What Is the Gospel?

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1–4

Big Idea: God’s announcement about Christ demands everything.

INTRODUCTION

A. The Question

1. Took Nate Wilkerson to the airport.

2. Someone had put a question to Carsen.

3. Where would you start in telling someone the gospel?

B. The Observation

1. You could start anywhere — God, sin, the cross, resurrection, creation, the law.

2. No matter where you start, you end up in the same place.

3. The story always arrives at the cross.

4. It always demands a response.

5. It always divides eternity.

C. Ten Questions

1. What exactly is the gospel?

2. What gets mistaken for it?

3. Is it really good news or just religious information?

4. Why does anyone even need it?

5. What actually happened at the cross — and how did it work?

6. What does God do to those who receive it?

7. What happens to those who reject it — and why is that just?

8. What about people who never heard?

9. What does a gospel-changed life look like?

10. What are we supposed to do with it?

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you... how 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.

D. The Stakes

Accepting the gospel as true determines your eternity. Understanding the implications of the gospel determines your life.

Q1 What Is the Gospel?

Gospel Definitions “The gospel is the royal announcement that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived a perfect life in our place, died a substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, rose triumphantly from the grave to launch God’s new creation, and is now exalted as King of the world.”

A. The Gospel Is an Announcement

1. Gospel means good news — not general good news.

2. A specific announcement about a specific person and what he accomplished.

3. Not advice about what you should do. An announcement about what has already been done.

4. Mark opens his entire account with the word ‘gospel.’ Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection isn’t just in the gospel — it is the gospel.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

5. This was not improvised. It was promised. It arrived on schedule.

Romans 1:1–2 Separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures.)

B. The Four Non-Negotiable Facts

1. Christ died for our sins. Not as a martyr. As a substitute.

2. He was buried. The death was real, not symbolic.

3. He rose again. The death was defeated, not just endured.

4. He is now exalted as King. Every knee will bow.

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 How 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. Philippians 2:9–11 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

5. Paul gives us four facts as the irreducible minimum. Nothing added. Nothing removed.

C. The Problem of Sin

1. Every person is made for God and restless without him.

Augustine — Confessions, Book 1 “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

2. There is none righteous. Not one.

Romans 3:10–12 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

3. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

4. Sin is not bad behavior. It is rebellion against the Creator.

5. Sin doesn’t just make you guilty. It separates you from God.

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

D. The Justice of God

1. God is merciful. God is also just. Exodus 34 holds both in the same breath.

Exodus 34:6–7 The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.

2. A judge who dismisses charges because he loves the defendant is not a good judge. He is a corrupt one.

3. The wages are fixed.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

E. The Gospel and Gospel Implications

1. The Gospel — the narrow. What a person must believe to be saved.

2. Gospel Implications — the broad. Every promise God secured through Christ.

3. The Gospel is the door to everything in Gospel Implications.

Gospel Definitions “The gospel story is the Scriptural narrative that takes us from creation to new creation, climaxing with the death and resurrection of Jesus at the center.”

4. You cannot reach Gospel Implications without first going through The Gospel.

Acts 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

5. The cross is not one part of the good news. It is the door through which all of it is entered.

→ The gospel is the announcement that Christ died, was buried, and rose — the only door to everything God has promised.

Now that we know what the gospel is — we need to know what it isn’t.

Q2 What Gets Mistaken as the Gospel?

1. Three things get mistaken for the gospel consistently.

2. None of them are the gospel.

3. Knowing the difference is not academic — it is eternal.

A. Moralism

1. Moralism says do better and God will accept you.

2. Oldest religion in the world. Most natural one.

3. Puts the work back on you that only Christ could accomplish.

4. Two outcomes. Proud people who think they are succeeding. Broken people who know they are not.

5. It never produces free people.

6. Three men who tried it harder than you ever will.

Luther — On his years as a monk “I was a good monk, and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work.” John Wesley — Journal, returning from Georgia “I went to America to convert the Indians; but, oh, who shall convert me?” John Bunyan — Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners “My neighbours did take me to be a very godly man... and indeed, so it was, though yet I knew not Christ, nor grace, nor faith, nor hope; and truly, as I have well seen since, had I then died, my state had been most fearful.”

