What is the Gospel?

The gospel is good news—the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.

The Bible depicts human beings, all human beings everywhere, as in revolt against God, and therefore, under his judgment. Although God stands against us in judgment because of our sin, quite amazingly he stands against us in love because he is that kind of God. The gospel is the good news of what God, in love, has done in Jesus Christ, especially in Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection to deal with our sin and to reconcile us to himself.

Christ bore our sin on the cross. He bore the penalty, turned aside God’s judgment, God’s wrath, from us, and cancelled sin. The brokenness of our lives he restores; the shattered relationships he rebuilds in the context of the church; the new life that we human beings find in Christ is granted out of the sheer grace of God. It is received by faith as we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus. We confess him as Lord, and bow to him joyfully.

The gospel is good news—the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.