This may be one of the most important questions we ever consider. Paul said the gospel was the power of God for salvation, the only means by which we can have peace with God (Romans 1:16; Acts 4:12). Paul thought it was worth giving his life for (Romans 1:14-16), something he would eventually do. He believed its contents were so essential that he said anyone who taught contrary to it would be "accursed." (Galatians 1:8) This is something we have to get right. Our eternities, and the eternities of all of our loved ones, depend on us getting it right.

The word gospel - εὐαγγέλιον (euaggelion) - was used in ancient Greece to signify an announcement of good news. Say, for example, a Greek general had defeated an invading army. He would send out a "gospel," declaring to all the citizens of the region that he had won the battle. He was not asking them to come and help, but declaring to them his victory. No longer did they need to fear; they were free from danger.

The gospel of Jesus is the announcement that Jesus is the Lord and has won a great victory on our behalf. The gospel is not a command that we should do better so God will accept us, but the announcement that Jesus has paid the full penalty for our sin. No longer do we need to live in fear. The battle has been won on our behalf, we need only to believe and receive it.

The gospel, as Tim Keller says, is not "good advice," but "good news." It is not primarily about what we must "do" but what Jesus has done.

Understanding the "do/done" distinctive is perhaps the most important and counter-intuitive aspect of the gospel. So, I want to dive into that a little more, but first, let's consider why we need the gospel.

An announcement of victory only makes sense in the context of battle, but far too many people are unaware a battle even needed to be fought. It may be a nice gesture that Jesus did something for us, but why is it that Jesus had to do anything at all? We understand why we should believe in God, but why Jesus and the cross?

The answer, distasteful as we often find it: our sin.

The gospel is bad news before it is good news: our sin had left us under a curse, death. We tend to think of our sin as not that bad - mistakes, white lies, or indiscretions. The Bible says the opposite: our sin makes us worthy of eternal condemnation. The apostle Paul says we are children of wrath, sons and daughters of disobedience (Ephesians 2:4). We have committed cosmic treason against our Creator, telling him we would rather be in charge of our own lives than let him rule. Sin is the great "l" problem: I would rather be the center of my life and the most important person in my heart than God.

The just punishment for our sin is death. God is a holy God, and sin is an offense and a corruption. Imagine how you might react to a blood transfusion for your child that you learned had 2-3 molecules of the AIDS virus in it. It would not matter the amount was microscopic; even a little pollutes the entire vial. God is so holy and good that sin cannot endure in his presence. To stand in the presence of God with sin on your record would be like a tissue paper touching the surface of the sun (Habakkuk 1:13). It must be removed.

So the gospel begins as bad news, but thank God it does not end there. The gospel is the good news that Jesus put away our sin forever by his death on the cross. Even though we were so bad that Jesus had to die for our sin, he was so loving that he was glad to die for it.

Just about every religion in the world teaches that God's approval of us is based upon how well we obey his laws. If we do enough, we can overcome the penalty of our sin and earn our place in heaven. The gospel turns that on its head. Acceptance before God, which the Bible calls "righteousness," is given to us as a gift, purchased for us by Christ.

Consider the question yourself: How do you think God feels about you, right now? And how do you determine that? Do you base your answer on what kind of week you have had? How consistent your quiet times have been? Whether you have been nice to your children, or kicked the dog? For many years, qualifications like these drove my response.

If I had a good week - a real "Christian" week - I felt close to God. When Sunday came around, I would feel like lifting my head and hands in worship, almost as if to say, "God, here I am! I just know that you are excited about seeing me this week." If I had a stellar week, I loved being in God's presence and was sure God was pretty stoked about having me there, too.

But the opposite was also true. If I had not done a good job at being a real Christian, I felt pretty distant from God. If I had fallen to some temptations, been a jerk to my wife, dodged some easy opportunities to share Christ, was stingy with my money, forgotten to recycle - on those weeks I felt like God wanted nothing to do with me. When I came to church, I had no desire to lift my soul up to God. I was pretty sure he was not thrilled to see me either. I could feel his displeasure - his lack of approval.

Why? Because in that moment I was not believing the gospel. Or, at least, I had forgotten it.

