What the Gospel Means to Me

What the Gospel means to me is “Good News”. But not just the good news we Christians talk about all the time (or not enough). It is my personal “Good News”. Let me explain that in the paragraphs to follow.

I grew up going to church with my parents. I had to go whether I wanted to or not. I knew my parents were Christians because they went to church. I figured I was a Christian because I went to church with them. My parents did a good job of teaching me right from wrong. And I did a good job of ‘appearing’ right while being oh so wrong sometimes. By the time I was in my mid-thirties, I was an alcohol drinking, drug taking, fornicating, masturbating, perverse thinking totally debased individual on my way to “Hell in a hand basket”. Mike Taylor, your average red-blooded, porn loving American male.

Like a lot of people, I didn’t know I was going to Hell. I figured since I had a head start in church and that there were a whole lot of people I felt were worse than me, that God would overlook my shortfalls and let me in to Heaven. He would be too busy throwing the murderers, rapist and child molesters into Hell to care about the likes of my petty foulness. Was I ever wrong.

I started going to church with a friend whom I was trying to impress. While visiting that church several times I realized that I was hearing the true word of God. I also realized that my belief system was all wrong. I found out that because of the sin, disobeying of God’s commands, in my life, sin that I was born with, separated me from God. It separated me because God is holy, righteous and just and hates sin. I wasn’t destined for a glorious after-life in Heaven. I was instead destined for Hell because of my unrighteous and sinful nature. Bad news right?

Through the word of God spoken by the pastor of the church I had been visiting I heard the Gospel. That the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died on a cross for me as a sacrifice for my sin. That he was buried in a borrowed tomb. And that he rose from the dead on the third day by the power of God. That same power had the ability to save or deliver me from the penalty of my sin and put me in a right relationship with God. I found out that God’s whole motivation for this stemmed from His love for me. The only thing I had to do was accept this free gift from God by faith. Shortly after hearing the Gospel, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior by professing and demonstrating my total belief in His redeeming work on that wooden cross. And it is by His power that keeps me in that faith.

That is the Gospel to me.

Mike Taylor

What is the Gospel?

"Answer: The true gospel is the good news that God saves sinners. Man is by nature sinful and separated from God with no hope of remedying that situation. But God, by His power, provided the means of man’s redemption in the death, burial and resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
The word “gospel” literally means “good news.” But to truly comprehend how good this news is, we must first understand the bad news. As a result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6), every part of man—his mind, will, emotions and flesh—have been corrupted by sin. Because of man’s sinful nature, he does not and cannot seek God. He has no desire to come to God and, in fact, his mind is hostile toward God (Romans 8:7). God has declared that man’s sin dooms him to an eternity in·hell, separated from God. It is in hell that man pays the penalty of sin against a holy and righteous God. This would be bad news indeed if there were no remedy.
But in the gospel, God, in His mercy, has provided that remedy, a substitute for us—Jesus Christ—who came to pay the penalty for our sin by His sacrifice on the cross. This is the essence of the gospel which Paul preached to the Corinthians. In·1 Corinthians 15:2-4, he explains the three elements of the gospel—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ on our behalf. Our old nature died with Christ on the cross and was buried with Him. Then we were resurrected with Him to a new life (Romans 6:4-8). Paul tells us to “hold firmly” to this true gospel, the only one which saves. Believing in any other gospel is to believe in vain.
In·Romans 1:16-17, Paul also declares that the true gospel is the “power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” by which he means that salvation is not achieved by man’s efforts, but by the grace of God through the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Because of the Gospel, through the power of God, those who believe in Christ (Romans 10:9) are not just saved from hell. We are, in fact, given a completely new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17) with a changed heart and a new desire, will, and attitude that are manifested in good works. This is the fruit the Holy Spirit produces in us by His power. Works are never the means of salvation, but they are the proof of it (Ephesians 2:10). Those who are saved by the power of God will always show the evidence of salvation by a changed life."