The Gospel…the Good News!
How can a person be saved?
The best message in the whole world is what we call “the gospel”. It is simple, yet complex- often misrepresented. It’s easy to take an element of the gospel, such as “you can have
Those things may be true, but what truly is the gospel and why is it so important? The gospel is sort of like the United States Cavalry rushing in on horseback to save the defenseless. Only, in this case, the cavalry isn’t an impersonal task force acting out of duty, but a loving God overwhelmed with love for His own children and willing to pay an unfathomable cost to redeem them. The gospel is “good news” because when all was lost— when there was no hope at all that man might pull himself up by his own bootstraps— He rescued us! “… But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV) to “bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 43:6 ESV).
This is truly good news because it solves our most critical, humanly unsolvable problem. It isn’t poverty or distress or unhappiness or depression or vices or addictions. Our biggest problem is that God is holy and we are not! We have an unconquerable sin dilemma. Paradoxically, the answer is that same God who is willing and able to rescue us! Our problem is that our Creator God— the One who made us and the One to whom we belong— is not only holy, but He is just. We are not. In case we think we are, the Bible instructs that “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.” (Romans 3:10, JP Phillips N.T.)
When we part from this life, we will immediately gain an audience with God, to give Him an answer. We will have to give an account of our every breath and deed– and be judged by our own righteousness—or lack of it. Or we will be judged by the righteousness of Another. God is holy and He is just. His holiness prevents Him from looking at sin. His justice demands that a price is paid. Not one of us can claim righteousness in and of ourselves. Sin must be either punished or atoned for. From a human perspective, it was an impossible dilemma.
There was no one who could make things right… or was there? Yes! there was One—and only One—who could atone for the sins of man—and that was God Himself. “For God loved the world so much that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him shall not be lost, but should have eternal life.” You must understand that “God has not sent His Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it—through Him” (John 3:16-17 JP Phillips N.T.) That, my friend, is the Good News. So pure, so precious, so costly. Costly for God, but free to each person who places his or her faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31a, ESV).