About my book: Beyond the Veil: How the Cross Transforms Every Realm of Existence

 

The Gospel 101

By David M. Turner

I wrote The Gospel 101 because I believe the most important message anyone can ever hear is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, sometimes the simplest and most important truths are the ones we have the greatest difficulty explaining.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of teaching the Bible, serving in ministry, pastoring churches, teaching college students, and talking with people from many different backgrounds about faith and life. One thing I have learned is that people often have questions about Christianity that are surprisingly basic. They want to know what the gospel really is. They want to understand why Jesus had to die. They want to know what sin means, why it matters, and how a person can actually have a relationship with God.

Those are not merely theological questions. They are personal questions.

And ultimately, they are questions about eternity.

That is why I wrote The Gospel 101.

My goal was not to write a complicated theological textbook. Instead, I wanted to take the central message of Christianity and present it in a straightforward, understandable, and personal way. I wanted to get back to the basics—to the message that Christians have proclaimed for centuries: we are sinners, we cannot save ourselves, Jesus Christ died for our sins, He rose again, and salvation is God's gift received through faith.

The gospel really is good news.

But before we can appreciate the good news, we have to understand the bad news.

The Bad News

One of the first things I discuss in the book is the reality of sin.

Sin is not simply making a mistake or occasionally doing something wrong. Sin represents our rebellion against God and our failure to live according to His righteous standard. The Bible tells us that all of us have sinned. None of us can honestly claim that we have lived a life good enough to stand before a holy God on our own merit.

That is an uncomfortable truth.

We live in a culture that often encourages us to compare ourselves with other people. We may look at someone else and think, "At least I'm not as bad as that person." But that is not the standard God gives us. The standard is God's righteousness.

When I look honestly at my own life, I realize that I cannot earn my way into God's presence.

Neither can you.

Romans 6:23 expresses the problem in remarkably simple terms: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

There are two sides to that verse. There is a wage, and there is a gift.

A wage is something we earn.

A gift is something someone else provides.

That distinction is at the very heart of the gospel.

We Cannot Save Ourselves

One of the ideas I especially want readers to understand is that Christianity is not fundamentally about becoming a better person so that God will accept us.

That may sound surprising.

Many people have grown up thinking that Christianity is primarily about following rules, being good, going to church, helping people, giving money, avoiding certain behaviors, or trying to become morally respectable.

Those things may have value, but they cannot save us.

If salvation depended upon our ability to become good enough, none of us would have any assurance of salvation.

The gospel begins by recognizing that we have a problem we cannot solve ourselves.

That is why Jesus came.

The Good News

The wonderful message of Christianity is that God did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world.

Jesus lived the sinless life that we could not live. He willingly went to the cross and died for our sins. He took upon Himself the judgment associated with our sin and provided the basis for our reconciliation with God.

Then He rose from the dead.

The resurrection is not a minor detail of Christianity. It is at the very center of the gospel. Jesus did not simply die as a great teacher or religious martyr. He conquered death.

That changes everything.

The cross demonstrates God's love and His answer to the problem of sin. The resurrection demonstrates Christ's victory and gives us hope that death does not have the final word.

The gospel is therefore not simply a message about what Jesus did in the past. It is a message about what Jesus can do in our lives today.

John 3:16

One of the most familiar verses in the Bible is John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

I have returned to this verse again and again because it captures so much of the gospel in a single statement.

God loves.

God gives.

We believe.

We receive life.

At the center of Christianity is not merely a system of religious beliefs. At the center is a Person—Jesus Christ.

The gospel tells us that God loved the world enough to give His Son.

That includes people who feel unworthy.

It includes people who have made terrible mistakes.

It includes people who have wandered far from God.

It includes people who have spent years trying to live without Him.

And it includes people who have grown up in church but have never personally trusted Christ.

The invitation of the gospel is extended to all.

Salvation Is by Grace

Another central truth of The Gospel 101 is the biblical teaching that salvation is by grace through faith.

Ephesians 2:8–9 says that we are saved by grace through faith, and that salvation is not something we accomplish through our own works.

That truth is tremendously important to me.

Grace means that God gives us what we do not deserve.

If salvation were something I could earn, then I could take credit for it. But if salvation is God's gift, then the glory belongs to God.

