The Core of the Gospel and the Love of God
A central theme that Pastor David Jang repeatedly emphasizes in his sermons and lectures is the “Gospel.” He understands the Gospel as the entire saving work of Jesus Christ—God’s Son—who came to earth, took upon Himself all human sin and suffering, died, and then rose again, opening the way to new life for all humanity. To him, the Gospel is not a mere religious doctrine, but a decisive event that upends everything, extending from human history all the way to a cosmic dimension.
John 3:16 is always presented as a crucial starting point for defining the Gospel: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” This verse vividly shows that the Gospel, above all else, proclaims the “love of God.” Referring to this passage, Pastor David Jang stresses that we must meditate deeply on the fact that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, entirely as a gift of grace, even though we were separated from God forever by our sin. We rejoice and tremble with awe before the Gospel precisely because of the greatness of this love.
He often cites Romans 5:8: “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This points to the fact that God does not love humanity because we had any special merit. Rather, when humans were under sin and wholly incapable of achieving salvation by their own strength, God sent Jesus Christ without any conditions. Here, Pastor David Jang warns against reducing the Gospel to mere moral lessons or religious rituals; we must instead perceive it thoroughly as an event of grace. Since the Gospel is given not because of human good deeds or righteousness but as a “gift of God,” there is no room whatsoever for human boasting.
Pastor David Jang calls the Gospel an “event of love,” highlighting that it is at the Cross where this love is most concretely revealed. Love, if spoken of only in words, can become hollow, but God’s love became a “historical fact” through the humiliation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The event of Jesus emptying Himself completely, taking on humanity’s sins, and becoming the sacrificial offering is incomparable to any other form of love—indeed, it is an absolutely “unique” love. He says that this love is the essence of the good news the Gospel proclaims.
And if the Gospel is love, bearing witness to that love is an inescapable obligation. In other words, once people realize that the Son of God came to this earth, died for us, and then broke the power of death by rising again, they are inevitably compelled to “testify” to it. Pastor David Jang often illustrates this with examples from the book of Acts, showing how the disciples and apostles bore witness. Stephen, even under extreme persecution, continued to testify that Jesus is the Savior of humanity until the moment he was stoned to death. At Pentecost, Peter proclaimed the Gospel before all Jerusalem, and Paul traveled among the Gentiles, never ceasing to testify to the Gospel. At the risk of their own lives and at any cost, they proclaimed to the world that Jesus is “the true way to life.”
The reason they could bear such testimony is that they did not merely “learn” the Gospel intellectually, but “experienced” it as love. Pastor David Jang calls this experience of love being “captivated by the Gospel.” If the Gospel stops at “understanding with the mind who Jesus is,” it would be no different than the Pharisees’ knowledge. A genuine experience of the Gospel occurs when one realizes that the love of Jesus Christ has solved their own sin and despair, leading to a transformation of their entire being. Thus, those who come to know Jesus Christ naturally become witnesses to the Gospel, receiving a calling to share “God’s love” with the world.
Pastor David Jang emphasizes that this Gospel is open to everyone. Regardless of one’s background, education, or moral standing, the Cross of Jesus Christ proclaims “forgiveness of sins and new life” to all sinners. He references Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, noting the declaration, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21), to confirm that the Gospel is never limited to one specific nation or group. Therefore, “God’s love,” as underscored in Pastor David Jang’s message, transcends all ethnic and linguistic barriers, overcomes the constraints of history and culture, and comes to every life suffering in sin as a complete gift of grace.
Moreover, he repeatedly reminds listeners that the Gospel is both a cosmic and a personal message. It is, on the one hand, a cosmic event that changes the destiny of all humanity, yet on the other hand, it also has the power to transform the inner life and entire attitude of an individual person. When we receive and believe this Gospel, it stops being merely a concept or doctrine and instead becomes a new life force exploding within us. Those who receive love cannot help but pass on that love; those who experience grace cannot help but convey that grace to the world. Hence, Pastor David Jang proclaims that the Gospel is the “only hope” the world needs, and the Church and its community must be founded firmly upon that bedrock.
