So what exactly is the Gospel? To answer this question let’s start with what it’s not. The Gospel is not simply a message of hope for humanity by becoming better humans (although being virtuous and doing virtuous things are by-products of receiving the Gospel). The best we can muster on our best day is an exercise in futility compared to God’s standard of spiritual and moral perfection. Think of the analogy of filling a burlap sack with sand only to find that it’s been torn at the bottom. No matter how hard we try we can never fill it because we can never mend it. Likewise mankind is broken at the bottom of who we are and thus unfulfilled. Think of the sack of sand as a spiritual substance of which we can never repair because we don’t have the ability to fix it. How then does God mend it? This question is central to the Gospel. À la the Apostle Paul the Gospel is Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-4). Only Jesus qua human and qua divine has the power of perfect love in obedience to fulfill our humanity by mending (saving) us from the chokehold of sin and death so we who are buried with Him can be resurrected with Him! Thus, Christ is our only hope. And, thus, the Gospel is Good News for those who know they don’t have what it takes to fix and fill their burlap sack.