An overview of what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. The Gospel is good news about how God wants to save us from our destruction, yet over the years, humans have twisted the Gospel to the point that they have threatened people with it. Good news can never be a threat. This article is written the purpose of explaining what the gospel is, why it is good news, and why it is needed.

What is the gospel? 
The word “gospel” comes from the Old English word “godspel”, a compound word made of the words “god”, meaning “good”, and “spell”, meaning “news”. When combined, they form the phrase “good news”. In Christianity, the phrase refers to the good news about Jesus Christ. Since the New Testament was preserved from the 1st Century in Greek, the phrase good news is written as the Greek word euangelion (ευαγγέλιον). This phrase isn’t only associated with Christianity but also has secular usage. It was often used in conjunction with decrees issued by rulers, such as the Emperor of Rome. The followers of Jesus used this phrase for their own King and Savior, Jesus Christ. The title “Christ” comes from the Greek word Christos (Χριστός), meaning “to anoint”, and this title was assigned to Jesus because he claimed to be the “anointed” holy one sent by God. This could have been seen as a challenge to the Roman Empire since the Emperor claimed to be the highest power in all the land, and he expected to be viewed as godlike in his authority. So, it seems likely that the phrase euangelion or “good news” was deliberately chosen by Jesus’ followers to declare that Jesus was the highest authority, that his followers served a higher kingdom than any earthly Empire, and that they brought greater news than anything Caesar could offer. 

What is the good news about Jesus? 
Imagine you owed a debt that you couldn’t pay back, and it would cost you everything if you didn’t pay it by the deadline, but then someone else offered to not only pay your debt but also provide all of your needs for the rest of your life. All they asked in return is that you be adopted into their family and let them train you to live a new lifestyle. In the process, you would receive an inheritance and would remain debt-free. Or imagine that you are proven guilty of a major crime, but the judge offers community service instead of life in prison. This is what the good news about Jesus teaches. We owe God our lives for our sinful behaviors, and death is how we pay him back, yet Jesus offers a covenant where he atoned for our sins, and in exchange, there is an inheritance of eternal life.

According to 1 Corinthians ch. 15, those in covenant with Jesus are promised a future resurrection from death, just like Jesus, who was resurrected from the dead three days after being executed. Furthermore, this new eternal life comes with a new body that is free from the corruption of sinful nature, which is something we are all born with. The phrase “born-again” is used by Jesus when describing to Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader at the time, the requirements for entering his Kingdom of God in John ch. 3:3-8. In the meantime, followers of Jesus are given the power of the Holy Spirit to help them overcome the sinful desires of their human bodies until they die. Essentially, everyone will still die because of the sin nature we were born with, but the lives of those whose sin debt was paid by Jesus are returned to them permanently as a rebate. Meanwhile, those who didn’t receive this covenant will face condemnation for their sins on Judgment Day, which results in a permanent second death, according to the book of Revelation, chapter 20.

In the enteral kingdom of God, there will be no sin because those who received God’s spirit will be transformed with new bodies and renewed minds, so they will be freed from slavery to the sin nature they were originally born with. In John 8:31-36, Jesus said that he, the Son of God, came to set people free. When his audience asked what he offered freedom from, as they did not consider themselves slaves to anyone or anything, he said he offered freedom from slavery to sin. Humans are slaves to sin nature since birth, and that is why Jesus said we must be “born again”. In John 14:15-21 and John 16:5-15, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit of God will come after He ascends to heaven and help renew the minds of His followers, empowering them to teach and show others the ways of His Kingdom. This is what we are to do until he returns.

