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| Volume 28 Number 4 April 2026 |
Page 16 |
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| Volume 28 Number 4 April 2026 |
Page 16 |
Louis Rushmore, Editor
The Gospel is good news for a wayward humanity. The word “gospel” means a good message or good news, and Almighty God our Creator sent a good message or good news through Jesus Christ, His Son. Romans 1:16 emphasizes the nature of that good news when it 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” (NKJV). The Gospel of Christ equates to the power of God regarding human redemption—salvation. The added good news is that the Gospel is applicable to Jews and everyone who is not Jewish; Jews viewed the first century world as Jewish ancestry versus anybody who was not of Jewish lineage—Greek, Gentiles, the other nations or barbarians.
The Gospel is not for the benefit of Jewish extraction only, but God intended it to be for every accountable soul. However, only people who allow the Gospel to produce within them a Bible faith do apply the good news or the Gospel to themselves. They alone are saved from their past sins and become the children of God. From the time of Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth through and including our time it has been and remains constant.
“The faith” (1 Corinthians 16:13; 2 Corinthians 13:5) in Romans 1:16 refers to the Gospel, to the history of the early church in Acts and to the epistles, all of these comprising the New Testament. A humanly devised “faith” cannot satisfactorily substitute for a Bible-based faith, and neither can it result in human redemption. The Greek word for “the” precedes “believed” or “faith” in Romans 1:16 just as it precedes “Gospel” in the same verse of Scripture. An individual must derive personal faith from the faith (2 Corinthians 5:7)—the Gospel, the New Testament. Otherwise, salvation cannot be obtained.
Faith with follow-through or acting out one’s faith (James 2:14–26) manifests itself in obedience of God’s Word (Hebrews 11)—the Gospel, the system of faith. Anything less is not faith that saves, for even demons believe in the mere existence of God (James 2:19), and they are not saved by their faith.
So, to whom does the Gospel apply? It applies to every accountable soul—anyone who is aware that he or she has sinned by not conforming to divine instructions (i.e., not an infant, etc.), anyone who has the capacity to believe, to repent, to acknowledge publicly one’s faith and to decide to be immersed in water (baptism Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3–5) for the remission of those sins. That excuses babies, young children and mentally deficient adults, but no one else is exempt from obeying God’s plan of salvation; everyone who neglects to obey the Gospel positions themselves for a regretful and horrible eternity after this life is over (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17).
The Gospel of Christ applies to non-Christians regarding redemption or salvation of their souls. What we call “The Great Commission” (Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15–16; Acts 1:8) implicitly summons every child of God to share some responsibility for acquainting non-Christians with the Gospel—including and especially God’s plan of salvation. Non-Christians are already lost—as we who are Christians once were lost without Christ—and they will remain forever lost unless they obey the Gospel and continue therein. Share your Bible faith with lost souls within your family tree, with your friends, with your neighbors, with your coworkers, with your classmates and with acquaintances. The means by which you can reach out to the lost are many, either directly or indirectly.
The Gospel of Christ applies to non-Christians regarding the way they live their lives. God does not exempt non-Christians for their responsibility to live moral lives, to practice the biblical design of the home and family or on any other subject. Once a person becomes accountable for what he says or doesn’t say, for what he does or does not do, for what he believes or doesn’t believe, and so on, outside of Christ, he is already lost, and from then on, he adds additional sins to the state of already being lost.
The Gospel of Christ applies to Christians, too. From the Gospel, Christians learn how God wants to be worshiped. From the Gospel, Christians also learn about their duties regarding Christian service and evangelism. The Gospel explains Christian doctrine, too.
The Gospel of Christ is God’s gift of a road map so that we can successfully navigate in the course of our lives on earth to the eternal realm in Heaven where God is. The Gospel may be viewed as well as the operator’s manual for mankind—divinely given by God through the Holy Spirit and through Jesus Christ—that addresses every important aspect of temporary, human habitation of the Earth. Let “the [system] of faith” ground you in your personal “faith.” Apply the Gospel of Christ to your life according to your current relationship with God: to obey the Gospel and become a child of God (a Christian), to regulate your conduct before God or to mature and to grow spiritually as a child of God. The Gospel of Christ applies to every accountable soul!
