"What is this "Gospel" you talk about?"

You ever wondered, "If somebody asked me what the Gospel is, could I clearly tell them?"  I was asked that question a couple of years ago, and really had to think to myself, "could I?". 

As Christians, isn't the Gospel the basis of our identity in Christ?  Without the Gospel, there is no Hope found in Jesus. We parade our Christianity around, but could we even define to a nonbeliever, the CORE message of our faith?  We talk in my small group regularly about testing ourselves to be sure we know the Gospel, and can verbalize it.  As believers, we need to be able to convey the Greatest News of all to a world that is in such need of this message.  Jesus's life, death, and resurrection is the ONLY reason we have hope, for He is the ONLY way to the Father (John 14:6).  

The Gospel is not, "God loves you!", "God has a plan for your life!", "Just live by the Golden Rule", or any sort of "do this, do that" message. The root of the Gospel message is that it is DONE! (John 19:30).  Our responsibility is to repent and believe Christ's work is sufficient.

The Gospel is laid out all throughout the Bible, and by no means are these verses below the only places the Gospel is clearly stated, but I most commonly send people to Ephesians 2:1-10 or
1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

If someone asks me, "What's the Gospel?", usually my response is:  Man is separated from God because of sin.  But God in His infinite mercy and Grace has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him, by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ to live the life we couldn't live, to die the death we deserve, rose from the dead conquering sin and death, and when we believe in Him and His Work, we will have eternal life with God, and shall not perish in a Christless eternity.


Do we believe we the Gospel is the greatest news?  How do you verbalize it to people?

thanks for reading...

peace,
bg
Twitter: @gossettbrandon

P.S. Outside of the Bible, I have found some other books that are great resources for helping us clearly state the Gospel.  "What is the Gospel?" by Greg Gilbert (I bought several copies to give to my small group, family and friends), and "The Explicit Gospel" by Matt Chandler and Jared Wilson.