WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GOSPEL

Ask ten Christians what the gospel is, and you will get ten sincere answers that don't quite match.

God loves you and has a plan for your life. Jesus died for your sins. Ask Jesus into your heart. Live the way Jesus lived. Some of those are true. Some are half-true. Some are true sentences doing a job they were never built to do. And not one of them, standing alone, is the gospel.

The gospel is not advice about how to reach God. It is news that God has acted: Jesus is Lord of all, and through His life, death, burial, and resurrection He has accomplished salvation and deliverance for all who turn to Him in repentance and faith.

Pastor and executive advisor Q. Wolfgang Watkins traces that news from Eden to Egypt, from Babylon to the empty tomb, showing the one pattern God has always run and why it changes everything: your standing before God, the story you tell about your own life, and the way you live on Monday morning.

Inside you'll discover:

• Why the gospel is news, not advice, and why our hearts keep turning it back into advice


• The exodus pattern that runs through the whole Bible and comes to its final fulfillment in Jesus


• The earliest gospel the church ever received, and the rooftop vision that converted its own preacher


• Honest answers for skeptics, seekers, and serious thinkers, with philosophers, historians, and social scientists brought in as witnesses


• One concrete practice at the end of every chapter, so the truth moves from the page into your week

Revised and expanded, this second edition includes a new chapter on Acts 10, a one-page summary of the gospel, a glossary of key terms, discussion questions, and a guide for preaching or teaching the book in eight weeks. That makes it ready for small groups, classes, and sermon series.

For the lifelong believer who has never been handed the gospel with precision, for the skeptic who suspects it has nothing to say to a world they already understand, and for the pastor who wants to preach it clearly: this is the news that changes everything.