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The Gospel



Gospel means good news, and that is precisely what it is: good. news.

It is good only because we were in a desperately bad condition. It is news because it is the breaking in of God into human history in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

"The gospel must be primarily understood as good news, and the news is not as much about what we must do as about what has been done." -Tim Keller

Four questions will help to explain why we are desperately in need of the good news of the gospel…
  1. Where did we come from? God created all things good (creation)…"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31)
  2. What is wrong with the world? We sinned and brought death, disease, and depravity to God's perfect world (the fall)…"The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5)
  3. Is there a solution to the problem? God became a Man in Jesus Christ to live the perfect life we could never live and die the death we deserved for our sins. He then rose again from the dead, conquering sin, death, and hell, and has ascended to heaven where he reigns until his glorious return (redemption)…"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23)
  4. What comes after this? God will judge us all based on how we have responded to the gloriously good news of the gospel of his Son Jesus. God will also restore his creation to a perfect condition by making a new heavens and new earth. Those who have received Christ by faith will enjoy eternity praising God in heaven. Those who have rejected God's gloriously good news in the gospel of Jesus Christ will bear God's eternal conscious punishment in hell (new creation)…"The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31)
What are you going to do with this good news? The Bible tells us that we all are born into this world rebels against the will of God, but if we turn broken-heartedly to Jesus in faith and trust that his death was enough to save us from God's judgment, we can once again be the humans he created us to be, in perfect fellowship with him…"He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God". (John 1:11-13)

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