THE GOSPEL

The gospel is the good news that God has sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the sins of the whole world, so that whoever believes in Jesus will not die but live in loving relationship with God forever.

In the beginning God created Adam and Eve to live with him in perfect communion. But sin entered the world through Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God’s commandment, eating the forbidden fruit. Because of their disobedience, God drove them from his presence and pronounced on them the curse of death. Death has since spread to all because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore the good news begins with the bad news: all of humankind have rebelled against their Creator and deserve God’s righteous judgment as punishment for their sins.

But God, in his mercy, sent his Son Jesus not to condemn the world, but to save the world. Jesus, though God himself, became man and sacrificed himself through death on a cross as a spotless offering for sin, satisfying God’s just wrath toward humankind. On the third day, God attested Jesus’s purification for sins by raising him from the dead. Because of the redemption Jesus accomplished by his victory over sin and death, whoever repents and puts his trust in Jesus Christ will have his sins forgiven, receive adoption as a son of God, and be sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the eternal life with God that is to come.