What is Gospel?
According to the book “Invitation to Evangelism” by Dr. Timothy K. Beougher the Gospel has two different perspectives. One view is from the ground and the other one is from the air. In my personal belief, both viewpoints are true pictures of Christ, one from below and one from above.
If we further deliberate, Gospel is the message about God; Gospel is the message about man; Gospel is a message about Christ, and the Gospel is a message about our response. Chandler reveals that the Gospel is a message about Creation, the fall, reconciliation, and then the consummation.
Gospel is not only to our justification but also to our sanctification. For Christians, the Gospel is not just to be kept to themselves but to be shared with others who do not have the good news, who are still lost and need to be saved.
- A message about God
It tells us what God is, what He is like, and what He expects from us. We are His creation and He loves us, cares for us, and He wishes that we have an eternal life through repentance. Christians have the Good News to share that if we accept His only son, Jesus Christ as our personal savior we will have eternal life and salvation is guaranteed.
- A message about Humanity
It is the message for us, the humanity, that we are created in His own image, the image of God; He created him, male and female. Although God created us in His own image, yet we do not live our lives as God. We indulge ourselves in sin and fall short of the glory of God.
- A message about Christ
The Gospel tells us about the message of God. It also relates to the fact that after the fall of man, God implemented His plan of salvation through His different prophets. God made covenants and promises all through the Old Testament. Then we see in New Testament that God sent His son so that whosoever, accepts him as his/her personal savior, that person will have salvation and will enter the eternal life.
In this manner God completed His covenants and promises through Jesus Christ. That is the Good news that Christians have and others don’t have.
- A necessary Response
The Gospel cannot only be completed with the above three components. Gospel calls for our response which according to the Bible is repentance and faith. It is our responsibility that when we receive the Good News we should share it with others so that other souls may also be saved.
- Repentance
After understanding all the above components, it is our role to repent for our sins and accept the Lord our Jesus Christ as our personal savior.
As we read in Mark 12:30-31 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment.”
