What Is the Gospel?
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31: 31-34, ESV, italics added)
As Good Friday approaches and the Church once again contemplates the atoning death of Christ on the cross, many of us ask ourselves, what does the Gospel really mean? What is the “good news” of Jesus really about?
We often hear it preached that God was angry and Jesus volunteered to take the punishment. Is that really the Gospel? Is this the right way to explain what we mean when we say, “Christ died for our sins?” What does it mean for God to forgive?
Listen to Pastor John address this question and share insights from James Denney’s theology.