What is the Gospel?

I started a new book tonight.  I've been waiting on it all week to arrive from Amazon!

What is the Gospel by Greg Gilbert.

The first time I ever read the entire gospels was when I was reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love back in December.  I had never read them before, folks.  It put a brand new perspective on what I wanted my Christianity to look like.  It's so amazing to get to see the personality of Jesus in the way that he responds to the sinners, the children, and the way he prays for his disciples in John 17.  He was the purest good, and I want to live my life following him.

So in this new book, the question "What is the Gospel?" is put forth.  In the introduction, Gilbert gives a selection of examples and asks if someone came up to you and asked what the message of the gospel is, how would you respond?  I had never thought about that.  I'm not very good with words, so if someone actually came up to me and asked me that question, I would be stuck in slow motion and stutters until they got creeped out and just walked away.  So now I'm thinking about it, and this is my current answer.  I have a feeling by the end of this book, I'll have to edit it.

What is the gospel?
God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus, who was God but was born in completely human form, to bring salvation and a new way of life to his followers.  Jesus lived on earth, suffered through many of the same obstacles that all humans face, but still remained free from sin. He taught the multitudes to love God and love each other -- that those two commandments would satisfy all the needs of the Law.  He was crucified on a cross, and when he died, he endured the wrath of God for ALL of the sin of his followers, so that when we die, we will be saved by HIS blood. He rose from the dead after three days to show that he had broken us out of the bondage of death and given us the keys to eternal life with God in Heaven.  He did all of this because He loves us.

That's what I gleaned from it, in my limited knowledge of the rest of the Bible.  I'm going to revisit this blog after I finish the book so I can see how it changes and see how much more I can learn about the gospel.