What is a gospel?
- The word “gospel” means “good news‘ … so a gospel is, essentially, a message of good news.
What is the significance of a gospel?
- The fact that there is a gospel (with good news) implies there was some “bad” news prior to the “good” news.
- The presence of a gospel usually means that the cause of the bad news has been dealt with.
What was the BAD news that THE Christian Gospel was addressing?
- The bad news was that all mankind had sinned against God and brought upon themselves the death penalty … and, to make matters worse, there was nothing that anyone, anywhere in mankind, could do to save himself, herself … or anyone else.
- The result was that Man* was completely helpless and in a totally hopeless situation.
So what is the GOOD news of the Christian Gospel?
- Simply put, the good news is that God has already done all that was necessary for man to avoid the death penalty … God did for Man what Man could not do for himself.
- God did that by sending His Son, as Jesus of Nazareth, to die in Man’s stead, thereby paying the death penalty for Man and making it possible for Man to be reconciled to God and to have everlasting life.
What is the Gospel message of the Bible?
- The Gospel is the one true Gospel.
- It is the good news of Man’s salvation by God … or, to put it another way, the real Gospel is the good news of God’s rescue of sinful, helpless, hopeless Man.
- Even though there is only one Gospel, however, there have been many versions of the one true Gospel, including the “traditional” gospel, which is really an incomplete version of the real Gospel.
What is the “traditional” gospel?
- The “traditional” gospel is the news that Jesus Christ died so that Man would not have to die … and rose from the dead so that Man can be saved.
- The good news of the “traditional” gospel is that, although all people deserved to go to Hell, SOME people will be saved … and you can be one of those who will be saved.
What is the REAL Gospel?
- The REAL Gospel is the news that Jesus Christ died so that Man would not have to die … and rose from the dead so that Man can be saved.
- The good news of THE REAL GOSPEL, however, is that ALL people WILL BE SAVED, ultimately.
- In other words, Jesus Christ came to save the whole world … and He was successful.
So what is the difference between the “traditional” gospel and the REAL Gospel?
- According to the “traditional” gospel, SOME people will be saved … According to the REAL Gospel, ALL people will be saved, ultimately.
- According to the “traditional” gospel, Jesus came to save the lost … but He was only able to save some of them … However, according to the REAL Gospel, Jesus came to save the lost … and He did save ALL of them … As the Good Shepherd, he was not satisfied with saving only 99 of 100 sheep.
- In one sense, the “traditional” gospel limits God, in one way or other … whereas the real Gospel does not.
- In another sense, the “traditional” gospel is incomplete … whereas the real Gospel is not.
How could the REAL Gospel be summarized?
- Although NO ONE could save himself from the eternal death he deserved … NO ONE HAS TO save himself … because Jesus Christ had already done all that was necessary for him to be saved.
What are the key elements of the REAL Gospel?
- ALL have sinned
- ALL deserved to die
- NO ONE could save himself
- Jesus paid for ALL sin
- Jesus defeated death on behalf of ALL
- ALL have been reconciled to God
- ALL can be saved
- ALL WILL BE SAVED … ultimately.
If you’d like to see Bible passages that support the points above, go to the page on The REAL Gospel.
* The word Man is used generically and includes women and children, as well … in much the same way that a man-eating shark will eat women and children, as well as men.