Gospel - Gospel Roadmap

GOSPEL

The gospel message is central to Christianity and it is of utmost importance to know, use, teach, and defend the clear gospel of the grace of God. And so we will spend the rest of our time explaining the gospel message.

A roadmap serves several purposes. It shows you where you want to go (your destination) and it shows you how to get there. When you die it is safe to assume that you will want to spend eternity in heaven with God. This is the desired destination. The gospel roadmap shows you how to get there.

The basic meaning of the word “gospel” is “good news”. It is a message from God to man revealing how God has acted on behalf of humanity making it possible for every person to spend eternity with Him in heaven. This message starts out with some bad news but then ends with some truly significant good news. The roadmap lays out this information in a logical and easy to follow format.

The Gospel – Four Parts

The Gospel message can be laid out in four parts. It has a context, content, a response, and a result.

1. The Context of the Gospel

Context is background information that helps the overall message make sense. To offer someone chemotherapy would make no sense to them unless they understood they had cancer, understood the nature of that disease, and how chemotherapy effectively fights against that disease.

The context of the Gospel centres on three things:

The holiness of God

Exalt the LORD our God, And worship at His holy hill; For the LORD our God is holy (Psalm 99:9).

Holiness means perfect, morally pure, and set apart.

Holiness includes God’s righteousness and His justice.

Heaven also is holy – a place of no sin or defilement.

The sinfulness of man

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

God reveals His law to show us His holiness.
By way of the law, we see that we are guilty lawbreakers.
There may be variation of sinfulness, but all sin and all are guilty

The penalty of sin

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23).

There is a consequence for people who are guilty of breaking laws.
The penalty of sin is death which means separation.
This separation is between sinful man and holy God – a barrier.

Bang! Bang! goes God's gavel of justice we are all guilty!

Nobody is qualified to enter a holy heaven.

2. The Content of the Gospel

The result of understanding the context to the gospel is that now you see that you have a very real need. Apart from something happening, everybody on earth deserves to be sent to Hell because we are all guilty before God.

With this backdrop of bad news, God now introduces the good news which serves as the Content of the Gospel. The content centres on two points each with two sub-points.

The person of Jesus Christ

1. His humanity
2. His deity

Jesus is God’s son who entered into our world. He is fully human like you and me, yet He also is God’s Son, supernaturally born. This means Jesus is sinless and pure because He came from the holy side of the barrier.

The work of Jesus Christ

1. His death on the cross
2. His resurrection from the dead

After living a holy life and revealing God to man, Jesus then went to the cross where He died. It was God’s love that sends Jesus to the cross because it is there that He suffered and died making payment for your sins and mine – in fact for the all the sins of the world. The penalty of sin is death and on the cross, Jesus died – not because He was a bad man or a sinner for He was holy. He died as a substitute for us.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: 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 (1 Cor 15:3-4).

An empty cross and empty tomb
This is the gospel. It is the good news message Christianity has for the world. Jesus has died for your sins. God’s wrath against all your sin has been satisfied. Justice has been served.

3. The Response to the Gospel

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Grace means you receive something you do not deserve. As a guilty sinner before a holy God, you deserve punishment and justice. Instead, you can receive eternal life. How?

•  + Faith in Jesus Christ alone
•  - Not of yourself or of your works

These are the conditions that God has specifically given. He wants Jesus Christ to receive all the credit and all the glory because He alone has done all the work. Faith means to put your confidence in someone so as to trust them. God wants you to put your confidence in the finished work of Christ and to trust Him to get you into Heaven. There is nothing you can do but rely solely upon Him who loved you and gave Himself for you.

For example, let's say two guys go to a local store but one of them decides to steal some liquor and he got caught. They are taken to the back room by store security and are awaiting the police to arrive. In the back room, the friend quickly says to the guilty party “give me the bottle”.

Scenario One:

The guilty party agrees and gives the friend the bottle. Just then the police arrive and arrest the friend now holding the bottle. He is taken to jail, he goes to court, he is declared guilty, and he goes to prison for a number of years. Meanwhile, the guilty thief goes totally free.

The friend has shown grace to his friend. The guilty party receives what he does not deserve. He only had to trust the offer of his friend to take the bottle. He had to say “OK”.

Scenario Two:

The guilty party declines the offer. He says “I got myself into this mess and I will get myself out.” He is arrested, he goes to jail and then to court. In front of the judge, the guilty party pleads his case. He feels very sorry for what he has done. He vows to turn away from thievery and forsake all stealing in the future. He will have an accountability partner to check on him. He will go to schools and teach about the evils of alcohol and theft. He will start attending church. He will help out with neighbourhood children. He will live a changed life.

Question: If the judge says “Very well, you can go free”, how long do you think the judge will keep his job?

What will happen? The judge will still pronounce the thief guilty because it is an issue of justice, not how good the thief is. The thief is not good, he is guilty.

The point: We are all like the guilty thief. And we all have a wonderful friend who will step in and take our guilt and punishment.

And we all have a choice. Will you trust your friend to do this? If you do, you then get treated in grace, go free, while justice is still served. That is the gospel.

4. The Result of the Gospel

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:13).

1. Guaranteed eternal life
2. Assurance of your salvation

This is not a “hope so”, but a “know so” salvation. At the point in time that you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are saved forever from the hell you deserve and receive the free gift of eternal life in heaven that you do not deserve! It is that simple. Right now, you either have eternal life or you don’t. You are either on your way to heaven or you are on your way to hell. Sometimes it is said that if you don’t know, you don’t go.

How about you? Do you know for sure that you are going to heaven? No matter what? Guaranteed? That is the kind of life that God offers through Jesus Christ. Right where you are sitting you can place your faith in the finished work of Christ and receive the free gift of eternal life. Why wait?

Quick access to lesson 2: The importance of grace and three tenses of salvation part 1
Quick access to lesson 2: The importance of grace and three tenses of salvation part 2

Gospel 1esson: 1