The Essential Good News of Christianity

Our English word "gospel" came from the Greek word for "good news". Jesus came to bring us the good news of the Kingdom of God (Luke 4:43), and His message of the gospel is the core of Christianity.

The gospel is not the whole of Christianity. Christianity also includes important things such as (for example) the nature of God, atonement, etc. However, this paper does not attempt to cover all of Christianity - only the gospel core.

This is not the only thing you need to believe, but it is the most important point of belief. These are the essential points to the gospel:

• "The man Jesus, is God.
• "You must believe that Jesus is Lord and King.
• "You must believe the Kingdom is spiritual and for all people.
• "You must believe that Christ's death and resurrection established the Kingdom.
• "You must adopt (must do) Jesus' value system."

Together, these points contain the gospel. Attribution

Quoting Darren Twa

Jesus is called "the Christ", which means "the anointed one". God had persons anointed in ancient Israel to signify their appointment to their office of King.

Jesus came to establish a Kingdom. And this is the theme for the whole book of Matthew - a King and His Kingdom. (e.g. Matthew 2:1-11, 3:1, 4:17, 21:1-8, 27:11, 28:18-20)

It is interesting that priests were also anointed to signify their appointment. It was very clear in the writings of the prophets that the Christ was to be both a priest and a king. (Isaiah 9:6-7) The enigmatic Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18) was the only other person to hold such a position. And we find out (in Psalms 110) that Melchizedek was an image of what was to be realized in Jesus.

It is important to consider the identity of Jesus. -Whose kingdom would you be participating in and what are the credentials of the king? The Bible presents Jesus as fully God and fully man.

Jesus is God because He:

• performed miracles as evidence of His identity (John 10:36-39)
• said He was God (Mark 14:61-64, John 8:58-59, John 10:30-33, Matthew 26:63-65)
• claimed universal authority (Matthew 28:18)
• said He was sinless (John 8:46)
• forgave sin (Mark 2:5)
• taught people to pray to Him (John 14:13-14)
• said He would judge all people (John 5:22-24)

Jesus was human as well. He:

• was born of a woman (Luke 2:5-6, Gal 4:4)
• had a human body (Luke 24:39)
• grew up (Luke 2:52)
• in a family (Matthew 13:54-56)
• worked as a carpenter (Mark 6:3)
• went to parties (John 2:1-2, Matthew 11:19)
• had emotions:
  • stress (John 13:21)
  • astonishment (Mark 6:6)
  • joy (Luke 10:21)
  • compassion (Luke 7:13)
  • love (Matthew 19:13-15, John 11:3-5)
  • loneliness (Mark 15:34)
  • sorrow (Matthew 26:37)

• became
  • hungry (Matthew 4:2, 21:18)
  • thirsty (John 19:28)
  • exhausted (Matthew 8:24)

• bled (Luke 22:44, John 19:34)
• died (Mark 15:37)

After He died, Jesus showed again that He was sinless and that He was God when death could not hold Him in the grave. He returned to life in a perfected, but still human body. (He could "teleport" and He traveled directly to heaven. But His features were still recognizable and human, and He ate food.)

Christianity is dependent on this dual nature of Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus". Knowing Jesus' true identity is critical to understanding Christianity.

Jesus made his case by pointing out that their money had Caesar's image and name inscribed on it. Since they made use of the money Caesar had made, they had to acknowledge the authority of Caesar to tax them. In the same way, we have the image of God on us because God made us. Therefore also we must acknowledge His authority over us.

Your citizenship in God's kingdom is in parallel with your citizenship on earth. In addition, God intends for the relationship benefits of His kingdom to leak over to the kingdoms of the world, through the way that His people live.

The really difficult part was that Jesus taught that His Kingdom had precedence over everything earthly. He asked for first loyalty - loyalty such that in comparison it looked like you hated your family by putting Him first. (Matthew 12:46-50)

(A point through humor:) We know that Jesus' Kingdom was not of this world because John the Baptist didn't have a shovel! Attribution

John said his job was to get road improvements done as an advance herald of the coming king. (John 1:23 & Matthew 3:2-3) If the king was earthly, John would have been overseeing dirt-moving crews. He never did use a shovel, but Jesus said he got the job done. (Matthew 11:7-14) So instead, John's task was to work on the people regarding moral and spiritual issues. Thus, Jesus' Kingdom was not earthly; it was to be a Kingdom in the hearts of His people.

A related point: Jesus did not teach His followers to use physical war to establish an earthly kingdom. (John 18:36) The use of force is completely at odds with the value system of God. Only non-physical and spiritual weapons are useful for His Kingdom. (2 Corinthians 10:3-4) From this we can see that those who try to establish a kingdom on earth for Christ do not follow Christ or represent His Kingdom.

This value system was best shown by what Jesus did at the cross.

See also What is a Value System?

