Vic Scaravilli is a Catholic who put the following on his website here. I’m reposting it (with permission) and note that Evangelicals would agree that this is the gospel, with some nuances about baptism.
The Basic Gospel Message
By Vic Scaravilli
God loves each one of us. He loves me and He loves you with an unconditional love. You are precious in His eyes.
There is something that has kept us separated from God, something that has kept us from experiencing His love in our lives. That something is called sin. The result of sin is spiritual death. We have all sinned and never can be perfect.
Does that mean we can never know and experience God’s love? No, because God loved us so much He sent His only Son to die for each one of us. Jesus is the only bridge that takes us from our sin to the love of God. By His death and resurrection, Jesus opened the gates of heaven for everyone.
This is called salvation. It is the free gift of eternal life that is completely given to us by God’s grace. Salvation is the life in Jesus that begins now and will be for all eternity.
The free gift of salvation must be accepted in order for it to be our own. We must experience an internal conversion experience that changes our hearts. Once we accept Jesus into our hearts and allow Him to come into our lives, we begin to experience His love.
In order to become children of God, we must be born again. The sacrament of Baptism forgives your sins, gives the gift of the Holy Spirit, restores the grace lost by Adam, and makes you a member of His family.
This is the gift of salvation. We have the opportunity of eternal life because of what Jesus did for you and me. All we have to do is personally accept it by faith and be obedient to Him. Baptism and conversion are required to begin this process.
Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
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There is one Gospel but four ways of understanding it. These correspond to the four “Gospels”, that is, the Gospel according to Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. They each emphasize different aspects of the good news of Jesus Christ. For example, see Characteristic Differences of the Four Gospels (which Kregel Publications calls “Four Views of Christ”) by Andrew Jukes.
The fourfold Gospel includes a fourfold atonement corresponding to the key roles and accomplishments of Jesus Christ:
(1) Victor: He overcame death, hell, sin, and Satan, that is, evil and all its manifestations, without denying the rights of Satan and his minions. Christ is Lord, King, and Ruler of all.
(2) Sacrifice: He provided a way for God to forgive us without compromising righteousness. He did this by satisfying the requirements of justice on our behalf. Christ is Priest, Lamb, and Temple for all.
(3) Mediator: He restored our relationship to God, that is, overcame our alienation from God, without ignoring the development of our alienation. Christ is Prophet and Intercessor for all.
(4) Exemplar: He embodied the way, the truth, and the life of God, showing us how to live, what to think, and which actions to take. Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
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The following comes from Rev. David Harper’s blog entry, The power of story:
Here’s a synopsis.
- God created humankind in His image for fellowship and partnership, entrusting to us stewardship of His earth. (Gen. 1:28)
- Because of sin, in which we all participate, our fellowship with God and one another has fractured (Gen. 3:1-19, 4:8; Rom. 3:23).
- God sent His Son, Jesus, as the promised Messianic King and Son of God, come to earth in human form to become one with us. (Rom. 1:3-4; Phil. 2:4ff.).
- By his death and resurrection, Jesus atoned for our sin, and secured our justification by grace, (1 Cor. 15:3ff.). He has broken the dominion of sin and evil over us (Col. 2:13-15), restored us to right relationship with the Father, and made us the first-fruits of His new creation. (James 1:18)
- He has given us His Holy Spirit to empower us to do the works that Jesus did, enlisting us in His plan and purpose to make the whole creation new. (John 14:12ff, Acts 2:1ff, Eph. 1:9-10, 3:8-12
- At his return, Jesus will complete what he began by the renewal of the entire material creation, and the resurrection of our bodies (Rom 8: 18ff.).
Rev. Harper is a retired pastor, known for (among other things) his talk on Three Streams, One River.