The Gospel of Salvation is the Gospel of Grace. Salvation by grace is God's gift to humanity and the message from heaven that we are loved by God. The death of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sins for all of humanity, attainable for those who repent and believe in Him, is the expression of God's love and grace for us. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of the grace of God and the hope of eternal life. 


The Gospel of Grace is God's Gift

The gospel is the message of peace in the midst of strife, the good news of love in the face of hatred, and the hope of acceptance despite all the rejection we face. Peace, love and hope are a reflection of God's grace. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is 'the gospel of the grace of God' (Acts 20:24). The gospel is the message of grace, an acceptance by God not on the basis of our goodness but His. It is a love we don't need to earn—it flows from the God of love. His love, grace and goodness come to us in the words, 'you are loved.' In Christ, God made us 'accepted in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:6), through whom we have forgiveness of sins as the expression of God's grace (v 7). The gospel of grace that brings salvation is God's gift to us. Paul wrote, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast' (Ephesians 2:8-9). The salvation by grace, accessible by faith, is the gift of God. Clinton E. Arnold sees God's grace in Paul's letters as 'the defining characteristic of the next covenant' and 'the heart of his gospel message and, in fact, the heart of his theology.' The word 'grace' is of great importance in Paul's writings (occurring 95 times): it is 'the source of justification' and 'a free gift.' Grace stems from Jesus Christ as the 'merited favour from God in providing salvation for sinners' (Ephesians, 69-70). Grace brings us the free gift of God's salvation based on His love expressed in the redeeming of love of Christ's death. We cannot save ourselves, but we can believe in the One who can—Jesus the Saviour.

The gospel of grace brings salvation to those who believe in Christ on the basis of grace, that is, not what we do for God, but what He has done for us in Christ. Grace is the undeserved gift we don't have to earn. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are not saved by our own works (v 9); salvation is the gift of God by grace (v 8). We are not saved by good works, but for good works, which God prepared before we were even born (v 10). The 'good works' we are called to do is part of the purpose of God for our lives as created in His image and saved from a life of sin by Christ. Salvation is not a reward for the 'good guys,' it is a gift for the 'bad guys,' those guilty of sin who seek God's mercy in repentance. Throughout Scripture we are encouraged to do good, yet salvation is a gift. It is the 'kindness of God our Saviour' that gave us mercy and forgiveness of sin; it is not 'on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness' (Titus 3:4-5). We are being 'justified by grace' and gain 'the hope of eternal life' in Christ by faith in Him  (v 7). We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:6, 8). Justification before God comes through what Christ did on the cross for us, having become our righteousness by faith in Him. We do good works because we are saved; we can't gain salvation by good works. The grace of God is the gift we don't deserve because of our sin, but neither can we, nor need to, earn it because Christ gained it for us on the cross. Salvation is a gift!

When Jesus died on the cross, He said, 'it is finished'—that is, the work of salvation has been accomplished (John 19:30). He died for our sins so that we can have forgiveness. It was a substitute death. This is the gospel, the good news! No longer must we bear the punishment for sins—it's too hard to bear anyway—but can, instead, have forgiveness from them. By His perfect sacrifice we can be made righteous despite our sin, because His sacrifice atoned for sin. This is the grace of God—we don't have to earn it, we can simply receive it by faith. It is a gift and you don't need to pay for a gift—someone else has! God saves those who believe in Christ, and there is a 'holy calling' on their lives. It is salvation that is 'not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,' and 'revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished sin and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel' (2 Timothy 1:9-10). In Christ we have the hope of eternal life—by His grace. God's salvation in Christ is based on a promise, and is, therefore, a matter grace (Romans 4:16). The redemption in Christ is the fulfilment of God's promise (Galatians 3:13-14). His grace justifies us before God on the basis of faith in the Saviour (Titus 3:3-8) and makes sinful people righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is a gift of God by grace! By faith in Christ, we are placed 'in Christ' (1 Corinthians 1:30), as God makes sinful human beings 'accepted in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:6). Sin no longer separates us from God; His forgiveness removes what separated us from God and His righteousness makes us perfect before His holy Majesty. God doesn't want to condemn what is sinful, He wants to save what is lost.

Grace gives us what we don't deserve. We don't have to earn it or pay for it—Christ paid for it. Humanity lost in sin and driven by lust and evil (Ephesians 2:1-3), deserves judgment and condemnation—the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Yet God did not leave His creation in the destruction and suffering of sin. He did something about it. God is 'rich in mercy' and has loved us with 'His great love' (Ephesians 2:4). His love and mercy expressed the 'surpassing riches of His grace' in Jesus Christ (v 7) by Him dying on the cross for the sins of humanity. It is the death of the Saviour on the cross that made us 'accepted in the Beloved' as an expression of God's grace (1:6-7). It is the divine exchange—the Just died for the unjust, the sinless One for the guilty (1 Peter 3:18). God made Him who knew no sin to die for us, so that we can become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthia 5:21).

The gospel of grace is God's gift to all of humanity, and effective for all those who believe in Christ. God offers us 'the free gift' of salvation because of Christ's atoning death on our behalf. This is 'the grace of God' and 'the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ' who died for us (Romans 5:15-17). God freely justifies sinners in Christ as 'the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus' (3:26). Grace is God's gift to humanity. We receive it by faith and become God's children (John 1:12-13). This is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ which He established and the apostles proclaimed. This gospel is 'the gospel of the grace of God' (Acts 20:24) which the apostle Paul proclaimed and by which he testified to everyone 'of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ' (v 21). The apostle lived 'by faith in the Son of God,' who loved him and gave Himself up for him (Galatians 2:20-21). It is a trustworthy statement, worthy of all acceptance: 'that Christ came into the world to save sinners' (1 Timothy 1:15). Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). This is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. This is the grace of God in which we stand by faith in Christ, having received peace with God (Romans 5:1-2).