The Gospel
A proper understanding of “the
gospel” is essential when launching a discussion of God, Jesus Christ, salvation,
justification, forgiveness, and other theological topics. The best overall description of the
gospel I have found to date is in Jerry Bridges’ The Discipline of Grace,
at Chapter 3, entitled “Preach the Gospel to Yourself”. You may ask, “why a description of the
gospel? Isn’t it merely the fact
that Jesus paid the penalty for sin for those who would believe?” Of course, that is true, but it is much
more than that. “The Gospel”
includes God’s complete plan of redemption from
the beginning.
Bridges refers to Romans 3:19-26 as “the single passage in all of the
Bible that most clearly and completely explains the gospel...”[1] There, Paul wrote:
19Now we
know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so
that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to
God. 20For by works of the law no human being will be justified in
his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21But now
the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the
Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—22the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and
are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be
received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his
righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus.
(Romans 3:19-26 ESV)
Bridges then does an excellent exposition of the passage, identifying “seven
truths that we need to clearly understand”.[2]
Those seven truths are:
