Step Three
What is the Gospel?
The word gospel means “good news.”
In general, good news is different from good advice. Good advice tells us what we should do. Good news tells us about something that changes our present and future for the better.
Can you think of some examples of “good advice” and “good news?”
The Bible tells us the good news. Though the gospel is the central message of the whole Bible, Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome is a particularly helpful explanation of what the gospel is and why it is good news for us.
The gospel is the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection, which declares him to be the world’s True King through whom God is rescuing the world.1 This message, when believed, is the means of God’s power to save.2
To understand why the gospel of Jesus is good news, we first need to understand the bad news. What is the problem and consequence from which we need to be rescued?
THE BAD NEWS: HUMANITY’S PROBLEM AND CONSEQUENCE
(Romans 1:18-3:20)
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
God made humans very good, but something has gone terribly wrong. 3 The world is full of evil, injustice, oppression, greed, hatred, violence, and selfishness. It seems as if humans have become infected with something that has distorted our hearts and minds. However, if we are honest with ourselves, we might admit that the problem is not only outside of us but inside of us too. Indeed, we are part of the problem. This problem is what the Bible calls sin.
What is sin? At the most basic level, the word sin means to miss a target or fall short—such as an arrow that misses the bullseye. What is this target? It is the way of living rightly toward God, our Creator, and toward one another according to God’s design and intention for us. This way of life is not an arbitrary standard or an impossibly high moral goal set by God to frustrate us. Instead, it is the best way to live. God’s design for life is truly right and good for us and the world around us. The bad news is our lives have missed the target. Missing this target—in other words, sinning—is missing out on the best that God has for us.
ROMANS 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Here we see that sin has two dimensions, which Paul summarizes as ungodliness and unrighteousness. Ungodliness has to do with failing to rightly honor God as God, and unrighteousness has to do with failing to treat others with the respect they deserve as humans made by God.
ROMANS 1:21-25
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
In this passage, we see the first dimension of sin is rejecting God, ignoring God, or elevating something in creation to the place of God. Sin is seeking to find our ultimate significance in and giving our ultimate allegiance to anything other than God. This could be anything from money to work to relationships. These are good gifts from God, but when we elevate them above God we are rebelling against God as King.4
Our failure to know and honor God as God has also affected how we treat one another.
ROMANS 1:28-31
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
This passage reveals the second dimension of sin: the many sinful ways humans treat one another. We were meant to value, encourage, help and love one another. Instead, we have devalued, criticized, harmed, and hated each other. Whether it is in our feelings and thoughts, or our words and actions, disrespecting others is sin.
God’s standard was revealed in the law he gave to the Israelites, as recorded in the Bible.5 Jesus also summarized God’s law as love for God and love for others.6 But in Romans 2, the Bible points out that merely possessing this standard does not help people live according to it. Though the law of God is good because it reveals the right way to live, yet it also magnifies the problem of sin in people. So those who had the law sinned, and those who did not have the law also sinned.7
The point is that everyone is infected with sin.
The first step to recovery from many problems is recognizing and admitting the problem and the need for help. God showed humans our problem not to discourage us, but because his heart and intentions are to help us!
How does the Bible’s diagnosis of sin match your assessment of the world’s problem?
How do you see symptoms of this problem in yourself?
WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE?
Though sin can be compared to a sickness, it is ultimately an active rebellion against God as King. Romans 1-3 is written to sound more like a court case than a diagnosis. Humanity is on trial and has been found guilty.
If this is the situation we find ourselves in, what is the consequence of dishonoring God and disrespecting people?
It’s bad news. A tragic ending awaits. The Bible says the consequence of our sin is God’s judgment and wrath and, ultimately, death.
ROMANS 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...
ROMANS 1:32
...they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die...
ROMANS 2:2-3
We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose... that you will escape the judgment of God?
ROMANS 2:5
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
ROMANS 2:8-9
...for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil...
ROMANS 2:16
...on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
A day is coming when God will judge the world by evaluating how everyone has lived. On that day, Jesus Christ will return to earth, and everyone who has ever lived will be raised and stand before his judgment. There is no reincarnation; there are no second chances after this life.
We will be judged based on how we have personally lived according to God’s standard, not how we measure up against others. Our good deeds will not be weighed against our bad deeds, but our life will be weighed against God’s standard of perfection.8
The final consequence for sin is death—not only a physical death but an eternal, spiritual death, separation from God in hell.
ROMANS 6:23
For the wages of sin is death...
THE GOOD NEWS: GOD’S RESCUING ACT
(Romans 3:21-26)
We have not lived rightly toward God or others. Because of this, God’s right judgment will come against us. The good news is God intervened to rescue us. God sent Jesus into this world to save us. The events in the history of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection have opened the door to a new destiny. God has changed the story and re-written a new ending for us. The world will never be the same again! This is the good news! Here is how he did it:
ROMANS 3:21-26
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
If you didn’t fully understand the paragraph above, don’t worry! It is one of the densest and most wonderful paragraphs in the entire Bible. Let’s look at a few key phrases to see exactly how the gospel is God’s power to save those who believe.
Righteousness of God - God’s saving act in Jesus reveals his righteousness. There are two sides to this. First, God would not ignore human sin or forgive sins without punishing them. That would be unrighteous. But second, God would not abandon his creation and especially not humans whom he made for a special relationship with himself and for a unique role within creation, to glorify him. In fact, God promised to rescue us for these purposes, and to not do that would be unrighteous. The only way to be just (righteous) in punishing sin and justify humans (declare in the right) was to absorb the penalty of human sin in himself, through his Son Jesus Christ. God’s righteousness moved him to rescue the world through Jesus.
