What Is The Gospel and what does it do?

Faith & Science Conversation
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What is the Gospel and what does it do?

The Gospel or Good News, is the proclamation of the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s sovereign rule over all things. There are different aspects of the Gospel but the main focus for humanity is the Cross of Christ, for by it and all that it incorporates, mankind can be made safe (saved) from the power and slavery to sin and the Devil (our enemy)and delivered from the wrath of God. Rom 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” The salvation that the Gospel brings is obtained through faith, trust, and reliance upon it. A relationship with God has always been through faith and trust in Him and reliance upon Him. Faith or trust has always been the necessary component to an intimate, unifying and enduring relationship with God, without faith (trust), there cannot be a relationship with God. Heb 11:6 “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”.

In mankind’s history of his interaction with God, faith has always been both the starting and finishing point. When we read about the people who had faith in God we can see that faith is not just an awareness that God is, but it is a leaning on or reliance upon, and a trust in God. There is a difference between believing there is a God and being aware that He is compared to fully relying upon Him. As it says in, James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder.” The demons know God is and tremble, but they do not trust in Him or rely upon Him.

Incorporated within the meaning of faith in God is also love for Him and obedience to Him. Those who trusted and relied upon God also loved Him and obeyed Him. Faith produces obedience, James 2:18 “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” James 2:20 “You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. “

Love also is part of faith. Love is not just an emotion, love results in actions (obedience) that are prompted by the faith we have in the Father and the Son. Jesus said the following, John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” John 14:23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

What is the result of not believing, trusting, relying, loving and obeying Jesus the Son of God?

John 3:34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him." Rejection of the Gospel causes the wrath of God to remain on a person.

So, the Gospel or Good News includes the following; if we believe in, love and obey Jesus, we will be saved from sin, the Devil and God’s wrath.

As I said before, the Cross of Christ is the central aspect of our salvation. Through it, God does His work of saving us from sin, and the Devil and because of that we are saved from the wrath of God. The Cross of Christ is the power of God working in those who place their trust in it, to save them from sin, the Devil and God’s just wrath.

1 Cor 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

When a person truly sees the depth of their depravity, and then hears and understands the Good News and repents (turns) and places all their trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross and submits to Him as Lord and continues in that submission, that person will be made safe.

There is so much more but this is a good starting point.

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Continuing with what the Gospel is, I would like to point out that the preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven began with John the Baptist. Matt 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

"A voice of one calling in the desert,

'Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.’"

It continued with Jesus, Matt 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Both began the preaching with “repent”. Repentance, a turning around is the prerequisite of receiving the Good News. We must turn from unbelief, sin and love of self and place ourselves under the lordship of Jesus.

The teachings of Jesus give us a clearer understanding of what the Father is like and what the nature or qualities of His kingdom are. We can see that a pure heart is necessary when we hear that, if you lust after a woman you are sinning, acting contrary to the nature of God and His kingdom. So to repent and believe that particular aspect of Jesus teaching we would need to agree with Him and turn from that sin and place our confidence in His lordship. By relying on Jesus as our Lord than He will give us power over that sin. Using that as an example, the same thing would go for all sin. Matt 28:18 “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Since Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth, He has power over sin and to those who rely on Him, love and obey Him he will deliver them from sin. If we do not trust Him then we will not love or obey Him and we will not be saved from sin and judgment.

If we truly realize that Jesus is Lord and rely on that, then we will see that sin has no more dominion over us, for Jesus is our Lord, which frees us from the lordship of anything else. Our only hope of salvation is putting all our trust in Jesus. Through what He did on the cross and with His Spirit and Word living in us, we are more than conquerors.

So to restate, a part of the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven is the call to repent and place ourselves under the lordship of Jesus. As we obey His commands we learn by experience what Jesus and the Father are like, because we are walking in His footsteps, doing the things He does, thinking the same thoughts that He does. We love God with all our heart, mind and strength and our neighbor, we love those who persecute us. We resist Satan’s temptations as He did in the wilderness. We forgive and show mercy. We make righteous judgments and live according to them. By trusting in Him and submitting to the Spirit and because of our death and resurrection in Christ, 1 John 4:17 “ in this world we are like him”.

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To me the gospel is the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s the selective biography of the last few years of a Christ’s pre ascension life. It’s a message that leads us to repentance and baptism so that our faith is a plea to our creator. A story that transcends culture and time and is able to be used to carry out the great commission.

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I agree with this as the general description of the Gospel but it is the specific things that Jesus said and did that expand in depth what the Gospel is. If I say His teachings are part of the Gospel but I don’t seek them out, incorporate them into my thoughts and actions then the Gospel is of no affect in me. If I say His death, burial, resurrection and ascension are part of the Gospel but I don’t understand how they affect me, then the Gospel is not alive in me.
So, I don’t disagree with what you said, I am just expounding the different aspects of the Good News.

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Think of this aspect of the Good News that Jesus proclaimed. When Jesus said, Matt 5:27-28
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”, this is part of the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven. If a man hears these words and allows himself to be convicted of his sin by them, humbles himself and repents from sin and submits to Jesus as Lord, then he will be safe from sin and judgment. The Spirit of God will use those words of the Good News to work salvation in that man and that truly is, good news.

