Shepherd’sCommunity Church

What is the gospel?

The Good News of Jesus Christ

The story of the good news of Jesus Christ begins in the first book of the Bible. But the bad news begins there as well.

In the very first book of the Bible God created everything good and that man was created very good.1 Adam, however, disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.2 But Adam deliberately and rebelliously disobeyed God and was no longer “good.”

Adam’s one sin of disobedience to God had several horrific consequences, but two paramount ones.

First, Adam was immediately and thoroughly corrupted by sin. Not only had he sinned against God’s holy command, he was engulfed by sin that affected every aspect of his being. It was as if someone took poison and mixed it in a glass of water—the whole glass of water would be poisoned through and through. For Adam, his mind, emotions, and will were thoroughly poisoned by sin. Adam then passed that corruption of sin to all his descendants through birth.3 This includes all of us.

How do we know we inherited this sinful corruption from Adam? Because, like Adam, we sin against God’s commands. God tells us not to have any other gods before Him, and all of us put everything else in our lives before Him. He tells us to honor our parents, but none of us honors them perfectly, which is what God demands. God tells us not to murder, but we murder people in our hearts. He tells us not to commit adultery, but we do that in our hearts as well. He tells us not to lie or covet, but none of us is innocent.4 So each of us, like Adam, is corrupted by sin and guilty before God.

But the second consequence to Adam’s sin was eternal condemnation for himself and all mankind.5 God is so holy, He is so abhorred with man’s sin, that He sentenced Adam and all his descendants to eternal punishment. So before any of us were even born, we were condemned sinners in our mother’s womb.6

This is truly bad news.

But even worse, none of us can rid ourselves of our own sinful corruption or condemnation. The Bible is clear on this.7 Once we were made sinners by Adam, we were helpless and hopeless to save ourselves from God’s eternal wrath in hell.

But here’s good news.

God provided a way for us to be saved from eternal condemnation in hell apart from anything we can do. Right in Genesis three after Adam sinned, God said that one day He would send the “seed of the woman” to crush the head of the “seed of the serpent.” This seed would be one of Eve’s descendants apart from Adam’s sinful corruption.8

All through the Old Testament we see God preserving this seed through the nation of Israel, through the descendants of Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, and then through the tribe of Judah. This seed continued through King David and his descendants, and finally to the ultimate Seed—Jesus Christ! The good news of Jesus Christ is God’s promise of salvation from His coming eternal wrath on sinners.

But the most important question to answer is, “How does a person receive Christ’s salvation?”

The Bible says it comes by trusting in Jesus Christ.9 Because God is infinitely holy and we are tragically unholy because of sin, God will not allow sinners into heaven.10 For anyone to enter, they have to be as sinless as God is. But in and of ourselves this is absolutely impossible. We can do nothing to save ourselves. No amount of reform, no amount of religious service, no amount of money can offset our sin against a holy God. Just as we received our sin nature from a sinful “substitute” (Adam in the garden), so we must receive God’s righteousness from a sinless substitute (Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary).11

How did Jesus accomplish salvation for sinners?

  1. He had to be a substitute for sinners. He had to stand in the place of sinners and receive their punishment from God that they could not endure.12
  2. He had to die. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death.13 Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin.
  3. He had to be God.14 Only God could endure His own infinite wrath against sin.
  4. He had to be a man.15 Only a man can die and be a substitute for men.
  5. He had to live a sinless life.16 A sinner could never be a saving substitute for other sinners.
  6. He had to pass His sinlessness to those He died for.17 This is necessary for sinners to enter heaven.
  7. He had to be raised from the dead.18 Once Jesus paid wages of sin, death legally had no more hold on Him. His resurrection proved He satisfied God’s penalty for sin.

How does God save sinners?

  1. He or she must believe that Jesus is both God and man.19
  2. He or she must repent of sin.20
  3. He or she must rely completely on Jesus Christ for salvation.21
  4. He or she must believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.22
  5. He or she must acknowledge Jesus as Lord.23

If you believe you are a sinner and that your sin eternally condemns you . . . if you believe there is nothing you can do to escape God’s coming wrath upon you because of your sin . . . and if you truly desire to turn from your sin and rely completely on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from your sin by His death and resurrection for sinners, God promises to save you.

Friend, please come to Jesus Christ today for salvation. Turn from your sin and begin following Him in obedience. He promises to save all who come to Him in repentance and faith.

Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden (over sin), and I will give you rest.”24 “If anyone thirsts (for salvation), let him come to Me and drink.”25 “I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts (for salvation).”26

Jesus Christ is your only hope of eternal life. Trust in Him right now and let us know that you’ve done that. We are here to help you in your newfound faith in Jesus Christ.

Let us know

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 1 ↩

  2. Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-7 ↩

  3. Job 15:16; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12 ↩

  4. Exodus 20:1-17 ↩

  5. Romans 5:18 ↩

  6. Job 15:14; Psalm 51:5 ↩

  7. Job 14:4 ↩

  8. Genesis 3:15 ↩

  9. Acts 16:31 ↩

  10. Revelation 21:27 ↩

  11. Romans 5:19 ↩

  12. Isaiah 53; 1 Peter 3:18 ↩

  13. Romans 6:23 ↩

  14. John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13 ↩

  15. Hebrews 2:14 ↩

  16. John 8:46; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15 ↩

  17. 2 Corinthians 5:21 ↩

  18. Luke 24:5-6; Romans 1:3-4; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 ↩

  19. John 8:24 ↩

  20. Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38 ↩

  21. Acts 16:31 ↩

  22. Romans 10:9 ↩

  23. Acts 2:36; Acts 16:31; Philippians 3:9-11 ↩

  24. Matthew 11:28 ↩

  25. John 7:37 ↩

  26. Revelation 21:6 ↩