The gospel is the news that Christ has suffered the full wrath of God for my sin. Jesus Christ traded places with me, living the perfect life I should have lived, and dying the death I had been condemned to die. In fact, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says he actually became my sin so I could literally become his righteousness. Theologians call this "the great exchange." He took my record, died for it, and offers me his perfect record in return. He took my shameful nakedness and offers to clothe me with his righteousness. When I receive that in repentance and faith, full acceptance becomes mine. He lived in my place, and died in my place, and then offered righteousness to me as a gift. Theologians call that "gift-righteousness."

That means God could not love me any more than he does right now because God could not love and accept Christ any more than He does right now, and I am in Christ. God's righteousness has been given to me as a gift. He now sees me according to how Christ has lived, not on the basis of how I have lived. Christ's salvation is 100% complete, and 100% the possession of those who have received it in repentance and faith.

Just let that sink in for a moment. Right now, if you are in Christ, when God looks at you - regardless of your situation - he sees the righteousness of Christ. If we really believed that - not only with our heads but also with our hearts - it would change everything in our lives.

Imagine if you could say this to God: "God, here is why I think you should hear my prayer: this week, I concluded a 40-day fast, and during that time I met Satan in the flesh, stared him down, and resisted all his temptations. And then I suffered unjustly at the hand of sinners, but did so without complaint or the first flash of selfish anger. The only time I opened my mouth was to forgive those who were doing that to me. Also, I walked on water, raised a few dead people, and fed 5,000 hungry men with a Hebrew Happy Meal."

According to the gospel, that is exactly what you can, and should, say. Jesus' death has paid for every ounce of your sin; his perfect life has now been credited to you. In light of that, do you really feel like you could make God more favorable to you by doing your quiet time every day? Christ's obedience is so spectacular there is nothing we could do to add to it, his death so final that nothing could take away from it.

Scripture says we are not to come into the presence of God timidly or apprehensive, but with "boldness" (Hebrews 4:16). We can only approach God with boldness when we know he sees us according to the accomplishments of Christ.

For most of us, this is completely counter-intuitive. Martin Luther said our hearts are hardwired for "works-righteousness"- that is, the idea that our worth and approval by God fluctuate based on our performance. Unless we are actively preaching the gospel to ourselves daily, we have probably fallen back into "works-righteousness." We come by it naturally.

The idea of gift-righteousness can be summarized in just four words: Jesus in my place. Jesus took our sin, suffering the full weight of its penalty. In return he offers us his righteousness. When we are united to Christ, what is ours becomes his and what is his becomes ours. Because Jesus, who deserved commendation, received condemnation instead, we who deserve condemnation can receive his commendation.

In Jesus' final moments on the cross, he said, "It is finished." He was talking about the work of our salvation - he had done everything necessary to save us. There was nothing more that needed to be done. We need only to receive it.

The gospel is a gift, and like any other gift, it must be received. So how do you receive the gospel? A terrified jailer once asked the apostle Paul a similar question: "Sir, what must I do to be saved" (Acts 16:30 ESV)? Paul's answer was simple: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).

Believe means more than giving cognitive assent to a set of facts. "Believe" means "to rest your whole weight on." We must not only believe Jesus is the Lord, we must submit our lives to Him; we must not only believe He has finished the work of our salvation, we must rest all our hopes for heaven on him. This is what the Bible means by "believe in Jesus."

Think of it like sitting down in a chair. You might believe a chair can hold the weight of your body, but you are not "believing in the chair until you transfer your weight from your legs onto the chair. You can talk all you like about the power of the chair to support you, but until your weight is actually resting on the chair, your "belief" is just bluster.

Conversion to Christ is just like that. It is not merely accepting a set of facts and declaring them to be true. It is a assuming a posture of repentance and faith toward the finished work of Christ.

Conversion is not a ceremony you go through or a prayer you pray Conversion is simply believing that Jesus is Lord and submitting to him, believing he has finished the work of your salvation and resting your hopes for heaven on it. It is "sitting down" in "the chair" of his Lordship and his finished work.

We call the act of submitting to Jesus as Lord "repentance." Repentance literally means "changing your mind" about something, so to repent of your sin means to "change your mind” about who is in charge of your life. Repentance is not resolving to do a little better, to go to church more, feel worse for your sins, or to be more moral. When you repent, you surrender every part of your life to his control. Like C.S. Lewis used to say, "We do not come to God as bad people trying to become good people; we come as rebels to lay down our arms.”

We call the act of resting your hopes for heaven on the cross "faith." Faith in Jesus is not trying to do better or turning over a new leaf. Faith is believing he has done everything necessary to save you and resting all your hopes on his finished work.

