What is the Gospel?

"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

Mark 16:15

This was Jesus' final mandate to His disciples, to go and preach the Gospel, but what is the Gospel? What was so important that Jesus would instruct us to preach it to "every creature"? 

The word 'Gospel' simply means good news. Sometimes we refer to it as the "good news of Jesus Christ". This good news is that Jesus died for our sins and then rose from the dead conquering death, hell, and the grave. Of course to truly understand how good of news this is we must first understand the bad news:

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" 

Romans 1:18 

"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Romans 3:23

"For the wages of sin is death..."

Romans 6:23

The above verses show us that we have all sinned and that because of that sin we have three problems:

1) Our actions are deserving of God's wrath

2) We are short of God's glory

3) We are deserving of death

But what is sin? Often when we think of sin we think of only the "really bad" stuff. We think of things like murder, rape, cheating, robbery, etc. If we really think hard then we might include things like lieing, coveting, and lusting. These are things that we all have most likely done at one point in time. However James 4:17 gives us a different definition of sin:

"Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."

Think about that. Who of us have not had that moment where we knew we could do something good for someone else and we held back. Maybe it was too much of an inconvenience, maybe it was a difficult task, maybe we were too afraid of what someone might think, but for some reason we held back from doing the good that we could have done. The Bible tells us that this is sin and therefore is deserving of death. Biblically, death is not physical death, but it is eternal separation from God in a place of eternal torment called hell. It is not popular to talk about hell in today's society but it is a real place, it is a place where sinners go. Jesus constantly referred to it as a place where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:42). This may sound bleak but there is good news:

Jesus came to redeem us of all sin!

Romans 6:23 doesn't stop with what you read above. Here is the entire verse:

"For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

There we have the good news of the Gospel. Though we are all sinners, and deserving of death, we now have a savior in Jesus Christ! Through His death on the cross and His resurrection we have the gift of eternal life with God! Not only that but the Bible gives a very simple blueprint for accepting that salvation:

"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."

Romans 10:9

All you have to do is confess Jesus as Lord of your life and believe that He died and rose from the dead. It's that easy! By accepting Jesus as Lord we are denouncing our life without Him and choosing to follow Him. You don't have to change your lifestyle beforehand, Jesus will accept you as you are then will give you the power to change. When you read through the Gospels you will see that Jesus was constantly seeking out those who were in the most sin by the world's standards. No matter what you have done or not done you can "boldly approach the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16). Let His grace meet you where you are at and transform you into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is what repentance is all about, it is turning from our old life and ways and crying out to God, "Save me, make me new!"

Romans 10:13 says "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved"! If you would like to call on the name of the Lord today just pray the following prayer and allow Him to transform your heart:

Father God,

I recognize that I am a sinner

and I believe that you sent your Son to die for my sins. 

I believe that He died on the cross and rose from the dead

conquering death, hell, and the grave.

I call upon you and your mercy to forgive me of my sins.
I repent, turn away, from my old life

Wash my sins away,

cleanse me and make me a new creation in you.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit so that He can reveal to me day by day more of you.

In Jesus' name, Amen

If you prayed that prayer then take the time to let someone know. Remember Romans 10:9 told us that we are to "confess with [our] mouth that Jesus is Lord". I am sure that you know someone who is a Christian, go to them and tell them about your new decision. Also tell those that don't know Jesus so that you can be a witness to His saving power.

I also would love to hear from you and I can share some advice on some next steps for you to take in your Christian life if you would simply send me an email at martureo77@gmail.com. 

The decision you just made is a great one! The Bible tells us that they are throwing a party in heaven because of it right now!

"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." - Luke 15:10