The Lost Gospel

The Biblical gospel message seems to have been lost in our modern culture.  Unbelievers do not seem to understand the gospel itself.  If you turn to Christian television you will get and endless parade of prosperity preachers proclaiming a false gospel.  The media presents Christians in the culture wars trying to impose their beliefs on others.  And then there is the Roman Catholic Church with it's distorted gospel of faith and works.  

Even Evangelical Christians do not seem to fully understand the gospel sometimes.  They often fail to grasp the depths of our unrighteousness.  Christians were not good people who have been made better but sinners who have been saved from their sins.  

Unbelievers seem to view Christians as people who view themselves as good people who deserve to go to heaven.  Is this at least somewhat the fault of the church for not making the gospel clear?  In reality no one is righteous and all have sinned (Romans 3). Christians have been saved from their sins by Christ alone.  

Salvation is totally by grace, it is undeserved and completely the work of God.  At one point we were all sinners who deserved to go to hell.  To get to heaven you must meet God's perfect standard of righteousness being without sin.  Christ lived a perfect life without sin enabling him to be our perfect substitute.  He died on the cross to pay for the sins of his people.  He was raised from the dead vindicated as the Son of God and victorious over sin and death.  Believers receive the righteousness of Christ and he takes our sins upon himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).  

At one point we were all spiritually dead and slaves to sin.  But God makes us alive, he regenerates us or makes us born again.  We then respond with repentance and faith in Christ alone for salvation.  Christians are changed and transformed by God.  

It is the gospel of grace, totally unearned and undeserved.  If people could be good enough to get to heaven or earn their way there, then Christ died for no purpose and Christianity would make no sense.  All Christians were sinners who have been saved by Christ alone.