The Gospel is the “Good News of Jesus Christ.” The Gospel is the biblical account of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus is God’s eternal Son. He entered the world as a human baby long ago in a small town named Bethlehem. He grew to be a Man, and died on a cross in about AD 33. Prior to His death, He taught people about the Kingdom of God, and healed many of their diseases. There was deep meaning in His death. St. Paul explains it like this: ”This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinnners.” (I Timothy 1:15)
Who are these sinners that Christ came to save? We are. Every one of us is a sinner, according to Romans 3:23, “All have sinned.” To be a sinner is to have violated God’s just law. To be a sinner means to have wronged God. God, in His holiness and perfection, must judge sin. But Jesus came into the world to rescue us from our sins. He loved us and died on the cross for us, that we might be delivered from the penalty of the things we had done against God the Father.
St. Paul said in Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is wonderful news. We are put in right standing by reliance on Jesus Christ as our Savior, and we can have peace with God the Father.
Paul went on to say “God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:8-9)
Jesus did not stay dead. He was raised from the dead by the power of God, and His resurrection is our proof that He truly was and is divine, and that His death paid the price for our sin.
What does this mean for you and me, then?
- To be a Christian begins with first admitting to God our need of forgiveness and acknowledging that we have wronged Him by our sin.
- We must believe that God has made a provision for our forgiveness for sin through Jesus’s death on the cross, and we must rely on Jesus alone as our Savior. We are to believe in Him. To believe in Him is to trust that He really is Who He says He is, and that He came to save us from our sins. It is to accept His claim on us.
- We should tell others that we have believed on Him–we should confess Him to be our Lord and become part of a church that faithfully believes this Gospel of grace.
- Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the two ordinances (sacraments) that Jesus has given us, and are to be a part of our Christian experience. Baptism is an initiation into Christ’s Church, whereby the water used signifies the washing away of our sin, and the Lord’s Supper (Communion) is an ongoing witness to our trust in His Sacrifice in our behalf.
