The gospel is good news – that is what 'gospel' means. It is the announcement that what God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – He has fulfilled in Jesus. Although His birth, life and death were well prophesied in the Old Testament, the unique feature of His earthly life was His resurrection. It was incontrovertible proof of His divinity and the efficacy of His sacrifice for sins.

Old Testament prophecies from Psalm 2:7, Isaiah 55:3, Psalm 16:10 all affirmed that the crucified Christ, although dead, would not decay but be raised again. Those verses also tell us about His family relationship with Father God, as God the Son, His appointment as the Christ and His unending life: all unique characteristics which are not shared with any other person.

The Son is an equal partner of the eternal Godhead and in a dynamic relationship with the Father. He shares all of the Father's nature and is about to express the Father to human beings (Hebrews 1:3). But He has also been anointed ('Christ' means 'Anointed One') to receive and pass on all the blessings promised to King David. And He is not dead: He is alive for evermore. So to follow Jesus is to have a dynamic relationship with the living God … rather than trying (and failing) to adhere to the ethical teachings of a dead wise man.

The gospel is still as pivotal to the eternal destiny of our family, friends and colleagues … as it ever was in Paul's day. There is only one Gospel of Jesus which focuses on His two appointments to die and to rise. Nobody else had ever been raised from the dead, never to die again. We may be used to these facts but for the unbeliever, the possibility of being forgiven by someone's death and be given new life and an eternal relationship with the Creator is amazing news. Do not assume that people know and understand. Tell them the truth about Jesus and let Him draw them to Himself.