What is the Gospel? -- Part 1

As I mentioned last time, good news is only perceived as good news when it comes in answer to a situation that is discouraging or desperate. If we don’t recognize a problem or difficult situation, then good news is hard to accept or even pay attention to. It may still be good news, but it will pretty much be ignored.

God says that our main problem is sin. Right away some of you are turned off by that for one of two reasons. One response is something like, “It is so outmoded or archaic to even talk about sin. Nobody thinks about sin anymore except fundamentalist Christians.” A second response that often surfaces is this: “Yea, I know we sin. I mean, like, nobody’s perfect. But it’s not a big deal since my sins aren’t all that many or serious. I’m certainly not a murder or anything.”

Here’s where the ride starts getting a little rough. What I’m going to do now is to give us God’s assessment of our sin problem. Even that kind of statement is going to be problematic for some of you. How could we know what God’s assessment is and which God am I talking about?

The Bible presents us with the God that it claims is the true and living God. He is the only God there is and it is He that made everything for His own pleasure and glory. According to the Bible, there are not multiple Gods. Granted there are many ideas and religions each pushing their ideas about God, but the Bible asserts that there is one God and He, and He alone is the only one we are accountable to.

I’m going on the assumption that the Bible is telling us the truth and that its explanation of our situation and the remedy are the reality that we face. What I hope to present here is what the Bible teaches. Each one of us can choose to believe it or not. But the Bible has been accepted by millions of people as the word of God and I think everyone ought to at least listen to its arguments if for no other reason than to be knowledgeable about it. That way, if you are going to disagree or propose a contrary point of view, you at least have its claims accurately in mind. The best way to follow this discussion is to get out a Bible and look up the references for your self. That way you will be able to see whether or not the Bible says what I’m claiming it says.

So stay with me and we’ll work through this over the next several days and weeks.