He also points to Galatians 6:2—“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”—as the natural fruit that should arise among those who believe and follow the Gospel. If the Gospel is love, then the community of those who preach it must be filled with the joy and unity of love. When Jesus declares, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), it is not the concept of conquering the world by force, but rather a paradoxical victory through love and service. Therefore, Pastor David Jang emphasizes that when the Church clings to the Gospel and truly loves one another as it serves the world, that itself becomes a powerful testimony to the world.
In conclusion, the message Pastor David Jang conveys can be summarized with this proclamation: “The heart of the Gospel is that the Son of God came for us, died for us, and, by rising again, completed the work of love.” No philosophical theory or ethical teaching can replace this story of the greatest love, which is extended to every sinner on earth. Everyone who stands before this Gospel will respond to the event of that love by living a changed life—that is his primary emphasis.
Sin, Righteousness, and the Way of Atonement
The second core theme Pastor David Jang delves into deeply is “sin, righteousness, and atonement.” If the Gospel is love, why did humanity need such sacrifice and salvation in the first place? He explains that underlying it all is the problem of sin, which humans cannot solve by themselves.
First, Pastor David Jang teaches that we must correctly recognize what sin is in order to fully grasp the love and grace of the Gospel. He notes that throughout Scripture, sin is not simply a moral failure or a violation of social norms. He highlights Romans 1, where Paul declares that sin is “refusing to acknowledge God in one’s heart.” Essentially, there is a deep-rooted inclination in human nature to turn away from God and enthrone oneself, resulting in the whole world coming under the dominion of sin.
Pastor David Jang then sums up the ripple effect of sin with the phrase “death reigned.” That is, once humanity came under sin, the end result was death. This does not refer solely to physical death, but also to eternal condemnation and separation. Therefore, no matter how many good works one does or how diligently one tries to keep the law, from a human perspective it is impossible to overcome the power of sin and death. The law merely reveals what sin is and makes sin more evident; it cannot grant complete freedom from sin.
At precisely this point, the atoning work of Jesus Christ emerges. Atonement literally means “someone else pays the price in one’s stead,” but Pastor David Jang warns against understanding this only as a commercial concept. He explains that the symbolic act of the Old Testament sacrifices—particularly on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, where the sins of the people were covered by the blood of a sacrificial animal—was realized in its “perfect form” at the Cross of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Himself bore the punishment for all the disobedience and rebellion of sinners, along with the death that came as a result.
Pastor David Jang frequently cites Romans 5:18–19 to clarify this concept of atonement. Paul’s declaration that “just as one man, Adam, caused all humanity to fall under sin, so the one man, Jesus Christ, has opened the way for many to be declared righteous and given life” is the crux of the matter. This means that the fundamental bondage of sin that enslaved humanity—its inability to be broken—was undone once and for all through the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
He further explains that the essence of atonement is “love.” If we only view atonement from a legal standpoint, the image we get is of a “just judge” who must inflict the rightful punishment on sinners, so someone else pays the price (with blood) on their behalf—suggesting a cold transaction. Yet, the moment when Jesus Christ shed His blood on the Cross was not merely a “substitutionary punishment,” confined to some metaphysical or judicial concept. According to Pastor David Jang, it was a “free gift” from God and a “self-sacrificing love” that Jesus willingly extended to us. When we understand that, we finally grasp why the Cross has such enormous power.
This love opens a path for humanity to receive it and, through faith in the Gospel, be “justified”—declared righteous. This principle of “justification by faith,” emphasized by Paul in books like Galatians, aligns exactly with Pastor David Jang’s explanation of the Gospel. He teaches that once we accept the Gospel, we no longer remain in the status of “sinner” but stand before God as “righteous.” This is not because we achieve some moral perfection, but because Jesus Christ has already paid for our sins. This reality is known as the “imputation of righteousness,” a core theological concept that becomes our lived reality.
Pastor David Jang also likes to cite the expression in Hebrews, “Let us go to Him outside the camp.” In the Old Testament sacrificial system, the goats or sheep that bore the people’s sins were taken outside the camp to be slain. Jesus, too, was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem at Golgotha, fulfilling the role of the “atoning sacrifice.” When Scripture exhorts, “Let us go to Him outside the camp,” it is challenging believers to join in Christ’s suffering and follow the path of atonement.
