What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
God has revealed His story in the Bible. It is a cosmic drama that occurs in space and time. It begins with God’s eternal decree, followed by God creating everything that exists. He created everything from nothing. The pinnacle of His creation is man, male and female, made in His image. God’s story is known to Him from beginning to end.
God also created spirits as His servants. The spirits are called, “angels.” Under a rebellious leader, Satan, many angels entered an existence of enmity against God. God created a place that will eventually house them, forever, which is called, “hell.”
Satan, the devil, came to man in the paradise of the Garden of Eden. In the form of a serpent, Satan deceived man by tempting Eve, the first woman, into disobedient disregard for God’s commandment. Adam, her husband, consciously joined in the sinful lust for knowledge, which they misperceived God was withholding from them. The result is commonly called, “the fall of man.” It is also the fall of creation, however. The world is now a sinfully polluted environment. Both angels and humans are responsible for their thoughts, words, and actions against God.
After the fall, every person born to Adam and Eve and their progeny inherited sin nature. Sin is lawlessness in nature and by action. Every person has sin as his driving force, and the result is for every person to practice sinning. Death prevailed in the period between Adam and Moses because sin was functioning, before God exposed sin, by giving the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai. God’s Law displays God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness. The wages of sin is death.
Death came to man’s soul first, and then it visited his body. Man is born spiritually dead, and he lives his life in the body until it dies, too. It is appointed once for a man to die and then comes God’s judgment. Often referred to as the second death, man is judged by God and justly sentenced to eternal death in hell and the lake of fire.
Sensing the separation between God and himself, man creates diverse religions to attempt to bridge the gap. God rejects man’s concocted religions because they are insufficient to solve man’s sin problem. Man simply cannot work his way back into a right relationship with God.
But God, being rich in mercy and gracious to provide salvation, is displaying His attributes in every aspect of His story. God is glorified in His story because of who He is and because of what He has done, in creating all things and then redeeming some things.
Salvation belongs to the Lord. God is the Savior and salvation is His work, bringing Him glory. In God’s story, He has chosen some people to be saved. He planned this before He created anything. The fall of creation is the bad news in the story; but God redeeming, some of what was fallen, is the good news (Gospel). God reserves the right to make all things for His own eternal purposes.
God is one, meaning there is only one God (monotheism). When God revealed Himself, however, He revealed Himself to be three persons: God the Father; God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit. Every work in salvation is done by God, but there is a division of labor in God’s economy. God the Father decreed salvation. God the Son came into the world to do the sacrificial work that was necessary for salvation to occur. God the Holy Spirit was sent to apply salvation to a particular group of people. The decree of the Father is finished. The sacrifice of the Son is finished. The application work by the Holy Spirit continues, today.
God’s decree is eternal. This means it was something that happened before or above time. Time is the continuum of history, the unfolding of the story. Like an author with a completed book, God knows the beginning from the end. God has authored all things in His story. As part of His decree, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior at the appointed time.
Christ (Messiah), the eternal Son of God, entered the world in a supernatural way. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (God), in the womb of the Virgin Mary (human). His name reveals who He is and what He came to do. Jesus is Greek for Joshua, which in Hebrew means, “Yahweh saves.” Jesus came to save His people from their sins; and He has promised that all of His people will be saved.
Jesus saved His people by dying on a Roman cross of crucifixion. He laid down His life and bore the sins of His people while He was being crucified. His death is called, “a sacrifice.” This sacrifice was not for His sins. He was born without sin and lived an impeccable life with no sins against God. Jesus always did what was pleasing to God the Father. When Jesus died, it was in the place of judgment. The wrath of God was poured out on Jesus, as punishment for the sins of His people. He paid the full penalty for the sins of the people He loved, and who were chosen by God the Father before creation.
With justice, God rightly judges all people for their trespasses and sins. With justice, God rightly judged trespasses and sins that Jesus received by imputation from His people. He suffered and shed His blood, so that His people could be forgiven of all of their sins (100%). God’s motive is love for His chosen people, and Jesus demonstrated God’s love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The death of the righteous One was on behalf and in the place of unrighteous, ungodly people. This is called, “the work of atonement.” God reconciled His people to Himself, through Christ. God’s people are representatives from the whole world.
