​Washington Heights  Grace Brethren  Church

What is the gospel? The gospel means “good news,” and it is the good news of how people can be reconciled with God. However, for the gospel to be good news, it must begin with bad news.

 

God is holy and just. This sounds like good news, and it is. It is good that God is holy, loving, and just. A wicked, hateful, and evil God would be terrifying. However, a holy, loving, and just God is a problem for people like us.

 

Every person is a sinner, a wicked rebel. You and every other person have sinned against God. God created everything, and that means He owns everything. Therefore, as a just God, He cannot simply pardon those who have broken His law, even once. It only takes one murder to be a guilty murderer, and one sin against God’s law, let alone the innumerable sins we commit, is enough to be condemned by God under His wrath for eternity.

 

God the Father sent God the Son to be born totally divine and totally human, Jesus. He was born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to be born without a sinful nature. Jesus not only never broke God’s law, but He also did everything good that could be done. Despite this, people hated Him and crucified Him on a cross. On the cross, Jesus, even though He was perfect and sinless, bore the wrath of the Father that sin deserves. He then died on the cross, but He did not remain dead. He rose from the dead on the third day, appeared to hundreds of witnesses, and ascended into heaven. Jesus had to die under the wrath of the Father because this satisfies God’s attributes, like justice. This allows God to pardon anyone who receives Jesus as his substitute. How does one do this?

 

A person must repent of sin and believe the gospel. Think about it. If your problem is that you are a sinner in need of a Savior, then why would you want to continue sinning in the ways you did before? A person won’t be perfect, but if someone has repented, there will be drastic life change. Repentance is the negative side of faith. Repentance hates sin and wants to run away from it. Faith loves Jesus and wants to run to Him. Faith is trusting in Jesus’ substitutionary life, death, and resurrection as the only hope for being forgiven by God, who could justly condemn you to hell forever. When a person has repented of sin and believed the gospel, the next step is to be baptized and join a local church.

 

If you have repented of sin and believed the gospel, then we would love to meet with you and baptize you so you can publicly proclaim your decision to follow Christ. We hope to see you soon, and if not soon, then in heaven one day.