That is why I believe the gospel is so liberating.

I don't have to spend my life wondering whether I have done enough.

I don't have to compare my righteousness with someone else's.

I don't have to believe that God is waiting for me to make myself worthy before He will accept me.

The gospel tells me that God has provided salvation through Jesus Christ.

My responsibility is to respond in faith.

Faith Is Personal

This is another reason I wrote this book.

A person can know a great deal about Christianity without personally knowing Christ.

I can know facts about Jesus without trusting Jesus.

I can know Bible verses without surrendering my life to the One those verses reveal.

I can attend church without ever personally believing the gospel.

I can grow up in a Christian family without becoming a Christian myself.

Faith is personal.

There comes a point when each of us must answer the question: What will I do with Jesus Christ?

That is not a question someone else can answer for me.

My parents cannot answer it for me.

My pastor cannot answer it for me.

My church cannot answer it for me.

My religious background cannot answer it for me.

I must personally respond.

The Roman Road

One of the simplest ways I present the gospel is through several familiar passages from Romans.

Romans 3:23 reminds us that all have sinned.

Romans 6:23 tells us that sin brings death, but God offers eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:8 reminds us that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And Romans 10:9–10 points us toward a response of faith.

These verses form a simple path through the gospel.

We begin with our problem.

We move to God's provision.

And then we arrive at our response.

That is the message I want readers to understand.

Why Relationships Matter

I also believe that the gospel cannot be separated from relationships.

Christianity is not simply about checking a religious box.

God created us for relationship—with Him and with one another.

That is why I begin by talking about relationships. Every one of us understands, at least to some degree, what it means to trust another person, to love someone, to experience brokenness, and to seek reconciliation.

The gospel tells us that our relationship with God has been damaged by sin, but God has taken the initiative to provide reconciliation through Jesus Christ.

That is a beautiful truth.

The God who created us wants us to know Him.

The Simplicity of the Gospel

One of the greatest dangers in Christianity is making the gospel more complicated than it really is.

There are certainly deep theological truths surrounding salvation. I have spent much of my life studying theology, teaching Scripture, and thinking about difficult biblical questions. But the gospel itself can be communicated simply.

We have a sin problem.

We cannot solve that problem ourselves.

God loves us.

Jesus Christ died for our sins.

Jesus rose from the dead.

Salvation is God's gift.

We receive that gift through faith.

That is the heart of the message.

It is simple enough for a child to understand, yet profound enough that we can spend a lifetime exploring its meaning.

Why I Wrote This Book

Ultimately, I wrote The Gospel 101 because I don't want the simplicity of the gospel to be lost.

I want someone who has never understood Christianity to be able to pick up this book and say, "Now I understand."

I want the person who has grown up around Christianity but has never personally trusted Christ to have an opportunity to think seriously about the gospel.

I want Christians to have a simple resource they can share with a friend, family member, coworker, neighbor, or anyone who has questions about Christianity.

And perhaps most importantly, I want readers to understand that the gospel is not merely information.

It is an invitation.

The gospel invites us to recognize our need, to understand what Christ has done, and to respond in faith.

It tells us that our salvation does not depend upon our ability to make ourselves worthy. It depends upon the grace of God and the finished work of Jesus Christ.

That is why the gospel is good news.

My Hope for the Reader

My greatest hope is that after reading The Gospel 101, you will not simply know more about Christianity.

I hope you will understand the gospel.

And if you already understand the gospel, I hope the book reminds you once again of how amazing God's grace really is.

Sometimes we need to return to the basics.

We need to remember where we came from.

We need to remember that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves.

We need to remember that God loved us enough to send His Son.

We need to remember the cross.

We need to remember the empty tomb.

And we need to remember that salvation is a gift.

For me, that is the heart of Christianity.

The gospel is not ultimately about what I can do for God.

It is about what God has done for me through Jesus Christ.

That is the message I have tried to communicate in The Gospel 101.

It is the message I believe every person needs to hear.

It is the message of grace.

It is the message of forgiveness.

It is the message of hope.

And most importantly, it is the message of Jesus Christ.

That is why I wrote this book.

That is why I continue to believe the gospel is the greatest news in the world.

The Book is available Amazon.