The gospel

'The gospel'

— 1 Corinthians 15:1

The gospel is not preached until we have told men who Christ is, what he did, why he did it and where he is now. Here are five things which will always characterize the preaching of the gospel.

1. The gospel is a message that honors God’s holy law. God would not and could not tarnish his holy law in order to forgive sin and save sinners. God is willing to be merciful, but his righteousness must be established, his holy law must be fulfilled. This is one part of our Savior’s work. He brought in an everlasting righteousness by his perfect obedience to God’s law as our Representative Jer.23:6; Rom. 1: 16-17; 3:24-26).

2. The gospel is a declaration of satisfied justice. This is the doctrine of substitution. God satisfied the infinite demands of his own justice by the substitutionary sacrifice of his Son. Someone said, ‘God cannot suffer, and man cannot satisfy; but the God-man both suffered and satisfied.’ That is the gospel: Jesus Christ has fully satisfied the penalty of sin for every believer! (Gal. 3:13.)

3. The gospel of God is a proclamation of salvation by grace alone (Eph.2:8-9; 2 Tim. 1:9). God would have all men to know that the sinner’s standing before him is altogether a matter of pure, free grace. Man gets nothing from God, and man cannot be accepted before God, except by grace. Every idea of human merit is contrary to the gospel (Gal. 5:2).

4. The gospel of Christ is an announcement of grace freely bestowed upon men. There are no conditions for the sinner to meet, no works for the sinner to do, no emotions for the sinner to feel, in order for him to prepare himself to believe on Christ. In preaching the gospel we freely invite all who will to believe on Christ and be saved. No sinner is excluded from the gospel except those who exclude themselves by their unbelief (Rom. 10:11-13).

5. The gospel of the grace of God declares the accomplishment of eternal salvation. We have no partial salvation to preach. We preach an almighty Savior, who saves for ever (John 10:27-31).