The Gospel

Why is Jesus the answer to taking away our guilt and shame? How can He give love and grace in a world of brokenness? What do His hands have to do with it?

The answers to these questions are truly good news, and can be explained through using the letters of the word “Gospel"--the word translated from the Greek word meaning "good news."

“G” stands for “God.” In the beginning, God created the universe. Everything He made reflected his character; that is, everything was good. This includes stars, planets, plants, and even mosquitos.

Regardless of what it may look like now, the universe was a perfect place where people lived in perfect relationship with the ultimately perfect Creator.

Unfortunately, our world didn’t stay that way, which brings us to the letter O.

“Obstinate rejection.” When God created the first human couple, Adam and Eve, He gave them the gift of choice; He allowed them to maintain their relationship with Him by their own choice, rather than out of loveless obligation. Inversely, this gift also allowed them to reject that relationship and God’s authority as the Creator of everything.

Sadly, Adam and Eve rejected and rebelled against God and His authority, believing that they could be like Him. They chose not to trust and obey God; rather, they elevated themselves into their own gods. This act broke humanity’s perfect relationship with their God. This was the first sin.

“Sin” is any choice or action that denies God’s authority or fails to honor Him. (Check out the parts of the Bible labeled Romans 1: 18-21, Colossians 3:5-6, and Galatians 5: 19-21 to learn more about sin. There will also be more Bible verses in parentheses throughout this page as we talk about the different parts of the Gospel you can look up, either in a physical Bible or on your search engine)

Sin is seen continuously throughout history. This is where the “obstinance” in “obstinate rejection” comes into play. Humanity would rather go their own way and rule their own lives than trust and obey their Creator. Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Despite Adam and Eve’s original goal to become like God, we as humans fall short of being like God at all. Instead, we have become slaves to sin and are dictated by sin’s desires. (Romans 6:16, Romans 7:15-20). Similar to the woman in the short film, this sin causes far greater repercussions than we often expect.

Our sin leaves the universe as a broken place where sinful people live in broken relationship with the still perfect Creator. Sin results in guilt, pain, anger, greed, pride, shame...

And that’s just life on earth. When we die, there is a penalty to pay for sin. That penalty is called “the second death” in the Bible (Romans 6:23, Revelation 21:8), and is more commonly known as “Hell.” This is the eternal separation from God’s favour and the things of His character, where those who reject God remain in a place of torment and suffering forever. (Matthew 13:41-42, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9, Revelation 20:10, 14)

At this point, things look rather bleak for humanity. Thankfully, we still have four more letters. The next one is…

S: Saviour. The Creator didn’t leave us in our broken and bleak state. Instead, He provided a way—the only way—to pay sin’s penalty and to heal the brokenness in our lives. This way is through Jesus Christ, God’s own Son (John 14:6).

Jesus became our Saviour by leaving the glory of Heaven, living a sinless life, dying in our place upon being NAILED to a cross, and taking our sin and penalty upon Himself to forgive us of our sin and restore the right relationship with God that had been destroyed by our sin.

The very Son of God sacrificed Himself so we could be reunited with God.

Jesus didn’t stop there though. After being dead in a tomb for three days, Jesus rose from the dead, defeating death once and for all. This includes the second death, which means we don’t have to fear an eternity in Hell. We still have a consequence of death here on earth, but we do not have the punishment of Hell after we die.

Which leads us to the PROMISE of the Saviour. Because Jesus defeated death and sin, we can have new life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The thing to note here is that this promise is for those who believe and follow Jesus.

It’s a gift, offered by the scarred, outstretched hand of Jesus.

To “unwrap” this gift, one must declare Jesus to be the King of their life and believe that He rose from the dead (Romans 10:9). It is doing the exact opposite of what Adam and Eve did in the garden. While they chose to reject God and His authority, we can accept God’s Son, Jesus, as the Leader and Lord of our lives and turn our backs on our old ways of sin.

We can grab the hand of Jesus, just like the woman in the short film.

It is through this promise that Jesus holds victory over the sin in our lives. Although we still live in a broken world, we are FREED from the power of sin and our record of sin is wiped clean (similar to how the woman's bloody hands are clean after accepting Jesus's hand). The actions that once condemned us to the penalty of death no longer hold us. We are FREE in Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ promise doesn’t end with life here on earth. He also gives us…

Eternal life with Him. Like we said earlier, we no longer face the penalty of Hell when we die. Instead, Jesus has prepared an eternal place where we dwell with Him (you can read more about it in Revelation 21). It is a place of perfection with no pain, no tears, and complete relationship with God. The good things we have on earth? They are only a taste of what Jesus has ready for us. We can only imagine how good that will be!

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have LIFE, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). This leaves us with the final letter: LIVE. Because we were designed for relationship with God, being reunited with God through Christ opens the door for us to live fulfilled and purposeful lives. In fact, it demands it. It is like we were dead in sin, but Jesus makes us ALIVE again (Eph. 2:4-9). We cannot live like we are dead anymore. We are made NEW! (2Cor 5:17, Romans 12:1-2)

In believing and following Jesus, we become more like Him. We put away the ways of sin, like lying, being proud, and hating others, and are transformed into humble people who love and speak the truth (Galatians 5:21-22). This isn’t an overnight change of character, but rather a process where the God of the universe walks with His people to bring them close to Him.

And so, we begin the journey of the Gospel. The reality is that it is more than a story or a series of letters. It is the truth about a Creator who loved His creation enough to send His Son to die and be reunited with the people He loves. He became victorious over sin and death, and now we can accept His gift and His promise and live a new life in Him, leading to an eternity of life with Him.

THAT’S good news.

If you’d like to learn more about Jesus, please go to www.jesuslifeoutreach.com