Redemption - Redemption is like a slave being set free. Humans are like slaves to sin and death. The good news is God made a way to set us free. The evocative imagery used here is like God’s rescue of the Israelites from slavery in the Old Testament,9 or like a benefactor purchasing a slave’s freedom and adopting him or her into his own family as his child.
Justified - This tells us that God has not only forgiven our sins and removed our status of guilt. God has added the positive status of righteousness to us. We are not just declared innocent; God declares us to be right.
This declaration has at least three angles:
Declared to be in the right in a legal sense—though we were guilty, God has declared the verdict of righteousness for us.
Declared to be in the right in a relational sense—God has declared we are on right, even good, terms with him relationally.
Declared to be in the right in a once-for-all sense—the verdict we are given now is the verdict we will have on the day of judgment.
Propitiation - The only way for God to declare guilty sinners to be righteous was to deal with the penalty of human sin himself. He did this by putting Jesus forward as a propitiatory sacrifice. This means that the wrath of God—his appropriate anger against sin—was poured out on Jesus. Jesus took on himself the punishment of our sins. He died in our place as our substitute.
Received by faith - How can this incredible salvation be received? Only by faith in Jesus. Salvation is apart from the law and cannot be earned through doing good works. Rather salvation is by God’s grace as a gift.10 We can receive the gift of salvation if we believe in Jesus.
There is no other way to be saved except through Jesus.11 No other religion teaches us to trust in the sacrifice of Jesus, whom God himself has provided. No amount of good works in life can earn us a right status before God. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has dealt with sin to restore humans to a relationship with God. Anyone can be saved by believing in Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ death on the cross bridges the gap caused by our sins to reconcile us to God. We cross this bridge by faith in Jesus.
How does it make you feel that God did all of this for you?
THE NEW REALITY: A NEW PRESENT AND A NEW FUTURE
(Romans 4-8)
The good news of Jesus not only tells us that we can avoid a tragic ending but that God has achieved a better ending for us—which is not an ending at all but a new beginning for humanity and creation.
NEW HUMANITY
Out of the midst of broken humanity, God has created a new humanity in Jesus. It is a multiethnic community marked out by our common faith in Jesus Christ.
When someone believes in Jesus, they are baptized.12 Baptism signifies our transition from the old to the new, from death to life.
ROMANS 6:3-4
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
The newness of life described here is a life set free from slavery to sin. We are transformed by the power of Jesus’ resurrection and his Spirit13 to follow God’s standard of love for God and others. We are finally able to live as God intended us to live.14
NEW CREATION
Humanity is not the only one affected by the problem of sin. All of creation—everything in the universe—was corrupted by sin. The world is trapped under the effects of sin such as disease, disasters, destruction, pain, sorrow, futility, decay, and death.
The gospel declares that Jesus is the True King through whose death and resurrection, God is rescuing the world— and the whole of creation.
God launched the new creation first in the resurrected body of Jesus, and everyone who believes in Jesus is also a new creation in Christ.15 Yet we still live in broken bodies amid broken creation.
But a new creation is coming!
ROMANS 8:18-25
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
When Jesus returns to judge the world, God will remove everything evil that has corrupted his good world and remake it in glorious perfection. Those who trusted in Jesus will receive a new, perfect body.16 We will live in a perfect world, the New Creation, with our True King and God forever. This is the hope the gospel gives to those who trust in Jesus.
OUR RESPONSE
When we consider what we have done and deserve and what God has done for us instead, and the good destiny he has made available to us, all we can say is: God loves us!17
Jesus is the True King through whom God is rescuing the world. This good news means the world will never be the same; this news calls us to respond.
ROMANS 10:9
...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The gospel declares that Jesus is the Lord, the True King of everyone and everywhere. To confess that Jesus is Lord means to declare him as your Lord, your True King. Following Jesus as Lord means faithfulness and loyalty to him above all else. To do this, we must repent of—turn away from—sinful living and submit to Jesus. The reason someone would do this is that they believe that the one true God has identified Jesus as Lord by raising him from the dead.
Are you ready to receive this gift? Consider the following questions.
Do you believe in the one true God, Creator of all things?
Do you believe that Jesus is the embodiment of the one true God and the world’s True King (the Christ)?
Do you believe that you have sinned and deserve just punishment from God?
Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?
Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
Do you confess Jesus as your Lord?
Do you repent of your sins? Do you want to be baptized and walk in newness of life?
If you want to receive the gift of salvation from Jesus, you can do that today. Talk to a Christian or a pastor to find out more.
1 Romans 1:1-4
2 Romans 1:16-17
3 We will look at how things went wrong in Step 4.
4 Ignorance of God is no excuse. Romans 1:19-20
5 Exodus 20:1-17, Step 4
6 Mark 12:29-31, Step 2
7 Romans 2:1-3:20
8 James 2:10
9 Step 4
10 Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 3:27-4:25
11 John 14:6, Acts 4:12, 1 John 5:12
12 To be baptized is to be immersed in water. See Beginning to Walk as a Christian: A Baptism Preparation Guide
13 Romans 8:3-4, Step 4
14 Ezekiel 36:25-27, Romans 6:17-18, Philippians 2:12-13
15 2 Corinthians 5:17
16 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, Philippians 3:20-21, and Step 4
17 Romans 8:31-39