Focus on the Gospel
Part 1

The word “Gospel” means “good news.”  But what exactly is the gospel?  The Word of God tells us.  1 Corinthians 15:14 states:

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how 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.”

The gospel is the good news about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Yahweh, our heavenly Father gave us the gift of salvation when the plan to send His Son was conceived in His mind.  When you buy a gift for someone, that gift belongs to the person as soon as you purchase it.  God has already given mankind the gift of eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ!  True, we must accept it, but it has already been given to the world that God so loved!

We cannot earn it.  It is given freely.  If we needed to earn it, it would no longer be a gift, but rather our wages.  The only thing we have earned, according to the Bible is “death,” for “all have sinned,” and “the wages of sin is death.”  But praise God that the “gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Jesus has already saved us. Our work is one of faith to accept what He has done.  

In 2 Timothy 1:9-10, it is written: “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and race, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”