DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS MEANT BY THE GOSPEL?

ray that our hearts will be open and ready to receive and hear God’s word Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now that we have talked about what salvation is and why it is important, I bet you want to know how salvation occurs. But before we do that, let’s look deeply and fully into what the gospel of Jesus is all about. The message that saves.

What is the gospel?

The Greek word for, the gospel is, “Euangelion.”

Euangelion simply means “Good News.”

However, there is a lot of good news out there. There is false good news (gospel) and there is good news about temporary things such as getting a new car or house, graduating from school, etc.

But there is particularly the good news (gospel) that we must BELIEVE in to be saved. Every other good news will only result in heightened feelings of happiness, temporary joy but will not result in faith. The only good news that gives faith, eternal joy and salvation to its hearer is the Gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ

What then is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Let’s look in the Bible for answers.

Romans 1: 1-4 (GNT)

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus and an apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News. 2 The Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets, as written in the Holy Scriptures. 3 It is about his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: as to his humanity, he was born a descendant of David; 4 as to his divine holiness, he was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death.

Paul begins his letter to the Romans by introducing himself as an apostle called to preach the good news. He goes on to tell us who the good news is about. It is about Jesus’s Christ, God’s son. He also mentioned that the good news (gospel) was promised a long time ago through the prophets and was written in the Holy Scriptures (old testaments) even before the birth of Jesus on earth as a human.

So we are clear and certain that the gospel (good news) is about Jesus Christ.

Now, let’s see clearly what this good news of Jesus is in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (GNT)

“And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. 2 That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it—unless it was for nothing that you believed.

3 I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; 4 that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures,”

Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians writes to remind them of the gospel he preached to them and the importance of Christ’s resurrection amongst other things he wrote to them about.

He reminds them that the Gospel he preached to them and they received and believed in SAVED them unless they did not truly believe. The problem was not the gospel but their heart (We will look at this more in-depth later in this book or series). The gospel of Jesus Christ saves and saved completely if we believe it. He goes on to explicitly spell out what the gospel is for them in vs 3-4.

He says that the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ that we ought to believe in and be saved by is: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

That is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It simply tells us that Jesus is the CHRIST (Meaning: Savior or Messiah) and he has done what he ought to do to save us. All we need to do is believe it.

God gave Jesus as the atonement sacrifice through the shedding of his blood which we must receive by FAITH (Romans 3:25).

In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul says this to Timothy, his faith son,

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

A savior or messiah saves. Jesus specifically came to save sinners. All of mankind on earth by default fall under this category. So, he came to save mankind from sin and its penalty death.

And Jesus did this by dying for our sins and resurrecting from the dead signifying the assurance of eternal life.

The resurrection of Jesus is very significant and must be believed. People often listen when you talk about Jesus’ death and his burial but at the mention of his resurrection, they stumble and take offense. They can’t believe that part.

“How can someone come back from the dead,” they say.

But Jesus did come back from the dead on the third day. It is the truth and evident by history. It’s not enough to believe his death and burial. Salvation is made complete in our hearts when we believe in Jesus’ resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from death is the foundation on which our faith must stand.

If Jesus simply died for our sins and stayed dead then it’s all in vain. Why then do we bother to live a righteous and holy life?

Why are we wasting time doing good works? Why even bother to get saved, to begin with, if we will all face death anyway? We might as well just drink, party and be merry. Just LIVE as your please! (See 1 Corinthians 15: 12 – 34).

That is what makes the resurrection of Jesus significant and why we must believe in it to be saved. Because it’s our hope. Our hope that we have eternal life. Our hope that living a set apart like from the world is not in vain. We have an assurance of eternal life because of him whom we place our faith and believe in LIVES. He is alive.

I told you we were going to finish reading the book of John 3 which we started in the previous part of the series. We stopped at verse 15. So let’s pick it up from verse 16.

John 3:16 is a very popular and easily quoted verse among Christians. I do not think this is a coincidence. I believe that God intentional made the most popular Bible verse among his people and even some unbelievers the one that spells out his love and work of salvation. But I fear that many have been blinded to the significance, grace, and light in this bible verse due to familiarity and lack of understanding.

This simple bible verse (John 3:16) is very revelational and joy-giving.

John 3:16 spells out the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Just one verse sums it all up.

Roll with me as the Holy Spirit takes us through, breaks down this verse and opens our eyes, ears, and heart.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16).