Thursday 22 May 2008

What is the Gospel? Part 2


When we last looked at the question of the gospel we noticed that the word meant “good news”. The gospel is God’s good news for us and the apostle Paul defines it for us,
“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you are also saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
In this passage we read that Jesus died for our sins. Unless we understand just what this means we will fail to see the significance of the gospel.

Sin has been a problem for mankind ever since the garden of Eden. In the Genesis account we see that Adam and Eve disobeyed the commandment of God and took of the fruit that God had forbidden. If we look into the New Testament we can see that sin today is no different to what is was in the beginning.

“Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness” 1 John3:4 God has given His commandments, or laws, and failing to keep these (being lawless) is sinning. We are also told that all people fail to keep God’s commandment – that all people sin, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. The consequences of this sin is death, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus” Romans 6:23.

Adam and eve died spiritually when they were cast out of the garden. Nothing has changed today – the wages of sin is death. However, we have something they did not have – the gospel! “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Jesus died for our sins and he was raised the third day showing that death had no power over Him.

We can have freedom from sins if we obey the gospel. Through our faith (Hebrews 11:6) we need to repent (Luke 13:3). We need to confess the name of Christ before men (Matthew 10:32) and we need to be immersed in water through baptism for the forgiveness of Sins.

Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” Mark 16:16. If you have not obeyed the gospel you need to do so. Please feel free to contact us and we will do what we can to assist you.

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