What is sin? 
The word “sin” in the Bible is translated from the Hebrew word “chatah” (חָטָא), which means “failure” or “missing the mark.” We sin against God when we fail to keep His instructions. God gives us life and has the right to end it when we reject his ways, and He must execute justice against those who fail to follow his instructions. When we fail to keep God’s instructions, then we are guilty of breaking his laws and deserve death. The apostle Paul summarizes this concept in Romans 6:23 by saying, “[NLT] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

However, he can substitute our death with another life, and Jesus is the one whose life was substituted for ours. This is why ancient Israelites used animal sacrifices to cover sins so that they could stay in God’s presence. God’s presence is holy and naturally resists the corruption of sinful behaviors, so something had to die to cleanse the people who wanted to interact with his presence. Things that represent death or corruption cannot be in God’s presence. This is why the Israelites had prohibitions on what they touched or ate before going to the Tabernacle or Temple. They had to follow certain ritual purity customs given in the law of Moses just to have God’s presence among them. The sacrifices of specific animals, representing sinlessness, could be made as a temporary atonement for sin, but there were limitations to this because humans were made in the image of God and distinct from animals; therefore, no animal could ever truly replace a human. Thus, only a human can fully substitute for a human, but since no human was sinless, no human could qualify to function as a substitute for humanity. 

This means the solution is that there needs to be a sinless human. It was prophesied by Israelite prophets in the Tanak (or Old Testament) that there would be a man who would fulfill that role, who would rule as a king over a recreated world and function as a new priest who mediates a New Covenant between God and man. It was humans that broke the initial covenant, so it had to be another human that corrected that failure.

When did sinfulness start?
In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus stated that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). Humans often fail to keep these commands. Humans usually lie, cheat, steal, kill, and indulge in sexual lust, violence, and greed, at the expense of others. This pattern of failing to trust God and following our desires has continued in humanity ever since the failure of the first humans, and this is the explanation for why we die according to God’s word (Romans 5:12).  

Romans 5:12 (NLT) When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

According to Genesis chapter 3, the first humans, named Adam and Eve, failed to keep God’s instructions. They followed the advice of a rebellious spiritual being and deceiver (known as Satan) and stole fruit from God, which cost them their lives. God warned them that the consequences would be death. Instead of trusting God, they trusted Satan and followed their desires. The ancient patriarchs referenced in the Bible, such as Noah, Abraham, and Abraham’s descendants, were often described as righteous. Still, they frequently failed to keep God’s instructions themselves, as no natural-born human is perfect. They were classified as righteous not because of their ability to be perfect followers of God, but rather because of their faith in God’s promises and their desire to please God and receive from Him. Hebrews 11:6 says, “[NLT] And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” 

Paul says in Romans 3:23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Sin is a failure to love God and our neighbors the way God intended, and this failure was initiated by the first humans and instigated by spiritual rebels like Satan and those who followed him. In Genesis 3:15, there is a promise that one of the humans would come to defeat Satan and rescue humanity from slavery to the sin nature. God wanted humans to be free from slavery to sin, so he made Jesus the way of escape, but each individual must accept the covenant Jesus offers to get the promise of freedom from sin and death. Otherwise, they will stay trapped by sinful impulses and will be condemned for their sinful behavior on Judgment Day.

What if I don’t believe the gospel, don’t want eternal life, or don’t want to worship the God of Abraham? 
While the gospel is indeed good, there are consequences to rejecting it. Imagine coming across a starving, thirsty traveler in the desert and wanting to help them. You would tell them about a nearby oasis with food and water. However, they rejected your info because of pride or mistrust and died. Christ calls himself the “Bread of Life” and the source of “Living Water.” So, if the good news about him is like bread and water to those in need, and they receive it, they will be refreshed; but if they don’t, they will starve and die. 

The offer is freedom from sin and eternal life, but it is only available to those who WANT it. This covenant of eternal life is available to everyone, but not everyone will receive it. Sin is the reason for death, so God won’t give eternal life to people who want to stay sinful. Freedom from sin is the requirement for eternal life, and only Jesus promises this kind of freedom. Remember, we are all guilty of sin and owe God our lives, so none of us can earn this, nor was God obligated to save us, yet he made a promise to do so anyway because he wanted to. However, he will not force anyone to accept this covenant of deliverance and redemption; people must be willing partakers in this eternal inheritance.

