The gospel (shorter).
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God, in Jesus Christ, saves people from Himself, He saves people for Himself, and He saves people by Himself.
God saves people from Himself. God is good, and we are not. The Lord is holy and righteous and just; we are full of sin and rebellion and unbelief. So, while we need to be saved from our sins, and while we need to be saved from the Law that condemns us, we ultimately need to be saved from God Himself. His love and goodness and virtue demand that He act against us in judgment. Yet He, in that selfsame love and goodness and righteousness and justice, has made a way for Himself to both spare us and appease Himself at the same time. He came here in the person of Jesus Christ and reconciled sinful humanity to Himself by absorbing the punishment for our transgressions on the cross, dying under His own wrath and justice in our place. And Christ was raised from the dead, proving the punishment was paid in full. And in His resurrection we, too, may be raised to newness of life.
God saves people for Himself. Jesus Christ came, died for our sins, and rose again from the dead so that He might bring us back to God. The good news of the gospel is that estranged and condemned people can enjoy the fellowship and presence of their loving Maker. God calls His people His treasured possession, and has made a way for Himself to freely delight in us and sing over us with great joy.
God saves people by Himself. Salvation is of the Lord. Redemption is entirely a work of God, with our only contribution being the sin that made it necessary in the first place. It is God alone who has accomplished our deliverance, it is Him alone who has merited our acceptance, and it is Him alone who forgives our sins. We cannot produce our own goodness, we cannot work our redemption, we cannot earn our acceptance with God. The only way of salvation, the only way to escape hell and to be at peace with God, is for us to believe and embrace what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf - repenting (turning from) our sin and self-reliance, and calling on Him in faith.
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For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (Romans 3:23-25).
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