Accurately defining the gospel is the focus of Gilbert’s book, and he succeeds in providing a biblically-based account divided into four main issues: God, Man, Christ, and Response. Citing the modern-day tendency of many churches to dilute their message, Gilbert rightly suggests that the gospel—centered in the death and resurrection of Christ—must have primacy in the Church. Gospel is basic in scope and somewhat brief, but is a good introduction to a critical issue. 

Humanity is not autonomous. We did not create ourselves, and we are neither self-reliant nor self-accountable. No, it is God who created the world and everything in it, including us. Because He created us, God has the right to demand that we worship Him. [28] 

The earliest Christians always seem to get at these four issues: We are accountable to the God who created us. We have sinned against that God and will be judged. But God has acted in Jesus Christ to save us, and we take hold of that salvation by repentance from sin and faith in Jesus. [32] 

When you realize just how dependent you are on Jesus for your salvation—His death for your sin, His life for your righteousness—you understand why the Bible is so insistent that salvation comes only through faith in Him. There is no other way, no other savior, nothing and no one else in the world on which we can rely for salvation, including our own efforts. [78]

You can live like Jesus lived all you want, but unless you’ve come to the crucified King in repentance and faith, relying on Him alone as the perfect sacrifice for your sin and your only hope for salvation, you’re neither a Christian nor a citizen of His kingdom. [96]

Since the very beginning of time, people have been trying to save themselves in ways that make sense to them, rather than listening and submitting to God. [102 

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In the tradition of Preaching The Cross, this book features the collected transcripts of the messages given at the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference. Each speaker focused his sermon on the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ and what his death means in terms of both doctrine and application. Although the variety of writing styles occasionally disrupts the continuity of the book, the overall message is coherent and their unified proclamation of the Gospel remains clear. 

To proclaim the inauguration of the kingdom and the new creation and all the rest without proclaiming how people can enter it—by repenting and being forgiven of their sins through faith in Christ and his atoning death—is to preach a non-gospel. [126]

It is wrong ever to say that non-Christians are doing “kingdom work.” A non-Christian working for human reconciliation or justice is doing a good thing, but that is not kingdom work, because it is not done in the name of the King. [129]

What is truly astonishing about the gospel is that the messianic King dies to save his people—that the divine Son of Man in Daniel, the Davidic Messiah, and the suffering servant in Isaiah turn out to be the same man. [130]

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