"Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved..." (Acts 16:31). There is only one condition for salvation - believe. When you believe (faith, trust) that Jesus is who He says He is - the promised Messiah, God Himself - and that He did what He said He was going to do - die for your sin and rise back to life - and that He did if for you, you are saved. Trusting in Jesus alone is the only way to be reconciled to God (John 14:6). No amount of work on your part - before or after believing - can save you. This is the grace of God. (Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus did all the work that was necessary, and God the Father accepted Christ's sacrifice on your behalf at the resurrection. At the moment you believe in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sin, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, secure in your salvation forever, and have the privilege of enjoying the assurance of that salvation!
THE BASICS
The word gospel literally means “good news." The gospel is the good news concerning Christ and the way of salvation. The key to understanding the gospel is to know why it’s good news. To do that, we must start with the bad news.
The bad news is that…we are sinners before a holy God (Romans 3:23) and the penalty for sin is death (Gen 2:17, Romans 6:23)
But the good news is that…God provided Jesus to pay your penalty (Romans 5:8) and you can be saved by accepting this gift from God through faith in Jesus alone (Eph 2:8-9). The good news is also that God wants you to know for sure your are saved! (John 5:24, 6:47, 1 John 5:13)
Here’s another way to understand it…
Our problem is that we are sinners before a holy God and the personal penalty is one we can’t pay on our own (Romans 3:23 & 6:23).
However, God made a provision for us! Only God himself can pay our penalty, and He did, in Jesus, His only Son who lived a perfect life, died and rose again (Romans 6:23 & Romans 5:8).
And God’s promise is that everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved! (Ephesians 2:8-9 & John 5:24)
THE IMPORTANT CONTEXT
The Old Testament Law was given to Israel during the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 5:1). The Law can be thought of as a measuring stick, and sin is anything that falls short of “perfect” according to that standard. The righteous requirement of the Law is so stringent that no human being could possibly follow it perfectly, in letter or in spirit.
Despite our “goodness” or “badness” relative to each other, we are all in the same spiritual boat—we have sinned, and the punishment for sin is death, i.e. separation from God, the source of life (Romans 3:23). In order for us to go to heaven, God’s dwelling place and the realm of life and light, sin must be somehow be removed or paid for. The Law established the fact that cleansing from sin can only happen through the bloody sacrifice of an innocent life (Hebrews 9:22).
The gospel involves Jesus’ death on the cross as the sin offering to fulfill the Law’s righteous requirement (Romans 8:3–4; Hebrews 10:5–10).
Under the Law, animal sacrifices were offered year after year as a reminder of sin and a symbol of the coming sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 10:3–4). When Christ offered Himself at Calvary, that symbol became a reality for all who would believe (Hebrews 10:11–18). The work of atonement is finished now, and that’s good news.
The gospel also involves Jesus’ resurrection on the third day.
“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The fact that Jesus conquered sin and death (sin’s penalty) is good news, indeed. The fact that He offers to share that victory with us is the greatest news of all (John 14:19).
The elements of the gospel are clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 15:3–6a, a key passage concerning the good news of God: 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time… (NASB 1995)
Notice four important things in this passage…
First, that Paul “received” the gospel and then “passed it on”; this is a divine message, not a man-made invention.
Second, the gospel is “of first importance.” Everywhere the apostles went, they preached the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
Third, the message of the gospel is accompanied by proofs: Christ died for our sins (proved by His burial), and He rose again the third day (proved by the eyewitnesses).
Fourth, all this was done “according to the Scriptures”; it was promised by God and Jesus is the literal fulfillment of all the prophecies about the promised Messiah.
Here’s the flow of the passage again…
”Christ died for our sins” (first truth) “according to the Scriptures” (Scriptural proof) “He was buried” (Physical proof)
“He was raised” (second truth) “according to the Scriptures” (Scriptural proof) "He appeared” (Physical proof)
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). The gospel is a bold message, and we are not ashamed of proclaiming it. It is a powerful message, because it is God’s good news. It is a saving message, the only thing that can truly change the human heart. It is a universal message, for Jews and Gentiles both. And the gospel is received by faith; salvation is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8–9). No amount of our works can earn, keep or prove our salvation.
The gospel is the good news that God loves the world enough to give His only Son to die for our sin (John 3:16). The gospel is good news because our salvation and eternal life and home in heaven are guaranteed through Christ (John 14:1–4). “He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4).
The gospel is good news when we understand that we do not (and cannot) earn our salvation; the work of redemption and justification is complete, having been finished on the cross (John 19:30). Jesus is the propitiation (appeasement/satisfaction) for our sins (1 John 2:2). The gospel is the good news that we, who were once enemies of God, have been reconciled by the blood of Christ and adopted into the family of God (Romans 5:10; John 1:12). “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). The gospel is the good news that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
To reject the gospel is to embrace the bad news. Condemnation before God is the result of a lack of faith in the Son of God, God’s only provision for salvation. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17–18).
(compiled and adapted from various sources)