7. Luther tried religion. Wesley tried ministry. Bunyan tried morality.

8. Every road that bypasses the cross ends in the same place.

When you sin — what is your first instinct?

9. Minimize. It wasn’t that bad. God knows my heart.

10. Compensate. I’ll pray more. Do better. Make it up.

11. Both responses are Luther before the tower. Managing your account with God by your own activity.

12. No flesh. Not the sincere ones. Not the ones really trying. No flesh.

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

B. The Prosperity Gospel

1. Trades the cross for comfort.

2. Promises Jesus came to make you healthy, wealthy, successful.

3. Jesus promised tribulation. Paul promised persecution.

4. A gospel measured by circumstances has no category for Calvary.

5. The man who invented the gospel died on a cross.

John 16:33 In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

C. Social Reform

1. Announces the kingdom without telling anyone how to enter it.

2. Not incomplete gospel. Bad news dressed as good news.

3. You are announcing a future the person has no way of reaching.

4. You cannot fix the sin in hearts by fixing the systems those hearts corrupt.

5. The power is in the announcement, not the movement.

Bunyan — Pilgrim’s Progress “Mr. Formalist and Mr. Hypocrisy are on the road — right direction, right path, right appearance — but they climbed the wall instead of going through the Wicket Gate. You can follow Jesus’ example, do works of mercy, live kingdom values, and never have come to Christ. The gate is the cross. There is no other entry.”

6. The power is in the announcement.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

Any gospel that does not deal with sin and the cross is not good news. It is no news at all.

→ Anything that bypasses the cross is not the gospel.

So what did it actually take for the gospel to be true? What made it work?

Q3 What Are the Implications? — 12 min

■ What Did Christ Do?

A. Substitution

1. He died instead of us. Not alongside us. Instead of us.

2. He took what was ours. He gave what was his.

3. The exchange is total and runs entirely in one direction.

4. He who had no sin became sin so we who had no righteousness could receive his.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

5. The just for the unjust.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

6. His wounds, our healing.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

B. Satisfaction

1. God’s wrath against sin was fully absorbed. Not postponed. Not reduced. Fully absorbed.

2. The debt was not negotiated down. It was paid in full.

3. The standard was not lowered. The payment met it completely.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

C. Vindication

1. The resurrection is the Father’s public declaration that the payment was accepted.

2. Without it you have no proof the transaction was complete.

3. The empty tomb is the receipt.

1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Jesus did not just show love at the cross. He secured salvation at the cross.

What Does God Give?

D. What God Does to Those Who Receive It

1. Three things happen when a person repents and believes. All permanent. All God’s work.

2. Justification — God declares you righteous in Christ. Not a feeling. A legal verdict that cannot be undone.

Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Reconciliation — The relationship is not improved. It is created where there was none. You were an enemy.

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

4. Adoption — Not a servant. Not a tolerated guest. A child.

Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

E. Heaven — For Those Who Receive

1. Heaven is not a reward for good people.

2. It is the inheritance of those who are in Christ.

3. God does not weigh your record. He sees the righteousness of his Son.

4. That standing cannot be undone.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

John 14:2–3 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 1 John 5:11–12 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

F. Hell — For Those Who Reject

1. Hell is not an overreaction. It is the just consequence.

2. Every person carries a debt they cannot pay. God provided the payment.

3. To reject Christ is to refuse the payment and stand before a holy God in your own record.

4. Condemned already.

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

2 Thessalonians 1:8–9 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

G. What About Those Who Never Heard?

1. The assumption: condemned for missing the gospel.

2. The truth: condemned for sinning against the God they already knew.

3. Creation leaves every person without excuse.

Romans 1:18–20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them... For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen... so that they are without excuse.

4. God’s moral law is written on every conscience.

Romans 2:14–15 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness.

