The Gospel For Sinners

The word gospel means “good news.” The good news is this: Jesus bore the punishment we deserve for our sin. Sin is anything we think, say, or do that violates God’s law. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The entire Bible tells the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It reveals who God is, why He created us, how we sinned against Him, and the judgment we deserve for our rebellion. Yet it also unfolds God’s eternal plan, set in motion before the world began, for Jesus Christ to reconcile sinners to God.

Two thousand years ago, Christ came into the world, fully human and fully God, to save His people from the wages of their sin. Conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin, Christ took on human flesh. He lived in perfect obedience to God’s law and offered His life as a sacrifice in our place.

While we daily break God’s law, Jesus kept it perfectly. Through His works alone we are made right with God. Christ accomplished this by physically dying on the cross (Rome’s preferred method of execution). Three days later, He rose from the grave, defeating death and proving He is the Son of God, with His sacrifice accepted as full payment for sin. Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ satisfied God the Father’s justice. All who come to Him in faith and repent (turn away) from their sin are forgiven, restored to fellowship with God, and granted eternal life. 

God is not an energy, force, aura, or imaginary friend, but the eternal Creator (Genesis 1); the only one who exists without beginning or end (Deuteronomy 33:27; Revelation 1:8). All things seen and unseen depend upon Him for their existence (Colossians 1:17), because He made the universe by His spoken word and sustains it by His infinite power. God is sovereign, which means He rules over all that happens in heaven and on earth, without anyone or anything messing up His plans (Daniel 4:35; Proverbs 21:1). He directs human history according to His wisdom and purpose and laughs at those who think they can thwart His efforts (Psalm 2:4; Psalm 37:12–13).

The Bible teaches that God is one being, yet exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each person fully God and working together in perfect unity. By comparison, you are one person existing among billions of other human beings. But there is no other God-being; there is only one.

The holiness of God means that He is utterly pure, perfect, and set apart from the rest of creation. He is without any corruption. God cannot sin, cannot take pleasure in sin, and cannot have fellowship with sin. God is above all other created beings in heaven and on earth.

And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;    the whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isaiah 6:3)!

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ (1 Peter 1:15–16).

There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God (1 Samuel 2:2).

The Bible often compares God’s holiness to fire — powerful and able to burn away what is unclean (such as sin). Scripture says, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24) and again, “our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). His holiness can destroy sin, like when fire came out from the Lord and physically consumed and destroyed those who rebelled against Him (Leviticus 10:1–2; Numbers 16:35). But it also purifies His people, such as when He promises to be “like a refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:2–3) and to “refine them and test them” (Jeremiah 9:7). God’s holiness, like fire, is both dangerous to the sinner and yet life-giving to those who belong to Him. If someone does not repent of their rebellion against God, then his holiness will consume them in judgment. Romans 2:5 says that those with hard hearts “are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

He will not overlook evil but will judge it with a perfect verdict. God makes no mistakes in his judgments. That means he will give each sinner exactly what he or she deserves. If God acts in this perfect justice, every sinner must be condemned. If He pardons the sinner without payment received, His justice would be compromised. The cross of Christ is where this tension is resolved—God’s justice is fully satisfied as sin is punished, and His mercy is fully revealed as the sinner is forgiven.

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he (Deuteronomy 32:4).

But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness (Psalm 9:7–8).

I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve (Jeremiah 17:10).

God’s justice also means he cares for the downtrodden and oppressed. He commands us to tend to the poor, the widows, the foreigners and the fatherless. God says when we don’t care for one another in that way, we actually treat him with disdain and neglect, too. 

Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause (Isaiah 1:17).

Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place (Jeremiah 22:3).

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him (Proverbs 14:31).

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Matthew 25:40).

God is love, though not in a shallow sentiment. It’s one of His defining attributes. Love isn’t just an emotion He possesses, but it’s His essence. God is love. He is the true standard for what love is. The Bible says all true love flows from God, and you won’t know what true love is if you don’t know who God is. The truth is, we can trust God with our lives, our hopes, and our futures, knowing that nothing can separate us from His perfect and abiding love and care (Psalm 33:4; Romans 8:38–39).

He who does not love does not know God for God is love (1 John 4:8).

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Psalm 103:8; Exodus 34:6).
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9–10).

Though God stands ready to judge sin, He is also rich in kindness and mercy toward those who repent. He shows great patience and compassion when we stray. Unlike people, who often fail to follow through with their word, God keeps His promises perfectly. When He says we are saved by faith in Christ, He is the one who secures and sustains that salvation.

God’s faithfulness means He is entirely trustworthy—never lying, forgetting, or failing to do what He has said (Deuteronomy 7:9; 1 Corinthians 1:9). Even when we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, continuing to uphold His covenant and show mercy (2 Timothy 2:13). This faithfulness is evident in creation, in His care for His people, and in the salvation offered through Jesus Christ. Everything God has promised—from the beginning of the world to redemption from sin—He has fulfilled. You can trust Him completely; there is no reason to doubt.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:28–29).

