The Gospel

[B-A-C]

A non-believer asked me today. "What exactly is the Gospel?" The immediately answer is.. Jesus died for our sins. (but then, why isn't everyone saved?)
It seemed like a simple enough question. But each answer lead to another question.
In the end, it looks something like this.

Rom 3:23; ALL have sinned.
Rom 6:23; The price of sin is death. Eternal life is a free gift of God.
Rom 5:8; Because of His love, Jesus paid the death penalty for your sins.
Rom 10:9-10; Confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and acknowledge God raised Him from the dead.
Rom 10:13; Ask God to forgive your sins and trust Him to do so.

That is the short version about as condensed as I could get it.

To place your faith in Jesus and receive eternal life you must:

Recognize God created you for a love relationship with Him. he wants you to love Him with all your being. (heart, mind, strength, and soul) Deut 6:5; Luke 10:27; Matt 12:30;
Admit you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself.
Believe that Jesus paid the penalty for for your sins by His death on the cross and that He rose from the dead in victory over death.
Confess (agree with God about) your sins that separate you from Him. ( Isa 59:2; )
Repent (turn away from your sins).
Ask Jesus to save you by His grace, which is an undeserved gift.
Turn control of your life over to Jesus.

Ahhh... that last one. Is it always easy to do?

If Jesus really is your Lord, King and Savior that means you have to follow Him, obey His teachings, and yield your life and actions to Him. (John 14:21; )

Is the Gospel really anything other than this?

 

[james1523]

Good questions, I'm wondering what happens after Romans 10:13 to be honest. So I've just been forgiven of my sins.. now what? I have 100 years of my life yet to live, what should I do with it? The Gospel must include something about God's purpose for the newly saved believer, otherwise we have newly saved believers without any direction in their life. The Gospel should also include something about the newly saved believers identity - so that they know who they are saved to be, that there has or will be a change in their life, that they will have a new identity with God as their Heavenly Father and Christ as their Brother, and every other Christian as their brothers and sisters.

I always found it interesting that Jesus never taught his disciples to pray "please save the whole world". The Lord's prayer says "thy kingdom come...". Jesus's interest is not so much saving the world, as bringing in His kingdom to defeat Satan for good. Jesus spent the last 40 days of his life on earth speaking about the kingdom - Acts 1:3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Actually the whole Bible is essentially "the gospel". The Gospel is found as early as Genesis 1:26:
Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

The Gospel is two-fold - 1) we were created in God's image. - This "good news" gives us identity. The gospel of salvation restores us back to God's image, our true identity. New Testament terminology is "new creation" versus "old creation". Yet, a salvation gospel that focusses on sins, still doesn't reach the matter of our restored identity in Christ.
2) we were created to rule - this "good news" gives us purpose. The gospel of the kingdom restores us back to God's purpose for our lives.

What you described is the Gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) that brings people salvation. This is what 99.9% of Christians are preaching today. Nothing wrong with this gospel, however it largely focusses on man's need for salvation but neglects God's plan to reclaim the whole earth back from Satan and usher in His future kingdom and God's plan and purpose for the newly saved believer to accomplish His Kingdom plan. This gospel of grace alone fails to set the context of God's salvation as part of a much grander plan.

Jesus and the apostles preached the Gospel of the Kingdom (Acts 28:31). Matt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

The gospel of the kingdom is about God's heavenly rule and Christ's authority as Lord and King. It is that Jesus will set up His kingdom on earth and overthrow the earthly kingdoms (nations). It does not tell the nations that "God loves you" as in the gospel of grace, but rather "Jesus is coming and He is coming to set up His kingdom and rule over you". It is that men should not only be saved but live according to God's ruling. You touched on this gospel when you said we must follow, obey and yield to Him. We have an individual responsibility to God's kingdom, but we also have a corporate responsibility and this is our involvement in the church. Because God's kingdom is not about saved individuals living a holy life and obeying the commandments, but a Body (of Christ), ruled by the Head, overthrowing Satan, and bringing sinners (both saved and unsaved) under the ruling of God. To accomplish this, is corporate spiritual warfare, and corporate Gospel preaching and corporate spiritual growth by way of spiritual fellowship and use of spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12 etc). The corporate nature of the Gospel is indicated by Gen 1:26, when it says "they" may rule. I believe that God does not desire simply a few great men to rule, such as Moses, Elijah, Paul, God wants every person to rule and reign with Him, and it is for this purpose that God gives everyone some talents or giftings.

Given that the Gospel is about mankind's restored image, and purpose, the enemies strategy is aimed at these two things - image and purpose. The enemy attacks the image of God through accusations and condemnations (that we are not made in God's image, but common sinners), and the enemy attacks the restored purpose of man, by causing division, confusion and distraction between believers, so that few are engaged in corporate gospel preaching or spiritual warfare, and few are using their spiritual gifts and callings (most preferring to leave this job up to a few qualified individuals such as pastors or priests).

So if a non-believer asks "what is the gospel",
at the highest level we can start with two things a) God wants to restore your true identity, and b) God wants to restore your true purpose.
God's salvation plan, is how God accomplishes part a), and God's kingdom plan, is how God accomplishes part b). a) is accomplished by Christ's coming, death, resurrection, and b) is accomplished by Christ establishing the church ("I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it", and His coming return and kingdom.