What Is the Gospel? The Bible's Answer
Good news, not good advice — the announcement at the centre of Christianity, in Scripture's own summary.
“Gospel” means good news, and Paul gives its official summary: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). It is an announcement of what God has done — “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16) — received by faith, not achieved by effort.
News, not advice
Advice tells you what to do; news tells you what has happened. The gospel is emphatically the second: at a point in history, God’s Son died for sins, was buried, and rose — attested by eyewitnesses Paul lists like a legal brief. Christianity’s core is not a technique for self-improvement but a report from outside, which is why it can be preached to the helpless and believed from a deathbed.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
The problem it answers
The good news presupposes the bad: all have sinned, and the wages of sin is death. The gospel’s heart is substitution — “he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” The innocent takes the guilty’s place; the guilty receive the innocent’s standing. Isaiah saw it seven centuries early: the LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
How it is received
The gospel’s receiving instructions are almost alarmingly simple: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Confess with thy mouth, believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead. No ladder, no waiting period, no entrance exam — “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The cost was paid entirely at the other end.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Quick answers
- Why is it called “good news”?
- The Greek euangelion meant a herald’s announcement of victory or a king’s accession. The New Testament claims exactly that: a royal announcement — Jesus is Lord, sin and death are defeated, amnesty is offered to all who come.
- What are “the four Gospels” then?
- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — four inspired accounts of the one gospel: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. One message, four witnesses.
- How do I respond to the gospel?
- Scripture’s verbs: repent (turn), believe (trust), call on his name (Romans 10:13), and follow — then tell someone, as every gospel-receiver in the New Testament seems unable not to.
