What is the True Gospel?

 "Gospel" means "good news." It is the good news that God loves man so much that he was willing to give His own Son, Jesus as a sacrifice for man's sins. (John 3:16) Although the gospel includes the good news that God is going to overthrow Satan's rule and establish His righteous Kingdom at the return of Jesus, that would mean nothing in itself without the redemption of man. The Apostle Paul said that the gospel is the power of salvation for everyone who believes. This is clearly referring to receiving Jesus as your Savior. Jesus is the heart of the gospel message and must not only be received and believed, but obeyed.

   The Gospel of Christ must be received by faith. You must believe that God the Father sent His only Son to live and die for those lost in their sins. He did this because of His great love. It is not His desire that anyone should perish, but that all sinners would turn from their sins and be saved. Although, God has given us the Ten Commandments and His written Word to live by, we must never fail to acknowledge the fact that we cannot save ourselves. The Bible says that we will be rewarded according to our good works, but that our good works cannot produce salvation. Obedience alone cannot save us. Charity alone cannot save us. Any righteousness that we can muster is as filthy rags to God. We must receive the righteousness of Christ and live in that Grace by Faith.

   We must come to Him with the full acknowledgment that we are sinners who are unworthy of His forgiveness. Then we must receive by faith that Jesus paid the penalty of our sins, past, present and future. When we turn from our sins and turn to Jesus, we call Him “Lord.” As the new Lord of our life we must now lay down our will and submit to His will. We understand that we are now saved, are being saved, and shall be saved. This means that salvation is a process by which we must maintain what has been entrusted to us. Paul said, “Work out your own salvation with trembling and fear.” He was not teaching that you can produce your own salvation, but was saying that you have some work to do to maintain that salvation. Paul said that he “buffeted his body” to bring it under submission to the will of God. He told young Timothy that he had “fought the fight” and had “finished the race.” Salvation must be maintained by abiding in Christ and His Way of life.

Matthew 4:17 states, -"From that time on Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near." Matthew 24:14 states, -"And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all nations, and then the end shall come."

Jesus' message was one of repentance and belief. He had come to earth to make a way of reconciliation for man.(2 Corinthians 5) Man as a whole had been separated from God because of his sins, and because he had of his own free will chosen to "decide for himself" what was good and what was evil. Thus, man was cut off from God, and Satan remained as ruler of this world.

Man, through Adam, had been given the opportunity to restore the Kingdom of God to the earth, but he would have to overcome Satan by rejecting his corrupt, rebellious nature first. Adam failed, and Satan remains on the throne of the earth to this day. But though the first Adam failed, the second Adam (Jesus Christ) did not, but defeated the works of the Devil and has qualified to take his throne at his return in glory.(1 Corinthians 15)

At that time, the Kingdom of God will be established on the earth for a thousand years. God, the Father sent His only Son, Jesus to save man. Sin is the transgression of the Law.(1 John 3:4)The penalty for sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

The weightier part of Jesus' "Good News" (Gr. Gospel) is that He paid the penalty for the sins of man. And that all who would believe in Him would not suffer the penalty of eternal death, but receive everlasting life. (John 3:16) The Greek word translated "believe" here means "commit" and "rely". Perhaps a better rendering would be, -"And all who would commit (believe) to Him...rely on Him for salvation. Jesus' very name in Hebrew, Yeshua, means "salvation."

By committing to His Way of life, we seek the Kingdom first. Matthew 10:7 says to seek the Kingdom first and all your needs will be provided by God.

The Church is cautioned by the Apostle Paul in epistle to the Galatians to not receive a different or perverted gospel. Chapter 1 verse 8 states, "But even though we, or an angel from Heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accused."

The gospel is also the good news of the Kingdom (Government) of God that will be established on earth with Jesus as King of Kings. The "Kings" are the Saints that will rule at His side. (Revelation 11:15 / Rev 2)

Satan is currently the god of this world.(2 Corinthians 4:4) The Gospel can best be described as (1) The sacrifice of Jesus Christ to reconcile man to his Creator. (2) The soon-coming establishment of the Kingdom of God as Jesus as its King. (3) And man's ultimate destiny of being actually born into the very family of God, sharing His divine nature. (Isaiah 2 / Revelation 22:1-2 / Hosea 2:23 / Isaiah 41:18-20 / 11:6-9/ Romans 2:7 / Hebrews 8:6 / Daniel 2:44) "And in the days of those kings the God of Heaven will set up a KINGDOM which will never be destroyed."