The gospel is “good news.” More specifically, the gospel is the good news about what God is doing to redeem and reconcile all things through Jesus Christ. This good news is a message that only makes sense in light of a story. As these two videos share, the true story of the world goes like this.

Creation. God made it. At the center of reality is God who is a Triune community of divine love - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who made all things in creation with goodness and beauty. He created us in his image to live in relationship with him and to reflect his love, mercy, and justice as cultivators of his creation.

Fall. We broke it. Sin entered the world and fractured every aspect of God’s good creation. People and relationships, towns and cities, institutions and governments, our brains and our bodies — all of these are not the way they are supposed to be because of sin.

Redemption. Jesus fixes it. Jesus came to rescue us by not only dealing with the symptoms of sin, but the disease itself. He lived the life we should have lived; he died for the penalty of our sins on the cross; he overcame death in our place through his resurrection; and he ascended to heaven as King, where he reigns over all. He offers this salvation to everybody as a free gift of grace in order to create a new human family where walls that normally separate people (like race, class, nationality, etc.) are broken down. If we turn from our sins and trust him, we become united to Jesus and everything that he accomplished becomes true for us too. As we are united to him, we are also united to his multiethnic, multicultural, global family where we learn to love God and one another.

Restoration. We live it. Jesus rescues us from the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into and restores us to relationship with himself so that we can become his agents of transformation and extending his kingdom in this world. This involves all of life - our relationships, our education, our work, and the way we rest, eat, play, and worship. Jesus is King and we follow him in all that we do and share this good news with as many people as possible.

Consummation. “And they all lived happily ever after.” All of our favorite stories are true. One day, Jesus is coming again to make right everything that we’ve made wrong. The complete family of God from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be healed and joined together in a renewed creation. All the injustice and wars, disease and suffering, pain and evil will be gone. He will wipe all of our tears away forever. Between now and then, the church is a signpost and foretaste of what is to come. We declare and display this good news to the whole world.