The gospel tends to work in expanding concentric circles. There is a core definition that must remain central and of first importance (see 1 Cor 15:3-5). With this at the core, there are many more layers that can be added to better understand all the wonderful realities and implications of the gospel. We hope to provide some of these layers here…

The gospel (meaning “good news”) is the true and life-changing news that God himself has redeemed his children from the curse of sin and death by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the atoning sacrifice in our place and restore us as God’s children where we are declared righteous before a holy God.

This is good news because the only other alternative is very bad news. Having been created by God to live in obedience to his good laws, we rejected this and chose to follow our own corrupt desires. We did not love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind nor did we love our neighbour as ourselves (Mat 22:37-39). We have all done this and therefore, we all fall short of the glory of God and deserve punishment of death (Rom 3:23; 6:23).

Because God is a good judge, he does not simply forego the punishment (a good judge does not let a murderer go free). God must punish sin and disobedience. This is where the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ come in.

God’s wonderful gift toward humanity is seen in the fact that HE enters into humanity in Jesus. The ‘incarnation’ is where God the Son takes on human flesh. This isn’t God giving up his divinity (i.e. his ‘God-ness’) nor is he merely ‘dipping his toes into some humanity’. The incarnation means God completely takes on human flesh and completely remains God – truly God and truly man. This is the only way salvation could come.

Why, you ask? Because the requirement for humanity to live in obedience to God’s law still remains. This is why the life of Jesus as a man is so important. He lives as a baby. He grows as a toddler, teenager, and then young man where in every respect he was tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15). Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law by living in complete obedience to the Father’s will as a man and he did this in our place. This opens the door for the great exchange of the gospel.

We are in an infinite debt. The only way an infinite debt can be wiped is by infinite credit. Because Jesus lived in complete faithfulness in our place, without a single shred of sin, he has sufficient ‘credit.’ He can take our punishment upon himself and in doing this, he takes the wrath of God – which we deserved – upon himself. The amazing exchange is that in Christ taking our sin upon himself, not only is our punishment complete since he takes ALL of it upon himself, but on top of this, we receive his righteousness. This is the importance of Jesus not only dying in our place but living in our place. As we turn to Jesus in faith, we receive his life as ours. God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us and declares us both ‘not guilty’ and ‘completely in the right!’

In turning to Jesus in faith, we are turning away (repent means to ‘turn’ or ‘change one’s mind’) from our life of sin and committing wholeheartedly to Christ. Repentance requires that we completely deny ourselves and our life of sin as we then take up Christ’s life. This is why Jesus says “if you cling to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will find it” (Mat 10:39;16:25).

The culmination of Christ taking our sin upon himself is seen in the cross of Christ. The cross was an instrument of brutal torture. Throughout history, it has remained as one of the most humiliating and degrading ways to die where the person is hung naked, nailed to the wooden cross and publicly exposed while they slowly die over several hours. Crucifixion was beyond gruesome. And this was how our Saviour died, in our place.

This shows us two key things about God: how much our sin offends God and how great His love is. To subject the innocent Son of God to such a death must hit us with the reality that God hates sin. Our sin offends Him (Psalm 5:4-6). We should feel the weight of this and tremble in shame as we realise that we constantly sin before Him.

We should also see the overwhelming love of God toward us in that He was willing to subject the Son to this, in order to bring many others into the very same familial relationship (i.e. as children of God). The cross shows that God’s love is indeed unfailing. He promised to provide a way out for fallen humanity (Genesis 3:15), and the excruciating death of His perfect Son fulfils this.

In the cross of Christ, God demonstrates that He is perfectly just and merciful in his punishment and forgiveness of sins. He is both just because he punishes sin in Christ, and He demonstrates perfect mercy as he justifies the ungodly, by passing over our sins and forgiving us, as he declares us righteous (Rom 3:26).

Because Christ takes the full wrath of God upon Himself, we know God’s justice is satisfied. There is nothing but God’s benevolent love toward us because all the punishment we deserved, has been handed down upon Christ. This means that even the difficult circumstances we will be faced with in this life, God is able to use as Fatherly discipline toward His children as He makes them work together for good in wonderfully mysterious ways.

The work of the cross also means we have been purchased by God (Titus 2:14). This means we do not exist for ourselves. This is some of the most liberating news we could have in our day. Much of our anxiety comes because we simply serve ourselves, and the problem with this is that we cannot be our own saviour. When we realise that we exist for something outside of ourselves, we are set free! We now exist to serve our great and glorious God in everything we do. This gives deep meaning to all of the ‘mundane’ activities of life. There is nothing ‘mundane’ when we understand our duties as duties to serve the living God.

Contrary to some views, Christianity is not simply waiting at the bus stop for our dad to pick us up and ‘take us home’. We long for our heavenly home because it is our purpose. The point of our heavenly home is to be with our God – to swim in the ocean of knowing Him for all eternity where there is an infinite increase of joy in our infinite God. Though this is our hope, the gospel has implications for our lives right now.

In this sense, we have a ‘dual citizenship’ – we live as citizens of our earthly nation seeking to be productive members of society. Whether sweeping streets, working the 9-5, or whatever it may be, we do all of this for His glory.

We also live as citizens of a heavenly Kingdom which Jesus has inaugurated, yet which we await the consummation of. In this ‘in-between’ time of Christ’s first coming and second coming, we live as a people who worship King Jesus and declare to all that the rightful King is returning, to whom all will stand before and be judged.

While Christianity is never about ‘brands’ or building our own ‘kingdoms’ through individual churches, the importance of each individual church is paramount. This is because Jesus has ordained that the church be the place where His presence is known and His authority is administered (Matthew 16:18-19; 18:15-20).

Although there is one universal Church, we experience the realities of communion in the universal Church by our commitment to individual local churches. It is in these local churches that we bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2) and grow in Christ-likeness as we consider other brothers and sisters as more important than ourselves (Phil 2). Without committing to a local church, we can never really experience the fulness of these realities because it is simply too easy to be selective with the “burdens we bear” and the people we “consider more important than ourselves”. God has ordained it that through our commitment to a local body of believers, we would express our commitment to Him and through that commitment, we experience all the treasures of life together in community.