The Gospel of Jesus Christ

For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16) .

There is no message in the world more important than the good news of God in Jesus Christ, for through it God has chosen to save mankind.

Jesus of Nazareth is the focus of this message of good news. As the Word of God, He was with God from the beginning and is God (John 1:1). He became flesh and dwelt among men as Jesus, humbling Himself to an unparalleled degree (John 1:14, Philippians 2:5-7). He was the Messiah promised to Israel, proclaiming in His life the message of the Kingdom that was coming (Matthew 4:17, 23). No man ever spoke like this Man did; no man has ever had the power of God to accomplish great miracles as Jesus did. Nevertheless, He was rejected by His people, and crucified by the Romans as a common criminal (Matthew 26-27, etc.).

Yet this was part of God's plan, for Jesus came to serve and redeem mankind from sin and death (Matthew 20:25-28). Ever since Adam and Eve, human beings have committed sin (Romans 3:23, 5:12-18). Sin is when we do what God has told us not to do, and when we do not do what God has told us to do (cf. 1 John 3:4). While we might like to think that if our good deeds outweigh our sins, God will save us, no such thing is said in Scripture. If we try to rely on some standard of law, the minute we break any one of those laws, we are condemned, even if we kept every other law. Therefore, there is no way that any of us could be justified by law (Romans 3:20). We, by ourselves, could do nothing to earn or deserve forgiveness of sin.

That is why Jesus died on the cross-- since He was without sin, His blood can cover us and our sin, and we can be reconciled back to God through Him (Romans 5:6-11).

If the story ended with Jesus' death there would not be much of a story. On the third day, however, God raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, thereby defeating death (Matthew 28, Romans 8:1-2). God gave Him the name that is above every name, for God made this crucified and raised Jesus both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36, Philippians 2:8-11).

Since Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18-20), and salvation and access to God the Father come only through Him (John 14:6), we must serve Him and do His will if we want to be found pleasing to God our Creator. Our eternity hangs in the balance, for God has promised to judge the world through Jesus His Son: those who obey Jesus will be saved, while those who do not obey will be condemned to eternal torment (Matthew 7:21-23, Acts 17:30-31, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9).

We obey Jesus by first believing that He is the Christ (Acts 16:31), confess that before men (Romans 10:9-10), repent of our sins (Acts 2:38), and to be immersed in water for the remission of our sins in Christ's blood (Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21). Then we must seek to be conformed to the image of Christ in our lives, and thus we can obtain the resurrection of life on the final day (cf. Matthew 10:22, Romans 8:29). We encourage you to believe in the message of the Gospel-- obey Jesus today!

Ethan R. Longhenry