(This is an adaptation of my April 2019 blog post, “The Best News”. It sums up the basics of the Christian faith. For more about the gospel, check out the Gospel tab on my blog.)
The Christian faith is based on three central events that Christians believe took place in Roman-controlled Palestine approximately two thousand years ago: the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the world’s salvation.
These events, and what they accomplished, are what Christians call the gospel, or Good News.
I put my own faith in this Good News when I was almost nine years old. More than two decades later, I continue to do so. I’ve tested it both intellectually through study and experientially through the hardships of life. The gospel holds for me. I strive to live by it and to reflect it in everything I write and do.
Here, I’m going to try to explain the Good News more fully—why it matters, what Jesus accomplished, and where the story goes from here.
To do this, we need to start at the beginning…
Background
God is Three in One.
Christians believe that there is only one God—a personal, transcendent, eternal, sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent, holy, righteous, wise, loving Being who created, directs, and sustains the world. This God reveals Himself to people and wants a loving relationship with them. God is the only thing in existence worthy of our worship and of our ultimate trust and allegiance.
Further, Christians believe that this God exists (and always has existed, and always will exist) as three Persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three are 100% the same God with the same character and attributes, but each Person plays different roles.
This “three-in-one” arrangement is called the Trinity, and is best explained in the Nicene Creed.
God created a good world.
God created the universe in which we live, including all of its inhabitants. He created humans in His image, equipping them to reflect His character and steward earthly life. When He finished creating the world and its first inhabitants, He called His handiwork “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
In the beginning, there was no evil, disharmony, or suffering. The human body could live indefinitely. The first humans had close, harmonious relationships with God and each other.
Life was full in every sense.
Sin disrupted, and continues to disrupt, everything.
In addition to providing for and commissioning humans, God gave them one simple rule to follow. When they finally sinned by disobeying that rule, their close, trusting bond with God was broken. They could no longer enjoy free, unhindered fellowship with their Creator. They also forfeited the privilege of an immortal, suffering-free life. And, as finite creatures, they couldn’t atone for their sin or fix what was broken.
Every human since (except One) has struggled with sin. Sin means “missing the mark”—failing to meet God’s standards. Sin cuts us off from God, disrupts our human relationships, and, in some cases, harms the rest of creation. And it requires atonement—the paying of our debt to God.
All of us have sinned at some point. We all have failings and shortcomings. And we all live in a world rife with sin’s effects, from broken families to war and famine. And, like our ancestors, we’re powerless to save ourselves, much less our world.
But God has never forgotten us. This is where the Good News comes in.
The Good News
Jesus Christ came to save us from sin.
God the Son came to earth in human form as Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ (Messiah). Through His life, He showed us what God is like and set a moral example for us to follow. And through His death and resurrection, He accomplished what we never could: He opened the way for a perfectly restored God-human relationship.
Jesus was both fully human and fully God, able both to identify with us and intercede with God on our behalf. He experienced suffering and temptation, just like we do, yet He never sinned. He healed the sick, spent time with outcasts, and taught about the kingdom of God. After a popular ministry, He was arrested by religious leaders and handed over to the Roman government to be crucified. He died and was buried, but, on the third day after His death, He rose from the dead.
By willingly dying on the cross, Jesus paid for our sins, once and for all. Through Him, God removed all of our sins, nailing them to the cross, and offered us a fresh start to our relationship with Him. And by raising Jesus from the dead, He proved His authority over suffering and death, guaranteeing their future demise and the resurrection of every person who puts their faith in Jesus.
We can receive Jesus’s offer of salvation through faith.
Because of Jesus, every human being has the opportunity for a perfectly, eternally restored relationship with God. This opportunity is a gift, paid for by Christ and offered to each of us. All we need to do is accept it.
To accept this gift, we must confess and repent of our sins, acknowledging our need for God and His grace. We must also believe what Jesus has done for us and ask Him to be our Savior and the Lord of our lives.
When we do this, the Holy Spirit—the third Person of the Trinity—comes to dwell in us, cleansing us from sin and giving us unlimited access to God’s intimate, ongoing presence. The Spirit stays with us forever, guiding us and empowering us to live God-honoring lives. He also unites us with other Christ-followers as brothers and sisters in the family of God.
We will always have failures in this life. But if we’ve put our faith in Jesus, we can trust Him to forgive us when we confess and repent of those failures. And we can be assured that the Holy Spirit is working on us, transforming us more and more into Christ’s image.
And we can trust that His work will be complete one day—at the return of Christ.
Jesus will return to complete God’s reign on earth.
After His resurrection, Jesus spent forty days with His disciples before ascending to heaven. In heaven, He sits at God the Father’s right hand, interceding and advocating for those who put their faith in Him.
Before Jesus ascended, He promised that He will come again at an unexpected time to finish the work He began. At His return, the dead will be raised and all people will be judged. God will destroy evil and suffering and renew His entire creation.
Until then, all people are called to prepare by accepting what Christ has done for them and committing to follow Him as their Savior and Lord. Christ-followers are called to share the Good News with others so that everyone has the opportunity to accept God’s gift of salvation through Jesus.
Embracing the Good News
The Good News is for everyone of every culture and ethnicity and ability and class and gender and background. If you’re made of human DNA, God’s gift is for you!
If you haven’t already accepted God’s offer of a relationship with Him in Jesus, do so now! Confess your sins to God and ask His forgiveness. Believe what Jesus did for you. Ask Jesus to be the Savior of your soul and the Lord of your life.
If you need guidance, say this sample prayer:
Dear God, thank You for loving me and sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins, and for raising Him to life to offer me eternity with You. I confess that I’m a sinner and humbly repent of my sins. Forgive me and cleanse me. Jesus, I give You my heart and life and ask You to be my Lord and Savior. From now on, take charge of my life. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.
Welcome to new life in Jesus!
Continuing the journey
When you give your heart and life to Jesus, you embark on the journey of a lifetime. Here are some next steps to equip you and set you on a path to spiritual growth:
- Talk to a pastor about being baptized. Baptism is a way for new Christians to express their faith publicly. It symbolizes that, through their relationship with Christ, they’ve figuratively died to sin and self-centeredness and, by God’s redeeming power, have begun a new life of following Jesus. Baptism doesn’t save you; rather, it declares to the world that you now identify with Christ and have been saved through Him.
- Establish a habit of daily prayer and Bible reading. Prayer is simply talking to God. Through prayer, we present Him with our needs, confess our sins, ask Him questions, and give thanks for our blessings. The Bible is God’s Word; through it, we learn what He’s like and what kind of relationship He wants with us. If you’re not sure where to start in reading it, try the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), which detail Jesus’s life and teachings. For deeper study, check out resources from godly, reputable Christian authors and teachers that center on Scripture.
- Join a community of Christians who love, teach, and live by God’s Word. As a Christian, you’re now a member of God’s family. That family exists to glorify God, support each other’s spiritual growth, and proclaim the gospel. So find a local church and meet regularly to worship, fellowship, serve, and study the Bible with brothers and sisters in the faith. No church is perfect, but members of a good church will encourage and support one another in their pursuit of Christ. They’ll also band together to show God’s love and share the Good News with people who haven’t yet accepted Jesus.
The Christian walk isn’t easy, but it’s the only life that offers true abundance. Keep going with Jesus—and enjoy the journey!
Got questions? Browse my blog or send me a message.
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