WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
R.C. Sproul starts with a pop quiz and no pencil. Define it in the quiet of your own mind. That definition will either save you or condemn you.
It is not "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life."
It is not "Jesus will give purpose to your chaos."
It is not "a personal relationship with Jesus."
Those may be true enough. Not one of them — alone or together — is the gospel.
Romans 1 calls it the gospel of God. Possessive genitive. Owned. Authored. His. You are fooling around with a message that originates with God Himself.
Euangelion. A good announcement. The books about the person and work of Jesus. The kingdom at hand. Christ our Lord — born of the seed of David according to the flesh, declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
There is no gospel without atonement.
There is no gospel without resurrection.
If Christ is not raised, we are still in our sins.
The righteousness in the gospel is alien. It is Christ's. You cannot earn it. You cannot deserve it. You cannot work for it. You can only receive it. Faith alone. No mixture of your works.
Galatians 1: even if an angel from heaven preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. If you still please men, you are not a bond servant of Christ.
The power is never in a program, a liturgy, a raised hand, or a signed card. Anybody can make a profession of faith. Not everybody who says Lord, Lord is in the kingdom. You and I are powerless to bring anybody to faith. The gospel is the power. God does the saving.
Watch the full message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXJpMS6DgEc