Crucially, he admonishes that we should not just learn about atonement as a theological term or comprehend it only in our minds. Because atonement lies at the very heart of the Gospel, Pastor David Jang teaches that we must also emulate the way Jesus walked. That is, when we live out the Gospel on this earth, we carry one another’s burdens and sometimes endure persecution or misunderstanding, but still choose to love and serve. This is a tangible expression of adopting Jesus’s “atoning love” as our own way of life. We cannot transform the world by judging or through violence, but, following Jesus’s example, we can heal the world with love, offering ourselves to others in a posture of going “outside the camp.”
Pastor David Jang repeatedly emphasizes that atonement is only “fully complete” when connected to the Resurrection. If the Cross of Jesus was the crucial sacrifice for the sins of humanity, then His Resurrection is God’s ultimate proclamation that “even the power of death has been shattered.” If Christ had not been raised from the dead, the message of atonement would remain half-finished. Yet, because the Resurrection truly occurred, it testifies to the power of salvation that completely breaks the chains of sin and death and grants new life. If atonement signifies the forgiveness of sin, then the Resurrection is the event guaranteeing that those whose sins are forgiven will enjoy “eternal life.”
In summary, Pastor David Jang’s teaching on “sin, righteousness, and the way of atonement” shapes the core framework of the Gospel. Humanity, once held captive under sin and unable to be rescued through the Law, is now declared righteous by the atoning sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who experience this righteousness turn away from self-centered living to carry each other’s burdens, willingly stepping outside the camp and following the path of love and obedience—even amid suffering. It is a paradoxical way—the “way of the Cross”—utterly different from the world’s value system, but it alone holds the true power of salvation.
Salvation and Resurrection as Cosmic Events
The third theme Pastor David Jang underscores is that the Gospel is a “cosmic event” that goes far beyond an individual’s spiritual experience or the piety of the Church. The birth, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are historical events that took place in a specific time and place, yet at the same time, they represent a decisive turning point affecting the entirety of the universe and all of history.
He often points to Romans 5, explaining that just as sin spread to all humanity through one person, Adam, so through one person, Jesus Christ, all people now have the opportunity to receive “forgiveness and justification.” This indicates that Christ’s salvific work carries a cosmic significance that overturns the fate of all humanity. If we reduce the Gospel merely to a “personal experience of salvation” or some “mystical event,” we shrink its scale, he asserts.
To clarify this cosmic perspective, Pastor David Jang frequently links Old Testament prophecies to the accounts of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the Gospels. In Daniel 7, the “Son of Man coming with the clouds” represents the eschatological king the Jews had long awaited—one who would judge and rule over the entire world with absolute authority. However, when Jesus actually entered Jerusalem, He fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 by riding in “humbly on a donkey.” This fulfilled “the mighty King who also suffers alongside His people,” presenting a composite image.
Pastor David Jang calls this “the manner in which God manifests Himself.” Worldly rulers arrive with grand processions or warhorses, flaunting their power and authority. Yet Jesus, the Son of God, arrived in the most humble form. He observes that while this may appear foolish and weak to worldly eyes, it reflects exactly how God’s plan of salvation is established upon this paradox (cf. 1 Corinthians 1).
Then comes the crucifixion scene: to most onlookers, it seemed utterly tragic. Romans regarded crucifixion as a “cursed punishment” reserved for the worst criminals, and according to Jewish law, “anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God’s curse” (Deuteronomy 21:23). That hardly seemed to fit the Messiah. Yet Pastor David Jang here references Isaiah 53’s prophecy of the “Suffering Servant,” explaining that Jesus’s death was not an act of defeat or curse but, in fact, the redemptive victory that took upon itself all sin and death. God’s omnipotence works through ways that shatter human logic, and because His ultimate goal is love and salvation, the Cross—paradoxically—becomes a symbol of glory.
