LEARNING THE BASICS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

GOSPEL 101 – LEARNING THE BASICS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

What is the Gospel?

Who is Jesus Christ?

Why should I care?

Introduction:

“The word gospel originates from the Old English word “godspell,” meaning “good news” or “good story”. We know a lot of our English words came from either Greek or Latin, so the word gospel was a military word that referred to a proclamation of victory by the winning army of a battle or war.  So broadly speaking, the gospel refers to the core message of Jesus Christ: His sinless life – meaning victory over sin; His death and resurrection – meaning victory over death. It’s the proclamation that through faith in Jesus, people can live a sinless life; be reconciled to God our father; and receive eternal life.” The key to understanding the gospel is to know why it’s good news. To do that, we must start with the bad news.

The Bad News: Humanity was broken in sin and separated from God. Romans 7:15–20,24 “¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

The Good News:  Romans 7:25 “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” John 3:16 “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.” God came to earth, rescued us through Jesus’s death and resurrection, and He is restoring and rebuilding all things. The gospel is not something we earn. It is not something we accomplish on our own. The gospel is purely and wholly the work of God through Jesus.

The elements of the gospel “1 Corinthians 15:3–6”: 1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; 2. He was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures; 3. There were eye witnesses to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection; 4. All this was done “according to the Scriptures”; the theme of the whole Bible is the salvation of mankind through Christ. The Bible is the gospel.

• The gospel is the good news that God loves the world enough to give His only Son to die for our sin (John 3:16).
• The gospel is good news because our salvation and eternal life and home in heaven are guaranteed through Christ (John 14:1–4).
• The gospel is the good news that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

To reject the gospel is to embrace the bad news. Condemnation before God is the result of a lack of faith in the Son of God, God’s only provision for salvation. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17–18). God has given our doomed world a good news: the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Conclusion: You are loved, You have been accepted, and You can experience a life of freedom – through JESUS CHRIST.

Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the “gospel of Christ,” for “it is the power of God to salvation” for “everyone who believes,” for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”