Here is another aspect of the Good New of the Kingdom.
Matt 25:31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
Matt 25:41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Matt 25:41
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

So with the above in mind, think of what was said about Lot when he was in Sodom, 2 Peter 2:7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment". Lot was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds but God separated him from them. He saved Lot but destroyed the wicked. It is the Good News of the Kingdom that God will separate those who humbled themselves and trusted, loved and obeyed the Father and the Son from the wicked. They will enter into a kingdom that was prepared since the creation of the world, but the unrepentant will be separated and thrown into the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

If we hear, believe and obey the words of Jesus, then the Good News will be active and alive in us.

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Matthew 1:23

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God with us, that truely is Good News. In light of this, we need to all the more take heed to what is said in Hebrews 10. If we do not continue in faith and overcome and fall away and trample under foot the blood of the New Covenant then Rev. 3:5 will over take us and we will be blotted out of the Book of Life. So therefore, we must continue in faithfulness so we can receive the Kingdom that is promised in Mathew 5 for those who have the nature, the Spirit of the Kingdom in them. An intimate relationship with God involves faith (faithfulness) from beginning to the end.

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Luke 4:16-21

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That is Good News. Naaman was cleansed because of his trust in God just as all those mentioned in Hebrews had trust in God. Faith in the Almighty God has always been and will be the thing that brings us into an intimate relationship with God. Faith, trust, reliance upon what Jesus did at the cross is what brings salvation actively into us. Without faith it is impossible to please God. God offers us salvation, it is trusting in Him and all that trust incorporates, that causes that salvation to be effective in us. Our faith, trust, is required from beginning to end. Without us trusting the Father, there is no salvation for us. We are bastards and will be cast out of His Kingdom.

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The gospel?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

notice that this does not say…

For God so loved Christians that God made a divine human sacrifice of His Son in order to raise enough power of necromancy to enable Him to overcome His wrath and the impossible difficulty of forgiving us of our sins, so that anyone reciting the name of Jesus would be excused from all his sins with a get out of jail free card to be transported immediately into paradise at his death.

…and it doesn’t say…

For God so loved people believing whatever they were told by the church, that God let His Son be punished in our place because God loves it when criminals use an innocent patsy to be punished for crimes in their place, so whoever rejoices in the death of Jesus, bathing in His blood, will have his body raised up out of the grave like a vampire to live forever on the blood of Jesus.

…and it doesn’t say…

For God so loved people with the right doctrines as explained by Cody_G according the the Bible verses he chooses to quote and treat literally, that they and they alone would be spared from the torture chamber God created to torment forever and ever everyone who does not believe these correct things.

In more detail…

1 Cor 15 Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, 2 by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

The good news is not only that Christ died for our sins but also that He rose again.

What does the gospel do?

Searching the scriptures, you will not find any place where it says the gospel does something. The gospel is good news, but the good news is not that we are saved by the gospel itself. The good news is that we are saved by the grace of God. John 5:39 You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. The addition of the NT does not change this. Our savior is God not the scriptures. The gospel (good news) is that we have seen God in Jesus, we have seen God giving all He has working for our salvation, and we have seen in Him the resurrection to life everlasting.

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YES!!! But nobody ever reads the next verse.

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Sure they do… and the next… and the next…

John3:17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

But when we see people doing evil in the name of Jesus, what then? If we reject such Xtianity are we then condemned? I don’t think so. And when we see a long history of people doing evil in the name of Jesus? Shall we believe condemned by God those turning from this do what is right for its own sake and refusing to have anything to do with exchanging their integrity for the entitlement of the salvation these so called Xtians think they have accomplished? I don’t think so.

We can see the light in Jesus. I have no doubt about that! But does the recitation of the name of Jesus change the darkness done by people into light? No way! Those who love darkness and doing evil cannot escape by simply painting the sign and name of Jesus all over it. On the contrary…

Romans 2: 1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 For he will render to every man according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. 12 All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

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tl;dr, just the next verse does fine: John 3:17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

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You believe that Noah’s flood was global!

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Riiiiiiiiight. Whose what?

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Yes…

On the one hand we have…

John 3:17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

one the other we have…

John 3:18 he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

verse 18 seems to contradict 17 right?

But 19-21 goes on to explain

John 3:19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

It is not belief that makes the difference but the darkness (sin) in people that makes the difference. Because of that darkness they may disbelieve the gospel. OR because they refuse to turn away from the light, they refuse the veiled darkness of those using Christianity to whitewash the evil they are doing.

The point is that the gospel doesn’t change goodness from doing what is right to believing a set of doctrine. What is good and right remains the same, and we are given the gospel to help us do what is good and right. But if we must choose between them, it is what is good and right which we must choose because that in the end is what really matters. NOOOO I am not teaching salvation by the accomplishment of good works. Salvation remains the work of God – that is grace. But neither is it salvation by the accomplishment of works of the mind in believing the right things. Faith is giving yourself over to doing the right thing for its own sake and leaving salvation in the hands of God. The gospel is not about making a deal with God to get salvation in exchange for something.

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tl;dr universal reconciliation by the faithfulness of Christ is everywhere you look.

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1 John 4:8

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1 John 5:3

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Absolutely!