What Is the Gospel? The Good News, Explained

You just heard Tony share the most important story ever told. It’s the story that all of Scripture has been telling, in one way or another.

1. You were made on purpose

“God created mankind in his own image.” – Genesis 1:27

Before your highlights and your heartbreaks, there was a decision made about you. Not by your parents, but by the One who set everything into motion. You were made for relationship: with God, with people, and with a life that means something beyond wins and losses.

2. The distance is real

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3:23

That word, sin, is a heavy church word for something nobody actually disputes when they’re being honest. Think about the selfishness we know is ours, or the pride we never say out loud, or the way we hurt the people we love. Sin is real, and we know it. And that sin has created a gap between us and God that can’t be resolved by anything we do. God is holy and sinless. We are not. It’s that simple.

We were made for closeness with God, and we’ve moved away from it. And the loneliness that distance creates is what most of us spend our whole lives trying to either replace or drown out.

3. Jesus closes the gap

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23

You can’t fix this on your own. So God did the thing only He could do. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to live the life we couldn’t live and to pay the debt of death we couldn’t pay. And when He walked out of the grave three days later, He proved Himself to be exactly who He claimed to be. The last words He said on the cross were “It is finished,” literally “paid in full.”

4. Your honest next step

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9

You don’t have to figure anything out first. You don’t have to clean up. You don’t have to know what you believe about a hundred other questions. You just have to be honest with God about what’s true right now. There’s nothing magic in the wording. God isn’t grading the grammar. But if it helps to have something to start with, here’s what it can sound like in plain English:

God, I’m not going to pretend anymore. I know I’m not where I’m supposed to be. I believe Jesus did what He said He did, that He died for me and walked out of the grave. I’m done trying to run my own life. Please forgive me, and make me a new creation. I want to be a part of the story You created me for. I’m Yours. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now what?

If you just prayed that, or if you watched the video and you’re still sitting with it, we’d love to connect. There’s a real person on the other end of a chat who’s been exactly where you are.