The Gospel of Jesus Christ Unto Salvation

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is news, good news: the best and most important news that any human being will ever hear. This Gospel is the central message of the Bible and is the true key to understanding it. This Gospel is the only Gospel. The heart of the Gospel is that the holy, loving and only Son of God, while confronted with human hostility and rebellion, lived a sinless life and died a bloody death to be our Savior, Lord and Redeemer. Here it is:

First, the bad news:

When Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-7), he brought spiritual death upon him-self and his descendants — all of mankind, for all time. Adam was the perfect representative of mankind. He did not have a sin nature — that is, he could freely choose without being encumbered with a desire to sin. When Adam disobeyed God, sin entered the world and since then Adam’s sin nature has been inherited by everyone. Therefore, each of us is born a sinner, unable to understand spiritual truths because we are dead in our sins. We are not sinners because we sin. Rather, we sin because we are sinners — sinners condemned to death.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. Romans 5:12

You were dead in your transgressions and sins. – Ephesians 2:1

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

Ro 3:10, 11

When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. 1 Cor. 2:13-14

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them. 2 Cor. 4:3-4

Now, The Good News—The Gospel

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

God demonstrates His own love for us in this; While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

But God, in His mercy gave some of them spiritual life, regenerated them. He opened their hearts — gave life to those He chose so that they could understand spiritual truths that could not before.

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. Col. 2:13

You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God's anger just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. Ephes. 2:2-5

One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. Acts 16:14

Once we understand spiritual truth, we have the ability to acknowledge our sinfulness — and seek forgiveness from God. Then, when we acknowledge to God that we are sinners and we confess our sins and seek His forgiveness, God forgives us and purifies us from all unrighteousness.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8

Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Romans 4:7-8

And when we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior and ask Him to come into our life, He will do so and we will have a spiritual birth — be born again — unto salvation.

That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in you heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

I tell you the truth; whoever hears my Word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. – Jn 5:24

We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone and by Christ alone.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Ro 3:23, 24

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. – Romans 3:28

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9

I tell you the truth, he who believes has eternal life. John 6:47

But now you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:22, 23

That’s the Gospel! Nothing more need be added. We were dead in our sins — God made us alive so we could understand spiritual truths, God gave us the free gift of grace to confess our sins, and the free gift of faith to confess Him as Lord and Savior, and He gave us eternal life. So, now we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

That’s it! The Gospel.

He brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Acts 16:30-31

And those who have truly repented of their sins, confessed them to God, and truly invited Jesus into their lives, as both their Lord and Savior will never lose their salvation — they have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

And this is the testimony; God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. – 1 John 5:11-13

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Romans 5:1, 2

You were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In Him, when you believed, you were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession. …. Eph 1:13, 14

There are no works, no good deeds, nothing we must do or that need be added — not now or in the future.

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. Ro 4:4, 5

What, then, was the purpose of the law? …So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. – Galatians 3:19a, 24

That’s the Gospel — nothing more need to be added — and there is only one way — there is no other way of salvation — no other Savior. Our eternal security – that is, our assurance that we will spend eternity with God in heaven despite our sinfulness – is found in justification by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Jesus answered, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ – John 14:6

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. John 3:18

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12