The last two posts began to answer a simple, yet critical question. What are the essential elements of the gospel?

The Gospel is the message of God’s plan and work to save sinners from His wrath and bring them into a relationship with Himself through the work of Jesus Christ and the offer of that gift to all who will turn from sin and trust in Christ.

This very pregnant sentence demands unpacking so I began commenting on each phrase. Thus far we have made six statements. First, the “gospel” has a singular definition. Second, the “gospel” is a message or a definitive collection of concepts that relate a specific joyous announcement. Third, the “gospel” relates God’s plan. Fourth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work. Fifth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work to save. Sixth, the “gospel” offers salvation to sinners.

Seventh, the “gospel” offers salvation from “God’s wrath.” The wrath of God is best understood as His settled reaction toward sin. Unlike human wrath, His is never out-of-control, never lacks wisdom, and is never cool or indifferent. God’s wrath is His directed, intense, just reaction to sin. It is not an impulsive, flying off the handle, fit of rage.

The practical result of this wrath is death. We die physically as we pay the penalty for our sin. We also die spiritually as we pay the penalty for our sin. In the Bible, spiritual death is described as separation from God. So, God’s wrath is a reaction to sin that brings us physical death and separation from God. The agony of this separation from God will reach its highest (or we might say lowest) point when God judges all people and brings everlasting punishment upon those men and women who rejected Him. The Bible calls the place where these people will suffer for eternity “hell” and describes it as a lake of unquenchable fire. So, the gospel is the message of God’s work to save people from His wrath, which they justly deserve because of their sin.

Eighth, the “gospel” tells of God’s work to bring sinners into a right “relationship with Himself.” Isaiah 59:2 makes a clear and alarming proclamation about sin and its effect on a person’s relationship to God.

“but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.” (ESV)

As we have just seen in looking at wrath and death, we are hopelessly separated from God because we are sinful and He is perfect. To overlook our sin and welcome us anyway would tarnish His perfection. The gospel is the message of how God has crossed this chasm created by our sin and built a bridge for us to return to Him.

Again, read these statements and consider your beliefs regarding the gospel because this message lies at the heart of what it means to be “Christian.”