[Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
HEBREWS 1:3
God is the gospel.
The gospel in plain & simple language for you.
Can you tell the difference between Law and Gospel?
THE GOSPEL FROM MICHAEL HORTON
Want a bit more detail?
The word "gospel" means "good news." Here's the gospel plain and simple. GOD - God exists and He is awesome. MAN - man is dead in sin. JESUS - Jesus is God's Son sent to save sinners through his life, death, and resurrection. RESPONSE - sinners can be saved through repentance from their sins and trust in Christ alone. Here it is fleshed out a bit more.
GOD
God exists, and He is glorious. How do we know God exists? Simple. Look at the universe. It is finely tuned. It is ordered. One thing is absolutely clear: the universe was designed. Romans 1:20 says, "For [God's] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." God is the Creator of all things.
We also know God exists because He has revealed Himself to us. God has communicated to humanity from the beginning that He is holy, beautiful, just, loving, perfect, righteous, good, eternal, knowable, etc. God has also revealed that He is three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, yet one God. Each person is fully God and yet distinct from each other. So, God is triune or Three in One. Father, Son, and Spirit relate to each other in perfect love and unity.
MAN
God created humanity male and female in His own image, beautiful and innocent and without sin. Man and woman were created to worship God by enjoying God forever. Relationship with God was their highest purpose and joy. They were given a beautiful garden named Eden and God gave them unfathomable delights, most of which was relationship with Himself (other delights were: meaningful and productive work, marriage, sex, the hope and anticipation of children, science, animals, amazing food, gorgeous scenery, etc.). God also gave them a good law to follow which would protect them. They could eat from every tree in the beautiful garden, but were kindly forbidden to eat from only one tree. They were free to enjoy all the rest. God gave that law because eating of that tree would kill them. That was bad. So God forbade it. That was good.
Man rebelled against God and ate from the one forbidden tree. That led humanity to their spiritual and physical death. God had told them, "For in the day that you eat of [that one tree] you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Rebellion against God explains why people die. At that moment, humanity broke a covenant with God and became utterly sinful. Not only did they begin to do wicked things, but their nature became entirely corrupted by sin. Every human being born after Adam and Eve has a sinful nature and chooses to rebel against God. No one is perfect and without sin. Therefore, all men deserve the just and good penalty of God - eternal death. God is a good Judge and cannot, because He is good, tolerate or overlook sin. Humanity in its natural state is dead in sin and under the curse of God's judgment.
The outline for the gospel (GOD, MAN, JESUS, RESPONSE) comes from this book by Greg Gilbert. Want to know more? We recommend the book.
JESUS
God saw that humanity was dead in sin. He desired to save sinners and make them alive and give them eternal life. How could God do that? One way. God sent His one and only begotten Son to be born of a virgin. The Son of God became a human being (though he remained fully God) and lived a perfect life of obedience to God. He did what Adam and Eve chose not to do. He was the perfect human. After his perfectly righteous life, he gave himself up on a Roman cross in the place of sinners. He died as the perfect sacrifice for sin. He died to bear the sin of the world and the wrath of God for sinners becoming the means by which sinners can be saved from God's eternal justice in hell. Not only did Jesus die to rescue sinners from hell, but to give them eternal joy and pleasure in himself. Jesus is the gateway to God. Jesus is the only way to experience supreme joy and pleasure, because Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus can reconcile the worst sinner to God.
RESPONSE
The good news of Jesus Christ demands a response. We cannot simply hear the good news. We must respond to it. We can either reject Jesus with unbelief or embrace Him. How can a sinner be saved? They must respond to the good news of Jesus with two things: (1) repentance and (2) trust in Christ alone. To be saved, a sinner must see their horrible rebellion against God. They must see that their sin against God deserves death, judgment, and hell. They must be so grieved that they turn (repent) from their sin. They must hate it, forsake it, turn their back on it, and commit to striving not to sin. Then they must trust in Christ alone to save them. They must admit they cannot save themselves, and that only Jesus Christ is sufficient to save them. They must receive the perfect life of Jesus by faith as their only righteousness and hope of reconciliation with God. They must receive the crucifixion of Jesus by faith as the death of their old self. They must receive the resurrection of Jesus by faith as their new life. And they must receive the supremacy of Jesus by faith as the Lordship over all their life and their greatest treasure. When a sinner genuinely repents of their sins and believes in Christ alone as their salvation, they are liberated to walk in joyful obedience to God by the power of the Holy Spirit of God which now lives in them. They are liberated to enjoy God forever. The end result of the gospel is sinners reconciled to God and finding their greatest joy and pleasure in Him, which glorifies Him.
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