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The gospel (or good news) that Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed is that God loves everyone and offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah) who was foretold in the Old Testament.¹ (Both Christ and Messiah mean “anointed one”, i.e., King.)

But the good news is predicated on some bad news: according to the Holy Bible, we are all sinners who have disobeyed God’s commands and have not lived up to our Creator’s standards of holiness.² We therefore deserve the punishment of eternal separation from God, which is spiritual death.³ Examples of sins that we have committed are (1) failing to love God with our whole heart and (2) not loving our neighbors as ourselves.⁴

But the good news is that through Jesus Christ we can be reconciled to God, become God’s children, and live forever in His blissful and glorious heavenly kingdom.⁵ God will grant us this salvation if we repent of our sins and place our faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and Lord.⁶ Through the Word of God found in the Holy Bible, the Holy Spirit of God works within us to bring us to the realization that we are, in fact, lost sinners in need of a Savior. The Holy Spirit draws us toward the Father and off of our wayward path. The Spirit prompts us to seek God and convicts us of our guilt on account of our sins.⁷

In the New Testament, Christ teaches that we must humble ourselves before our Creator and ask Him for forgiveness and salvation.⁸ We cannot earn salvation by doing good deeds. We are saved only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.⁹ We must acknowledge our complete dependence on God for salvation.¹⁰

God is the Source of all good things. Even our faith does not originate within ourselves; rather, it comes from God.¹¹

Jesus proclaimed His gospel not only through the words that He spoke during His ministry on earth, but also through the miracles that He performed. For example, He healed countless people of their diseases and even raised at least three people from the dead.¹² Most importantly, Jesus made our salvation possible by sacrificing His own life for us on a cross. In this way, He took upon Himself the punishment that we all deserve for all of the sins we have committed and will ever commit.¹³ Since Jesus paid the penalty for us, He satisfied God’s demand for justice. Jesus therefore provided His Father a way to forgive us while still retaining His attribute of justness.¹⁴ From another point of view, Jesus gave His life as a ransom to free us from our bondage to sin.¹⁵ In other words, Jesus’ death was the price that had to be paid to free us from captivity to our sinful nature.

According to the New Testament, Jesus died on a Friday.¹⁶ The culmination of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the glorious news that, early on the following Sunday morning, God raised Jesus back to life.¹⁷ With a regenerated, extraordinary physical body, Jesus appeared to His disciples and other followers on several different occasions after His resurrection. He did this to prove to them that He was alive and to give them final instructions.¹⁸ Then, forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended to His Father in Heaven.¹⁹ By raising His Son back to life, God the Father vindicated Him and gave us hope that we, too, can have eternal life. Moreover, in Jesus we have a living Savior who always intercedes with the Father on our behalf.²⁰

Now faith in Jesus Christ has many aspects. True faith in Jesus involves:

(1) believing that He is the Messiah and the Son of God

(2) trusting in Him alone for salvation

(3) repenting of our sins against God and our fellow human beings

(4) loving Jesus and remaining loyal to Him as the Lord of our lives

(5) faithfulness to Jesus’ teachings, and

(6) a spirit of obedience to God’s laws and commands²¹

Central to the gospel that Jesus proclaimed is what He called the kingdom of God.²² In Jesus’ teaching, inheriting eternal life is equivalent to entering the kingdom of God.²³ A careful study of many of the parables that Jesus told reveals that the kingdom of God (also called the kingdom of Heaven) is currently represented by the universal Church of Jesus Christ.²⁴ The King is God the Father, but He has turned the rule of the kingdom over to His beloved Son.²⁵ Because the kingdom of God is embodied today in the universal Church, followers of Jesus Christ who are worshipping and doing good deeds in partnership with a local Christian congregation are fulfilling the vision that Christ had for the world.²⁶

¹ Matt. 5:43-48; John 3:16; Matt. 26:28; Mark 1:15; Luke 13:3; John 8:24; Matt. 1:21; 1 John 5:1; Luke 7:48-50

² Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:10

³ Matt. 25:41-46; Rom. 6:23

⁴ Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18

⁵ Isa. 53:6; Rom. 3:23; Matt. 25:46; Rom. 6:23; Matt. 10:28; Col. 1:19-22; John 1:12; Matt. 19:16, 23

⁶ Luke 24:47; John 20:31; 1 John 5:1

⁷ John 6:44; John 16:7-8

⁸ Matt. 18:3-4

⁹ Eph. 2:8-9

¹⁰ Matt. 18:3-4

¹¹ John 6:44; Eph. 2:8-9

¹² Mark 5:22-24, 35-43; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:1-44

¹³ Isa. 53:4-8

¹⁴ 1 John 1:9

¹⁵ Matt. 20:28

¹⁶ John 19:31

¹⁷ Matt. 28:1-7

¹⁸ 1 Cor. 15:3-8

¹⁹ Acts 1:3, 9

²⁰ Heb. 7:25

²¹ 1 John 5:1

²² Mark 1:14-15

²³ Matt. 19:16-17, 23

²⁴ Matt. 13:31-32

²⁵ Matt. 28:18

²⁶ John 4:23-24

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