The Kingdom's "law" is better than the laws of this world. See Matthew 5:21-48 "you have heard", "but I tell you". The "law" of God's Kingdom is His value system. And each case illustration demonstrates that the value system of God is surpassingly better than earthly laws. If you live the value system of God, you will automatically fulfill the Old Testament moral laws.

There were no restrictions or preconditions for entry into the Kingdom. Especially there was no requirement to become Jewish or follow the Jewish laws. This is not much of an issue for most people in the Western world today, but at one time it was, and the apostle Paul wrote quite a bit to emphasize this point.

The level of openness into the Kingdom was unprecedented.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28 NIV

Just as Jews had no advantage in the Kingdom over non-Jews, males had no advantage over females, and social position additionally gave no advantage.

Corollary note: Judaism was not just extended by Christianity, but Christianity spiritually replaced Judaism. God's goal for the Jews was to have been a spiritual light for the world. The peoples of the world could come to Israel to get spiritual truth about God. However, the Jews never allowed outsiders to become first-class spiritual citizens. They failed in this aspect of their purpose.

Then Jesus came as fulfillment of God's promises to the Jews (even though they did not accept Him). Jesus announced His new Kingdom that could be entered without earthly restrictions. In this Kingdom, Jews had no different place than any Gentile. And so there was no longer any spiritual purpose in Judaism to enable access to God.

As we will see, Jesus modeled everything He asks us to do. And this included suffering and death. In our own case, death does not establish a new kingdom. However, God can use us to extend His kingdom. And we can have the courage to face death for Him because we believe in a God that raises the dead. (Matthew 16:24-28, John 5:20-24) This could be death of self or death of our body - in either case we can do it because we know God gives life back to us.

They ate fruit from the forbidden tree on the false promise that it would allow them to set their own agenda, and so be God-like. Instead of following God's values (by obeying the one command they had been given), it was suggested to them that they could choose their own value system. This was supposed to make them be like God by enabling them to choose what was right for them. Therefore also, they supposedly could have their own kingdom. (They would be self-governing.)

Instead they became unlike God at His most defining characteristic - His value system. And their kingdoms turned out to be lonely kingdoms of one in conflict with everyone else.

See also What went wrong with Adam and Eve in Eden?

Since God made us, we are personally accountable to Him, and if He requires something of us, He has the right to do so.

Without intervention, our default state is unacceptable to God. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves be more acceptable to Him. But, there also is nothing we can do to make ourselves be less acceptable to Him. The fact is that all of us are equally condemned without the Gospel, and our failures don't influence this. So, our failures don't negatively influence God's interest in us or his ability to renew us.

God loves us exactly as we are, and so he had made a plan from the beginning of time to be able to restore relationship with us (Genesis 3:15).

A key part of the cross was a demonstration to us of the consequences and cost of our offenses against God. The experience of the cross was unbelievably horrible in many ways. We see however that Jesus, motivated by love, triumphed even over the worst of what sin and evil produces. This same motivation in us will prevent evil from destroying us. This love will enable us to win against sin.

See also Jesus' Experience of the Cross.

Also, at the cross Jesus was implementing a key part of the process of forgiveness by absorbing into himself the cost of our rebellion in our relationship with him.

God set this precedence of a king representative with the Israelites after they had a king as head of their government. See also

It is very important to understand that there is nothing that we can do to earn our way to being with God after this life - nothing before we come to God, and also nothing after we come to God. (Gal 2:16) Therefore, the part in Christianity that we do, has nothing to do with getting to heaven. God did all the work. Everything! He even gives us the faith to accept His free gift of righteousness. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

In fact it is silly to think in these terms of earning because heaven isn't anything like earthly housing. Heaven is God's place. Heaven is simply being with God. We would not want to be there unless we had a relationship with Him. Heaven is also where God's will is done perfectly. Only if we have His value system can we have a relationship with Him or do His will. Only if we adopt the value system of God is there a logical place for us in heaven.

If we chose to reject the value system of God we would also be rejecting what heaven is. It would be illogical for us to be in heaven. We wouldn't want it.

An important part of what happens in forgiveness is not holding someone else responsible for the relationship consequences of their past actions. These consequences are not ignored. Instead, when someone is forgiven, the person doing the forgiving pays for the relationship consequences of those actions.

The goal of forgiveness is restoration of relationship. Forgiveness is given to someone who is repentant, someone who is willing to change their value system. That is how God deals with us, and He requires us to act as he does.

Forgiveness is such a key expression of God's values, that God only forgives us to the degree we forgive others. (Matthew 6:14-15) God values forgiveness so highly that He was willing to die to bring it to us. So then when we are forgiving to others, we are demonstrating that we have have repented of our selfish values and have adopted the value system of God.

And the flip side to this is that if we don't adopt the value system of the King, we never were in the Kingdom. Just showing up at the door doesn't mean that we came in.

Belief is not just a mental process. Belief is more than simply agreeing to four spiritual laws (for example) and saying some words. True belief of any kind inspires action. You sit in a chair because you believe it will support you. You drive a car because you believe it is a safe mode of transportation.