Pastor David Jang places particular emphasis on the “Resurrection.” If Jesus simply died on the Cross and that was the end of the story, its justification as a cosmic event might be diminished. However, He rose again on the third day, victorious over death. The four Gospels all record this Resurrection, and as a result, the disciples transformed from fearful individuals into bold witnesses, shifting from discouragement to passionate evangelism. Since death is a universal and cosmic limit that every human faces, Jesus’s defeat of death opened a new realm, proving that its influence surpasses individuals and extends to the entire universe.
He explains that during Holy Week—the final week of Jesus’s life—history and the cosmos are compressed. From His entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the Last Supper, Gethsemane, crucifixion, and Resurrection, we see the complete story of salvation that changes the destiny of humanity and the world. The scene of Jesus praying in Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood, shows that He willingly chose the way of the Cross. He was not merely dragged as an unwilling sacrifice, but rather, He fought a profound spiritual battle before taking up the Cross as His coronation as King, intended to overcome humanity’s sin and break the power of death.
Thus, Pastor David Jang says Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection are not small, localized events; rather, they are a “cosmic focal point” that penetrates all times and places. Realizing this, the believer’s faith moves beyond merely taking part in religious rites to experiencing a complete transformation of being. Even when confronted with hardship and despair in this world, we can avoid falling into hopelessness, for Jesus has already borne it on the Cross and decisively overcome it through the Resurrection.
Pastor David Jang prays that this cosmic work of salvation and resurrection will be a “tangible reality” in each individual’s life. One of the key points he makes in ministry and teaching is that while it is grand to say the Gospel “changes the world,” it must be tangibly applied in the Church and in each believer’s daily life. If we do not see the Gospel at work in our lives, even the grandeur of a cosmic plan of salvation might remain mere doctrine or theory. But when we practice Jesus’s way of love and service and cling to the power of the Resurrection in daily life, “God’s reign” will be actualized both within the church community and in the wider world.
Furthermore, he explains that Scripture’s promise of a “new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21) is both the complete conclusion and the ultimate purpose of the Resurrection. Pastor David Jang interprets this not merely as a heaven we enter after death, but as the everlasting dominion of life that already began with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. By believing in Jesus, we can share in the Resurrection life even now on earth; ultimately, with the Second Coming, the entire world will be ushered into God’s perfect kingdom. In this way, the Resurrection simultaneously reveals both the “fulfillment and the tension” of a reality that has already been accomplished but not yet fully manifested.
Through the course of Holy Week and Easter, the Church has traditionally commemorated the Cross and the Resurrection as its core theme. Pastor David Jang painstakingly expounds that while the path to the Cross was one of suffering and shame for Jesus, it ends in “glory and victory.” Jesus did not die as the righteous but as a sinner on our behalf, so that the Cross became the stage for an outburst of cosmic love and salvation. All people, past, present, and future, who believe and accept this are united with Jesus in that Resurrection.
He further explains how this resurrection faith should manifest itself concretely within the Church community. If the Church is the “Body of Christ,” it must be the place that conveys “resurrection life” to the world. In practice, that means extending mercy and sharing with the poor, standing up for truth against unjust power structures or worldly trends, and serving and loving one another. Such reconciliation and peace, unknown to the world, become visible through the life of the Church. This, Pastor David Jang says, is the fruit that must naturally appear in communities that follow the Risen Christ.
In conclusion, the theme of salvation and resurrection as a “cosmic event” opens the most expansive horizon in Pastor David Jang’s message. It goes beyond individual sin, forgiveness, and the joyful freedom that atonement brings; it reorganizes all history and the entire cosmos. Pastor David Jang repeats this idea in his teachings, urging believers not to limit the Gospel to mere “religious doctrine” or “pious knowledge,” but to embrace it as the colossal drama in which humanity and the universe participate. At the center of that drama is the “paradoxical power of love” displayed by the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It contains true life and truth, surpassing every myth or epic of this world, and becomes an eternal hope for all who believe.
Summarizing the Message
The Gospel’s Core and God’s Love
In the first section, Pastor David Jang closely links the Gospel with the “complete love of God,” emphasizing that the coming, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—all of it—was a gift from God for sinful humanity. The Gospel is not simply doctrine or information; it is the power of life and the revelation of God’s love. Anyone who believes and accepts this Gospel gains new life and becomes a witness to that love.
