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There is nothing more important than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It matters not if one is in Church, gives to the poor, or lays down his or her life for another if the individual does not know and has not accepted the gospel.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians,

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred.

- 1 Corinthians 15:1-6

And in doing so, Paul understood that unless one understands the gospel, before anything else, then one is in great need. So, he wrote the message to the Corinthians “as of first importance.”

The gospel, like everything else, starts with God. The scripture begins, “In the beginning God …” And from that flows everything, including the gospel. It starts with who God is.

Before all else, God is holy. There is nothing in Him that is not perfect. The scripture tells us this in several places.

For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy.

- Leviticus 11:44

Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

- Leviticus 19:2

But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’

- 1 Peter 1:15-16

And this is the message we have heard from Him
and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

- 1 John 1:5

Because God is holy, it means that there can be nothing unholy with Him. He is perfection.

In itself, that would be fine. God is holy and He can do whatever He wants, remaining holy. But the problem comes with man. Unlike God, man is far from holy. In fact, if sin were represented by the color blue, then you could cut a man open and every cell in his body would be covered with blue. We are everything but perfect. We are sinful in our very nature. If you have believed in Christ to be your Lord, then this is what you once were, if you have not believed in Christ and repented of your sins, then this is you now.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

- Genesis 6:5

And the LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, ‘I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.

- Genesis 8:21

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

- Romans 3:23

Yet I am sure that we can all think of someone who seemingly does good. How can the person who feeds the poor, gives his or her own life for good causes, and cries at others hurts be evil? "Surely," we might say, "such a person has to be good and righteous." But scripture addresses that as well.

There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.

- Romans 3:10-12

For all of us have become like one who is unclean,and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.

- Isaiah 64:6

Man is so tainted with sin that even the things we do that we think are righteous or good are evil. It is covered with our sinful nature. It is like someone trying to mop and clean a floor using water that is filled with dirt and grime. No matter how much the individual tries to do good and clean he will only make it more dirty, and it will smell even worse than before.

The problem then arises. Because God is holy and cannot allow sin to go unpunished, then he must pour out His wrath upon sinful man.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

- Romans 1:18

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant
heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

- Romans 2:5

We too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.

- Ephesians 2:3

Therefore, man without Christ is in a horrible state. It is not as if God is waiting helplessly before you to be pitied, hoping that if you feel sorry enough for Him then you will repent and believe. The picture rather is that you are presently under the wrath of a holy and righteous God as the day is approaching when He will unleash that wrath on every man whom He does not know as His own.

Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

- Matthew 7:22-23

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

- Revelation 20:12-15

Therefore, the question, then, is not “How can a loving God let anybody go to hell?” But rather, “How can a holy God let anyone into heaven?” because God is holy and man is so utterly sinful in his very nature. The answer is the good news of the gospel. The answer is Jesus Christ.

Scripture tells us that instead of pouring out His wrath on man, God (because of His love for us) made a way for man to have eternal life by pouring His wrath out on His own Son, Jesus. And He did this even while we were in our sinful state and were the objects of His wrath.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

- John 3:16

But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

- Romans 5:8

He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

- 2 Corinthians 5:21

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed … The LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, if He would render Himself as a guilt offering.

- Isaiah 53:4-5, 10

And so, God sent His Son to the earth in the form of a man. His Son’s name was Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life on the earth. Yet men (as God ordained) killed Him, putting Him to death on a cross though crucifixion. In that death, God allowed Jesus Christ to become our sin, and He poured out His wrath on Him, judging our sin, that we might not have to face the wrath of God but might have eternal life. Yet after Christ lay in the grave three days, God raised Him back to life, He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God where he intercedes on behalf of His children.

But to whom does Christ’s death apply if on the great day of judgment many will be thrown into the lake of fire? Christ’s sacrifice and his righteousness is applied to everyone who believes on Him and repents of his or her sins. The scripture says,

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

- Mark 1:15

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

- John 6:47

Believe in the Lord Jesus, And you shall be saved.

- Acts 16:31

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation.

- Romans 10:9-10

To repent of one’s sins means to be sorrowful for your sins and to turn away from them. It is a decision to abandon the pursuit of worldly lusts and turning to follow after God. To believe is to place your faith in Christ wholeheartedly. Your attitude will be that "If Christ’s perfect life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead is not enough to save me then I will go to hell." You put your every hope in Jesus Christ and follow Him all of your days.

And even though you repent and believe, your salvation is utterly and totally the work of God which He does by His grace. There is nothing in any of us that merits salvation. God did not look at any of us and think, "I could use him." No, rather we were His sin-tainted enemies, due His wrath. He would have been perfectly just to send us all to hell. Yet, He has chosen to show grace to those who repent and believe. Yet even our faith and repentance are gifts from God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

- Ephesians 2:8-9

Therefore, if you are not born again, then what should you do? You should fall on your face before God confessing your sins, repenting before Him, and placing your faith in Christ, asking God to have grace on you. And, even in that, realize that God is being gracious to you in drawing you to Himself. If you genuinely repent and believe, then the scripture says that you will be saved - saved from the eternal wrath of God in the lake of fire. However, I would also remind you, that if you do not believe and repent, then you are storing up for yourself the wrath of God in the day of judgment.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

- John 3:36

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