The Gospel is a message about salvation. It has been planned and provided by God, to meet our greatest need.
The need for Salvation
On most flights the safety card is left, in the seat pocket, unread. It is only in an emergency that everyone is suddenly interested in the safety card, thinking: “This card contains vital information that could save my life”.
Many people treat the Bible like that safety card – they think it is irrelevant to them. But when we face up to the danger we are in, we see that it contains information that is vital for our salvation.
We are in danger because we have broken God’s law. The Bible declares that the whole world is guilty before God (Romans 3:19). Justice demands that we be punished for the wrong we have done. Nothing we do can ever rescue us from the punishment we deserve. Left to ourselves the situation is hopeless. Little wonder the Bible says, “we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Saved from Sin’s penalty.
God’s law demands sin be answered for, yet God’s love desires that we go free. How could the demands of God’s justice and the desires of His heart both be fulfilled?
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
God’s love for mankind was so great that he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into this world. On the cross, God’s own Son paid the penalty we could never pay, satisfying the demands of God’s righteousness against sin and three days later rising in triumph from the dead. Grace can be shown, not at the expense of justice, but at the expense of Jesus – He has paid the price. God calls on us to repent and accept His provision for our sin – His Son. When we do that, He forgives every sin and clears us of every charge – this means that we have been saved from the punishment our sins deserve.
Saved from Sin’s power.
Imagine a man who committed a crime because of his enslavement to alcohol. The man has two problems, one legal and the other moral. He is guilty of a crime; more, he is bound by a vice. If he was freed by the judge, that would take care of the legal problem, but he would leave the court to live the same kind of life as before and commit the same crimes – in other words, his need has not really been met.
What he requires is salvation from both the consequences and the cause of his crime. The gospel not only sets believers free from the guilt of sin but also from its grip, enabling them to enjoy God and live the kind of life He wants them to live. They still feel the lure of sin, but now have a new power – the Holy Spirit of God living within.
Saved from Sin’s presence.
When God created man, He placed him in paradise, but the entrance of sin spoiled that. It ruined God’s creation. That is why there is sickness and disease, sorrow and misery. Those who are saved look forward to the day when the Lord will return to redeem their frail bodies and restore fallen creation. The Christian will then be forever saved from the problems that blight his life and darken his sky.
The salvation that God has provided is something we all need. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation” (Hebrews 2:3).