1. God wants to make us rich.
Some preachers today claim that the good news is that God wants to bless us with great money and material possessions—we just have to ask!
But the Gospel is a message of spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3): God sent Jesus Christ to die and rise for us, so that we might be justified, reconciled to God, and receive eternal life with Him (Rom. 3:25-26, 6:23; 2 Cor. 5:18-21).
Moreover, the Bible promises that Christians will not have material prosperity in this life, but will experience trials (Acts 14:22), persecution (2 Tim. 3:12), and suffering (Rom. 8:17), which will one day give way to incomparable glory (2 Cor. 4:17; Rom. 8:18).
2. God is love, and we are all right.
Some people think that the gospel is simply that God loves us and accepts us as we are. However, the biblical gospel reveals to people the truth about their sin and the wrath of God that they deserve (Rom. 3:23; John 3:36). It proclaims a radical solution—the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, who took our sins upon Himself. This gospel calls for a radical response: repentance of our sins and trusting in Christ for salvation.
3. We must live rightly.
The gospel is not a message that tells us that we must live better lives and thereby make ourselves righteous before God. In fact, the gospel states the exact opposite: we cannot do what pleases God, and we can never make ourselves acceptable to Him (Rom. 8:5-8). But the good news is that Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves: by living a perfect life and taking on God’s wrath on the cross, He provided salvation for all who turn from their sin and trust in Him (Rom. 5:6-11, 8:31-34).
4. Jesus came to transform society.
Some believe that Jesus’ mission was to transform society and restore justice to the oppressed through political revolution. But the Bible teaches that this world will be set right only when Jesus comes again and ushers in a new heaven and a new earth (2 Thess. 2:9-10, Rev. 21:1-5). The gospel is primarily a message of salvation from the wrath of God through faith in Christ, not a message of societal transformation in this modern age.
(Some material adapted from the book Nine Signs of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, pages 80-90)
