A few weeks ago, we visited a church and were invited to pick up a transcript of a message by Paul Washer. I love how simply and thoroughly he answers the question, “What is the Gospel?” I especially love how he uses scriptures to validate each point he makes.

Perhaps it will be helpful for someone reading this to understand what the cross of Christ is all about, or you may know someone to share it with. Enjoy!

What Is The Gospel?

By Paul Washer

First of all, the Gospel begins with God.

You see, the whole problem really comes back to the nature of God. God is just. God is Holy. God cannot violate his attributes. He cannot do something that contradicts Himself. He is a righteous God.

Isaiah 5:16 – But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.

Now, that is a good thing. It would be terrifying to know that this universe was created by an evil god. An omnipotent god that was evil would be absolutely terrifying. So it’s good that God is just, but then it presents another problem. If God is just … what does He do with us?

Let me illustrate the problem for you. A few years ago, I was in Europe and I was going to speak at a university, and I knew that the crowd was really going to be against me. They all had this idea that this social dinosaur was going to come over with some Puritan-type message and tell them they are all sinners. And so when I walked out on the stage, I was really praying, “Lord, please help me.” And I feel like He gave me some wisdom.

I looked at this crowd of university students and I said, “I am going to share with you the most terrifying truth in the Scriptures.” And I kept telling them and warning them, “I am about to share with you the most terrifying truth that anyone could ever know about God.” And so, when they were all poised on the edge of their seat, I looked at them and I said, “Here it is. The most terrifying truth of Scripture is…that God is good.”

Luke 18:19 – “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.”

Now, at that moment, they all kind of started laughing and snickering. It’s like, “What’s the problem?” Some of them even voiced, “Well, what’s the problem with a good God? I mean, why is that bad news? Why is it terrifying that God is good?” And my answer was this, “It’s terrifying to know that God is good because we are not.”

Romans 3:12 – All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

So, what does a good God do with people like us? Sinners. We sinned against God, we sinned against one another, we’ve sinned against nature, we’ve sinned against everything. All of creation calls for our condemnation.

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

If God is truly just, then what does He do with us? If a just God simply pardons the wicked, He is no longer just. If a holy God calls the wicked to Himself to have fellowship with Him, He’s not a holy God. So the great question of all the Scripture is this: How does a just God pardon wicked men and still be just? How does a holy God call wicked men into fellowship with Him and still be holy?

Numbers 14:18 – The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

And the answer is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. In the cross of Jesus Christ, we see this tremendous, unique revelation of the fullness of God’s attributes. God is just – He must condemn our sin. God is love, and so He becomes a man, in His Son, lives a perfect life as a man, and He goes to that tree. And on that tree the sins of His people are cast upon Him and all the justice of God, all the wrath of God that we deserve, is thrown down upon the head of Christ. The exact measure that was required in order to fully satisfy the justice of God.

Romans 3:26 – God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

After suffering, Christ said, “It is finished.” That meant He did what was required to satisfy God’s justice against God’s people. He paid the price in full.

John 19:30 – When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

This is so very important to understand. It wasn’t that our sins were atoned for simply because the Romans beat Jesus up and nailed Him to a cross. Our sins were atoned for because on that tree He bore our sin and it pleased the Lord, it pleased Yahweh to crush Him.

Isaiah 53:10 – Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him…

The wrath of God that should have fallen on me and you fell upon His begotten Son. And He suffered it in full. He paid the price. He died, for the wages of sin is death, and on the third day, He rose again from the dead. And now He is seated at the right hand of God. And there is no other name. No other name in any other world. There is no other name given to men whereby we might be saved, except for the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).

He’s the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him. (John 14:6)

There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)

And in order to be saved, God calls all men to repent of their sins and believe the Gospel.

Acts 17:30 – In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Now, what does it mean to repent? Many have defined the term as “to change one’s mind.” That’s what the word means in Greek, and that truth is there. But that means so much more than what you and I can conceive in our culture today. You’d think, “Well, to change one’s mind, that’s pretty superficial.” Well, it might be, but then it’s not…if you understand what “the mind” is.