5. The question is not: did they hear about Jesus? The question is: did they live up to the light they already had?

7. No one has.

8. One name. No other road.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

→ The gospel justifies, reconciles, adopts — and determines your eternity.

If these are the implications — what does a life shaped by the gospel actually look like?

Q4 What Behavior Does It Create? — 6 min

1. Grace produces what law could only demand.

2. The behavior is always fruit. Never root.

A. Holiness

1. The gospel does not demand holiness to earn acceptance.

2. It announces acceptance — and that produces the desire to be holy.

3. Grace teaches what fear never could.

John Wesley — after Aldersgate “The same man who returned from Georgia unable to convert himself went on to preach over 40,000 sermons and see revival sweep England. The gospel produced in forty years what moralism could not produce in forty days.”

4. Most powerful moral force in existence. Not because it threatens. Because it transforms.

Titus 2:11–12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

B. Humility

1. You did not earn this. You received it.

2. Everything you have in Christ is a gift.

3. That kills pride at the root.

4. Nothing to boast in but Christ.

Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

C. Love for Others

1. The standard for how you treat others is now what Christ did for you.

2. You forgive because you have been forgiven.

3. You serve because you have been served.

4. The gospel does not just instruct love. It generates it.

Matthew 18 — The Forgiven Debtor “Forgiven an enormous debt, the servant grabs a man who owes him a few dollars and throws him in prison. The king is furious — not because the forgiveness was conditional, but because it clearly never reached the servant. He received it as information. He never inhabited it.”

5. We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

You do not obey to earn grace. You obey because grace has already been given.

→ A gospel that hasn’t changed you hasn’t reached you.

The gospel creates changed lives. But first it requires a response. So what do we do with it?

Q5 What Do We Do With It? — 4 min

A. Receive It — Repent and Believe

1. These are Jesus’ own words for the required response.

2. Repentance — a turn away from sin and self-reliance.

3. Faith — a turn toward Christ and complete reliance on what he has done.

4. They cannot be separated. You cannot turn toward Christ without turning from something else.

5. Not intellectual agreement. The whole person.

Mark 1:15 Repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

B. Live In It — Every Day

1. You do not graduate from the gospel.

2. You go deeper into it.

3. The Christian life is not a movement away from the gospel toward maturity.

4. It is a movement into greater understanding of what the gospel already secured.

5. The believer who drifts from it does not become more spiritual. He becomes more religious.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

C. Proclaim It — To Everyone

1. The gospel was never meant to stop with you.

Gospel Definitions “The gospel births the church.”

2. People are dying without it. The commission is not optional.

3. It is the power of God. Power like that moves outward by design.

4. Not ashamed.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

Matthew 28:19–20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

The gospel is either the most important news you have ever heard, or you have not yet heard it.

→ Receive it. Live in it. Proclaim it.

CONCLUSION

Ten questions. Ten answers.

1. What is the gospel? — The royal announcement that Christ died for sins, was buried, and rose again.

2. What gets mistaken for it? — Moralism, prosperity, social reform — anything that bypasses the cross.

3. Is it really good news? — The only news that deals with the real problem.

4. Why does anyone need it? — Because sin separates every person from a holy God who will not clear the guilty.

5. What happened at the cross? — Substitution. Satisfaction. Vindication.

6. What does God do to those who receive it? — Justifies them. Reconciles them. Adopts them.

7. What happens to those who reject it? — They stand before God in their own record. There is no other outcome.

8. What about those who never heard? — Condemned for sinning against the God they already knew.

9. What does a gospel-changed life look like? — Holiness, humility, and love — produced by grace, not demanded by law.

10. What do we do with it? — Receive it. Live in it. Proclaim it.

“God’s message is the same to all of us: repent and believe, before it is too late.”

If you have never repented and believed — the only question is what you will do with it tonight.

If you are a believer — the gospel is not behind you. It is underneath you. Every morning. Do not drift from it.

Romans 10:9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Mark 1:15 Repent ye, and believe the gospel.