This is an interesting question, “What is the Gospel?” Explaining the Gospel can take anywhere from 140 characters (like on Twitter) up to millions upon millions of words and everything in between. Here is my attempt to keep it “Twitterfied” (Less than 140 characters)
Perfect God loves man, hates sin.
Fallen man hates God, loves sin.
God sends Son, crosses out man’s sin.
Man repents, believes, is saved.
That is my best attempt, but it leaves out so much. Can you do better? Post your attempt in the comments section.
My favorite pastors named John have addressed this question and their responses are below. John Piper’s is very complete and well organized – one of my favorites. John MacArthur’s is short, sweet and brought me to tears when I first heard it. Paul Washer’s offering follows. It is longer, but is so good that I had to include it even though his name isn’t John.
Don’t think I could improve on the Scripture which says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself…we implore you…be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor.5:19-21 NKJV)
Thank you for that contribution, Dennis. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is, in many ways, the crux of the Gospel.