What is the Gospel? - A Quick Summary

The word, gospel, comes from the Greek word, euaggelion (evangel, in English), which means “Good News”. It occurs 93 times in the Bible, all in the New Testament.

The Gospel (or Good News) is that man sinned and was in a bad place with God.

• Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
  

Due to sin, man deserved death – eternal death…

• Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death.

• Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
  

Eternal death is the punishment for sin. This was a cost too big for man to pay. God wanted to restore His relationship with man, but because He cannot associate with sin, man in that sinful state, could not have a restored fellowship with God.

• Isaiah 59:2 - But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
  

This is where Jesus comes in. GOD, in order to restore this fellowship with man, came to the earth in the flesh (in human form) to pay the cost of man’s sins.

• John 1:14 -And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
  

• Hebrews 2:14-18 - Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
  

He came to die, that through His death, man can have a chance at eternal life. God, in the flesh, Jesus, died to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.

• Romans 8:3-4 - For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
  

• Hebrews 10:1-18
  

By this, He set man free from the bondage of sin. He also rose again, that death will have no power over man again.

• Hebrews 2:14-15 - Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
  

• 1 John 3:8b - …The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
  

Now, anyone who believes in Him, that is, anyone who has faith that Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient to take away their sin is saved.

• Romans 10:9-10, 13 - because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved… For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
  

This is the Gospel – salvation through faith in the vicarious death of Jesus for the sin of mankind.

• Romans 3:23-25 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
  

• 1 John 2:1-2 - But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Anything other than this is NOT the Gospel.

• Acts 4:11-12 - This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. - 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

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