What is the Gospel ?

What is the Gospel ? Nope, I don't mean the 4 books(Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) of the New testament. I mean The Gospel, any idea ?

Many people know that a baby called Jesus was born on Christmas day about 2000 years ago and this baby grew to be a man who died on a cross. Many people know He died, but don't understand why he had to die. They would say something like this: "He died for the sins of the world". But do they understand what that means ? Even some Christians say this but don't understand what is actually implied by it. It very easy to say it because we've been taught to say it from childhood, but it's a different thing to understand it and say it because we know it is true. Once understood, the Gospel is the best news, to which every other good news pales in comparison.

The word Gospel, comes from the Greek word "euangelion" which means "good news". The obvious question would be, what's the good news? Answer: Sinful man can be reconciled in an eternal loving relationship with our Maker. For this to make any sense to us, we need to understand the bad news first; our condition and state before God.

The bible says we have a sinned; Romans 3:23, Psalm 14:3, we have all broken God's laws in words, thoughts and deeds. The 10 Commandments Exodus 20 are God's standard of morality, how we are meant to live and anyone who doesn't live by them is worthy of the death sentence before Almighty God: the soul that sins shall die(Ezekiel 18:4) and the wages of sin is death( Romans 6:23 ). God is Holy and abhors sin, because we have all sinned and rebelled against Him, because we have all turned from the fountain of Living water to follow the lusts of our hearts; we all stand condemned before Him Ephesians 2:3 , and deserving His judgement; hell. Hell, as described by the bible, is a place of eternal conscious torture, a place created for the devil and his agents, a place where there is eternal darkness and men and demons experience the wrath of God for all eternity, a place where the flesh never dies, a place where 1 minute feels like an eternity, but even after an eternity, it is just be the beginning. A horribly terrifying place. "Why?", "why doesn't God just forgive us all? Isn't He all-Loving?". Let's imagine this scenario: a man breaks into a family home in the middle of the night, he kills everyone in that house, from the dog to the parents and the kids sleeping in their bed. Fortunately, he gets arrested and brought to court before the judge. There he tells the judge, "judge, I'm really sorry please forgive me, I know it was wrong to massacre that family. I'll never do it again, please don't send me to jail" and the Judge's response was "Alright, that's fine, I'm actually an all-loving judge; you're forgiven, go and never do that again." From this little illustration, we can learn 2 things. One, the judge wasn't Just as he didn't render justice, justice demands that this criminal be sentenced to prison. Second, the Judge wasn't Loving at all. The family of the victims would be rightly devastated at such a verdict. Thus, we can rightly conclude that this judge wasn't a good judge.

Unlike this judge, God is a good Judge, He is The perfect Judge and He will make sure all criminals receive their due punishment and that justice is rendered. The bible says God will by no means clear the guilty and will make sure the sinner is punished for all of his sins: Exodus 34:7, Nahum 1:3, Numbers 14:18.

How can sinful man ever be reconciled with God then? How do we leave from the state of condemnation to peace with our God. How do we make things right again? How do we get to be saved and not go to hell? The story would be really gloomy if it ended there.

This is where the good news comes in and actually makes sense. God has provided The Way, the best and the Only Way indeed; in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ John 14:6.
2000 years ago, God came down from heaven, He came and down as a man, the man Jesus Christ. He was immaculately conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary. He lived a perfect sinless life from His birth to His death, the perfect life we should've lived. He never sinned, not even once. He did not only not sin, He actively obeyed all of God's commandments. What we couldn't do for a minute, He did it for 33 years and is still doing. He was killed as a criminal, between 2 criminals.

But why was He killed ? Answer: It was God's will.

In the old testament, the sacrificing of an animal was a symbolic act ordained by God through which He forgave the iniquities of the sinner who offered the sacrifice. The sinner was required to lay his hands on the head of the animal and in so doing identifying himself with the animal. The animal was then killed. This all pointed to Jesus, and His work on the cross; He was God's sacrificial Lamb who took away the sins of the world John 1:29. Again this point is emphasized in scripture, for example: Hebrews 9:22 says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
While Jesus was on the cross, God The Father poured all His wrath against sin on His Son and treated Him like a sinner. All the sins which had ever been committed were atoned for on the cross, there, the Saviour the world took the place of every sinner who would ever believe in Him.
The Apostle Paul says: "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" 2 Corinthians 5:21. The Apostle Peter says: "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" 1 Peter 3:18. So, God gave Jesus the punishment which we should've received clothes every believer with Christ's Righteousness, so God is both the Just and the Justifier of him who has faith in Jesus Romans 3:26.

So now, we(those who have put their trust and faith in Jesus) stand before God as righteous and holy because Jesus Christ bore our sins on the cross and clothed us in His righteousness so now we stand before God as fully Justified not because of any good thing we have done, but solely because of all what Jesus Christ did 2 Timothy 1:9 , Titus 3:5.

This is a free gift for all who believe in Jesus Christ.

This gift is not earned by trying really hard enough, nor is it earned by praying really hard enough. It is neither earned by being pure enough, intelligent enough, handsome or pretty enough, rich or poor enough, skilled and talented enough. No! it is a free gift; to the thirsty, God says He will give from the spring of the water of life freely Revelation 21:6.

To be forgiven of our sins and be reconciled to God, there is nothing we can do of our own, even our most righteous acts are like filthy rags to Him Isaiah 64:6. Jesus did everything for us, there's nothing more we can add to or subtract from it. However, to be partakers of this blessings, we need to be conscious of our state of utter helplessness and throw ourselves at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ like the woman in Luke 7:36–50 who did nothing but cry. She wept so much. She acknowledged of her sinfulness and wretchedness. Repentance is the biblical term for it. And the moment we repent. God forgives and welcomes into His family and declares us righteous and Holy and blesses us with His Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19.

And that's The Gospel, the Good news, your soul has been purchased by Christ's blood, if you would only believe. You don't have to earn your way to Heaven, Jesus Christ has earned it for you, for free! and you don't have to go to hell, Jesus Christ suffered Hell on the cross for you.

What better news is there? dear reader, if you are not yet converted, I urge and plead with you, Repent and believe the Gospel, for there is salvation by no other name, but the name of Jesus Christ Acts 4:12 .