The Four Components of the Gospel Message

(adapted from Becoming a Contagious Christian)

1. God

• He is a holy God, perfect in every way. Nothing else in this world fits the description of being perfect, so everything will fall short in a comparison to God. Yet, he created people to be like himself, along with an expectation of holiness or perfection.

Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy Leviticus 19:2

• He is a loving God, who loves each of us more than we can imagine. In fact, God created love.

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 He is a just God, so he doesn’t turn the other way and ignore sin. For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing. Isaiah 61:8

2. Us

• All people commit sin. And when compared to God’s beautiful standard of perfection, sin paints an ugly picture of a person.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

• The debt each person accumulates from sin results in only one suitable payment, which is death— both physical and spiritual. This spiritual death is complete separation from God for eternity.

For the wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23

• No matter how hard we try, we could never offer enough of a sacrifice to clear away all our sins. But someone has to.

“The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord. Isaiah 1:11

3. Christ

• Jesus Christ is God who became man and lived on earth.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and make his dwelling among us. John 1:1, 14

• Even though he never committed any sins, Christ died as our substitute— willfully punished for sins we commit. Following his sacrificial crucifixion came Christ’s resurrection, which shows he has power over death. Christianity is faith in someone who still lives.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Revelation 1:18

• And Christ as our Savior offers us complete forgiveness for all sins as a free gift.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23-24

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8

4. You and Me

• The free gift of salvation must be accepted through a personal response to the gospel. We must ask Jesus into our lives as Lord and Savior,—as the Leader of our lives.

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised his from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

Be very careful, then, how you live— not as unwise but as wise…Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Ephesians 5:15, 17

• At that moment, we become adopted into God’s family.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12

• Because of Christ’s presence in us. spiritual transformation takes place.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17