What is the Gospel
Romans 1:16-17 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
From the first part of the verse above, we can learn the biblical definition of the gospel, "it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." Then, from the second part, we learn that the gospel makes the righteousness of God known to us from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” However, what does all of these mean? Glad you asked the question. Let's examined it together.
First, The Gospel is the Good News
It says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ". According to Strong's Greek concordance, the word gospel comes from the Greek word euaggelion which means good news or glad tidings, thus, Paul was not ashamed of it, instead he celebrated it. The gospel is a message of hope, restoration, and as the text says "salvation for everyone who believes." The good news is that God is able to save sinners through His power if they believe. It is written, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8.
It is also written, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)," Ephesians 2:1-5. This is great news, people that are full of sin, living lives that don't reflect God's character, or even serving satan can be saved if they repent of their sins and believe the gospel. "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." I Timothy 1:15. Jesus did not come to the righteous but to call sinners to repentance. Therefore He intentionally sought to talk to them and allow them to come to Him, whether Zacchaeus, Mary the prostitute, Matthew the tax collector, Peter or Paul, all of them were met by Jesus Christ.
For instance, the bible gives us the following account regarding the salvation of Matthew, "As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Matthew 9:9-13. Jesus came to save sinners. It is only sin that separates us from God, nothing else. God is love, yet people don't experience it because of their sins - the breaking of God's commandments.
It's written, "Behold, the Lord ’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear." Isaiah 59:1-2. Sins causes sinners to be automatically separated from God and not have fellowship with him, because it is also written, "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:5-9. God is not only love, He is also light, and in Him is no darkness; therefore, He will not have fellowship with sinners, they would be consumed. There is no one righteousness, not even one, all have sinned: some commit murder, some gossiping, some lying, some laziness, some pride, some jealousy, and others commit other types of sin, but all have sinned. Isaiah 53:6 says "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Every human being prefers his own way over another's. Everybody prefers to go his own way even over God's, who gave them life. Hence, everybody is guilty. As it is written, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23. Rebellion, pride and selfishness are the root of all sins. These sinful behaviors started with satan himself in heaven when he rebelled against God and were extended to all human beings through Adam's and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. They were enticed by satan, and in spite of God's command, Adam and Eve chose their own ways instead of God's. How many times we acted in the same way? Concerning them, the bible says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Adam and Eve disobeyed God and as a consequence sin entered and all their descendants became sinful. Romans 5:12 says "..., just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—" Adam and Even started to beget children only after they became sinners; therefore, all their descendants received of their sinful nature. Look around you, is there someone that never sinned? David summarized in the following way, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me." Psalms 51:5. The sinfulness of human beings is not only in their wrong actions, but in the very nature they are born with: it is sinful. God said, "... the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;..." Genesis 8:21. Jesus said, "... out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, ….” Matthew 15:19-20. You see, your problem with sin as well anyone else's starts within, it is not so much the external behavior.
Our external behavior is simply a reflection of the sinful nature within. However, God did not create human beings to live in sin, neither the earth to be filled with sin and all sort of wrongs. All that God created was good, and by the time He created man, it was very God. The bible records, "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Genesis 1:31. God did not make human beings to kill one another, neither earth to be destroyed by tsunamis, wars, earthquakes, or pollutions. All of these came because of sin... but there is hope in Jesus through the good news, the gospel. God did not give up on His creation, neither on His plan to have earth as a proper habitable place for human beings to live in perfect harmony with one another and with Him. "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.
God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:1-8. This is the gospel, the good news; therefore, Paul was not ashamed of it instead he eagerly proclaimed it (I Timothy 1:18). You can appropriate this message and receive the power to be saved if you repent of yours sins and believe Jesus (Acts 16:29-31).