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38–39).

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22–23).

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it (Numbers 23:19)?

The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness (Psalm 111:7–8).

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

You are not an animal, alien creation, or random cosmic accident. You are a created being made intentionally by God (Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139:13–14). You have a beginning—the moment you came into existence through conception—and your life is sustained every moment by the One who has no beginning or end (Acts 17:28; Revelation 1:8). 

Unlike God, you are not sovereign. You do not rule over the events of your life or the world around you, and your plans can change in an instant (Proverbs 19:21; James 4:14–15). Yet your life has meaning because God Himself directs your story within His greater purpose. He instructs you to trust Him rather than strive to control what only He can govern (Psalm 37:5–7; Psalm 46:10).

You are one person among billions, yet you’re unique and valuable; but you are not divine. There is only one God, and you exist to know Him, love Him, and reflect His glory in the world (Isaiah 43:7; 1 Corinthians 10:31).

The Bible makes clear that humans are the only part of creation that are made in the image of God. This means we are moral beings with a spirit, and we are held to the standard of God’s law. We are to be holy because God is holy (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:15–16). Sin is a willful moral rebellion against God’s rules. No other part of the physically created universe is like us in this regard. Animals cannot sin. Trees cannot sin. Water, air, and rocks cannot sin. No other part of creation was made to be holy like God, other than us. Instead, other created things were meant to give God glory and to bring us pleasure. 

It’s because humans are made in God’s image that God says, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). There is no moral prohibition against taking the life of animals, plant life, or microorganisms, but taking the life of an innocent human is a direct attack on God. In fact, it’s so severe that God requires the murderer to forfeit their own life for such an assault on His nature (Genesis 9:6).

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:26–27).

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image (Genesis 9:6).

… what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor (Psalm 8:4–5).

With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God (James 3:9).

God created humans good and in his own image; in true righteousness and holiness (Genesis 1:26; 31). Sadly, this did not last long. Our corrupt nature comes from the fall and disobedience of humankind’s first parents, Adam and Eve. Their sin so poisoned human nature that we are all conceived and born in sin (Genesis 5:3; Psalm 51:5; Psalm 58:3). While God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, with the ability to obey His law, they willfully disobeyed when tempted by the Devil (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Their sin robbed themselves and all their descendants of true righteousness, holiness and the ability to keep God’s law.

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

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it (Jeremiah 17:9)?

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander (Matthew 15:19).

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out (Romans 7:18).

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).

You might think you’re a good person, but if you’re honest with yourself you will realize that you break God’s law on a daily basis through things that you think, say, or do (Exodus 20:1–17). You are a lawbreaker. And this leaves you in a perilous spot.

God’s wrath refers to His righteous anger toward sin. It’s not like human anger, which can be emotional, unfair, or out of control. God’s wrath is holy and just. It’s His perfect response to everything that goes against His goodness—things like idolatry, injustice, hatred, pride, violence, theft, lies, and sexual immorality. To be under God’s wrath means that you are willfully in opposition to God, and those who reject Jesus Christ incur wrath against themselves (John 3:36). 

According to God’s righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both now and in eternity. Because God is just and will not declare the guilty innocent (Exodus 23:7), His justice must be satisfied—either through our own punishment or through a substitute who pays the penalty on our behalf. 

This is a problem for every human who has ever lived or will ever live. Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We stand guilty and without excuse and increase our debt every day. 

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness … (Romans 1:18).

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 5:5-6).

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies (Nahum 1:2).

God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day (Psalm 7:11).

Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it (Isaiah 13:9).

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Christ (Romans 5:9)!

God sees the true state of mankind—lost in sin, spiritually dead, and unable to save ourselves from His coming wrath. Instead of turning away, He responds with both justice and compassion. God’s response to sin reveals the fullness of His character. His holiness and justice demand that sin, committed against His supreme majesty, be eternally punished; At the same time, His love, mercy, and grace move Him to provide a way for sinners to be forgiven rather than destroyed. In His patience, He delays judgment, giving people time to repent (2 Peter 3:9). In His wisdom, He designed a perfect plan of salvation, sending Jesus as a mediator to bear the penalty of sin in our place. And in His faithfulness, God keeps His promise to save all who repent and trust in Christ (John 10:28).

If you were caught speeding, the court would expect you to pay for your lawlessness. A judgment would be pronounced against you. You would be found guilty of breaking the law and justice would require that you pay for your transgression. Some states allow a third party to pay for speeding tickets on behalf of someone else. If another person stepped forward and offered to pay the fine for you, the justice of the court would be satisfied; though it was done through the merciful act of someone else. 

Similarly, Jesus Christ is the legal substitute for repentant sinners. God’s courtroom allows for a perfect human substitute for sinners. Christ steps forward to make eternal payment on behalf of others who could never make the payment themselves, even if they genuinely wanted to try. 