Jesus said in John 3:16-21:
John 3:16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. 

Jesus says in Matthew 13:24-42 that there will be a Judgment Day when the wheat (those who are born again as righteous) will be separated from the weeds (those who choose to remain in darkness). He says the wheat is stored in the barn, but the weeds are burned. The parable serves as an analogy for the ultimate conclusion of God’s completed plan to save humanity. He is only interested in saving those who want to be saved from their fleshly desires. This means that those who take pride in their indulgences refuse to change their mind and let those desires go, have no place in a perfect, sin-free world because they don’t want to be freed from sin. If God enables people who refuse to change into a new sin-free world that is sin-free, then it can’t be “sin-free” now, can it?

Is God justified in condemning wicked people?
According to Ezekiel 18:23-32, God doesn’t enjoy punishing the wicked but must do so for the sake of justice for their victims; however, God will show mercy to those who repent. Similar ideas can be found in Isaiah 57:15-21, Jeremiah 18:1-10, Ezekiel 33:10-12, 33:17-20, Psalms 7:1-17, and Psalms 32:1-11.

In Genesis chapters 6-9, God flooded the world to stop mass violence. In chapters 6:5-8, it is stated that God observed that everything humans thought or imagined was constantly evil, so He grieved that He had even made humans and decided to do something about it.

Long before the flood, in Genesis ch. 4, Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve, murdered his brother Abel. God showed him mercy by marking him with a mark that came with a curse on anyone who harmed him. Cain’s descendant, Lamech, murdered a man and claimed that God would give him 70 times the mercy and protection Cain was given. God never promised that, but Lamech just made it up and created a culture of murder, where people competed for a false reward of protection gained by murder and violence. I call this the “Murder Olympics”. This is why the earth is filled with violence, according to Genesis 6:11, and why God needed to use the flood to reset humanity. After the flood, when Noah got off the ark in Genesis 9:5-6, God had to institute the death penalty for murder. This was necessary to stop humans from repeating this culture of chaos and violence.

The Bible frames God as one who must balance both Justice and Mercy. Therefore, when we read about stories of God’s wrath and judgment, we have to put ourselves in his position. If there are murderers like Cain, then there must be murder victims like Abel. Think about this, if there were men who weren’t strong enough to kill other men, then they would likely go after women and children. Furthermore, it is easy to imagine that men and women would simply just kill their babies to get this “special mark”, so it is possible the concept of child sacrifice was invented in this era.

Moreover, when we look at Rev 6:9-11, it says the martyrs who were killed for following Jesus are crying out for justice, and God reassures them they only have to wait a little longer for it. This is similar to Gen 4:10-11 when God cursed Cain, and says that Abel’s blood “cries out” from the ground. God is an avenger of martyrs and will punish those who persecute his people. We are all guilty of sins, but Jesus took the punishment for us so we wouldn’t have to endure condemnation. This way, God can show mercy without it contradicting justice for those whom we have wronged, which includes both God and other humans. Again, this only applies to those who receive this covenant, and they must be willing to stay committed to it even in the face of persecution or martyrdom. The Apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, was a persecutor of Christians, but then he received the New Covenant of Jesus, and Paul became a Christian, forgiven of his sins. If Paul did not receive this covenant, then Jesus’ death would not apply to him, and he would be condemned on Judgment Day along with everyone else who went around persecuting people by murdering and imprisoning them.

In addition, believers receive the Holy Spirit, who helps them overcome the sinful desires they are born with. According to Galatians 5:1,6 when people follow the ways of the Holy Spirit, they will not be held back by the lustful desires of their flesh. The body naturally rebels against God, but the  Holy Spirit is interested in keeping God’s instructions. Later in that chapter in verses 22-23, Paul teaches on the fruits of the spirit, which are Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Faith, Patience, Meekness, and Self-control. According to Romans chapter 8, having the Holy Spirit is what distinguishes believers from the world. There are Christians who go through the motions but don’t accept all of what Jesus taught because they love sinful ideologies too much to let them go, and there are significant consequences to this. Believers must accept and live by the teachings of God’s word. 

