The Gospel

The Greek word for gospel is εὐγγελιον (2098) and means good news. The gospel in its simplest form is: believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved. John 3:16; 14:1; 20:31; and Acts 8:37.
What are we saved from, the penalty for sin, the power of sin, the presence of sin, or all three?
To understand this question we must understand why we need a savior in the first place. And to understand that we need to understand sin.

What is sin?

Sin is anything that falls short of God’s perfect moral nature.[1] God as creator of the universe sets the standard. Anything short of that standard is sin. We see this in Romans 3:23 and Leviticus 11:45.
For a full understanding we need to turn to Genesis 1:27-28.
Gen 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (27) God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Image and likeness are used interchangeably (Gen. 5:1, 3). בְּ and כְּ are also used interchangeably (בְּ with likeness and כְּ with image). The prepositions “in” and “according to” are not interchangeable without a bit of help. Both Hebrew prefixes can be rendered in English with the preposition “as.” Rendering the interchangeable Hebrew prepositions with an identical English preposition may help us to properly interpret the text. “Let Us make man as Our image, as Our likeness.” This is the use of בְּ for the word “in” or “as” to reflect “functioning in the capacity of.” Understood in this manner, mankind is created in God’s image and likeness functionally rather than qualitatively. Imaging God is the work assignment for mankind (humanity in general)…[2]
So we see that part of Adam’s work assignment was to function as the image of God. While the fall damaged man’s ability to image God it did not destroy it. This can be seen in Genesis 9:6. “"Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.” If the image was completely destroyed then the rational for capital punishment would be gone. With this as our understanding we need to consider what God’s image is.
What attributes can be attributed to God?
To understand this we need a glimpse of God’s essence. What we call God’s essence is a list of attributes that God can be said to possess. God is sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, immutability, and veracity.[3]
Even in our fallen state we try to image these qualities unconsciously. Mankind seeks sovereignty and justice through governmental intuitions. We seek righteousness, love and veracity through manmade religions, and even through our denial of those religions. And through science we seek wisdom and power. Apart from God, though, all of that is sin, falling short, missing the mark.

[1] Dr. Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Three p. 106.
[2] Pastor Bob Bolender, The Doctrine of Marriage, p. 1.
[3] Pastor Bob Bolender, Basic Doctrinal Studies, pp. 19-24.