What is the basic premise of the gospel?
The basic premise is that Christ died, was buried three days and three nights, and rose from the dead. Scripture ties this to Jonah's sign and Israel's deliverance from Egypt, showing that faith in this gospel separates believers from the old life of sin and bondage.
Les explains that Matthew 12:38-40 records the scribes and Pharisees asking for a sign, and Jesus answers that no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah: as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so the Son of Man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Les connects this back to Exodus, where God already pictured the basic premise: Israel could not be set free from Egypt unless three days separated them from their place of captivity. It is the same in salvation. If we ignore the basic premise of the gospel—that Christ died, was in the grave three days and three nights, and rose from the dead—we have no gospel. But when we put our faith in that gospel, those three days and three nights in the tomb separate us from the old life of sin and bondage.
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.