The gospel, or “good news” is that God is determined to rescue us from our broken, fallen state and to restore his creation. He has refused to leave us in Satan’s hands, so he sent his son Jesus to lead us from slavery to sin into freedom in the kingdom of God. When God restores creation, he will give us, his adopted children, new hearts and renewed minds that are restored to mankind’s original state before sin entered the world.
In one of its clearest and simplest forms, the gospel is stated in an early Christian creed: “Christ died for our sins; he was buried, and rose on the third day, according to the scriptures”. This was apparently the core of Paul’s presentation of the gospel.
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NIV
When Paul says “according to the Scriptures”, he’s talking about the Jewish scriptures, our Old Testament. The New Testament hadn’t been written yet, and Paul didn’t know his letters to churches would become part of it. Paul never quoted specific proof texts related to Jesus’ death “according to the scriptures”, because those don’t exist. Instead, the entire Old Testament holds the story of mankind’s sin and exile, and God’s plan to redeem us and restore creation.
God’s motivation was to “rescue humanity from the present evil age” and to give us eternal life.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Galatians 1:3-5 NIV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17 NIV
We can be redeemed because Jesus Christ was faithful. He was faithful to his Father’s will, and to his mission, even though it led to his death on the cross. God chose Jesus before the foundation of the world to become the representative head of the human race, and to lead us back to God from our rebellion.
We are Jews by birth, not ‘Gentile sinners’. But we know that a person is not declared ‘righteous’ by works of the Jewish law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.
That is why we too believed in the Messiah, Jesus: so that we might be declared ‘righteous’ on the basis of the Messiah’s faithfulness, and not on the basis of works of the Jewish law. On that basis, you see, no creature will be declared ‘righteous’.
Galatians 2:15-16 (NT Wright Translation)
Let me explain it like this. Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with the Messiah. I am, however, alive – but it isn’t me, it’s the Messiah who lives in me. And the life I do still live in the flesh, I live within the faithfulness of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:19-20 (NT Wright Translation)
The heart of the gospel is that when we respond in faith to the faithfulness of Jesus, we are forgiven and considered righteous by God. Then we are adopted into God’s family, given new hearts, and we inherit eternal life.
Short statements of the gospel, like “Jesus died for our sins, according to the scriptures” are easy to remember, but by themselves they can’t provide compelling reasons to accept their truth. Fortunately, the Bible gives us much more. God has communicated the gospel in many ways.