What is the Gospel | Romans 1:16

The first thing we must realize is that the Bible is not about you and me. It’s about God. he is the hero, and the subject of the story of scripture, not you and I.

We tend to make it about us, but it’s not about us it’s about Him.

The gospel is the story of how God has created and revealed himself to man throughout history.

Creation

God CREATED a perfect world that in Genesis 1:31 he said was "very good".

Genesis 1:31 ESV

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God created a world in Harmony. Everything worked together as it should.

Rebellion

How in Genesis 3, man sinned and REBELLED against God, bringing sin into the world and damaging the perfect world He created.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Rescue

John 3:16–21 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

God loved the world and sent his son to RESCUE those who would repent of their sins and trust him as Lord and Savior of their lives (John 3:16-23) .

Return

And finally it includes the fact that one day he will RETURN and restore the universe to how it was before, returning man and all of creation to perfect harmony with God. This is the gospel.

I Am thankful for the gospel because it changed my life - Justification

Romans 3:23–25 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

When Jesus died on the cross he died to satisfy the righteous demands of the law and to make me right with God.

Purified my sins - Expiated my Debt

He took away my sin.

Psalm 32:1 ESV

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

This means that when Jesus took away the guilt of my sins through the payment of a penalty or the offering of an atonement.

He Took Awa Propitiated God’s Wrath

He made me, an enemy of God right with God by paying my debt on the cross.

I am purified, because Jesus died in my place.

I Am Thankful for the Gospel in the because it is changing my life - Sanctification

Not only does the gospel matter in my past, and unfortunately I think Christians in error leave the gospel there, on the altar when they prayed a prayer, but the gospel matters for my present.

Paul noted that he is not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God, and in it the righteousness of God is presently being revealed in men.

The gospel does not stop at the cross. It continues in the life of the disciples and in the life of every Christian who accepts Christ.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism (question 35) answers that sanctification is:

the work of God’s free grace [2 Thess. 2:13] whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God [Eph. 4:23-24], and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness [Rom. 6:4, 6; 8:1].

Andy Naselli says that sanctification “Sets a believer apart from sin’s power and practice (John 17:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1; Phil. 1:6)”

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

The gospel, the truth of God’s love for us should continue to transform us until the end.

I Am thankful for the Gospel because it is the promise of God for Eternity - Glorification

The promise of the gospel is not that Jesus saved us from sin, though it is that. It’s not that Jesus is transforming us into the likeness of Christ, though it is that too. It’s also the promise that one day God will transform us into the likeness of Christ and we will live with him for all eternity.

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

We are being transformed but that transformation will be complete at the coming of the Lord.

Jude 24 ESV

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

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