When I say to someone, "Are you a Christian?" the most common answer get back is something like, "Well, I'm trying. I'm doing my best. Better now than I used to be. I am coming to church more now and trying to obey the commandments better." Sadly, that shows they still do not get the gospel at all. They still think "Christian" is a title that you earn.

A true Christian is one who recognizes they could never earn that title; Jesus earned it in their place and gave it to them as a gift. We are accepted before God not because of what we do, but what he has done.

When someone asks me if I know for sure if I will go to heaven when I die, I say, "Absolutely. Jesus was my substitute, which means I no longer depend on how 'righteous' I am to gain entrance into heaven. I rest in what he accomplished for me. We traded places. I am as sure of heaven as he is. He has become my salvation."

Does that sound too good to be true? Then you are probably getting it. The sign that you have understood the gospel is you are filled with humility because of how little you deserve eternal life, and filled with wonder at how good God is to give it to you.

Perhaps the clearest, most concise explanation of this is given in Paul's gospel summary of Romans 4:5: "To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."

That verse has three very important phrases:

“To the one who does not work": That is, to the one who realizes there is nothing they could ever do to earn eternal life.

“...but believes in him who justifies the ungodly": That is, believes God did the work necessary to save him, just like God said he did.

"...his faith is counted as righteousness": That is, God counts belief, that faith, as righteousness to us. Paul compares our belief in Christ to Abraham's belief in God's promise to give him a son. Though he was nearly 100 years old, Abraham chose to believe God could bring a child from a dead womb, and God counted him as righteous for that belief (Romans 4:3). The moment we repentantly believe God brought back the lifeless body of Jesus from the deadness of the tomb, after his offering as a payment for our sin, we are declared similarly righteous (Romans 4:25).

Righteousness is a free gift to all who believe that God is gracious enough to give it to them in Christ.

Have you ever personally received that gift? If not, you could do so right now. You could say something to God like this:

Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Lord and I submit complete control of my life to you.

Lord Jesus, I believe that you died for my sins and you have finished the work of my salvation, and I right now embrace that gift as my own.

The words of the prayer are not important; the posture of your heart is what counts.

Understanding the gospel leads to a profound life change not just of your behavior; but of your heart. As you see the glory of the God who has forgiven you, and experience the beauties of his grace, you'll find that your heart begins to desire him more than sin.

The gospel is not just the "beginning point" of Christianity, a prayer you pray to begin your Christian life, or the diving board off of which you jump into the pool of Christianity. It is the pool!

Once you have believed the gospel, the way you grow in Christ is by going deeper into the gospel. You become more aware of how gracious he is and how incredible is the gift he has given you in Christ.

Jesus told us to "abide" in the gospel daily (John 15:4-10). Abiding in him means reminding ourselves constantly that there is nothing we could ever do that would make God love us more, and nothing we have done that makes him love us less. Literally, nothing at all.

What about if you gave away all your money, would he not love you just a little bit more? Nope.

What if you went to live on the foreign mission field? No again.

What if you finally began to treat your spouse with grace? Nada.

What if you took out the trash for her like she asked? She might love you more, but God wouldn't.

What if you went one full week without a single, lustful thought? God's acceptance of you is based on the fact that Christ went a lifetime without sinning against him in even the slightest way. Now, you are in him and he is in you. Thus, God could not love you more than he does right now because he loves Christ perfectly.

You must dwell on this great truth daily. Sometimes hourly. Sometimes every minute. It is the only way to drive out fear, unbelief, and temptation.

Why so often? Remember, you are hard-wired for works-righteousness. When you are not deliberately thinking gospel, you have probably slid back into self-justification. It is a lot like the plastic rodents in that "whack a-mole" game you play at the fair. Just when you knock one down, another appears from a different place. The moment we take our eyes off of the gospel, those rodents of self-righteousness and self-condemnation spring back up. So, we must pound them with the counterintuitive truth of the gospel: God's acceptance is given to us in its entirety as a gift we receive by faith, to the praise and glory of God.

At our church, I encourage people to pray this phrase back to God every day as a reminder there is nothing they need to do to gain God's approval, but it is theirs as a gift in Christ.

"In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more; nothing I have done that makes you love me less.”

I would encourage you to pray this back to God everyday for a month, until it gets into your bloodstream and so saturates your thinking that you see everything with gospel-vision. Nothing in your life will ever be the same.