What is the Gospel?
The word "gospel" means good news. Good news presupposes bad news. Before we can identify the good news we need to identify the bad news. The bad news is all people are guilty of breaking God's laws for humanity. As a result, like every judicial system, justice must be served. Since we all stand guilty before our Creator we will be separated from God forever in prison or what the bible calls hell upon our physical death. Like any criminal who may have done good deeds in their life but once they break the law they must pay the price. Which means before Gods perfect justice we must pay the price for breaking His law. An unjust judge would let criminals go free without paying the price.
The good news is God has made away for that the price to be paid that we couldn't can be paid through Jesus Christ.
Mark 1:15 (NIV) “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The good news of the kingdom of God speaks specifically to the inner thoughts and desires of every human being. Some might think, “What about all those evil acts that people do, you know sins?” That’s a good question and the answer is; every action we take first begins with a thought and desire. For example, let’s look at the 10th commandment, “Do not covet.”
The 10th commandment disallows covetousness. The general idea of coveting is "to desire earnestly," "to long after" or "to set one's desire" on something that’s not yours or before God
INSIGHT: Of the 10 commandments, this commandment deals with a persons inner heart and is placed at the end of the previous 9 commandments and shows that none of the previous nine commandments could be observed merely from an external or formal act.
Every inner instinct that led up to the act itself was also included. The point is, as Paul later told Timothy, "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1Ti 6:6). If you’re content you’re not coveting. Jesus also commented, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Mt 15:19).
Paul an apostle zeros in on the 10th commandment in Romans 7:7-8 for the importance of the grappling with identifying sin by means of the law. The law, whether man made or God’s law, exposes our inner desire to break the law. We can’t escape it. It’s part of who we are. It’s the consequences of original sin which we all possess. We can’t get rid of it and we can’t overcome it. No amount of human effort can rid us of it. Whether by philosophies, psychology, medicine or religion. Nothing man made will work. As a result of the inescapable conditions we are in humanity is lost, in prison, chained and separated from our Creator waiting for that final judgment where we will all be found guilty for breaking God law, just like in a courtroom before a judge when we break the laws of society. In God’s economy we break His law first internally, even if we don’t act on it, therefore we’re all guilty. That’s why Paul asks the question in Romans 7:24-25 “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
His answer is the good news of the kingdom of God, the Gospel. v.25 “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Jesus came to rescue us from our brokenness, from our darkness, from the prison of sin, from our final judgment so that we may be set free not only from the death penalty but the control original sin has over our thoughts and desire. We don’t have to give in where we once did. The Holy Spirit He gives us gives power to overcome if we chose His lead. That’s why the Bible calls people that have believed and received Jesus as their Lord and savior “new creations” or “born again”.
That’s why Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” and “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12
That’s the good news, the Gospel.
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