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The word gospel comes from a Greek word which means “good news.” The entire Bible is inherently about this good news because the entire Bible is pointing us to Christ who is the center of the Gospel. However, if you were to read one book of the Bible to gain a deeper understanding of the Gospel I would recommend the book of Romans. A group of women and I just recently finished studying this book and I thought I would share 5 reasons (I’m sure the number is infinite) why the Gospel is good news, specifically from the book of Romans.

1. The Gospel is good news because it is the “power of God for salvation for all who believe” (Romans 1:16) Power of God: I can’t change my heart. I can’t change the hearts of my children or the people I love. I can’t stop sinning by sheer will power. I can’t save myself. God can though. I needed that power from the first moment I understood and accepted the Gospel and every day afterwards. God, powerfully works, to save.

2. The Gospel is good news because doing enough “good” things can’t save me (Romans 3:20). Noone will be saved by doing enough “good” things. Trying harder to follow the “rules” has the opposite effect in that it shows us how sinful we truly are. This is why Christ is such good news. There is no other way to God. Through him I am declared righteous on the basis of Christ’s righteousness and this has nothing to do with my “good” or “bad” works (Romans 3:28). It is an unearned gift, called grace.

3. The Gospel is good news because Christ alone secures my salvation. (Romans 3:23-24, Romans 8:38-39). How is Paul sure that nothing can separate us from the love of God? Because it is Christ who secures that love. Throughout the book of Romans, Paul expounds on all that salvation in Christ brings to the one who believes (redemption, justification, access, peace, grace, hope, assurance that God’s wrath was satisfied, and on). He hasn’t even met the people he is writing to. What is his confidence? Because it is Christ who secured it. My salvation doesn’t ebb and flow with how I feel one day or how much I did or didn’t sin today. Jesus paid it all. Jesus secured it all. It truly is finished.

4. The Gospel is good news because I am no longer under the reign of sin (Romans 6:6). Christ’s work not only saves us, it unites us with him. What happened to Christ happened to us. He died, we died, He was raised, we were raised in newness of life. We have a new master. This is important. The Gospel transforms. This is why Paul thinks it is absurd that one would think since they were saved by grace that they would just continue to sin and go on about their lives (see Romans 6). United with Christ we have died to sin’s reign and now we can live as slaves to righteousness. In Christ we now have the power to obey God and live for him.

5. The Gospel is good news because now I can have hope in the midst of suffering (Romans 8:18-30). We will all suffer but only those in Christ have true hope. We have hope to continue on in our suffering because we know redemption (of our bodies, of creation, of everything) is coming and it will be so glorious that all of our suffering cannot compare. There will be an end to all of this suffering. We have hope because, in the midst of our suffering, the Spirit helps us. We are not alone. The Spirit himself prays for us. We have someone interceding, who is actively in our corner. We have hope because God is purposely working through it all and will bring us to glorification. We walk through suffering with hope, patience, endurance, and even groaning, but we allow that groaning to fix our eyes on the future glory that is coming.

I hope this encourages you today as you think about the unending depths and riches of the Gospel. I hope this encourages you to go read the book of Romans and find 5 more reasons why the Gospel is good news.

“To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” Romans 16:27