What Is The Gospel?


The gospel, a message deriving solely from the Bible, means “good news”.

Paul, author of much of the New Testament, gives us a dictionary-esque definition of “the gospel”.

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep, then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. (1 Cor 15: 1 – 8 )

In case the testimony of the Apostle Paul is not enough, there are red-letter words from Jesus Himself, which corroborate the gospel definition offered by Paul.

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24: 44 – 47)

From these two passages we learn that the gospel message is that Jesus died for our sins. Our sins can be forgiven by God and we do not have to suffer under His eternal wrath.

The goal of GOSPELANALYTIX is to examine this message as it is found throughout Scripture. As a guide to gospel study, we find it helpful to visually depict the gospel definitions that Jesus and Paul gave us:

ot-diagram

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