What is the Gospel Message? – Joy in Life can be yours!

If someone were to ask you ‘What is the Gospel message?’, would you know how to answer this question?

Many people may think that the ‘gospel’ is a vague and indefinable concept, but this is incorrect. In actuality, the gospel message as stated in the Bible is clear and consists of definite facts. Salvation consists of knowing, believing and acting on these facts.

What are the facts that constitute the gospel?

To find the answer to this question, let us examine two passages in the writings of Saint Paul: Romans 4:24-25 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

In Romans 4, Saint Paul outlines the main features of the faith of Abraham and highlights Abraham’s faith as an example to be followed by all Christian believers. He points out that in the Old Testament scriptures, Abraham was justified before God by his faith, not by his works. Then in verses 23 to 25, he applies this example of Abraham to all believers:

The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:23-25)

The gospel, as stated above by Saint Paul, contains three definite facts:

1. Jesus was delivered to the punishment of death for our sins and offenses.
2. God raised Jesus from the dead.
3. If we believe that Jesus died for us and was raised on our behalf, then we will be justified
(accepted as righteous) before God.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Saint Paul reminds the believers at Corinth of the gospel message which he had preached to them, and he again sets forth the basic facts of the message:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: 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. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

Again, we see that the gospel consists of three facts:

1. Christ died for our sins.
2. Christ was buried.
3. Christ rose from the dead on the third day.

It is important to note here that Saint Paul emphasizes that the most authoritative testimony to the truth of these facts is the Old Testament scriptures, which prophetically foreshadowed these events hundreds of years before they actually took place.

In Isaiah 53, we read a clear foreshadowing of the Lord’s sufferings for mankind:

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire Him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held Him in low esteem.
Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people He was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge My righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

It is important to differentiate here between faith in the mind and faith in the heart. Faith in the mind is nothing more than an intellectual acceptance of the facts of the gospel. Faith in the heart, however, always results in a positive response to these facts. Throughout the New Testament, it is made clear that salvation comes to a soul only as a result to a personal response to the gospel facts.

In Romans 10, Saint Paul states:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

And again in Romans 10:13, Saint Paul states:

“Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

The Lord Himself invites us to come to Him:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (John 7:37)

Speaking of Christ, Saint John writes:

He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God. (John 1:11-13)

So we see that for a person to receive Christ into their lives, the key is for that person to personally respond to the gospel facts and thereby become a child of God, being ‘born of God‘.

The Lord Himself emphasizes this truth by saying:

Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. (John
3:3)

The Lord promises us that if we open the door of our heart to Him, He will surely come and He will not drive us away.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20)

The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. (John 6:37)

What wonderful and life-giving promises!

So, to review, the gospel message centers exclusively in the Person of Christ Himself, specifically His death and resurrection and comprises of these four facts:

1. God the Father delivered Jesus Christ to the punishment of death and account of the sins of mankind.
2. Jesus Christ was buried.
3. God the Father raised Jesus from the dead on the third day.
4. The person who believes these truths is accepted as righteous before God.

The soul who responds to these facts by receiving Christ into their heart will be saved.

Each person will be saved or lost based upon his or her response to the gospel message!

So now I ask you, dear reader: Do you wish to make this personal response to the gospel message?

If you do, please pray this prayer with me out loud:

Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that You died for my sins, that You were buried and that You rose from the dead on the third day. I now repent of all my sins and come to You for mercy and forgiveness. With faith in Your promise, I receive you personally as my Savior and confess You as my Lord. Come into my heart, give me eternal life and make me a child of God. Amen.

So my friend, now that you know the basic facts of the gospel message and the required response in order to be saved, go and spread the word to others, so that they will not perish but have everlasting life!

Amen.