After Jesus Christ died on the cross at Golgotha, near Jerusalem, He was taken down from the tree by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. He was buried in Joseph’s freshly hewn tomb. Jesus’ body of death remained there from Friday until Sunday. But God, demonstrating His power over sin and death, raised Jesus from the dead, in vindication of His honor and glory. Jesus defeated Satan, sin, and death, while overcoming the world, hell, and the lake of fire. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has justified God’s chosen people in the judgment of God. This means they are declared, “not guilty” before God’s Law and judgment seat. God approved Jesus’ work on the cross, as demonstrated, by raising Him to life in a glorified body.
Following Jesus’ resurrection, He was seen by hundreds of people over a forty-day period of ministry. On the fortieth day, He stood on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and ascended into heaven, where He was enthroned at God the Father’s right hand. All authority in heaven and earth have been given to the Lord Jesus Christ, who rules and reigns over all God’s creation, from the center of the throne of God, in the New Jerusalem of heaven above.
God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit into the world to continue the work of restraining evil, convicting the world of sin, and applying salvation to God’s chosen people. By indwelling God’s people, the Holy Spirit manifests the fruit of His work of sanctification in each believer. He has caused each chosen believer to be born again of God. This is a spiritual birth that makes certain sinful people to be made spiritually alive in Christ. This work is called, “a new creation.” It produces new creatures: a holy nation of God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, who manifest good works prepared for them to do from before the foundation of the world.
God’s chosen people are being prepared for an eternal dwelling with Jesus Christ in heaven. They must be made holy and blameless through sanctification, which is setting them apart from sin and the world, and perfected at the end of their lives, in a work of God called, “glorification.” Those whom God predestined for salvation, He will call out of the kingdom of darkness (world controlled by Satan and sin) and adopt them into the family and kingdom of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Being justified by Christ’s blood, God’s grace, and through faith given to them, God’s children will be glorified in the end.
The souls of the children of God return to God at the death of one’s body. The bodies of all people will be resurrected from the dead at the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is coming again to judge the living and dead, on the Day of the Lord’s judgment of the earth. The children of God will be separated both body and soul, from the children of the devil, who sinned against God, and who never received mercy and grace from God, so to trust Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sins. God’s people have eternal life in the new heavens and earth, and the rest will be damned forever in hell and the lake of fire.
All people, everywhere and at all times are told to repent of their sins, which means to turn their evil hearts and minds away from the world of sin and Satan. They are to further turn in faith to Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior of sinners. If God grants them repentance and faith, converting them from being dead in sin, to being alive to God in Christ, then baptism of the Holy Spirit has occurred. This is evidenced by a change in life, from loving sin and the act of sinning, to a new and powerful affection for God and the Word of God. This person is commanded to be baptized with water upon credible profession of their trust in Jesus Christ.
God’s salvation continues in the life of a new Christian by spiritually maturing him/her. This is accomplished by the indwelling Holy Spirit and the written Word of God — the Bible — as the Spirit’s instrument in daily cleansing God’s people, from life in a dirty, sinful world. God began a good work in saved believers, and He will bring it to perfect completion, according to His will and good pleasure.
Do you understand what you have read here? If you do not understand everything, please ask the person who gave it to you to explain the answers to whatever questions you have in your mind.
Do you believe what you have read here? If you do believe, have you been baptized with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? If you believe, and are not pursuing baptism in a local church, then you are being disobedient to the command of the Lord Jesus Christ. Disobedience is the same as unbelief. Jesus said, “If you love me, then keep my commandments.”
If you remain unbelieving and unbaptized, it behooves you to continue learning about Jesus Christ, at a local Bible believing and preaching church. Ask for a recommendation if you need one from the person who gave this document to you. May God have mercy on you and save you if this is His will for you.
If you have been baptized into Christ, then you must continue in His Word, in prayer, fellowship, and worship with a local church. Christ also commands that all of His people represent Him, by telling others the Gospel, the good news of who Jesus is and what He has done for sinners. God bless you.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
November 18, 2020
