What is the gospel message?

If someone asked you what the gospel message is how would you answer?  Gospel means good news, but what good news is it and why would anyone need to know about it?  How would you explain the gospel message to someone else?  To explain it helps to work through why people to need hear the good news.

What happens when we die?
Almost everyone has thought about the answer to this question.  Some of the more common things people say:

• I'm going to heaven because I've been a good person.
• I don't know.
• I'm going to hell.
• We all go to heaven.
• I'm going to heaven because I believe Jesus died for my sins and was resurrected.
• Nothing.  I don't think anything happens.

If the response is nothing then the question is what happened to Hitler/Stalin/Mao/Saddam?  Did God just let them go unpunished for murdering millions of people?  If the response is that nothing happened to them then there is evidence that can be presented for the existence of God and there are resources listed at the end of the post.  For the other responses that leads to another question.

What determines where we go when we die?
If you were to die today and meet God and He asked you, "Why should I let you into heaven?"  What would you say?  Some people might say they've done more good than bad.  Others might say they've never done anything real bad like murder or rape and they are basically a good person.  But is that really how God measures our entrance into heaven?  God determines our destination based on guilt or innocence not on how good or bad we are.  But guilty or innocent of what?

God gave Moses His laws and the easiest way to show how we are judged is to look at just a few of these laws:

• Do not commit adultery - Jesus said that you've committed adultery if you've even thought about it.  God knows your heart and mind and if you've thought lustfully about someone who isn't your spouse you've committed adultery.
• Do not lie
• Do not steal
• Have no gods before me - This is putting anything on your priority list above God.  Money, sex, work, yourself are all things that people put above God.
• Honor your mother and father
• Do not use God's name in vain - Using God's name as a curse word.

If we're honest with ourselves we've all broken at least one of these and chances are (I know it's the case for me) we've broken every one of them multiple times, probably more times than we can count.  That's God's standard and if we've broken one of these laws even once we're guilty.  God is just and because He is just He can't overlook someone breaking His laws.  It would be unfair of God to forgive us for free.

To illustrate this point suppose someone murdered a member of your family.  You are watching the trial and the murder stands up and says "Yes, I did commit the murder.  However, driving on the way here to the trial a school bus ran off the road into a lake and I jumped in and saved 10 kids from drowning.  Here are signed statements from witnesses.  I've saved more lives than I've taken therefore I've done more good than bad and should be let go."  The judge pounds his gavel and says, "You're free to go."  We'd be irate if this happened and say that justice hadn't been served and the judge was terrible.  Because it doesn't matter how many lives the murder saves there is still a price to pay for the one life that he took.  However, that's exactly what we expect God to do is look the other way when we've broken His laws.

What happens next?
 So if we've broken God's laws what happens when we meet God?  The answer to that should be obvious at this point.  We're judged based on our guilt or innocence (our sin record).  How is any of this 'good news' if we're guilty?

Well, the good news is that God has provided a way for us to be innocent.  He sent is only son, Jesus, to earth who lived a perfect life.  He was tempted just like we are but he never sinned.  He was the only person who ever lived who could stand before God and be judged as innocent.  However, Jesus willing was beaten, spit on, kicked, mocked, and nailed naked to a cross to die a slow agonizing death.  All of the sins of all us were heaped on him and he took our punishment so we wouldn't have to.  Why was this necessary?  Because remember God is just and can't let law breaking go unpunished and Jesus stepped in and took our punishment for us so we wouldn't have to take it.

For us to have what Jesus did on the cross be substituted for our own guilty record and not go to hell we do 2 things: Ask for forgiveness and believe.

• Ask for forgiveness (repent) - You realize you've sinned and broken God's laws, you feel sorrowful, and you confess it to God.
• Believe - You put your trust in Jesus that his dying on the cross was payment for your sin.  His resurrection was proof that He was the Son of God and His death was sufficient to cover your sin.

That is the truly good news of the Christian gospel message.  If people don't understand how they've sinned against God they can't understand or respond to the gospel message.  Understanding why we need the gospel message is as important as understanding the message itself.

Hopefully this will help you communicate the gospel message to others.  Much of this post was based on the book, "Unsilenced: How to Voice the Gospel" by James Boccardo.  It's a quick easy read and is an excellent book on the subject.

If you're reading this and haven't accepted the sacrifice Jesus made would be interested to hear why or what your objections are.

Resources
Unsilenced: How to Voice the Gospel, by James Boccardo
On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Percision, by William Craig Lane
The Unshakeable Truth, by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell