Gospel Guidebook: Getting and Keeping It Right 
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"Christ Died for Me" is NOT the Gospel
by Robert P. TerryUpdated July 12, 2025
The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners through His atoning death on the cross. The question that remains, however, is this: who are these sinners? Do they include all sinners individually without exception, or do they only include a subgroup of sinners? Most Christians assume that the atonement was for all sinners individually without exception. If this is true, then the proposition "Christ died for me" becomes a part of the Gospel message. However, if this is so, then only one of two things is possible: (1) the atonement was sufficient and efficacious for all people without exception, and all people without exception will be received into glory upon death; or (2) the atonement was sufficient for all people without exception but only efficacious to those who appropriate to themselves the merits of Christ. The Bible does not teach Option (1), so the only option left is Option (2). But this creates another question: how exactly are sinners supposed to appropriate to themselves the merits of Christ? The obvious answer for most people is to make faith an appropriating act. The problem with this, however, is that the Bible does not describe faith as an appropriating act, and if the sinner attempts to turn it into an appropriating act, he ends up moving the focus from what Christ did for sinners at the cross to what the sinner supposedly did to procure Christ's merits (usually ascribing this act to the Holy Spirit working in his heart in order to obfuscate the insidiousness of turning the Gospel into a scheme of works salvation).
The only way to avoid the problem described above is to realize that the atonement was only sufficient and efficacious for His people (Matt. 1:21). This is the only way the focus remains exclusively on Him and what He accomplished. And this is exactly what the Bible teaches, for the Apostles never required any man to believe that Christ died for him individually as a condition for supposedly appropriating the merits of Christ to himself. Rather, they taught that the Gospel concerned God's Son Jesus Christ and emphasized His accomplishments (Rom. 1:1-4). And because God highly exalted Him, He reveals His accomplishments to His people through belief in the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17). His people come to understand that Christ died for them individually as an implication that can be drawn from believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the accompanying promises that whoever believes this has life in His name.
Sinners have the tendency to make everything about themselves, and for this reason they naturally refuse to believe the Gospel is good news unless they can confirm that they personally have some share in it, or at least have some employment in procuring its benefits. We must resist this urge and let Christ have all the glory. Again, the Gospel concerns God's righteousness in Christ (Rom. 1:1-4, 16-17), and only after believing it, can we proclaim with other believers that "Christ died for our sins" and "loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." (1 Cor. 15:3, Gal. 2:20).