Everyone senses that something is deeply wrong in the church today. We call it apostasy, and many even admit that it’s because the Gospel has been lost. But the real issue is not just that the Gospel is missing—it’s that the very definition of the Gospel has been exchanged. This is not a minor error. The Gospel is not a message of law, sin management, or self-improvement. It is the divine announcement of an eternal inheritance secured for God’s children in Christ. When this Gospel is lost or redefined, apostasy is inevitable, and the church is left in fear, condemnation, and endless self-effort.
The Gospel: God’s Announcement of Inheritance
Scripture is clear: the Gospel was first preached to Abraham, not as a demand for repentance or a warning about sin, but as a promise of blessing and inheritance. “In you all the nations shall be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). Abraham believed God’s promise that he would be heir of the world to come (Romans 4:13). There was no law, no demand for sin consciousness—only the announcement of an inheritance to be received by faith.
This is the Gospel: Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose for our justification (1 Corinthians 15:1-5). Whoever believes this is begotten of God, made a child and an heir together with Christ. The death of the Testator has occurred; the inheritance is secured. Christ, crowned with glory and honor, sits at the right hand of God, waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. The world to come will be subject to those who believe—those chosen to be heirs with Christ (Hebrews 2:5-9; Romans 8:17).
The Law: A Tool, Not the Gospel
Why, then, do so many reduce the Gospel to a message about sin and repentance? The answer is tragic: after the Fall, law and sin consciousness entered to expose our depravity and our desperate need for a Savior. The law was added to magnify transgression, to shut every mouth, and to make clear that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom (Romans 5:20; 1 Corinthians 15:50). This was God’s way of revealing our utter inability and the necessity of re-creation.
But the law is not the Gospel. When preachers demand radical sin renunciation as the evidence of faith, they are not preaching Christ—they are preaching law. This so-called “gospel of repentance” is not Good News. It keeps people on probation, obsessed with their failures, and trapped in fear and self-effort. It obscures the true Gospel, which announces that God has already made peace with man and secured an incorruptible inheritance for His children.
What Is Lost When the Gospel Is Replaced
If you accept a law-centered, repentance-driven message as the Gospel, you lose everything that matters. You lose the assurance of sonship. You lose the certainty of your inheritance. You lose the joy, thanksgiving, and power that come from knowing you are already accepted in the Beloved. Instead, you inherit fear, condemnation, and a life of striving that can never satisfy God or the conscience. This is not a secondary matter—it is salvific. To redefine the Gospel is to undermine justification itself and to forfeit the very promise God made to Abraham.
The True Gospel Produces Thanksgiving and Assurance
The real Gospel produces something the law never can: a heart full of thanksgiving, joy, and assurance. When you believe the record God has given of His Son, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit—the guarantee of your future glory (Ephesians 1:13-14). You are no longer a slave cowering under wrath, but a child crying, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15-17). The Spirit Himself bears witness that you are an heir, and your inheritance is reserved in heaven, incorruptible and undefiled (1 Peter 1:4-5).
This is not a wage to be earned, but a gift received. Christ, as the last Adam, has secured the inheritance, dealt fully with sin’s accusation, and guaranteed forgiveness and eternal life. The blood of Jesus answers every charge of the law and the devil (Romans 8:33; Hebrews 12:24). You are qualified for a share in the allotted portion of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12-14). You are already seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and in the ages to come God will show the exceeding riches of His grace toward you (Ephesians 2:6-7).
The Offense of the Gospel to Legalism
This message is an offense to those who insist that the Gospel is about repentance, sin management, and radical transformation as proof of salvation. They claim the church is powerless because we do not demand enough from sinners. But their “gospel” is nothing but law. It cannot produce faith, thanksgiving, or assurance—only fear and condemnation. They have lost the Gospel because they have lost Christ as the heir and the inheritance as the promise.
Stand in the True Gospel
The Gospel is the announcement of an inheritance, not a probationary period. It proclaims that God has qualified you, not that you must qualify yourself. It is the power of God unto salvation because it reveals the righteousness of God apart from works (Romans 1:16-17). If you believe in Christ, you are a child of God, an heir with Christ, and your inheritance is eternally secure.
Do not settle for a counterfeit gospel that leaves you in bondage. Stand in the finished work of Christ. Rejoice in your inheritance. Let your heart be filled with thanksgiving, not fear. This is the Gospel that sets you free and brings you into the fullness of what God has purposed: many sons in glory, conformed to the image of His Son, enjoying the riches of His grace forever.
