What Is The Gospel? Series

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ISAIAH

Prologue – What Is The Gospel?

Isaiah 52:13-15

Perhaps the most common word used within the context of the church is “Gospel”. We listen to and sing Gospel songs, in our sermons we preach the Gospel, in our classes we learn and discuss the Gospel, and much focus is placed on our responsibility to share the Gospel with others. Without the Gospel there would be no Christianity, without the Gospel we would possess no hope whatsoever. Therefore, it is important for us to truly grasp what the Gospel is and what it means for us.

Gospel is a word that is found in the New Testament over 90 times and it literally means “good news”. At the outset of His earthly ministry, Jesus “came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-16). At the conclusion of His ministry Jesus commanded His Disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16)

Throughout the book of Acts, Luke describes how the Apostles obeyed this command and went forth preaching the Gospel. The Savior declared in Matthew 24:24 that, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come”. Some two millennia later, the Gospel is still being preached to all the nations and this process will indeed continue until the end comes.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was the primary focus of the Apostle Paul’s ministry. He knew that preaching the Gospel was the reason that he was called by Jesus. He informed the Corinthians that Christ did not send him to baptize, “but to preach the Gospel” (I Corinthians 1:17). Though he constantly faced severe oppression and even physical persecution, Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel and He remained faithful to God’s call on his life. He declared in Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” In his many epistles, Paul often referred to the “Gospel of God”, the “Gospel of Christ”, and “the Gospel of peace”; when writing to Timothy he called it “the glorious Gospel”.

In the original language the word that is used is “euaggelion”. It is from this Greek word that we get the English words evangelist, evangelize, and evangelical. Though in a broad sense Gospel is the entirety of holy scripture, the simple definition of the Gospel is “the good news of Jesus Christ”. It is the message that declares and defends the reality that Jesus Christ is the way, the only way of salvation.

Sometimes, in order to truly appreciate good news we must also endure some really bad news. That is the case concerning the good news of Jesus Christ. The bad news is that many years ago in the Garden of Eden, Adam rebelled against God. This rebellion brought suffering, death, and separation from God into this world. That sin has been passed down throughout the ages and each of us are guilty before God. (Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.)

Through His servant Moses, God gave Israel the Old Testament Law;

we sometimes refer to this as the Mosaic Law. The Law serves as something of a measuring stick concerning righteousness; anything that falls short of the standards that God set forth in His Law is considered sin. Scripture tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This means that each and every one of us is guilty of sin.

Furthermore, the deserved consequences of sin is physical and spiritual death. Spiritual death speaks of separation from God, the very source of life. We were unable to pay our sin debt, therefore our only hope of deliverance from the consequences of sin was for an acceptable payment to be made on our behalf. God made it clear in His Law that the only hope of sin being cleansed is through the bloody sacrifice of an innocent life. (Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.)

Throughout the Old Testament God’s people were required to offer various animal sacrifices in order to experience forgiveness of sin. In those prescribed sacrifices innocent animals died in the place of the sinner. However, the results of these sacrifices were only temporary and that is why such sacrifices were offered on a regular basis. Hebrews 10:11 says, “every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins”. There was no power in the blood of those animals to provide true and ultimate forgiveness of sin. Hebrews 10:4 says, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”. Animal sacrifices were merely an illustration, a foreshadowing of the perfect sacrifice that was to come; that perfect sacrifice is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.