Category: Gospel

What Is The Gospel

The good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.

—Mark Dever
The Gospel & Personal Evangelism

This is the Gospel

A Substitute has appeared in space and time, appointed by God Himself, to bear the weight and the burden of our transgressions, to make expiation for our guilt, and to propitiate the wrath of God on our behalf. This is the gospel.

—R.C. Sproul
The Truth of the Cross

A Summary of the Gospel

The gospel of Christ is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ. As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of death, God, though He left His fallen angels and has reserved them in the chains of eternal darkness, yet He has thought upon the children of men and has provided a way of atonement to reconcile them to Himself again.

The second Person in the Trinity takes man’s nature upon Himself, and becomes the Head of a second covenant, standing charged with sin. He answers for it by suffering what the law and divine justice required, and by making satisfaction for keeping the law perfectly. This satisfaction and righteousness He tenders up to the Father as a sweet savor of rest for the souls that are given to Him.

And now this mediation of Christ is, by the appointment of the Father, preached to the children of men, of whatever nation or rank, freely offering this atonement unto sinners for atonement, requiring them to believe in Him and, upon believing, promising not only a discharge of all their former sins, but that they shall not enter into condemnation, that none of their sins or unworthiness shall ever hinder the peace of God with them, but that they shall through Him be received into the number of those who shall have the image of God again to be renewed unto them, and that they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

That these souls and bodies shall be raised to that height of glory that such creatures are capable of, that they shall live forever enjoying the presence of God and Christ, in the fullness of all good, is the gospel of Christ. This is the sum of the gospel that is preached unto sinners.

—Jeremiah Burroughs

Via: Ligonier Ministries Blog

Do Not Become Dead to the Gospel

Men and women who hear the Gospel regularly, I often fear much for you. I fear lest you become so familiar with the sounds of its doctrines, that insensibly you become dead to its power. I fear lest your religion should sink down into a little vague talk about your own weakness and corruption, and a few sentimental expressions about Christ, while real practical fighting on Christ’s side is altogether neglected. Oh, beware of this state of mind! Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. No victory — no crown! Fight and overcome!

—J.C. Ryle
The Great Battle

Via: J.C. Ryle Quotes

Patrick Hamilton and the Voice of the Gospel

Nick Batzig at Feeding on Christ linked to this sermon by Sinclair Ferguson that was preached this past Reformation Sunday at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA.

At one point in the sermon Dr. Ferguson recites this wonderful quote from Patrick Hamilton, the first martyr of the Scottish Reformation, on the difference between the voice of the Law and voice of the Gospel.

The Law saith to the sinner, “Pay thy debt.”
The Gospel saith, “Christ hath paid it.”
The Law saith, “Thou art a sinner, despair, thou shalt be damned.”
The Gospel saith, “Thy sins are forgiven thee. Be of good comfort, thou shalt be saved.”

The Law saith, “Make amends for thy sin.”
The Gospel saith, “Christ hath made it for thee.”
The Law saith, “The Father of Heaven is angry with thee.”
The Gospel saith, “Christ hath pacified Him with His blood.”

The Law saith, “Where is thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction?”
The Gospel saith, “Christ is thy righteousness, goodness and satisfaction.”
The Law saith, “Thou art bound and obliged unto me, to the devil, and to hell.”
The Gospel saith, “Christ hath delivered thee from them all.”

—Peter Lorimer
Precursors of Knox, or Memories of Patrick Hamilton

I found another quote from Patrick Hamiliton in the same text that I wanted to present, this time in the form of an image in order to capture the original typesetting from the book, which was published in 1857.

Quotation from Patrick Hamilton

I have so many things to be thankful for this year – health, family, friends – but most of all I am thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ which, as Patrick Hamilton shows us, is the Word of Grace, the Word of Comfort, and the Word of Peace.

Via: Feeding on Christ

The Sum of the Gospel

The gospel of Christ is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ. As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of death, God, though He left His fallen angels and has reserved them in the chains of eternal darkness, yet He has thought upon the children of men and has provided a way of atonement to reconcile them to Himself again.

The second Person in the Trinity takes man’s nature upon Himself, and becomes the Head of a second covenant, standing charged with sin. He answers for it by suffering what the law and divine justice required, and by making satisfaction for keeping the law perfectly. This satisfaction and righteousness He tenders up to the Father as a sweet savor of rest for the souls that are given to Him.

And now this mediation of Christ is, by the appointment of the Father, preached to the children of men, of whatever nation or rank, freely offering this atonement unto sinners for atonement, requiring them to believe in Him and, upon believing, promising not only a discharge of all their former sins, but that they shall not enter into condemnation, that none of their sins or unworthiness shall ever hinder the peace of God with them, but that they shall through Him be received into the number of those who shall have the image of God again to be renewed unto them, and that they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

That these souls and bodies shall be raised to that height of glory that such creatures are capable of, that they shall live forever enjoying the presence of God and Christ, in the fullness of all good, is the gospel of Christ. This is the sum of the gospel that is preached unto sinners.

—Jeremiah Burroughs
Gospel Conversation

Via: Timmy Brister

What the Gospel Fixes

If the gospel is the good news about what God is doing in Christ to rescue and redeem His rebellious image bearers, we must constantly bear in mind what it is we are being rescued from. The reason is that we will gain a clearer grasp of the gospel if we hold a clear grasp of the desperate situation the gospel addresses.

If we see that we are guilty, we will understand that for the gospel to be effective it must clear us of our guilt; if we are alienated from God, we must be reconciled to Him; if we stand under His judicial wrath, that wrath must be propitiated.

If we are estranged from one another, we must be reconciled to one another; if the entire created order lies under the curse, the curse must be lifted and the created order transformed; if we are, morally speaking, weak and helpless (as well as guilty), we must be empowered and strengthened.

If we are dead, we must be made alive; if the heart of our idolatry is abysmal self-focus and the de-godding of God, God must be restored in our vision and life to His rightful glory. In other words, we gain clarity regarding the gospel when we discern what the gospel addresses, what it fixes.

If we focus on just one element of the desperate need—say, our broken horizontal relationships—then by ignoring all the other dimensions of our sin, including the most fundamental dimension, namely, our rebellion against God and the consequent wrath we have rightly incurred, we may marginalize or even abandon crucial elements of the gospel that address our sin.

After all, the Bible speaks of the wrath of God more than six hundred times. If we cannot grasp how the gospel of Jesus Christ addresses all these dimensions of our desperate need, we will invariably promulgate an anemic and truncated gospel.

—D.A. Carson
“What is the Gospel – Revisited” published in
For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper

Via: Tolle Lege

The Gospel According to Jesus

The gospel in vogue today holds forth a false hope to sinners. It promises them that they can have eternal life yet continue to live in rebellion against God. Indeed, it encourages people to claim Jesus as Savior yet defer until later the commitment to obey Him as Lord. It promises salvation from hell but not necessarily freedom from iniquity. It offers false security to people who revel in the sins of the flesh and spurn the way of holiness. By separating faith from faithfulness, it teaches that intellectual assent is as valid as a wholehearted obedience to the truth.

Thus the good news of Christ has given way to the bad news of an insidious easy-believism that makes no moral demands on the lives of sinners. It is not the same message Jesus proclaimed.

—John MacArthur
The Gospel According to Jesus