What is the Gospel?

The gospel is the good news that you needn’t be anxious about
earning God’s love and acceptance; Christ earned it for you.

gos•pel (gäs′-pǝl) n., [from Old English gōdspel (translation of Late Latin evangelium), from gōd good + spell tale]

1. A tired, churchy-sounding word that is often misused, neglected, under-appreciated, and thus of ambiguous meaning to many people.

2. A noun found 77 times in the New Testament, sometimes translated “good news” and frequently used with qualifiers, e.g. “the gospel of Jesus Christ”, …of God”, …of the kingdom”.

3. The core of Jesus’ teaching; the love-inspired, joy-generating, peace-declaring good news He came to announce.

4. The triumph of Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross which merited God’s unconditional acceptance of all who will trust and follow Him.

5. The answer to the great problem of how guilty people could ever be pardoned by God.

6. The message that reveals God’s power to save those who will believe it.

7. The declaration that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

8. The awareness that you can’t make yourself good enough for heaven, but Christ can.

9. The foundation and source of spiritual life and emotional health for all people.

10. An anchor for the soul; it calms the anxious, consoles the depressed, comforts the suffering, and humbles the proud.

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7 thoughts on “What is the Gospel?”

11. Not bookends for my life. The Gospel is not something that happened when I said a prayer that doesn’t matter until Judgment day. It is the power that helps me cope with being a broken person, living in a broken world.

12. The Gospel is the power of the cross because of Christ’s willingness to atone for our failures. It is the blood bought power that I get every day by staying plugged into God’s will and purpose for my life. It is the good news that God loves us unconditionally and wants a relationship with each of us.
this could go on and on and on….excellent topic….excellent blog Lon & Dawn. love it!

Loved it! I thought it was relavant and real. I appreciated the stuff you said about depression and anxiety. I dont suffer from it but my husband does and its hard for me to understand sometimes. It hurts to watch him spiral down and fight to come back. Thanks Lon and Dawn for sharing! t

The Gospel is the sufficiency of the Cross. That’s the good news. There’s nothing we can add to it or take away from it. Its accomplishment stands alone. Look at the thief on the cross next to Jesus. No effort was made on his part to earn God’s favor. No effort could be made. He believed and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness. The thief is an encompassing picture of all of us, thieves, murderers, liars, adulterers, and the list goes on, but the remedy is the same. “In Christ Alone!” “In the cross Alone!”