age when He began His ministry (Lk 3:23). [↩]
- For more information regarding the timing of Jesus’ life and ministry, see Robert L. Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry’s A Harmony of the Gospels (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1978) 347-349. [↩]
- For more information about crucifixion, see our FAQ, “Why the Cross.” [↩]
- A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, ed. by William L. Holladay (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988) 70. The Hebrew word for “crushed” is daka. It means “oppressed, beat to pieces, crushed.” [↩]
- These illustrations are borrowed from Paul Washer’s sermon entitled, “The Meaning of the Cross.” It was preached at the Springfield Bible Conference at Faith Bible Church in Springfield, Illinois in 2008. [↩]
- Heb 7:23-27. [↩]
- 1 Cor 15:3-8. [↩]
- 1 Cor 15:53-57. [↩]
- Rom 4:25; 6:9. [↩]
- 1 Cor 15:20-28. [↩]
- Webster’s New World Dictionary, ed. by Michael Agnes (New York: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2003) 382. [↩]