Understand the Gospel
Definitions:
The word
gospel means “good news.” The word occurs 93 times in the Bible and
refers to the Good News about Jesus and the way to salvation.
To understand the Good News, you must understand the bad news. The
Bible starts with the bad news – that man's relationship with God in the
beginning was perfect, but Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God. Their
sin separated them from God. Since God is holy, He could not and would
not be in the presence of sin. Separated from God, man had no way to fix
the problem. Sin and its consequences meant that man would now die and
be forever separated from God.
The Good News is that God loved man, even after he sinned. Because of
His love, God made a way for the sin debt to be paid so mankind could
be in a relationship with Him once again. What humans could not do to
fix the problem, God did, and the way He fixed it is Good News! That
Good News is that God Himself came to earth as Jesus, the Son of God, to
fix the problem. Jesus was born of a virgin so He did not inherit the
sin nature and sin problem of man. He lived a perfect life so He owed no
sin debt. He died on the cross, not because of His sin, but to pay the
penalty for the sins of mankind.
Defeating death, Jesus rose from the dead and offers eternal life to
all who will receive it through faith and through believing this gospel
message. If you will admit you are a sinner and believe that Jesus came,
lived, died, and rose again, you can receive this gift of forgiveness
and eternal life – this relationship with God. No matter what you have
done, this gift is available to you. It is a free gift; you cannot earn
it or receive it apart from Jesus. It is available because of what He
has done. That is Good News!
The entire Bible reveals the story of God’s love for you, which is a
part of the gospel. The New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John are called the Gospels because they reveal the story of Jesus and
how, in Him, God changes your bad news to Good News.
Scripture:
Romans 6:23
"The payment for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord."
I Corinthians 15:3-6
“For
what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that
he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he
appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to
more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time,
most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”
Details:
Read through
one of the four gospels in the Bible, paying attention to the works of
Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John). Read about the birth of Jesus in
Luke 2, the ministry of Jesus in Matthew 5-25, and the death and
resurrection of Jesus in Mark 14-16. Answer the question of whether or
not you have embraced the truth of the gospel for your life. If you have
not, make an appointment with one of the Southcliff ministers to
discover how you can.Share the gospel story with someone in your family
or a friend.
Attend the Core4Kids Class.
More Pathway activities on this topic:
# 8 Meet people around you
#15 Pray for non-believers
#33 Know your neighbors
#25 Memorize and understand Matthew 28:18-20
#59 Join and attend groups with non-believers
#39 Develop Faith Story
#47 Share your Faith Story