What is the Gospel? 

We receive all kinds of messages from all sorts of places. Emails, text messages and letters to name a few. The Bible is God’s Word to man and at its core is the gospel. You could describe the gospel as God’s message to mankind, but what is the gospel? What is the message? It is presented simply and clearly in 1 Timothy 1:15:

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”

This message has everything to do with Jesus. Jesus was a real man who lived in Israel but He also is much more. On multiple occasions He testified that He is God and His many miracles attested to this. Being God He is the Creator, He is all knowing, all powerful and holy but for about 33 years the eternal God was on earth in the flesh. He never ceased to be God and yet while on earth, He was a man in the fullest sense. 

You may rightly ask, “Why did God come in flesh to the earth?”. After all being God He had no requirement to do so. The answer is found in the verse quoted above: He came to save sinners. The natural follow up question is: “Who are the sinners?”. The Bible leaves us in no doubt as to the answer to this question: 

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” - Romans 3:23. 

Each one of us without exception are sinners. The Bible uses many words to describe sin, such as wickedness, iniquity and transgression. We often think of the wicked as those who are the most reprobate in society like murderers, however the standard which God has set is His perfect holiness and everyone has missed this standard. If we are then to meet God’s standard we must be as holy as God. If we are to meet His standard we must live in such a way that we never sin against Him. We must never sin in our thoughts, desires, words and actions, not even once, not ever if we are to meet this standard. Whether you have knowingly or unknowingly disobeyed God once or many times makes no difference; sin is still sin. There must never be or ever have been one moment of deviation from God’s commands or one failure to perform the full extent of His law, otherwise we are wicked and justly deserving of our punishment which is an eternity in hell. 

Can we atone for our wickedness? Can a lifetime of mostly good deeds make up for our perceived few acts of disobedience? We do not earn merit through obedience and therefore our occasional, perhaps even frequent obedience is not worthy of praise from God. The absolute minimum is total obedience and any sin ever means that we have eternally missed that minimum. Obedience does not add to your standing before God, but disobedience does make you righteously condemned before Him.

How can I be forgiven? From what we have discussed about sin it is evident that this salvation cannot be earned, it must be freely given otherwise it is not applicable for any human. That is why Jesus came to die on a cross. He was punished for our wicked acts and our violations of His law. Our punishment was put on Him by God the Father when He was on the cross. However He did not stay dead but rose again on the third day (His crucifixion being the first day) proving that there was nothing left to pay. What is left, is for you to turn from sin and turn to the living Christ in faith. 

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” - Acts 16v31

The only requirement for salvation is a turning from sin and faith in Jesus Christ. That requirement does not change and will never change. Nonetheless a warning must be given. This offer will not be available forever. At some point which is unknown to everyone except God you will reject Jesus for the last time. Therefore while God in love gives you the opportunity, repent and turn in faith to Jesus Christ.