Here we compare the ways that many Christian preachers and teachers have simply and clearly explained the gospel. This post is a companion to Episode 5 on the essentials of the gospel.

I hope that one of the benefits of looking at these summaries will be that we see that there are some essential core elements that are necessary to accurately explain the gospel, but there is great flexibility to explain the message in ways that match it up with what a specific person is struggling with. People need the whole gospel, but it can be explained in many different ways depending on their circumstances. God makes use of our creativity and our personal knowledge of someone’s life in order to communicate his truth to them. In fact, not all of the explanations below cover all the elements of the gospel we listed in the Show Notes for Episode 5 above. We see the same thing in Scripture: Paul or Peter or other writers do not include every element of the gospel every single time they preach the gospel. Sometimes they emphasize the ones their audience most needs to hear or be confronted with. We should know them all and be ready to explain them, but we should follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and use wisdom in recognizing which ones are most needed with a specific person.

Greg Gilbert

Gilbert has written possibly the most useful and accessible book to study the basics of the gospel message and explain them for others. It is also available as a package of tracts to make sharing easier: What Is The Gospel? tracts.

Gilbert summarizes Paul’s presentation of the gospel in Romans (and the rest of the New Testament) like this:

“Now, having looked at Paul’s argument in Romans 1–4, we can see that at the heart of his proclamation of the gospel are the answers to four crucial questions:

1. Who made us, and to whom are we accountable?
2. What is our problem? In other words, are we in trouble and why?
3. What is God’s solution to that problem? How has he acted to save us from it?
4. How do I—myself, right here, right now—how do I come to be included in that salvation? What makes this good news for me and not just for someone else?

We might summarize these four major points like this: God, man, Christ, and response.”

What Is the Gospel?, Greg Gilbert. Series: 9Marks (Crossway, 2010), 31.

Here are Gilbert’s summaries of how Paul addresses these four questions:

1. “First, Paul tells his readers that it is God to whom they are accountable. After his introductory remarks in Romans 1:1–7, Paul begins his presentation of the gospel by declaring that ‘the wrath of God is revealed from heaven’ (v. 18). With his very first words, Paul insists that humanity is not autonomous. We did not create ourselves, and we are neither self-reliant nor self-accountable. No, it is God who created the world and everything in it, including us. Because he created us, God has the right to demand that we worship him. Look what Paul says in verse 21: ‘For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.’” What Is the Gospel?, 28.
2. “Second, Paul tells his readers that their problem is that they rebelled against God. They—along with everyone else—did not honor God and give thanks to him as they should have. Their foolish hearts were darkened and they ‘exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things’ (v. 23).” What Is the Gospel?, 29. “By the middle of chapter 3, Paul has indicted every single person in the world with rebellion against God. ‘We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin’ (v. 9). And his sobering conclusion is that when we stand before God the Judge, every mouth will be silenced. No one will mount a defense.” What Is the Gospel?, 29.
3. “Third, Paul says that God’s solution to humanity’s sin is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Having laid out the bad news of the predicament we face as sinners before our righteous God, Paul turns now to the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.” What Is the Gospel?, 30. “’But now,’ Paul says, in spite of our sin, ‘now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law’ (v. 21). In other words, there is a way for human beings to be counted righteous before God instead of unrighteous, to be declared innocent instead of guilty, to be justified instead of condemned. And it has nothing to do with acting better or living a more righteous life. It comes ‘apart from the law.’ So how does it happen? Paul puts it plainly in Romans 3:24. Despite our rebellion against God, and in the face of a hopeless situation, we can be ‘justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ Through Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection—because of his blood and his life—sinners may be saved from the condemnation our sins deserve.” What Is the Gospel?, 30.
4. “The salvation God has provided comes ‘through faith in Jesus Christ,’ and it is ‘for all who believe’ (3:22). So how does this salvation become good news for me and not just for someone else? How do I come to be included in it? By believing in Jesus Christ. By trusting him and no other to save me. ‘To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,’ Paul explains, ‘his faith is counted as righteousness’ (4:5).” What Is the Gospel?, 31.

John Piper

“The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy. That’s the gospel.” John Piper, DesiringGod.org https://www.desiringgod.org/topics/the-gospel# (this is a main landing page collecting their resources and messages explaining the gospel)

The Gospel in 6 Minutes, John Piper (video/audio)

Summary of “What Must I Believe to Be Saved?” Ask Pastor John podcast, April 22, 2014:

Begin at the core of the death of Jesus.
A person must believe they are a sinner.
You must believe there is a Creator God who has expectations for humans. And we’ve fallen short of them.
We are under his holy judgment.
He has sent his son into the world. “You gotta believe in the deity of Jesus.”
God will pay the ransom.
He lived a perfect life. You can’t believe Jesus sinned.
He gives himself up to die in my place. The substitutional dimension of the son of God in my place.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God who never sinned, got in my place and took the wrath of God for me.
We must believe he rose from the dead.
Belief is required. “Salvation requires… you must believe, instead of working for this salvation.”

Summary notes compiled by Anthony Bushnell based on the audio message at DesiringGod.org linked above.

