The Bible is gospel-centered. The Bible is not primarily calling you to be a good person, but to trust in the grace of God to make you good enough for heaven.
The Gospel In Both Testaments
After describing the wickedness of the earth in Noah’s day, the biblical narrator interjects, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. [then] … Noah was a righteous man … Noah walked with God.” Noah’s walk with God flowed out of God’s grace to Noah.
There is no good news outside of Jesus Christ.
In Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, both sons (the promiscuous one who left home, and the self-righteous one who stayed home) had wandered away from and displeased their Father. The older son was full of rules, trusting in his own excellent record, confident in his position in his Father’s house because of his good behavior — and so was just as wrong as the younger son who had run away and recklessly spent his Father’s inheritance.
The point of the story, then, is not how good either son was, but how good the Father was to them in spite of themselves. It is the story, as Tim Keller reminds us, of the prodigal (prodigious spender) God! The Bible is “good news” precisely because it is gospel-centered.
And while the Bible is gospel-centered, the gospel is Christ-centered. Even Mark does not call his book, as we do, “the gospel of Mark” but “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
There is no good news outside of Jesus Christ.
There may be philanthropy or religiosity, but there is no true gospel.
Christianity Among Other Religions
In our day, it is a common mantra that all religions are equally true; but this can only be the case if you first assume that they are all completely untrue, because they are making contradictory claims.
The secular website Religionfacts.com states that “For a Muslim, the purpose of life is to live in a way that is pleasing to Allah so that one may gain Paradise.” In describing Buddhism it explains, “As seen in the Basic Points of Buddhism, one general doctrine agreed upon by Buddhists is: “We do not believe that this world is created and ruled by a God.”
The Bible is gospel-centered and that the gospel is Christ-centered.
Meanwhile, Jesus says of himself, in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Christianity stakes down the specific and exclusive claim that salvation is only found by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10). This at the very core of what Christianity is and what Christianity teaches; and it contradicts the core truth-claims of every other religion (including secularism).
There is no Christian gospel without the good news of the God-man Jesus dying in the place of sinners, raised from the dead victorious over sin, and now declared to be Lord and Savior.
As you read your Bible, then, keep in mind that the Bible is gospel-centered and that the gospel is Christ-centered. The Bible is not calling you to trust in your good works, but in Christ’s good works and sacrificial death, in your place. Good works then become the overflow of faith in Christ’s sufficient work.