A Christian Guidebook: What Is the Gospel? (4)

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Act 2.40

And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Acts 16.30

Good News
The Philippian jailer probably considered that his life was as good as it gets. He had a secure job, which apparently included quarters for his family. He was no doubt a Roman citizen, or it’s not likely he would have been trusted with keeping prisoners. Food on the table, a roof over the head, a wife and other members of the household to keep things going: Life was, well, if not good, maybe at least good enough.

Then he saw and heard something that cracked the ceiling of his worldview and let in rays of new light. In the midst of a terrifying situation where it seemed the jailer’s world was coming undone—so much so that he reckoned taking his own life would be the least painless way to die (v. 27)—he heard two men call out to him from the chaos. One of them announced the surprising fact that no one had escaped the dungeon, so there was no need for the jailer to take his life.

He’d heard them in there singing before the earthquake struck, and he must have wondered about some of the words to their song. Words like “saved” or “salvation”. They were singing about salvation with conviction, even, it surely sounded like, joy. Whatever “salvation” or “being saved” was, they seemed to have it.

Perhaps he was even mentioning their singing to his wife, who may have shared his curiosity about the matter. Then the earthquake struck, the jailor survived self-destruction, and he suddenly found himself at the feet of Paul and Silas asking the only thing he could think about at such a moment: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

It’s amazing the way a little chaos can sharpen one’s focus. “Salvation!” It captured his imagination and opened his soul to the Good News of joy and the Kingdom.

Salvation from what?
The Good News comes to one who believes in Jesus Christ (v. 30) bringing with it the gift of salvation. That salvation is, in the first instance, a salvation from.

Since, upon believing in Him, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and are transferred into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, we are saved from spiritual loneliness and darkness. In the world of wrong belief, where people insist on being a law unto themselves and everybody’s theme song is “I am the master of my fate”, people can feel disconnected from God and spiritual things. They are reduced to nothing more than another form of matter and mechanics. No soul. Nothing really like a person. Nothing but death and dust awaiting us. And thus no connection or converse with anything spiritual. This, as Paul reminds us (Rom. 1.18-32), is the death trap all inhabit who reject the knowledge of God.

When we believe in Jesus and receive His Spirit, we are delivered from spiritual loneliness because Immanuel, the God/Man, has come to dwell in us forever. Further, He has brought us into His Kingdom, His realm, and begins opening to us the truth of His Word, so that we no longer live in the confusion and uncertainty of a dark and chaotic world. We are citizens of the Kingdom of light, and every day we see things more clearly and understand ourselves and the world more in line with God’s purposes and plans.

But salvation also delivers us from sin—at least, from the eternal consequences of sin and the burden of guilt that goes with the practice of sin. Jesus has defeated sin and death. When we believe in Him, we enter His victory over sin and death, accomplished in His resurrection and ascension. We will still fall into sin from time to time; but we do not languish there. By confessing our sins and drawing on Jesus’ infinite bank of forgiveness, we grow more into the light of Jesus, leaving the loneliness, darkness, and condemnation of sin forever behind. Believing the Good News means having new power to live in the freedom from sin salvation affords.

Salvation unto
But as we have suggested, being saved also brings us to something that we earnestly desire. We may describe this in many ways, for that to which we come in salvation is a gem with many facets.

In salvation we come to forgiveness and freedom from the condemnation that loomed over us all our days before we were saved. We come to the household of God as His adopted children, with complete right of access to His Presence. We come to a new community of people filled with the joy of the Gospel and devoted to seeking the Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. We come to the truth of God and the ability to understand and live by it. To all the exceeding great and precious promises of Scripture. To a life of eternal meaning and significance. To the privilege and heavenly calling of being ambassadors of the eternal Kingdom and witnesses to its glorious and sovereign King. To a true understanding of ourselves, who we are, how we are comprised, what we are for, and how we shall henceforth live. To the hope of glory and the expectation of Jesus’ soon return.

The Gospel—the Good News of Jesus and His Kingdom—is the power of God for salvation, a condition so new and transforming that Paul can describe everyone who is saved as a “new creation” in whom all “old things” have passed away and everything is being made new and wonderful and glorious (2 Cor. 5.17-21).

And salvation is such wonderful Good News that all who hear and believe it can never have enough of it.

Search the Scriptures
1. Where would you turn in Scripture to help someone see what the Gospel saves us from?

2. Where would you turn in Scripture to help someone see what the Gospel saves us to?

3. Read Ephesians 2.1-10. How can you see salvation from and salvation to in this passage?

Next steps—Conversation: Talk with another Christian about the Good News of salvation. Ask to hear your friend’s testimony. Can you hear both from and to in that testimony? How about in yours?

Additional Resources
If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.