Jerry Bridges

When sharing the gospel with those who don’t know Christ, “what one word describes the Bible message you most needed to hear as an unbeliever? I suggest that word is the gospel. It is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). We need to hear that Jesus died for sinners and that if we come to Him in faith, we will receive the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life. The message may be ‘packaged’ in any number of ways, but it must always be the gospel. That is what we need to hear and respond to as unbelievers.” The Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges (NavPress: 1994, 2006), 20.

J.D. Greear

“Most Christians have the facts straight: Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on the cross in our place, and was raised from the dead. All those who place their faith in Him will be forgiven and have everlasting life.” Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, J.D. Greear (B&H Publishing Group, 2011), 9.

But, as Greear goes on to point out, “there is a difference in knowing that honey is sweet and having that sweetness burst alive in your mouth. Being able to articulate the gospel with accuracy is one thing; having its truth captivate your soul is quite another. The gospel is not just supposed to be our ticket into heaven; it is to be an entirely new basis for how we relate to God, ourselves, and others. It is to be the source from which everything else flows.” Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, J.D. Greear (B&H Publishing Group, 2011), 9. That is why Greear focuses this book on recovering the understanding and practice of the gospel.

Here is an even more clear explanation of the parts of the gospel and their importance for us from Greear in 2019:

“We were dead in our trespasses and sin.

Religion couldn’t help us.

New resolutions to change couldn’t help us.

Jesus, the baby born of a virgin in Bethlehem, was the Son of God.

He did what we couldn’t do. He lived a righteous life that pleased God.

Still he got crucified on a cross under the curse of sin.

He did that for us.

He died in our place.

But Jesus was raised from the grave to offer new life in his Spirit.

Jesus gives this new life to all who call upon him in faith.”

Above All: The Gospel Is the Source of the Church’s Renewal, J.D. Greear (B&H Publishing, 2019), 6-7.

Michael Horton

In Core Christianity, Horton unpacks Christian doctrine by tracing the story of God’s relationship with humanity and the history of his covenants and his plan of salvation. Here is how he sums up the righteousness we receive in Christ:

“Jesus is the fulfillment of everything to which the law pointed. The law—the Sinai covenant—could not annul the Abrahamic promise. We can be justified—declared righteous before God—and made children of Abraham only through faith in Christ, the ‘seed’ in whom the nations would be blessed.

“Since God’s promise to Abraham pertained to a single individual, namely Christ, how does it become ours? The answer is that we must be in relationship or union with Christ, or as the Bible says, we must be in Christ. Christ is our treasure, our refuge from the coming judgment, the source of every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3-14). In Christ we have everything. Outside of Christ we have nothing but condemnation. We are chosen, justified, sanctified, and glorified in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of a promise alone—apart from the law. God declares unrighteous people to be righteous even while they are still unrighteous in themselves because they are now in union with Christ.

“Folks, this is good news. It is the heart of the gospel. I know that it sounds impossible. How could a just God regard someone as righteous who is actually unrighteous? But as Paul makes clear, it is because Christ gives us his righteousness as a gift. … When the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ through the gospel, we are united to Christ. His righteousness becomes truly ours because he has imputed or credited it to us. And our curse is imputed to him. It’s a transfer, what the church fathers called ‘the marvelous exchange.’ It is our rags for Christ’s riches. This is the doctrine of justification. … He is the head and mediator of the covenant of grace. To be united to him is to be justified, gradually sanctified, and finally glorified when he returns.” Core Christianity: Finding Yourself in God’s Story, Michael Horton (Zondervan, 2016), 127-29.

Thabiti Anyabwile’s Personal Testimony

Anyabwile describes how the gospel message captured his heart and his wife’s heart when they were drawn to visit a church after the miscarriage of their first child:

“Eventually, my wife and I visited the church where this pastor served. We sat seven or eight rows from the pulpit. Crowded into a church service of some seven or eight thousand, I felt as if the preacher and I were the only people in the room.

“The sermon, taken from Exodus 32, was titled ‘What does it take to make you angry?’ Imagine that. The first time I, having been consumed with anger for well over a decade by then, entered a church since becoming a Muslim, the preacher addresses anger. But it was not what I thought. The sermon carefully examined sin, idolatry, and their consequences. The pastor challenged the congregation to develop a righteous, godly indignation toward sin, to hate sin, and to turn to God.

“I sat gripped as the holiness and justice of God were unfolded from the Scripture. I grew strangely remorseful and alert, awakened really, as the pastor applied the doctrine of sin to his hearers. I was convicted, guilty before this holy God who judges all unrighteousness.

“Then, with plain yet beautiful speech, the preacher exalted Jesus. Here was the Lamb of God for us to behold! Here was the sacrifice anticipated in the Old Testament and executed in the New. Here in Jesus was redemption. The sinless Son of God had indeed come into the world to save everyone who believes—even a former Muslim who was an avowed and determined enemy of the cross!

“’Repent and believe for the forgiveness of your sins,’ came the invitation. In lavish kindness, God turned my wife and me from our sins and to Jesus in repentance and faith on that day. Literally overnight, God mercifully broke the stranglehold of years of anger and hatred. The gospel triumphed where no other power had or could. The gospel of Jesus Christ freed me from the clutches of sin and the darkness of Islam.”

The Gospel for Muslims, Thabiti Anyabwile (Moody Publishers, 2010), 21-24.