Adorn the Gospel

Please note this site is just a personal ministry and if you find theological error I am more than happy to be corrected! Soli Deo Gloria!

Hi! I’m Eric Gagnon. I’m an author, I’ve previously served as a pastor, and currently work at Proverbs 31 Ministries as the Theological Content Specialist. I have a Bachelors degree in Church Ministry (B.Min.) as well as a Masters Degree in Theology (M.A.Th. from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary). Me and my family live in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

What Is The Gospel?

The gospel is good news. Let me explain:

God made the world good. (Genesis 1:31) He made mankind good upright. (Ecclesiastes 7:29) Yet, we have all gone astray and broken God’s laws. (Isaiah 53:6) God’s requirement for us, because he is a good Judge, is that we be perfectly obedient to his laws (Galatians 3:10, Romans 8:4, James 2:10) God wouldn’t be good if he turned a blind eye to our evil. Jesus said “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Jesus sent to Apostle Peter to remind us that we are to be holy, just as God himself is holy! (1 Peter 1:15-16) That is our requirement for right standing before God. Perfect righteousness and holiness! Since all have sinned (Romans 3:23) and continue to struggle with sin (1 John 1:8) and since God said the punishment for sin is conscious and eternal spiritual death (Romans 6:23), that puts all of us in quite a bad situation. One day each one of us will meet our maker, and without a miracle of God, none of us have a good enough defense for the crimes we have committed against a good and holy God. We’re doomed without a remedy. The good news is that God in his mercy has had compassion on us unworthy sinners. While remaining fully God, God became the man Jesus Christ. Fully God. Fully Man. Jesus lived the sinless life for us that we would not. He laid down his perfect human life for us on a Roman cross as the payment for our sins. Since He is God, death could not hold him down, and he defeated death by rising again to eternal life, so that all who put their trust in him alone (trusting in him meaning not counting on our own goodness whatsoever!) would also someday rise from the dead and live eternally with him. (Philippians 3:8-11)

If we trust that we are enough to make it to heaven, or that when we die our good deeds will outweigh our bad deeds, we are on our way to destruction. However if we turn and trust in Christ alone, trusting that He alone is able to save us based on his good work alone, that his payment for sin on the cross is both necessary and sufficient for us, then we will be saved. Its guaranteed because it doesn’t depend on us but on His ability. That’s amazing news! God calls all men everywhere to repent and believe this good news. It’s a costly gift that he offers to us for free. We are saved by this grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8). Those who truly believe this good news are changed and affected forever. They are never the same. Their lives are completely different.

If you have believed this news for the first time, please tell someone about it. Please find a gospel believing church and begin attending there in service to others and as a thankful obedience to God. There is no perfect church. But the rest of God’s people need you there with them. Here is a church search and another one here that may be helpful in finding a gospel believing church in your area. I’d personally love to hear from you, and you can feel free to contact me and ask me any questions you would like.

What do you mean by “adorn the Gospel?”