The mind in the Bible refers to the mind, the heart, and it is the control center of a human being. It’s the control center of our will, our emotions, our intellect, and our decision-making process. So, what he’s saying is, “If you have changed your mind, everything else will change along with it.”

Let me give you a perfect description of repentance. The Apostle Paul. He had a change of mind. Now, when he left to go on the road to Damascus, he left with orders to capture Christians. Now why? This is what he believed. This is what Paul thought. Paul thought that Jesus was the greatest blasphemer who had ever walked the planet. That’s what he thought. He also thought that the Christians were a terrible sect that ought to be destroyed. That’s what he thought.

And then on the road to Damascus, he had an encounter with the resurrected Christ. And what happened? His thinking changed. His entire reality was proved to be wrong. Everything he thought about reality, especially with regard to God, was wrong. He recognized he was wrong and began to think completely different.

He now thought, what? That Jesus was the Son of God and the long-awaited Messiah. He now thought that the Christians were the very people of God. The very Israel of God. And because his thoughts changed, everything else changed. After being baptized, he began to minister and to preach the Gospel, and to be persecuted for the very faith he was once persecuting.

You see, to repent is to realize that your thinking, your entire view about reality was wrong. And then to see, and to submit to, God’s truth about who he is, about who you are, and about who Jesus is, and what He’s done for you.

Now the question is, have you repented? Has your mind changed? Has that change of mind led to a change of the intellect, a change of the will, a change of your emotions? The sins you once loved, do you now hate? The holiness you ignored, do you now desire? The Christ that you had no part with, that you lived apart from, do you now esteem Him? Do you consider the kingdom of heaven to be a pearl of great price? There are certain evidences that a work of repentance has been done in your heart.

Not only must we repent, but we must believe in Jesus Christ.

Mark 1:15 – “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

To recognize that there is absolutely nothing in us that can save us. As the hymn writer said, “nothing in my hands I bring, but only to the cross of Christ I cling.” It is a recognition that you only have one hope.

1 Peter 1:13 – …set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed…

And 100% of that hope is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. That you know you cannot save yourself to the point that if someone were to even suggest that you would enter heaven by some works of righteousness, it would cause you to be nauseous, and you would cry out, “No! No! Blasphemy! I am saved for only one reason. Two thousand years ago the Son of God bled and died for me.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 – For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.

So, salvation comes to us through repentance and through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, if you truly believe in Christ you have eternal life. But how do you know that you have truly believed? Even if you had some conversion experience and you felt some sort of peace of God, and so many other emotions, how do you really know it’s real? Well, one of the ways that you know it’s real is that it will continue.

It’s not that necessarily the emotional high will continue, but what will continue is, you will continue to grow in grace. You will continue to deepen your repentance. You will continue to deepen in your faith. Little by little you will be transformed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.

And you’ll say, “Does a real Christian sin?”  Yes. Sadly enough, yes. Can a real Christian fall into sin? Yes. But here’s the difference: a real Christian cannot live in a continuous state of carnality. A continuous state of immaturity.

Romans 6:1-2 – What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?

Because the Bible says He who began a good work in you will finish it.

Philippians 1:6 – He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

The Bible talks about in Hebrews 12 that one of the greatest signs of true conversion is that God will watch over you with loving parental care, and He will even discipline you, chastise you, when you turn off the path. Not because His attitude towards you has changed, but because He loves you. And He desires your holiness.

Hebrews 12:6 – The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.

You see, once you become a Christian, you become part of God’s providence. And He who began a good work, will finish it.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God is just. That man is radically depraved and worthy of all condemnation. That in order to forgive men, God’s justice had to be first satisfied, and that was done on the cross where Christ stood in the law place of His people, bore their sin, and was crushed under the full weight of God’s wrath against them.

On dying, He paid the price in full, He is risen from the dead, and now all men everywhere may be saved, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

And the evidence of that repentance unto salvation and that faith unto salvation will be the continuing work of God leading to holiness.