"What is the gospel?

[exile]

What is the gospel?

Is it man made or inspired? Is it just a matter of words, or is it a life lived a certain way?

Is the gospel relevant for our times, or did it only have meaning in days gone by?

Does the gospel have a special place in difficult times, such as those we are experiencing now?

Is the gospel universal, or does it require a decision or a response on our part?

Is the gospel understandable for the average person, or is it something that only theologians can fathom?

Is the gospel significant to our lives, circumstances, and problems, or is it simply a peripheral issue that we would be better off ignoring entirely?

Can the gospel be obtained by human effort, or is it something only God can bring about?

Is the gospel only for a few special people, or it meant for all of mankind?

What do you think?

exile

[PJEagle]

I will reply to the very first line, "What is the gospel?"

The word, gospel, means good news. Usually when you see it capitalized "Gospel", it means the good news of Jesus Christ. The best way I can describe that good news is by quoting a verse I learned in first grade. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It may be hard to believe today, but in 1950 a representative of the Gideon's was allowed into a public school classroom and teach us that verse.

[1hole]

I think you pose an excellent question and additional questions that follow your BIG question!

It's my bed time so I don't have time to address it now but I will say that the only confusing aspects of the gospel message arise from misunderstanding of some important Biblical word meanings, words like "gospel" itself. Nothing about any of it is at all hard to understand or complex in application unless/until some theologians (denominations) wrongfully make it so!

[1hole]

Okay, I slept and rested well, hope everyone else did too.

Mr. Eagle very correctly defines "gospel" as the spiritual "good news" for mankind. It directly refers to an undeserved eternal salvation for those who place their eternal lives in the hands of Jesus.

God's first man was Adam. Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, a place that reflects the coming eternal heaven on earth in the presence of God. Adam's sin did what sin does, it corrupted him and, from him, all of his desendants.

People who are sin corrupted - and that's all of us - can't spend eternity with a Holy God in a Holy heaven so all of humanity from Adam has effectively been sentenced to a short physical life followed by eternity in hell. So, the biggest question of all humanity has been, "How can we become acceptable to God?"

In the short run, God gave Moses His rules for our best lives is founded on the Ten Commandments; they were engraved in stone so there's no way for arrogant men to change that! But following a list of rules isn't what takes us home anyway, saying so is prideful legalism at work and legalism destroys the gospel.

So, with a set of rules for something like 2,000 years, men tried to earn God's grace (unmerited approval) by works which is a conflict in concepts!

Please understand that Godly grace isn't something mystical, it's the unearned, unworked for, undeserved loving favor of God so trying to be worth saving from hell is obviously impossible. In fact, we're told that the self righteousness humans can accomplish in this life is viewed by God as filthy rags (Isa 64:6, Rom 3:0) and that God measures the heart (Mat 15:19, 22:37, Rom 12:2. et al.) because sin rises from the heart. So men simply had no way to gain God's loving favor until Jesus' paid our sin debt with his own perfect life, a life he freely sacrificed for us. That's good news!
Anyone saying our works buys us anything spiritual from God diminishes Jesus' blood bought sin freedom for us is not good news and that's not a good thing for anyone to say

Therefore, the "good news" truth of the gospel is that we don't have to become perfect. Jesus offers all men a priceless gift of salvation fully paid for by himself. Those who follow Him in faith are accredited with His perfectly sinless record!

Sadly, many well meaning men have rejected salvation by the undeserved favor through faith (TRUST) in Him alone (Eph 2:8-9). When we truly trust in Jesus we are spiritually "born again" (John 3:5), free from the death penalty of sin. Only then can we live in total peace with God (John 14:27) because we have - GOOD NEWS! - been set free from the law of sin and death (John 8:32, Rom 5:12-21).

Anyone, any denomination saying, "Yes, sure, but faith alone isn't enough, we have to become worth saving." With that "but" they destroy "salvation by grace through faith"(Eph 2:1-21) and revert to foolishly striving to earn what no man can possibly earn.

Thing legalist "rule followers" don't understand about "good works" is that anyone who has indeed been born again WILL not be perfect but, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and a changed heart, he can no longer be a "bad" (self centered) person and a string of good works will certainly follow!

Good people do good things for the right reasons. Bad "good people" work for the wrong reasons. Religious fakes can fool others and even themselves into trusting in their own "good works" without truly submitting themselves to, and in, our Lord Jesus; that's a SAD thing for them! (Mt 7:21-23).

Bottom line, the gospel - the GOOD NEWS - is that by our faith in Jesus alone our sin record has already been washed clean. Praise be to God, in the next life we won't stand trial before God for heaven or hell, we all make that decision for ourselves before we die (John 3:18). Christians don't have to be perfect to have a blood washed, perfectly clean, sin free record accorded to their name; that's really good news.

All that's the gospel truth and none of it's complicated!

Now, a closing comment:

Our good works in the flesh WILL be judged and rewarded justly by Jesus and that judgement won't be a trivial thing so we must honestly gage our own hearts by the way we wish to live (Gal 5:16-26)!

NOTE: Nothing I've said here is opinion from my own mouth, it's all scripture. To save time, I suggest you open a new window and type the scripture references into your search line rather than flipping around through so many pages of the Bible.

May God bless your reading and prayerful study of his written words.

[exile]

Great summary, thank you for your thoughts.

exile

[exile]

Given the difficulties we are currently seeing in the U.S. and around the world, do you find yourself; more interested in the gospel, less interested, no change, or, hadn't really given it much thought?

exile

[ioon44]

I am more interested in the sharing the gospel " the good news that Jesus blood washes our sins away and gives us eternal life".
If we as a people don't have a national repentance then this situation will only get worse.

[Gatch]

I was under the impression the gospels were written by people?

Or if you want to be literal, gospel is the truth.

[Parson]

The Bible states it much more simply than man, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

[1hole]

[QUOTE=1hole;[/quote]

In the sense you mean, the entire Bible "was written by men", none of it suddenly sprang into existence on the original leather scrolls by magic. BUT, the Bible was written by Godly men under the prompting of the Holy Spirit so, in that very real sense none of it was "written by men."

Biblical gospel is the good news that all mankind can (and must) be saved by simple acceptance of and faith in Lord Jesus as our savior/messiah. Meaning spiritual salvation is not, and cannot, be earned by human works. That blessed truth makes it the gospel truth.

I should have mentioned earlier that the wages of sin is death, earthly death of sin contaminated flesh; we don't get out of that. Not many grasp that "eternal life" means our eternal souls/spirits will never die and, on resurrection day, our restored bodies will again be indelt my our own soul/sprite, okay?

Now, what a LOT of people don't get clearly is that everyone's soul/spirit is eternal and, on the great Day of the Lord, ALL of the unsaved will also be restored to eternal "life" in a physical body. What makes hell what it will be is there will be none of the good things of God in our present life; none of it. And their eternity will be an eternal hell of life even for those many unsaved "good" people who rejected the gospel but aren't evil enough to be cast into the hottest pits in the Lake of fire hell. (Meaning the lost's eternal punishment will be true justice, not a callous vengance or indifference on God's part, but don't rejoice at that because, at its best, hell will be a bad place to live an eternal living death!)

I pray that all who read this will take the gospel for their own lives and remove all of mankind's fear of the first death. When our eyes are closed in mortal death we will be immediately open our spiritual eyes in the presence of Jesus.

The blood penalty for mankind's spiritual death was paid for on the cross so we can look forward to rejoining our very own resurrected physical bodies just as He did. THEN, we'll all live forever in the Lord's forever paradise on a fully cleansed and restored New Earth!

That's really GOOD NEWS!