Yesterday, I asked this question and tried to explain why I am not 100% on board using the tools/formulas (FAITH and ABC, the ones with which I am most familiar). I thought of a couple of more reasons these packaged presentations fall short, but I’ll spare you the details. Hubby and I spent a couple of hours last night discussing this question. In all of our ramblings, we realized we weren’t trying to answer the same question. There is a difference between answering “What is the gospel?” and answering “What is the best way to share the gospel?” Naturally, the best way to share the gospel is going to depend on your context and the person to whom you are speaking. However, the way the gospel is presented, whatever the context, is going to depend on what one believes the gospel IS. So, what is the gospel?

The gospel begins and ends with God. I agree with Karl’s comments about the Roman Road in the previous post. I agree that helping another person understand their sinfulness in order to see their need is a not bad place to start. But how does a believer help an unbeliever “see” their sin without first helping the unbeliever “see” his Creator, who is holy? Even Paul begins with God in his letter to the Romans, and he does so by describing God’s wrath.

The good news is that there is a loving God who created this world and everything we see (Genesis 1:1; Revelation 4:11). He created all things because it pleased Him to do so. There are many characteristics of God that we can learn from His creation. One is that He is wonderful and glorious. He even created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:6-7). Therefore, we should live for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). But we have all failed to give God glory (Romans 3:23). We do not trust Him, nor honor Him, we live to please ourselves and we do not seek God. Our refusal to honor God as God is sin. In light of the greatness of God, our sin deserves punishment (Romans 6:23). Since we have refused to glorify God, our punishment is death: being cast away from God’s presence, His glory, to eternal destruction in Hell.

The good news is that God sent His only son Jesus to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul writes, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, …he was buried, …he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The good news is that God poured out His wrath on Jesus, therefore, He can now offer sinners forgiveness and fellowship with Himself. Peter writes, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

In addition to bringing us to God, there are dozens of other benefits purchased by Jesus. These benefits belong to those who repent of their sin and trust Jesus. “Repent, then, and turn to god, so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5). Salvation is not earned.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:4-9). It is by grace through faith. It is a free gift. All of the good news is “to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1).

This is the good news. It is my desire to discipline my life because “discipline is the path by which the good news of Christ gives meaningful shape to all the days of my life” (Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Woman, pg.12). To me, the good news is that God made a way by which I may treasure Him above all things and give Him glory. This astonishing truth is what makes my days meaningful.