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 This series is designed for anyone wanting to seek God or become a Christian. If you have questions about anything or you would like to learn more about becoming a Christian, please get in touch with us!  

Introduction

If someone were to ask you to define Christianity, how would you do it? Would you give a list of doctrines to believe? Would you share the law of God which we must keep? Would you tell of the regular practices of a believer, things like prayer, Bible study, and worship? What would you say makes someone a Christian?

These are essential questions we all must come to terms with. Not only are they of utmost importance for us and our own faith, but they are necessary to answer if we are ever to share God’s Word and make disciples. How can we convert someone to Christianity if we don’t know how to define it?  

Our faith can be summarized in one name and one word. The person is Jesus Christ, and the word is the Gospel.  

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 does a great job of explaining what this word gospel means. In verse one we are told that the gospel is what saved us and what continues to save us. It is what we must stand in and hold fast to. It is at the very heart of Christianity, and this text tells us it is of first importance.   

So what is the gospel? To begin with, it is good news. In a world so often dominated by negative and bad news, it is good to know that God has supplied something joyful. The word gospel is translated from a Greek word, euangelion, meaning good news or joyful tidings.  

What is this news and what makes it so good? Verses 3-4 tell us the content of the gospel. Jesus Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again from the grave. This was all done in accordance with the scriptures – it was God’s plan that God foretold – and it is good news because it has the power to save us.   

Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Thought Questions

• What is Christianity all about? What makes someone a Christian?  
   
• What makes the good news of Jesus so good?  
   

Before we begin our in-depth study, I want to let you know a couple of assumptions I am working with:

1. The Bible is God’s Word.
 

I believe with all my heart that the Bible came from God and is true. I have entrusted my soul to the saving message that God has revealed in His Word. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is breathed-out by God. I will base our study on the assumption that the Bible reveals the will of God, and not the opinion of man.  

2. The Bible is all we need for salvation  
 

Also in 2 Timothy 3 this time in verse 17 we are told that the Bible completes the person and thoroughly equips us for every good work. The Bible is all we need to follow and serve God. We don’t need any additional creeds, denominational teachings, church traditions, or special people in order to access the knowledge of who God is and what he wants from me.  

3. The Bible can be understood by you  
 

You do not need a certain education, a certain preacher or pastor, or specialized connection with  the spiritual realm in order to understand the Word of God. Many of those whom God used to record his word were not highly educated (Acts 4:13). In Acts 17:11 we read of a group of people who were called noble by God because they studied the Bible for themselves. That is what I hope you will do as we go through this study.  

What Is the Bad News?

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “I’ve got good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?” Well, we’ve shared the good news in a very basic sense: that Christ has died, been buried, and risen again. In order for us to understand why this is such good news, we need to hear the bad news. In order for us to understand what makes the gospel so good, we must figure out what makes us so bad.  

In the very beginning of your Bible (Genesis 1:1) we are told that God created everything. In Genesis 1:26-27 we read that man was created in the image and likeness of God, a very special distinction between us and the rest of God’s creation. Everything in creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31) until a temptation enters into the garden of Eden. God had given man everything he needed, but he also gave man a choice. Would man follow his creator and obey, or would he rebel and eat of the one tree God told them not to eat of? You probably know this story. The man and his wife eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and through that act of disobedience death and sin enter into the world (Romans 5:12).  

We all sin and we all suffer the consequences of sin. Romans 3:23 states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 shows us why this is so serious: “For the wages of sin is death.”If it were only a physical death that we had to worry about it might not be so bad, but the sobering reality is that sin brings aspiritual death.  

One of the most famous verse is the Bible is John 3:16which tells us that believing in Jesus brings eternal life, which is the good news. The bad news is that without him we would perish. Ephesians 2:1-3 shows us the serious nature of our spiritual state. It reveals that we are dead in our sins, that we follow our own desires instead of God’s will, and that we are children of wrath.  Isaiah 59:2 informs us that sin creates a separation between us and God. Matthew 6:12 speaks of sin as a debt. Debts must be repaid.

So the bad news is that all have sinned and we have all rebelled against the one who made us in some form or another. Because we all sin, we all have a massive debt that we owe the God who created us. That debt of sin separates us from God and brings about death and the wrath of the only one who is holy and righteous.  

You might say, “Okay I admit that I have done some things that are wrong, but I am not all that bad. I’m basically good.” While it may be true that you have a lot of good qualities, we must allow scripture to be our guide. The Bible did not tell us that it is the “big sins” that lead to death, but that it is all and any sin that brings about this spiritual separation from God. In fact, God tells us in 1 John 1:8, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.  

Maybe we think, “what I’ll do is start working really hard to avoid sin and start doing more good. Maybe then my good will outweigh my bad.” The problem with this type of thinking is that it goes against the truth that God reveals. Good works have no power to save us (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 3:20). In fact, God tells us that our good works are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We have sinned against our holy and righteous creator. We are separated from the God who loves us, and if our debt is not repaid,the wrath of God will be upon us for all eternity. “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”(John 3:36)  

That’s some pretty bad news. We cannot save ourselves.  But the gospel is good news. It is the good news of how God saved us from our sin.  

Thought Questions

• What things come to mind when you think about your own sinfulness? How has your sin had a negative impact on your life?
• Have you ever tried to save yourself from your sin? How do our attempts to "clean up our act" compare with what the Bible teaches?