Why does God allow us the choice of rebellion if he doesn’t like it?
The covenant God offers is like a marriage proposal to us. Ideally, a man wants to marry a woman who chooses him because she wants him, rather than a forced marriage with someone who hates him. There is more value in something when there is a risk of losing it, so love that has a risk of going unreciprocated is more valuable than preprogrammed, automated love. Similarly, God desires the more useful, yet genuine, love. An automated voice assistant can be programmed to say “I love you”, but that is not the same as a living being choosing to love you. If God wanted robots, He would have made them. However, he didn’t because there is more value in something when there is a risk of not having it.

In Genesis 3:22-24, God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden to prevent them from obtaining eternal life from the Tree of Life. This implies that while God can bring everyone into his everlasting kingdom as we are, corrupted by sinful nature, he won’t because that would be a bad idea. Human wickedness and evil would go on forever, and there would be no permanent consequences for heinous and malicious behavior since there would be no death. 

Death is necessary to prevent human wickedness from continuing indefinitely. Gen 6:11 says that God flooded the world as a soft reset because the earth was filled with violence. If God did nothing, then humans would kill each other off and destroy the world. On the other hand, if he killed us all, including Noah, then there would be no one left. Either way, he wouldn’t be able to keep his promise to save humanity (Gen 3:15). God uses death to execute judgment and bring justice to the victims of human evil. Still, he also knows that all humans are corrupt and wants to rescue us from that wickedness. 

Not everyone will accept God’s proposal, but that is the risk God is willing to take to receive a more valuable response of love. Those that do accept will be extended an undeserved mercy, afforded them by Christ’s sacrifice, and those that don’t will have to face justice for whatever they’ve done. Mercy is available to everyone, but not everyone will receive it; therefore, only justice remains. God would not be a just God if there were only mercy and no justice, and there would be no humans left if there were only justice and no mercy. The choice he gives us is how he balances the equation.

How is any of this good news?
The good news is that, despite our wickedness, pride, and selfishness, our Creator, who wants us to embody His holiness, created a special, unique, sinless human being who is qualified to take the consequences of God’s justice for us. He did this so that we can be returned to a holy state with new bodies free from the rebellious, sinful nature that plagues us, and receive eternal life. In addition, God’s Holy Spirit bonds with us to help us take on his nature and his love, and become more like God by teaching and empowering us to live holy lifestyles. 

The eternal Kingdom of Heaven itself is ruled by Jesus, the one who descended from Heaven to Earth for us (Eph 4:1-10). This is a kingdom, not a democracy, so the rules that define sin in the Bible are the same rules that govern God’s kingdom. Those who don’t agree with God’s laws in scripture don’t agree with the kingdom of Heaven and therefore would naturally reject the kingdom. 

The choice is yours; God is setting before your life and death and according to John 5:25-29, Jesus said on Judgment Day there will be two resurrections, one for those who have received the covenant of eternal life that will never die again, and one for the rest of humanity who are condemned to destruction. A clearer understanding of these distinct resurrections and Judgment Day is found in Revelation 20:4-6 and 11-14.

God doesn’t want sinful people to have eternal life because their immoral behavior, like the violence of Noah’s day, would last forever, and there would be nothing but destruction. At the same time, God loves humanity and doesn’t want death to end us all. If death is the necessary outcome of sin, then God must eliminate sin so that people can be free from death. However, to maintain free will, choosing his offer must be an optional decision. 

Christ, the sinless one, died in our place so that we wouldn’t have to be condemned for our sins, and we were made righteous so that we could receive God’s spirit. The Holy Spirit teaches us to live God’s way in preparation for new sin-free bodies that have eternal life. This is good news, and we don’t deserve it, yet it has been made available to us. So, I urge you to choose life, because it is worth it.