At the very core of Christianity is something called the gospel. Gospel means “good news.” But before you can understand the good news of the Bible, you have to understand the bad news.
The Bad News
The Bible says in Romans 3:10 that “there is no one righteous, not even one.”
That’s a serious statement. That means that I’m a sinner, you are a sinner, and even Mother Theresa was a sinner.
The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
God has a standard, and the Bible says that none of us measure up.
The Bible also says in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” A wage is something you earn as a result of work that you’ve done, like if I pay you $5 for mowing my lawn. We have done the work of sin, and God says that we have earned the wage of death.
When God talks about death here, he is referring to eternal death, also known as hell (Matthew 25:41-46; Luke 16:19-31). The bad news of Christianity is that all of us have sinned and all of us are deserving of eternal punishment in hell. But let’s not stop there…
The Good News
The rest of Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Although we have sinned against God and are deserving of death, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ came to earth to live the perfect life of obedience to God that we did not live, to die the death for sin on the cross that we deserved to die, and to rise from the grave conquering sin and death. Praise God!
Another passage that captures this beautifully is Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
So out of amazing love, God sent his Son to die in our place so that we could have eternal life with God. We can have a relationship with our creator that starts now and lasts forever. This is the greatest of joys, and God offers it to us as a free gift. But how do we take advantage of this gift?
What do I do now?
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” So what do we have to do to receive God’s gift of eternal life? The answer: believe. Believe what exactly? Christians have often summarized with two things: believe that Jesus is both Lord and Savior.
To believe that Jesus is Lord is to believe that he is king of the universe and king of your life. Jesus is not merely a nice guy or a good teacher. He claimed to be God (John 8:58-59; John 14:8-11). He calls us to obey him (John 14:15). Faith in Jesus means that you profess him to be the highest authority in the universe and your own life.
To believe that Jesus is savior is to believe that you cannot save yourself, to confess your sin before God, to have a heart that is repentant, and to trust in Jesus alone to save you. Jesus came preaching repentance (Mark 1:15). Jesus died as our substitute(1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18). Faith in Jesus means that you profess him to be the one and only one who saves you from sin and reconciles you to God.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says this, “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.”
So the Bible is pretty clear. You can’t earn salvation. There is no amount of good you can do to overcome the sin in your life. You can’t give enough money, go to church enough times, or help enough little old ladies across the street. God gives salvation as a free gift.
When it comes to the path of salvation, faith and works are opposites, and only one of them works.
If you want to learn more about the gospel, we encourage you to check out our video series, Foundations of the Gospel.
We also encourage you to reach out to us or to a church near you to talk further about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus.