CHAPTER TWO

2.1: WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

The gospel also means ‘good news’, it is God’s power unto salvation. The term ‘good news’
refers to the story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, it is the saving power of God in which
His righteousness is revealed.

Rom 1:16 KJV For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16 shows how that the gospel is the power of salvation, this explains that the whole
sacrifice Jesus came to do for our sake is unto salvation as both are intertwined. The gospel is
what gets us saved through believing and understanding it in our heart. To get a full grasp of
what the gospel, we need to understand the gravity of the sacrifice that Jesus made which is to
reconcile man to God and also give him a new life because any life outside God is dead.

1Co 15:1-4 KJV 1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye
keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures:

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 encapsulates the whole gospel message from the death to the burial,
resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The gospel is God’s plan to bridge the gap that had
been created between God and man and for this to be effective, man has to be believe in his heart
and get saved so Jesus’s sacrifice will not be in vain. The gospel however does not start after
Jesus Christ, it has always existed. The gospel of God has one subject which is His son, Jesus
Christ. The gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ our savior and not our troublemaker.

2.2: WHAT IS SALVATION?

The Greek word for salvation is ‘soteria’ from the word ‘soter’ which means savior. Salvation (also
called deliverance or redemption) is the saving of human beings from sin and its consequences
which include death and separation from God by Christ’s death and resurrection and the
justification entailed by this salvation. Salvation is preached to the man that is not yet reconciled
to God. Salvation is a characteristic of God.

Salvation came about by Jesus giving Himself as a ransom in order for us to be saved, He paid
the price. Salvation is a free gift but by no means is it easy to understand which means we need
to sit down steadfastly to understand salvation and if we don’t do this, we might not be able to
amount to much spiritually. The power of God makes the delivery of salvation seem easy and the
more you understand salvation, the more you grow spiritually so we should pay close attention to
the understanding of our savior, His salvation and our state as the saved.

To understand salvation, we’re to look at God who is our savior as it is only when we understand
God by understanding Christ that we can understand salvation. The intention of salvation is the
ministry of reconciliation. The first contact a man has with the word of God will be the
knowledge of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus by which a man is born again. When a man
receives salvation, he receives the ministry of the same and this happens when we believe the
gospel.

Salvation comes about to restore the relationship that man lost with God as a result of his
disobedience and to be saved, you need to believe the gospel which is the birth, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Rom 5:10 KJV For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Romans 5:10 shows how God reconciled us to Himself when we were enemies and the
reconciliation came about by the death of His son. God’s response to man’s sin is the ministry of
reconciliation we get at salvation and we’re the ones who got reconciled to Him and not Him
being reconciled to us because we are the ones who got separated from Him. Being saved gives
us a life because outside Christ, we are dead. Salvation is what revives or even gives us spiritual
life, undeniable access into His kingdom and the Bible says in Luke 15:7a
Luk 15:7 KJV I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth...

That there’s joy in Heaven over a sinner and this shows that God is intentional about us which
has been evident since He sent His son to give man life and restore the broken relationship
between man and God, He also doesn’t want that sacrifice to go to waste because we have no life
without that sacrifice.

Not being in Christ is tantamount to being dead because there’s no life outside Christ and this
means spiritual death because he has been separated from the life of the Father and this spiritual
death is a result of Adam’s disobedience in Genesis 3:6.

Gen 3:6 KJV And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

1 Corinthians 15: 21-22 further explains

1Co 15:21-22 KJV 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

How that death came through Adam and life came through Jesus Christ as that is the basis of His
sacrifice for mankind. Ephesian 4:18 explains

Eph 4:18 KJV Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

that while in sin; in the world we were on our own as we had no understanding of who God is or
the life of God. Being separated from the life of God then you’re living a life of sin, its only at
the point of salvation that you get accepted back into the fold and you get separated from the
sinful life you used to live then you embrace the life of God. The parable of the prodigal son
(Luke 15:13-32) is a perfect depiction of being dead and separated from God

Luk 15:24 KJV For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And
they began to be merry.
Luk 15:24 KJV For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And
they began to be merry.

i.e spiritual death but was eventually made alive by his fellowship with his Father and has
therefore being separated from his sinful nature.

2.3: GOD’S PURPOSE FOR SALVATION

1Ti 2:4 KJV Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

The will of God our savior is for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth
about salvation and the savior. 1 John 5:11-12 shows how that God’s plan is to give us life
through His son because outside of this, we’re dead.

1Jn 5:11-12 KJV 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is
in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

The purpose for which God brought about salvation is to the end that man is given a new life so
He can now have access to the life of Christ and be separated from the life of sin.

The primary purpose of Jesus Christ coming into the world to offer Himself a propitiation for our
sins is to bring us to a place of intimacy with God where we have express access to Him and we
are one with Him.

1Co 6:17 KJV But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

God wants us to live in this consciousness that we don’t just represent Him but we’re also one
with Him and He also bestowed on us His own righteousness as a gift

2Co 5:21 KJV For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.

2.4: THE ACT OF SALVATION

When we were dead in sin, Jesus died for our sins so that we can be dead to sin. There are
basically three (3) processes to achieve complete salvation and function in it, to wit:
Dead in sin (Condemnation), Died for sin (The substitutionary work of Christ for us) and Dead
to sin (our identification with his death concerning sin).

 DEAD IN SIN (CONDEMNATION):

Eph 2:5 KJV Even when we were dead in sins, hath...

Col 2:13 KJV And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh...

Eph 2:1 KJV And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

In the Bible, the word condemnation is synonymous with ‘wrath’. The word as used in Romans
8:1 means “a guilty verdict” or “a punishment|”, it refers to the judgement that comes as a result
of breaking God’s law and this is exactly what happened to man, we were condemned because of
man’s rebellion; Adam’s act of disobedience to God and obedience to the devil (Genesis 3) and
this led to our death (spiritual death) and alienation from God.

Our connection with Adam made us inherit his sinful and dead nature and we all had to partake
in the punishment and be separated from our maker, Romans 5:12 explains this well when it says
that by one man (Adam) sin came into the world and this led to death for mankind which is
separation from God. Being dead (condemned) in sin means dead to Jesus but alive in sin.

Eph 4:17-18 KJV 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as
other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
of their heart:

Speaks about people who are in their condemned state but they do not know as they’re not
sensitive to anything because they’ve been separated from God and their current state of
separation has affected the way they see and understand things.

Eph 2:1 KJV ... who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Ephesians 2:1b explains that we were dead, not the physical death but spiritual death, we had no
relationship or connection whatsoever with God, we were strangers to Him because we now had
a nature different from our initial state.

Rom 5:17 KJV For if by one man's offence death reigned by one...

Rom 5:18 KJV Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation...

Rom 5:19 KJV For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners..

Romans 5:17a, 18a and 19a shows how that man became condemned and how we all came about
the punishment which is alienation from God (Ephesians 4:18) and all this happened through the
disobedience of one man. In our condemned state, Ephesians 2:3 referred to us as “children of
wrath”

Eph 2:3 KJV Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others.

We were functioning under the punishment we brought upon ourselves as a result of man’s
obedience and we couldn’t approach Him because He has nothing to do with filthiness.

Isa 59:2 KJV But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins
have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Isaiah 59:2 explains that our sins, our iniquities has created a partition between man and God
and we turned away/hid from God because we thought He hated us, we defied His instructions
yes but He loves us so much which is why He sent His only begotten son to redeem us to
Himself.

Rom 5:18-21 KJV 18 ...even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. 19 ...so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous...
21 ...even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Our state of condemnation has created a barrier, deterred us from quality relationship with God
which is what God wants but condemnation deprived man of enjoying that privilege. No
separation, partition was supposed to be between man and God.

 DIED FOR SIN (THE SUBSTITUTIONARY WORK OF CHRIST)

After man’s fall and separation from God, God still found a way to reconcile man to Himself
because of His love towards us which was why He sent His only beloved son Jesus to be an
atonement for our sins, He put on Him all of our iniquities i.e He took our place and died our
death in order to save us from the wrath of the law and this can be seen in Isaiah 53:5.

Isa 53:5 KJV But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

The substitutionary work of Christ explains how that Christ died for our sins, how He took it
upon Himself to bear the brunt of our own mistake in order to redeem us to God, how He served
the punishment for a sin we committed because we could not atone for ourselves. Isaiah 53:5
explains further that all He went through was not for Himself but for us which is why we cannot
afford to not understand this sacrifice or let it to go to waste. The love nature of God can be seen
in Christ here in that they’re one; Jesus is in God, likewise the Holy Spirit and they can’t be
separated because of their tripartite nature and someone who you are in, you exhibit His nature
as we’re also expected to exhibit the love nature of Christ after we have been saved.

2Co 5:21 KJV For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 explains that He knew no sin, had no blemish but in order to relate with us
and substantiate the sacrifice He had to take our sin upon Himself and was tainted by our sinful
nature on the cross despite the fact that we were the reason for the break in the relationship. He
gave up His life and took ours upon Himself, this is a great height of love and there’s nothing we
can do that will match up with what this other than to accept His sacrifice and live in the
consciousness of that fact.

His being wounded for our transgressions not only refer to being physically wounded because
the Hebrew word is to defile or profane something which is more of a spiritual occurrence.
Galatians 3:13 explains that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law which is the law of
Moses or law of the degenerated and weak conscience by replacing us at that point. Our spiritual
death separated us from God and Christ also went through this because He had to be in our shoes
to be able to redeem us completely and this can be seen in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 as
Christ was going through agony on the cross but the Father turned His back on Him already as
He had nothing to do with sin and Christ was already made sin.

He had no sin in Him, He knew no sin yet He bore our sin despite having no part in it, this is a
great display of love (1 John3:5). He replaced us and got punished in our stead even when we did
not deserve it, He still gave Himself to redeem us. Christ was now made sin and we the beloved
as He died on the cross for our sake. Jesus’ sacrifice is the ultimate sacrifice of all that gave us
access and boldness before God and never a crushed spirit. Although that’s what He wants; a
broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17) but that’s for Him to save you from that position, not for
you to remain broken. He wants to give you life anew; His life. Psalm 34:18; God is interested in
us in our sinful state so we don’t continue to wallow in sin and self-condemnation rather He
wants to redeem us to Himself and give us a new life in order for us to be free from the curse or
burden of the law.

