What is the gospel?
What do Christians mean when they talk about “the gospel”?
Maybe you’ve heard a choir belting out gospel music on YouTube, passed by a street preacher waving a sign, or found a pamphlet tucked under your windshield wiper.
The word “gospel” simply means “good news.” But that just raises another question: what is this good news? And why are Christians so eager to tell people about it?
Let’s break it down with three key movements: Upside-Down History, Inside-Out Rescue, and Forward-Back Living.
First, The Gospel is Upside-Down History. News, by definition, is about something that happened. If nothing happened, there’s nothing to report. So right from the start, we need to get this straight: the Christian gospel is not good advice about what you should do—it’s good news about what has already been done. And if it’s news, it must be significant. Newsworthy. History-shaping. Otherwise, why would it be worth telling?
So what happened? The answer takes us back 2,000 years, to the edge of the Roman Empire, to a dusty, overlooked outpost called Jerusalem—where a Jewish rabbi named Jesus was executed on a Roman cross. And three days later… He was seen alive.
How’s that for a headline? The apostle Paul, one of the earliest Christian leaders, put it like this: “I would remind you of the gospel I preached… that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1–3).
Notice how Paul ties the gospel to real historical events. Jesus died. Jesus was buried. Jesus rose—death and resurrection—that’s why Jesus isn’t just one more moral teacher. Not just another prophet or revolutionary making history. He remade history, when He rose and rewrote the future of the world.
But to understand the future He rewrote, we need to remember the story He stepped into. Ultimately, Jesus—the Jewish Messiah we meet in the New Testament—is the fulfillment of the ancient promises God made to Israel. Promises of rescue, of restoration, of a Prophet-Priest-King who would set things right.
The Old Testament tells the story of a people waiting for deliverance. Prophet after prophet, priest after priest, king after king—none could truly put things right. Every solution was short-lived. Every hope, incomplete. And by the time you reach the end of the Old Testament, you're left with a cliffhanger: When will the Messiah come? Who will He be?
Enter Jesus of Nazareth:
Not just another prophet reciting the law—He fulfilled it.
Not just another priest offering sacrifices—He became the sacrifice.
Not just another king grabbing for power—He laid it down to serve and to save.
The God of Israel didn’t send someone else to fix the problem—He came Himself.
The upside came down. Heaven touched earth.
And that’s what makes the gospel different from every other message in religion or philosophy. It isn’t just news. It’s GOOD news.
Most religious systems offer steps to follow—things you must do to reach God. But the gospel of Jesus isn’t one more prescription for life. It’s the provision of it:
The Vedas and Eightfold Path will have you carry your karma.
The Qur’an offers salvation on a scale and mercy as a maybe.
The New Age invites self-discovery but leaves you chasing mirrors in a hall with no exit.
Each one depends on human effort. Each one asks you to climb up.
But NOT the Christian gospel. It tells us that God came down. Not for those who’ve earned it, but for those who know they can’t.
And this brings us to the second point: The Gospel is Inside-Out Rescue. Paul says it plainly to the Corinthians: “Christ died—for our sins.” Not for no reason. Not as a mere martyr. But as a substitute. His death wasn’t just tragic—it was necessary.
Years ago, I was doing some jumps on a dirt bike. I fell—hard—and my right hand twisted in ways no wrist ever should. I remember looking at it, bent and broken, thinking: ‘Maybe it’s just dislocated? Maybe I can pop it back into place?’
But I couldn’t fix it. No amount of willpower or ‘positive thinking’ was going to snap those bones back into place. It was beyond me. Turns out, my wrist was shattered in nine places. But in that moment, I realised something: There are some things you simply can’t fix yourself. The help has to come from outside of you.
In a similar way, when humanity twists life out of shape—away from our God-given design—things splinter and break. And people get hurt. You don’t need to be a Christian to see it. Just turn on the news. There’s a lot of beauty in this world, but there’s also a lot of brokenness. And deep down, we all feel it. That nagging ache. That quiet conviction. Things aren’t the way they should be.
But it’s against this black backdrop of bad news that the good news of Jesus shines. Just like my shattered wrist needed a surgeon, our human brokenness needs help from outside of us. That’s why God coming in Jesus is so extraordinary—He didn’t shout advice from the outside; He stepped into our humanity to heal it from within.
Because our problem isn’t just physical. It’s not just political or psychological or emotional. It’s the deeper spiritual issue beneath all of these—the break between us and God. And when a relationship that deep is broken, the referred pain is felt everywhere. In our institutions. In our relationships. In our sleepless nights. In our aching search for meaning. We weren’t just made to survive. We were made to thrive in relationship with the God who made us.
But we walked away. And that walking away—what the Bible calls sin—separates us from God, the very source of life. That’s why the Scriptures also say: “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23)
That’s why Jesus died: To take upon Himself the just judgment our sin deserved—so we wouldn’t have to. On the cross, He bore our guilt. He absorbed our punishment. So that in His death, we could be forgiven.
That’s why Jesus rose: To conquer the grave we could never escape—so we could share in His life. From the tomb, He reversed the curse. He opened the way to new creation. So that in His life, we could be made new.
That’s the Inside-Out Rescue: Not behaviour changed by pressure from the outside, but hearts transformed by grace from within.
The gospel shows us how our sin against God is worse than we could imagine—but it also shows us how God’s love is greater than we could ever dream. We can never be good enough for God, but that’s the point—Jesus is. Because He is God.
The gospel is Upside-Down History. It’s Inside-Out Rescue. And third, it’s Forward-Back Living. Because when you believe the gospel—when you rest in what Jesus has done—your standing before God changes immediately.
You are forgiven. Accepted. Adopted. Right now. But while Jesus is resurrected, we are not—yet. While the kingdom of God has come, it hasn’t come in full—yet. There is still suffering. Still sorrow. Still injustice. Still death. The world is not as it should be—not yet. Our bodies still break. Our hearts still ache. Tears still fall; graves still fill. But not forever. Because what Jesus began at His first coming He will bring to completion at His second. And on that day, everything broken will be made whole. Everything sad will come untrue. Everything wrong will be undone.
So living now in the middle, Christians long for the not yet—tied to a gospel hope, anchored in the past, and pulled toward a future that’s already begun to break in.
That’s why, ultimately, the gospel isn’t just for someday. It’s for today. Now is the time of God’s favour. Today is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. 6:2) Not when you clean yourself up. Not when you finally get your act together. Now.
So, what do you say? Upside-Down History. Inside-Out Rescue. Forward-Back Living. The gospel is counterintuitive. And yet it resonates deeply with the human condition. I don’t see how anyone could have made it up if they would—or would have made it up if they could. That’s why I think it’s UNIQUELY good news. And that’s why I’m unashamed of it. There is unparalleled power in the gospel of Jesus—not just good advice, not another list of dos and don’ts, but real power... To heal brokenness. To break chains of addiction. To end cycles of abuse. To restore hope to the hopeless. To give strength to the weak, sight to the blind, peace in the midst of chaos, freedom to the chained, and breath to the lungs of the lifeless. Because it is founded on grace, the gospel is good news regardless of the situation you find yourself in. Jesus meets us wherever we are. The gospel is an event that truly happened in history—and because of that, it can truly change yours. Which is why this clip isn’t just information on YouTube, it’s an invitation for you to trust Jesus today.