The Gospel
(as stated in the Scriptures)

Below is the Gospel of Christ as presented in various sections of Scripture which contain the essential components of the Good News.  We have started with the smallest and most compact sections of Scripture which layout the Gospel, and then have gone on to the larger passages, and then finally to the New Covenant, as first given by Jeremiah the Prophet and then restated by the writer of Hebrews.   We will make only brief statements below them to highlight the key issues in each passage.  The common thread in all of these passages is that Gospel of Salvation is the work and doing of the Lord GOD Himself.  Our result,  is to believe these things.   Remember that Paul said the Gospel is the power of God to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek. (Rom.1:16)  (All Scripture Quotations below are from the NET Bible)

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1Cor.15:1-4

1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand,

2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.

3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,

4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures…

First, notice that this Gospel is something which God alone is doing.  The Gospel will save you when you hold fast to the message put forth here: Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and on the third day He was raised.  This passage first demonstrates that we are sinners, who are in need of Christ (God) to provide the propitiation (the payment by substitutionary death) and the appeasement of God's wrath for our sins, by His sacrificial death.  His resurrection is proof that He paid for these sins adequately and also demonstrates His Deity. 

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Eph.2:1-10

1 And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

2 in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience,

3 among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,

5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! –

6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

7 to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.

 

Paul makes it clear, that prior to regeneration, we were dead in our sins and transgressions, and we were subject to the spirit of this world which energizes the sons of disobedience and we all were by nature children of wrath, not children of God. And this is the default state of all mankind. But God, makes us alive together with Christ and seats us with Him in the Heavenly realm in Christ Jesus, by His grace, and not by our works, nor our effort, nor due to anything proceeding from us—this is not from yourselves—it is the gift of God, so that no man can boast or say, “I helped God”.  God therefore prepares us for good works, since He is working through us now.