Salvation – What Is the Gospel?
It is one of the most important words in the Bible. Millions of people speak about being "saved," but surprisingly few understand what the Bible actually means by it.
Why is there a need to be saved?
What does it mean to be saved?
Saved from what?
What if I am not saved?
How can I be saved?
Those questions are addressed in great detail, both verbally and visually, in the video, The Gospel of JESUS CHRIST. But for now, let's just take a look at the basics.
Why Is There a Need For Salvation?
To understand why anyone needs to be saved, we must go back to the very beginning.
God created the heavens and the earth, including the first man, Adam. As a human being, Adam needed food and water.
God gave Adam everything and told him he was free to eat from any tree of the garden that was in Eden. There was only one exception.
Adam was warned not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that he did eat from it, he would surely die.
Knowing it was not good for the man to live alone, God created Eve to be a helper and they walked daily with God. But in the garden also, was an evil spirit called Satan who had taken on the image of a serpent.
Satan appeared to Eve and lied to her, saying that there was no danger in eating from the forbidden tree and that if they ate from it, they would not die, but would gain wisdom and would become like God.
When Eve saw that the tree was good for food and that it was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. And she gave some to her husband with her. And he ate.
Immediately their eyes were opened and they realized what they had done. The moment Adam disobeyed God, he died spiritually exactly as God had warned. His fellowship with God was broken, and the life of God no longer dwelt within him. His physical body also began the process of aging and would eventually die.
That act of disobedience is called The Fall. When Adam fell, all of nature fell.
Since Adam was the first man, he became the father of all mankind, and passed down his sinful nature to each of his children, and they passed that fallen nature to their children, and on and on to this very day.
Every person born since Adam enters this world spiritually dead, separated from God, and without hope apart from Him.
What Does It Mean to Be Saved?
Because God created mankind for His glory, and in His foreknowledge, He had already prepared a way to rescue His fallen creation. But how?
Knowing that men could not save themselves, God sent His only Son, Jesus, to suffer and die in our place, to pay the penalty of all mankind's sins for all time. And He did.
God’s grace is a marvelous thing. It is not a religion. It is not a church. It is not a set of rules to follow, nor is it simply trying to become a better person.
God's grace is a marvelous thing. It is not a religion. It is not a church. It is not a set of rules to follow, nor is it simply trying to become a better person.
The Gospel is the good news that God Himself provided the only remedy for man's sin. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, willingly suffered and died in our place, was buried, and rose again in victory over sin and death. Through Him alone, God offers forgiveness, eternal life, and complete reconciliation to everyone who believes.
His suffering and death completely satisfied the righteous judgment of God against sin.
His resurrection proved His victory over sin and death forever and enabled Him to restore in His creation what was lost in Adam—His life-giving Spirit.
The question, then, is not whether Jesus Christ accomplished everything necessary to save us. He did!
The question is whether you will believe Him.
The moment a person places his or her faith in Jesus Christ alone, God reckons every sin paid in full and imparts His own eternal life. That person is saved forever—not because of anything he or she has done, but entirely because of what Jesus Christ has already done.
Saved From What?
It is difficult to contemplate eternal separation from God. Yet that separation is the consequence of sin, for "the wages of sin is death." Most people understand physical death. We all see it take our loved ones; eventually we all will experience it ourselves. Death is a horrible thing, but we all will face it.
Physical death is not the same as spiritual death. Physical death ends our life on earth. Spiritual death is eternal separation from God.
For those who reject God's gift of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ, physical death ends every opportunity to receive what Christ has already purchased for them. Spiritual death is eternal; it never ends. And there is no second chance. We must place our faith in the Lord Jesus before our physical death.
We all must make a choice. Either we believe the gospel—that Jesus laid down His life to save us from the wages of sin, and rose again, that He might freely give His eternal life to all who believe in Him and freely give to each of us the abundance of joy and peace found only in Him here and now, even in our darkest hours—or we reject His offer and die in our sin, separated eternally from God.
What If I Am Not Saved?
If there can be a greater sadness than seeing a beloved family member or close friend reject God's offer of forgiveness and eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ, please don't tell me what it is. I don't want to know.
It is a sobering reality that so many people have heard the truth of the Gospel—especially in our day—yet knowingly and deliberately reject the One who alone can save them. In doing so, they choose a destiny the Bible describes as everlasting punishment and eternal separation from God.
If you allow your life on earth to end without saving faith in the Lord Jesus, the God who created you and loves you, consider for a moment what lies ahead.
The fire is unending. Yet even more dreadful than the fire is the complete absence of God's light, God's peace, and God's presence. The darkness is absolute. There is no rest, no comfort, no hope, and no escape.
The soul that rejects Christ will discover a future far worse than physical pain. The greatest agony is knowing that eternity never ends. Time will never heal. Circumstances will never change. There is no finish line, no second chance, and no possibility of escape. There is only everlasting separation from God.
People sometimes say, "See you in hell," as though hell were a place where friends gather together. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible describes it as a place of outer darkness, where there is no joy, no fellowship, and no hope—only the certainty that the opportunity to receive God's free gift of eternal life has been forever lost.
The weight of an eternity that never ends... no hope... no second chance.
But if you are reading these words today, your story is not yet finished.
If you have not yet placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are still breathing, if your heart is still beating, and you are conscious, you still have the opportunity to receive His gift of forgiveness and eternal life. But that opportunity can vanish in a heartbeat. Then, it's too late.
But as long as you are alive, God's invitation still stands. So read on and learn how you can be saved.
How Can I Be Saved?
Everyone you know who is saved was saved in exactly the same way. Their life stories are different, the circumstances that led them to the point in time when they were saved are different, but from that point, everyone is saved in the same truth—
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” —Ephesians 2:8–9 (NASB)
Did you get that? Salvation comes as a gift, not as payment for work you might have done. You do not have to work for it. You cannot obtain it in any other way than by faith in its Author and Finisher, Jesus Christ.
The Gospel That Saves
Fortunately, God has not left us to wonder what the gospel is. The apostle Paul tells us plainly:
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. —1 Corinthians 15:1–4 (NASB)
That is God's own definition of the Gospel and once again if you are unfamiliar with the full story, you can learn more by viewing the video here in The Gospel of JESUS CHRIST.
I hope this message has been a help to you. And if we have never met in this life, it is my sincere prayer that we will meet in heaven.
May all the blessings and the fullness of peace and joy be yours today and forever, in and through our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Continue reading: Revelation and the Church.
Grace and peace be with you all.
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