Through His divine power, Christ endured in His humanity the full weight of God’s wrath and secured righteousness and life for us. While we share the debt of our sin with Christ, He shares His perfect righteousness with us, making us right before the ultimate Judge.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4–6).

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).

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree (Galatians 3:13).

Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14).

The wooden cross was where Christ completed His mission as a substitute for sinners. Before the first humans sinned, God told them that they “would surely die” (Genesis 2:17) if they broke His law. They ignored the warning and persisted in what they wanted. Romans 6:23 reiterates that “the wages of sin is death.” Therefore, in order to be a satisfactory substitute for sinners, Christ had to die in order to pay the penalty required for our sin. But the cross reveals something else, too. 

Execution on the cross was considered one of the most heinous and tortuous ways to die in ancient Rome. Criminals were beaten beforehand, nailed to the boards, and suffered hours or days as they slowly died through blood loss and suffocation. The brutality of the cross shows how great God’s love is that he would suffer indescribably for us; and it reveals how much we hated God that we would gleefully torture and murder Him. 

The Bible says that whoever doesn’t keep “all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them“ is cursed by God (Galatians 3:10). Mercifully, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Because of God’s great love for us, Christ was cursed by God in our place. He was the one condemned and treated as the guilty party.

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).

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3).

Even though Christ was murdered by those who actually deserved His death, He laid down His life in His own timing. Christ was sovereignly in control of His redemption plan from the moment of creation until the moment of His crucifixion. 

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father (John 10:17–18).

The fact that Christ was fully in control of His own death and still chose to go through with it shows the depth of His love and the intentionality of His sacrifice. Christ had the power to avoid suffering, call down angels, or walk away (Matthew 26:53; John 10:18), yet He willingly sacrificed His life to save ours. 

His crucifixion wasn’t a tragic accident or a loss of control—it was a purposeful act of obedience to the Father and love for humanity (Philippians 2:8; Galatians 2:20). His willingness to be “led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7) reveals both His divine authority and His deep compassion. His death was not just a moment of suffering, but a victory of love, mercy, and redemption.

Christ’s victory over the grave, death, and Satan is an epic act of divine warfare that stands at the heart of Christian history. In His crucifixion, Jesus willingly bore the full weight of God’s wrath against sin, satisfying divine justice as the spotless Lamb of God (1 Peter 1:19). It’s in His resurrection that Christ’s triumph is revealed. Christ did what no one else could ever do: He shattered the finality of death. He escaped the tomb and rendered it powerless for all who are united to Him by faith. Death is no longer a curse for the believer, but a defeated enemy. The grave could not hold Christ because He is life itself. And Satan, the ancient accuser (Revelation 12:10), has been overthrown. 

At the beginning of creation, Satan approached Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and enticed them to break God’s law, knowing full well it would bring death to humanity. For thousands of years Satan worked to sabotage God’s creation work and His image bearers; but when Christ rose from the grave three days after his death (Matthew 17:22–23), all of Satan’s work was undone.

Now Satan’s dominion is broken, his accusations silenced, and his head crushed under the heel of the risen Christ (Genesis 3:15; Romans 16:20). In Christ, the new creation has begun, the kingdom of darkness is in retreat, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against God’s people.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him (Romans 6:9).

That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14).

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55–57).

Every person has a response to God. Some people, despite hearing the gospel, reject it outright. This is due to their love for sin. Their hearts become hardened, and they resist the truth of God’s message (Romans 1:18–20). The fool says in his heart “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1), and the person who loves their sin is hostile to God and does not submit to Him (Romans 8:7). 

Others may initially show interest but do not deeply engage with the gospel. They may hear the message, but when faced with difficulties or distractions, they abandon it because they are still enslaved to sin (Romans 6:16-18). Many more intellectually understand the gospel, thinking its message sounds good, but it doesn’t transform their hearts or lives. They may appreciate the moral teachings but fail to surrender to Christ. 

The only response that brings forth blessing in this life and eternal life in the world to come is the one that recognizes sin, grieves over it, repents, and places faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

Faith is believing God can and will do what He has promised. The Bible teaches faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1), and that “faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Saving faith is not merely acknowledging that God exists. Even Satan and fallen angels know God exists and they shudder (James 2:19). They are not atheists, but they don’t believe God will do what He has promised, nor do they even want what He has guaranteed. 

The Bible teaches that salvation is a gift from God and so is faith. Faith is not conjured up through our own works or human efforts, but is received through the gracious giving of God (Ephesians 2:8–9). Faith is the means by which we understand our need for a Savior and trust in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as the atonement for our sins (Romans 3:22–24). Without faith, even our good deeds done for moral reasons are ultimately motivated by self-interest rather than a genuine desire to glorify God.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). 

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).

… a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16).

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5:4–5)?

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test (2 Corinthians 13:5)!