THE GOSPEL

Stage 1
Lesson 3: The Gospel

6 steps to have a good grasp of the Bible:
Hear, Read, Study, Memorize, Meditate, Apply

The GOSPEL means "the good new". It is not religion or philosophy. Religions teach people to be good but the Gospel is different. It focuses through a single person - JESUS.
*It's not being good, but the relation we have in Christ.

1 Cor.1:22-24
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.


In the beginning...

God created the first man and woman who were totally God-centered, God-conscious and God-dependent.

Satan tempted them to rebel (Genesis 3:4-5)

From that time on, SELF became the center of everything.

We all fall short of God's glorious standard (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 64:6)

Rom.5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned



THE GOOD NEWS
The Good News of the Gospel is that God sent Jesus to take our judgement for us.

Rom.5:6
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

He didn't just save us, He became salvation for us (1 Cor.1:30)


THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL
Rom.1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes....

The Gospel is the salvation of God in action. It describes how we enter into God's salvation.

Rom.1:17
For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

This verse reveals three things about the Gospel:
1. It is from God-to-you direction not the other way around (1 Cor.8:6)
Religion - us finding God
Gospel - God finding us

2. It is by faith. God has designed the Christian life in such a way that as we release our faith toward God, He releases His power to work in our lives. (Heb.11:6)

3. It is from first to last. The Gospel embraces the whole Christian life from start to finish. We begin as Christian by faith in the saving power of God and we live as a Christian in that same saving power. The Gospel does this things: a) It introduces us to Christ (Eph.1:13) b) It establishes us in Christ (Rom.16:25)

Satan deceive Christians into thinking that after receiving the Lord, we must try to live the christian life in our own strength. Self-effort puts us back into self-centerednesss. The christian life is all by faith and all by grace.

Col.1:6
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

Memory Verse: 1 Cor.1:30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.