The Gospel Message in the Bible's Words, Part 2: The Good News
In Part 1 of this post, I explained this personal project that I had taken on some months ago in which I had sought to produce the gospel message in a narrative format, using only the words of Scripture (ESV). For this slightly condensed version of that endeavor, which I’m presenting in this two-part post, I gathered 158 verses from all over the Bible in order to piece together the message of salvation. In Part 1, I covered the bad news, which makes the good news all the more meaningful and glorious. And in this second installment, I’ll round out the gospel message with the good news.
Where we left off last time, mankind, created in the image of God, has rebelled against our Creator and has earned God’s judgment. In and of ourselves, we stand guilty and hopeless, with nothing to plead our case. Justice demands judgment.
But the story doesn’t end there.
So without further ado, I now present to you the good news—the best, most-amazing, life-giving, soul-saving, heart-humbling, what-kind-of-love-is-this good news we could ever imagine. I pray it blesses you.
Jesus (A Savior Sent)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4).
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world (John 1:9). Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5-7). He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised (Isaiah 53:2-3).
He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:19-20).
Cross (A Substitute Sentenced)
Though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed (Acts 13:28). So he delivered him over to them to be crucified (John 19:16) and killed by the hands of lawless men (Acts 2:23).
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him (Isaiah 53:10).
The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6), the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18) by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23), has freed us from our sins by his blood (Revelation 1:5). Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). And the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
Resurrection (An Enemy Defeated)
When they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb (Acts 13:29). God raised him on the third day (Acts 10:40), loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it (Acts 2:24). And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem (Acts 13:31). He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 2:20) was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him (Romans 6:9). God raised him up (Acts 2:24) and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Ephesians 1:20-21).
Christ Alone (A Door Opened)
As by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:21). For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous (Romans 5:19). For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36). For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).
Faith (A Way Granted)
God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do (Romans 8:3). The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-28).
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness (Romans 4:4-5). And without faith it is impossible to please him (Hebrews 11:6).
The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).
Plea for Those Who Don’t Believe (A Warning Announced)
I am speaking the truth in Christ (Romans 9:1). Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear (Isaiah 59:2). Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath (Romans 2:5) when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9). The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).
I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 4:7).
In Jesus’ Own Words (A Call Delivered)
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15). Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17). No one is good except God alone (Mark 10:18). I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak (Matthew 12:36). Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:5). Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved (John 10:9). If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23). Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 10:39).
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29). Whoever comes to me I will never cast out (John 6:37). I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst (John 6:35). The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14).
“Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice (John 18:37). I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 16:33). The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).”