Faith and belief in Jesus will inspire a life like His.

All theology is relational; this includes the concept of death. Death is the breaking of relationship. That is the significant part of Jesus' death on the cross.

As God promised Adam & Eve, they immediately died when they broke the commandment he had given them. This was the death of their relationship with God and with each other. (Genesis 3:9-13) And in addition, God then also pronounced mortality on them. (Genesis 3:17-24)

Jesus experienced both kinds of death: death to God (Matt 27:46), and death of His body (Matthew 27:50). However, He died willingly because He was confident in His resurrection. He could not stay dead in relationship to God because although He took the consequence of our wrong value systems, His value system never changed. His values always stayed exactly the same as God's, so their relationship could not remain broken. And His body did not need to remain dead because Jesus had the authority to lay it down and take it up as He chose. (John 10:18, Matt 27:50) Like as Jesus healed a man to show He had authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:8-12), the resurrection of His body illustrated that the life of His relationship with God the Father had been restored. God raised Jesus from death!

So we also can be confident of resurrection. As we see the value system of God become expressed in our life, we know that we have life in relationship with God. (1 John 3:21-23) In addition, God has promised that he will restore us to bodily life. (1 Corinthians 15:12-58)

Without confidence in a resurrection there is absolutely no reason to be interested in God's Kingdom because He asks us to die for Him. Sacrificial living is learning to die to self. However, since we can be confident of our resurrection, there is great motivation to adopt the value system of God. And to the degree we believe in the resurrection, we will adopt it into our living.

Worship: The book of Romans is structured around the two parts of Christianity.

• the part that we believe is the subject of Romans 1-11
• the part that we do is the subject of Romans 12-16

In fact the transition between the two sections, Romans 12:1-2 throws a very interesting light on worship. Worship is not what comes out of our mouth, it is what comes out of our actions. Worship is sacrificial living for the benefit of others. It is adopting and acting on the value system of God.

The dictionary defines holy as being completely (wholly) devoted to the service of God. It has the idea of separation (for this service). It also has the concept of moral excellence.

The value system of God is His moral excellence. And so holiness means being uncorrupted by, and therefore completely separated from, the (self-centered) value system of the world. This is why God is completely holy.

Since we are under our holy king-representative Jesus, God treats us as holy (positional sanctification). And as we increasingly live the value system of God with His help, then we also become holy (progressive sanctification).

The set of laws God gave to the Jews were to instruct them on dealings with each other. Unfortunately, the Jews incorrectly came to view these rules as the whole of what God desired of them. And then they also added multiple layers of rules on top to ensure compliance. These became a great burden. (Luke 11:46)

Jesus gave only one rule in the Kingdom, a rule that represents the value system of the Kingdom. This is the rule of love. (Romans 13:9-10, Galatians 5:14) Unfortunately, people still attempt to add rules to what God gave us.

Again the rules start as an attempt to explain what we are to do. However, they can progress to becoming just another burden. Therefore it is important to remember that even though some of the rules may have good ideas, they are not essential Christianity.

We don't please God by following rules. We please Him by adopting His value system.

Since the value system of God is sacrificial love for the benefit of others, exploitation is the most true opposite of this love:

• Apathy isn't the opposite of love. It is just a non-emotion that tells you something has no meaning (value) to you.
• Hate isn't the opposite of love. It is a form of anger that wants something bad to happen to the other person because it thinks that is what they deserve.
• Exploitation IS the opposite of love because it is selfishly trying to benefit me at the expense of others.

Understanding the value system and love of God is very difficult for us. Christianity is therefore a thinking religion because God gives us one simple, but very wise command (love each other) and asks us to learn and apply it to the complexities of life in any culture or time-period. He does not treat us like children with mindless opaque rules, but challenges our reason with the straightforward, but profound gospel.

Changing to have and do the value system of God is humanly impossible. So when we see God's sacrificial love flowing out of our life, we have proof that we are becoming like Him, and that He is doing the work in us. Therefore, we can have confidence before God that he loves us to do this work in us, and that we are doing what pleases Him. (1 John 3:21-23)

It also is proof to us that our faith is not blind faith. Faith is believing the promises of God. When we see Christians living a love that is not natural for humans, it becomes a demonstration to us that God is trustworthy, able, and faithful to keep His promises.

Progress in the Christian life:

• It isn't measured by quantity of prayer or Bible reading. (Although those are important tools in growth.)
• It isn't measured by rules of social conduct. (Jesus didn't give us new social rules other than the rule of love.)
• It isn't measured by participation in any kind of special teaching or spiritual experiences. (These are just mystical things without any standard for measurement.)

Progress in the Christian life is measured by one thing:

• Am I becoming more like Christ by living His value system of sacrificial love for the benefit of others in my life?

This is something that is understandable, measurable and is clear. Therefore we can see when there is progress, and we can make goals for what yet needs progress.