What are the essential elements of the gospel?
The Final Four
Whenever we talk about the gospel, it is helpful and important to remember the four essentials: God, man, Christ, response.
God is both our sovereign Creator and our righteous Judge.
- You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You (Neh 9:6).
- Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity (Ps 98:9).
- God therefore has the right of ownership over us by virtue of creating us, and he has the right to punish or reward us by virtue of his royal, judicial office. And because God is both our Creator and Judge, we are doubly accountable to Him for all our behavior - word, thought, and deed.
