What is the gospel?
The gospel is good news—the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.
The Bible depicts human beings, all human beings everywhere, as in rebellion against God, and therefore under His judgment. But although God stands over against us in judgment because of our sin, quite amazingly He stands over against us in love, because He is that kind of God—and the gospel is the good news of what God, in love, has done in Jesus Christ, especially in Jesus’s cross and resurrection, to deal with our sin and to reconcile us to Himself.
Christ bore our sin on the cross. He bore the penalty, turned aside God’s judgment, God’s wrath, from us, and cancelled sin. The brokenness of our lives He restores; the shattered relationships He rebuilds in the context of the church; the new life that we human beings find in Christ is granted out of the sheer grace of God. It is received by faith as we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus. We confess Him as Lord, and bow to Him joyfully.
One day He will make all things new. The peak of the good news is a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness, where neither sin nor any of its effects can survive, and where we enjoy the presence of God forever in the context of resurrection life.
And we announce this good news to people everywhere, begging them with the words, “Be reconciled to God!” by repenting of sin, asking God for His mercy, and trusting Jesus Christ.