What is the gospel according to the Bible?

The gospel is "that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures," — a complete formula of the gospel Paul preached. The gospel rests on solid facts, and carries us back to the death of Christ and what it signifies. I take it, it refers to the Old Testament scriptures there.

What, then, is the gospel? In presenting it the Apostle Paul wrote, “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). It is the meaning and the results of the death of Christ that constitute the gospel.

CHRIST Himself is the good news. Philip preached Christ in Samaria (Acts 8:5), and there was great joy in that city (v. 8). "He preached Jesus" to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:35) and he went on his way rejoicing (v. 39). May God help us to remember that our business is to "announce Him as good news." Romans 1:3 tells us that the good news is "concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." It is not a doctrine we preach. It is Christ Himself. He is the good news. He is the living, loving Saviour.

The gospel is the good news of God about His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, for a sinner such as you, that for you, even for such as you, God has forgiveness, peace, glory, a place with Christ where Christ is now. It is His joy to give, to receive; His delight to make you a child of day, and of light. Christ has died, has risen again, is now in glory, the author of eternal salvation to every poor soul that looks to Him. W. T. T.

The gospel tells you who Jesus is and what He has done, and if you believe its message in your heart, and confess Him with your mouth, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).

The gospel is "concerning his Son (come of David's seed according to flesh, marked out Son of God in power, according to [the] Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of [the] dead) Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:3-4). We notice here the gospel primarily concerns God's glory in Christ - not us in our manifest need.

Firstly, it is well to observe that the gospel is "the gospel of God"— God's message to man; a ministry that makes no demands on man, but communicates glad tidings, which can make him happy (sinner though he may be), and at rest in God's infinitely holy presence. In the gospel God speaks, and it becomes man to hearken. If a prophet in olden times said, "Hear and your soul shall live," the blessed Master was wont to say, "He that hears my word, and believes him that sent me, has everlasting life," and an apostle could write that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

The Gospel is primarily information. It is not invitation, appeal or exhortation, though these may be based upon it. It is news, and the evangelist is one who announces it. He is the proclaimer of glad tidings, the bearer of glorious news. He has information to impart; he communicates to men a message from God, telling them how they may be saved.

The Gospel is indeed good news. It is to the effect that Jesus, God’s Son (“who is over all, God blessed for ever,” Romans 9:5), came into this world in order to die upon the Cross, and become the Saviour exclusively for poor fallen man. The work that He came to do He finished to God’s eternal glory. He cried upon the Cross “It is finished!” and God put His Amen to that triumphant cry by raising the One who uttered it from the dead, and giving Him glory. A contrast is drawn in Hebrews 10:11-12 between the Jewish priests, whose work was never done, who were always offering up the same sacrifices which could never take away sins, and the Lord Jesus, whose one sacrifice is finished and perfect, never to be added to, sufficient for all the claims of God’s glory, and sufficient surely for the salvation of every believing sinner. “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin, but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God.”

(Vv. 3, 4). Immediately he sums up the glad tidings under three heads. First, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”. This brings before us the great propitiatory work of Christ for all the world, foretold in all the Scriptures, for the law sets it forth in figure, the Psalms present it experimentally, and the prophets announce it prophetically. Secondly, Christ was buried, the complete evidence of His death and the solemn fact that all His links with man after the flesh are severed. Thirdly, “He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures”, the everlasting witness that the power of death is broken, the devil defeated, and God is glorified.

The Apostle carefully remarks that the gospel he preached, he had “received”, as we know from another epistle, “by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12). To reject his gospel is, therefore, to question the revelation of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture.