What is the Gospel?
What is the answer to the brokenness around us?
How can I get to Heaven?
How to be saved
THE RIGHTEOUS LORD OF GLORY
God is the great and glorious King, the holy and righteous Lord of eternity. To God belongs all wisdom and power. He is utterly holy, absolutely pure, and infinitely glorious in all His ways.
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” Isaiah 6:3
“…He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” 1 Timothy 6:15-16
“God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5b
GOD THE GLORIOUS CREATOR
God is eternal, uncreated, all-sufficient, and complete within Him-self. God created the Universe for His own glory, not out of need.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
God created mankind “in His own image.”
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27
This means that God created us to glorify Him by knowing, loving, worshipping, obeying, and delighting in Him as our Father, Creator, King, and Treasure, by loving others as fellow image-bearers, and by reflecting the goodness of His character in all that we do.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27
“Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” Psalm 29:2
“You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” Deuteronomy 13:4
God created the first man and woman purely and simply “good.” They were innocent and pure, and happy to give God the perfect and unbroken love, loyalty, worship, obedience, and trust that He deserves – and rightly demands – from those made in His image.
MAN THE REBELLIOUS SINNER
Foolishly, the first man and woman rebelled against God, causing humanity to become sinful and rebellious by nature. God demands perfect righteousness, but in our rebellion we reject God, break His laws (lying, stealing, jealousy, failing to love God, etc.) and delight in sin. In our sin, even our best deeds are polluted in God’s sight and only add to our guilt, since we don’t do them out of love for God.
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.
Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery
and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10b-18
GOD THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE
God is righteous and just. He must judge and condemn the evil of sin. Hell is a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28), eternal fire and utter darkness (Jude 7, 13), and endless torment (Rev 20:10). In hell, God will pour out His wrath on lost sinners forever.
“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne… And the dead were judged… according to what they had done… And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:12-15
“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night…” Revelation 14:11
SALVATION BELONGS TO THE LORD
While God is a just Judge, He is also rich in mercy. IN LOVE, God sent His Son into the world to rescue guilty sinners from the hell we all deserve, and graciously bring them to Himself.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
JESUS CHRIST, THE SAVIOR OF SINNERS
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
GOD IN HUMAN FLESH
Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. God the Son joined Himself to our humanity so He could live righteously, die sacrificially, and rise victoriously for the salvation of all who truly believe in Him.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1, 14
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS YOU NEED
As the God-man, Jesus lived the kind of perfectly sinless life that God demands from you, but which you have failed to live. He has what you need: the record of a perfectly righteous life before God.
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawless-ness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” 1 John 3:4-5
A SACRIFICE FOR SIN
On the cross, Jesus paid for the sins of His people. Stunningly, He Himself bore their sins “in His own body” (1 Pet 2:24) and suffered and died under God’s holy judgment in their place. He offered to God what you desperately need: a perfect sacrifice and payment for sin.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:5-6
A VICTORIOUS RESURRECTION
Jesus defeated sin and death and proved He is the Son of God by rising from the dead. He now rules and reigns with God in glory as King of kings and Lord of lords, living Savior, and future Judge.
“… Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Romans 4:24-25
HOW MUST YOU RESPOND?
You don’t deserve and cannot earn God’s mercy. Salvation is a free gift from God, to be received through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
“Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying,
‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” Mark 1:15
REPENT OF YOUR SINS! AGREE with God concerning your guilt, CONFESS your sins to God, and TURN AWAY from all sin!
“…my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” Psalm 51:3-4
BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL! The Gospel is the wonderful news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim 1:15)
Believe it! TURN to Christ! Cry out to God for mercy, and TRUST in Jesus, who “delivers us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thess. 1:10)
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31
THE GREAT EXCHANGE
THROUGH FAITH, you are united to Christ, and everything He did for sinners becomes yours! God forgives you of your sins based on Christ’s sacrifice, and counts His righteousness as your own!
Through faith in Christ, God extends to you forgiveness of sins based on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross:
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Col 2:13-14)
And through faith in Christ, God counts the righteousness of Christ as your own.
Abraham “believed the LORD, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:6)
“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” (Phil 3:8-9)
JUSTIFICATION and PEACE WITH GOD
God can therefore forgive us, dismiss His case against us, and declare us to be righteous in His sight. Fear of God’s judgment is removed. Instead, through Christ, we have perfect PEACE with God!
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2
A NEW FAMILY
True believers are counted as God’s children, having received new (spiritual) life from Him. They know God’s Fatherly love, mercy, comfort, care, attention in prayer, instruction (in the Bible), and loving discipline, and they receive a new family – the family of God.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13
A NEW DIRECTION
In salvation, God restores us to the purpose of our creation. While far from perfect, true believers love, worship, trust, and obey God as their Father, Creator, King, and Treasure and Christ as their Lord and Savior, and love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
A GLORIOUS DESTINY
All who die without Christ will bear God’s wrath forever in hell, but true believers will ultimately live in a perfected creation in sinless, painless, joyous, eternal fellowship with God and one another.
“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” Revelation 21:3-4
WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY?
