What Is the Gospel?

The gospel is one thing and the fruits of the Gospel are something else. They are like the roots of a vine and the grapes that grow on it.

The Gospel, the “Good News,” is a message, the accepting of which produces new men with new ideals and ethics. The ideals and ethics proceeding from the Gospel are as impossible to achieve without it as are grapes without the root and vine.

Yet there is abroad today a feeling that society can be saved without the salvation of the individual. This idea is appealing because it presents man with something he can accomplish for himself and for the social order, without challenge to his personal beliefs or way of life.

The Gospel calls for the humiliation and subordination of self and the magnifying of Christ. It is a supernatural message about a supernatural person that brings about supernatural changes in the lives of those who accept it.

To a patient with diphtheria, the good news is that a cure—antitoxin—is available. When a house bursts into flame, it is good news that a fire brigade is on the way. When a car engine is sputtering, it is good news that a mechanic is available.

The Gospel is the best news of all, for it is the answer to man’s greatest need. It is the offer of clean hands and a pure heart for those who are defiled. It is the offer of the divine heart transplant, a new heart for the old. It promises a renewed mind, one that can grasp the things of the Spirit.

How wise we are if we face up to the depravity of the human heart! The Prophet Jeremiah says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).

Our Lord enumerated the wretched fruits of the unregenerate heart: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts [the natural minds of men], murder [hate], adultery [lust], fornication [uncleanness], theft [covetousness], false witness [lying], slander [vindictiveness]. These are what defile a man” (Matt. 15:19, 20a).

The Apostle Paul also describes the miserable state of the unregenerate heart in his letter to the Galatians: “Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dlssention, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19–21).

Speaking in another letter as though he were talking to America in 1969, he says: “Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9, 10).

Add to this dismal catalogue of the sins of the flesh the equally damning sins of pride, lovelessness, insensibility to the condition and needs of others—sins both of commission and of omission—and we find ourselves convicted in thought, word, and deed.

We all are guilty. Let’s not compound our guilt by ignoring or denying the divine diagnosis. The Bible tells us, “For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22b, 23), and, “Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

This, then, is the miserable state of the natural man. If we are honest with ourselves we must admit it. I know that this was the state of my own heart and life until I accepted in faith the One who changed the entire situation for this life and for eternity. The change came when I believed God’s diagnosis and accepted his cure; and the message that told me what God offered was the Gospel.

I have seen a patient indignantly reject the diagnosis of cancer, only to die miserably a few months later. Similarly, otherwise intelligent people refuse to admit God’s diagnosis of sin in their lives, and through that refusal ultimately reap the certain end.

There is a growing awareness of the increased danger of cancer for cigarette smokers. The Surgeon General’s office has issued a number of warnings, and now on radio and TV we hear that “it’s a case of life, or breath.”

What about another warning: “For the wages of sin is death”? But an alternative is given along with the warning: “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). That is the Gospel!

What miserable substitutes for the Gospel are being offered to hopeless sinners today! They are to be found in the teachings of cults; in vapid ethical homilies; in the words and activities of those who regard social revolution as the Gospel; in the sermons of those who deny the content of the Gospel itself.

The Gospel is God’s Good News that there is an escape from the effects of sin and its certain judgment. It is the message that the miserable wretch on skid row and the sophisticated matron in the social register are alike sinners in God’s sight, with the same disease and needing the same cure. Both are offered. It tells of a restored fellowship that is sweet beyond words.

Little wonder that the Gospel is called the Good News. It is the best news in all the world, and for those who hear and believe, this news lasts for all eternity.

While the sins that plague mankind and are the cause of most newspaper headlines today are the fruit of the wickedness of the human heart, there is another kind of fruit that is found only in the lives of men and women who, by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, have been changed (converted, born again). This fruit is beautiful to behold and comforting to experience. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:22–24). These things are the fruits of the Gospel!

How tragic to replace this marvelous message of hope with futile exhortations to men to lift themselves and the social order of which they are a part by some form of boot-strap endeavor! To the Church, and to individual Christians, there has been committed the preaching, teaching, and living of the gospel message.

If we give the Gospel top priority, it will change things. There is no other way to bring results that last.

L. NELSON BELL

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