Sin, Righteousness, and the Way of Atonement
Here, Pastor David Jang reflects on the existential problem of sin and death and shows how it cannot be solved by the Law. It is only through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can be saved. Jesus took the sinner’s place, and through His shed blood and Resurrection, we are freed from sin. This message, woven throughout Romans, Hebrews, and other biblical texts, carries a powerful truth of liberation. The heart of this teaching is not to confine atonement to legal terms, but to grasp it as an act of Jesus’s self-sacrificing love—and be transformed accordingly.
Salvation and Resurrection as a Cosmic Event
Finally, Pastor David Jang clarifies that Christ’s birth, crucifixion, and resurrection are historical events, yet also cosmic in scope, redefining the universe itself. Drawing upon Old Testament prophecies like those in Daniel, Zechariah, and Isaiah, as well as the Gospels, he shows how the Cross and Resurrection reveal God’s way of appearing in history. The Resurrection is the absolute victory over death, and those who believe in it enjoy the power of eternal life now and in the age to come.
Taking these three pillars together, we see that Jesus Christ’s path is a path of love and salvation. The suffering and resurrection He displayed stand as the unique hope of every age and every corner of the cosmos. Pastor David Jang encourages believers to move from conversion and faith into a life of commitment, urging them to cling to the assurance that even the greatest trials and temptations we face have been overcome by Christ’s Cross and Resurrection. Therefore, life is made wholly new, and the Gospel becomes a power that transforms our hearts, our communities, and ultimately the world.
Indeed, Pastor David Jang’s sermons do more than offer a theological or doctrinal explanation of “what” the Gospel is. They push us to consider “how” to apply the Gospel to our lives in practical ways. The humility, obedience, service, and sacrificial love that Jesus modeled—particularly the atoning love—constitute the values our world urgently needs and the manner in which God’s Kingdom becomes manifest. At the center of it all is “the Cross and the Resurrection,” the singular solution for humanity’s sin and death that opens the new era of life for individuals and the entire world—what he calls the “cosmic Gospel.”
This message can be applied in the worship and ministry of the Church, the spiritual walk of every believer, and even the Church’s role in society. Imitating the love of the Cross by caring for one another, stepping out together “outside the camp,” and sharing the joy of the Resurrection with the world is by no means an easy task; but since Jesus has shown us the way and guaranteed its power through His Resurrection, Pastor David Jang insists that believers can cast aside fear and instead stand firm in their testimony to the truth, even in the darkest circumstances.
In sum, all of Pastor David Jang’s teachings can be distilled into a singular overarching theme—“the Gospel”—understood through three essential frameworks: “God’s love,” “the way of atonement,” and “cosmic salvation.” These three pillars are inseparable and together guide us to the true salvation found in Jesus Christ. Therefore, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, meditate on His Cross during Holy Week, and praise His victory at Easter, we remember that these events are all part of a single story of salvation. This leads us, in turn, to realize how majestic and astounding God’s redemptive drama is in the entire universe, throughout all history, and in our own daily lives.
Despite humanity’s limits and sins, the Gospel allows us to absorb God’s very heart—a God who loves sinners to the end—and it forms a community that goes into the world to serve and love in the same way. Atonement, transcending the legal concepts of sin and punishment, bestows on us a new status as children of God, along with genuine freedom and joy. The cosmic dimension of salvation and the Resurrection displays God’s plan for the entire world. Those who participate in this reality are already living in a new era, anticipating the future completion of all things with fervent hope.
When these insights merge into one, we see that Pastor David Jang’s proclamation of the Gospel is not confined to mere theory; it becomes the “living Word” that alters every realm of life. Ultimately, the reason humanity’s history and the universe need the Gospel is because they lack the power to save themselves. Only through the coming, crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can we conquer sin and death. All who walk in this way receive eternal life and victory. This, Pastor David Jang emphasizes time and again, is the core of the Gospel and the greatest invitation and gift offered to us all