This state of helplessness, guilt and condemnation has been felt by Christ at His crucifixion so
we don’t have to go through that same agony, so why do you still want to bear that burden when
Jesus has obviously taken our place and lifted it off us. He substituted Himself for us in that He
felt the strong feeling of guilt that we were supposed to feel, all the burden of our sin He brought
it on Himself so we don’t have to go through that same pain again. The substitutionary work
gave us free access to God, it gave us the ability to relate with God one on one as this is
something we could not do in our sinful state but because Christ was already made sin so we
could be redeemed, we had the access to Him as it was before the fall of man, the partition was
broken down (Ephesians 2:13-14). Sin brought about spiritual death as has been explained earlier
and this means to God we did not exist anymore as we were dead to Him; this shows that the
reward of sin is death and total separation from God (Romans 6:23) and through spiritual death,
we become God’s enemy. Spiritual death started from Adam and went down to all men because
we have all sinned (Romans 3:23).
Jesus carried our guilt so we may be guiltless. Mark 15:34 shows how that God could not look
upon Him because He had been made sin then as He bore the sins of the whole world in order to
redeem us, He was dead to the Father. Jesus became the first begotten by reason of Him being
raised back to life from His spiritual death and we were raised with Him but it was only as a
virtue of Him being raised first, if not we will still be dead to God. We are at peace with God
because Jesus died our death and gave us life eternal and Christ is our peace.

Therefore the substitutionary work of Christ is that He replaced us in our filthy state, died our
death so He could give us life and He rose back into life from a state of spiritual death and we
have our completeness and soundness in Him (Colossians 2:10)

 DEAD TO SIN (IDENTIFICATION WITH HIS DEATH)

From our state of spiritual death (condemnation); separation from God and wallowing in sin
because we knew no other state than that of sin and death to Christ coming to replace us in death
in order to act as a mediator and repair the broken relationship between man and God, Christ
therefore became our substitute in order to redeem us to God because we could not do it in our
sinful state as we did not even understand that we had been separated from God because we had
been blinded in our condemned state and unresponsive to God’s love. After this sacrifice, what
happens next?

Man has to acknowledge and identify with this sacrifice so it will count and not go to waste
thereby rendering Jesus’ time on the cross a waste. How then do we identify with His death
concerning sin?

Christ identified with us by taking our sin, guilt and shame on the cross so we have to identify
with the sacrifice He made for us so it won’t be in vain and this happens by understanding and
believing the gospel which is the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ and
this can be seen in Romans 10:9. Identifying with the sacrifice is abstaining from the life of sin
from which He came to redeem us, highly esteeming our relationship with Him by not going
against the laid down doctrines.

Romans 6 embodies our identity as believers; as we are to identify with Christ in His death and
resurrection, verse 3 and 4 shows how that in baptism we are buried with Him i.e we die with
Him, our sinful nature also goes down with us and in His crucifixion, our old nature has been
crucified with Him as seen in verse 6, as had been explained in the substitutionary work of
Christ, He took our sinful nature upon Himself in order to redeem us and also carried it to the
grave but in His resurrection, He came up a new man without any blemish, this should be the
reality of every believer that being dead to sin, we do not go back to the state we were in before
Christ died for our sins (verse 8 and 9) as death no more has power over Him so also does it have
no power over us as we have been given life abundant in Christ and are now alive in Him
(Ephesians 2:6, Romans 6:11).

So in identifying with Christ, you have to be dead completely to flesh (sin) and embrace your life
in God, accept the life He is handing over to you and leave the position of the dead, embrace life
as you ought to have it. Say NO to sin, be done totally with that life so Jesus’ sacrifice will not
go to waste. While we were dead spiritually, we were under the law but after the redemption of
man, we now function under grace so live in the understanding of the fact that the law has
nothing on you but you are now a candidate of grace but it is not for you to take it for granted
rather maximize it, verse 15 explains that we are not to take advantage of the fact that we are
under grace to misbehave. Verse 18 explains that we have been freed from sin therefore we are
now servants of righteousness and we should act like it with every fibre of our being and not
partially as we have eternal life in Christ (verse 22 and 23) the ultimate gift Christ came to give
us by virtue of sacrifice is reconciliation (Romans 5:10) and eternal life.

Being spiritually dead means we remain in that unresponsive state and continue to do things
contrary to God’s will but identifying with Christ’s sacrifice brings you life eternal. Ephesians
4:20-25 shows Paul’s message to the Ephesians and it lays emphasis on the fact that in
identifying with Jesus and His sacrifice, we have to do away with our old man which is the
nature of sin as Christ already paid the price and gave us the ability to do away with that life.
Now we have to embrace Christ, embrace the new life, the redemption, the freedom, the
reconciliation which Christ came to give and be holy likewise our minds also have to be renewed
from being programmed to the life under the law to understand the life we now have in grace by
virtue of Christ’s sacrifice.