>By John Piper
1. The Gospel is an event. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
2. He achieved something when he died: (1) Christ absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf (Galations 3:13), (2) He bore our sins and purchased our forgiveness. The payment and purchase occurred 2,000 years ago – forgiveness (on a personal level) comes later. (3) He provided a complete and perfect righteousness for us. Phillipians 2 tells us He was obedient unto death and that obedience – the obedience of Jesus Christ – is the obedience of Romans 5:19. Christ completed it. (4) He defeated death itself (Hebrews 2:14). (5) He disarmed Satan by suffering (Colossians 2:14). Satan can beat us up, but he cannot damn us, because his one weapon (unpaid sin) is gone. Where? Nailed to a cross. And Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire someday. (6) Christ purchased perfect final healing and peace for His people (Isaiah 53:4-5). Some of this is experienced in our lifetime; most of it is not experienced until we reach heaven. (7) Christ secured for us eternal fellowship with him (1 Peter 3:18).
3. The free offer to be received by faith alone, not works. If there is a historical event (Christ’s death), and it is offered to works, then there is no gospel. We nullify the cross if we make our justification by works. So faith becomes crucial
4. The application of the achievement to us: (1) When the Holy Spirit awakens us, we see Christ for who he really is, and we repent and cleave to him in faith. (2) And when that happened, our sins were forgiven and we were counted righteous in Christ. (3) It all happens through faith alone. Justification, forgiveness, and eternal life were purchased at the cross, but they become ours by faith when we believe.
Now most gospel teaching stops here. But we must press on:
5. God is the gospel. We must embrace Christ as the gospel.
Unless we grasp these things (all of the above), we won’t really know what faith is.
HT: Desiring God
