The word “gospel” means, good news. But how exactly good is the news of the gospel? To understand the amazing message of salvation, you have to first know something about why sinners need salvation. In other words, you need to know the bad news before you can value the good news. Think, for example, of going to the doctor for a regular check up, and the doctor tells you about a new treatment plan that they have developed that has wonderful results in saving people’s lives. You may think, Well that’s interesting. But it will seem rather irrelevant to you. But if you go to the doctor, and they run a battery of tests, and he comes back to you and says, “I’m terribly sorry, but you have a deadly condition, and you’re in serious trouble. However, we have developed a new protocol, and there’s a treatment plan that has been extremely successful, and we have good results in saving people’s lives.”