What is the Gospel? (continued, Bible background)

Short Version Answer

In the first part of this section, "What is the Gospel", we gave the simplest explanation. The gospel is this good news: "Believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior. He has already done the work to earn your entry into Heaven".

Below, we will go through a very large number of passages in the Holy Bible, that show how the concept began in the Garden of Eden and how the phrase began when King David read a poem that included the words, "Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day."

The phrase "good news" grew in meaning. The word "gospel" means exactly the same thing. Literally the New Testament translation is "good message".

Very Long Version Answer

The following is probably a bit advanced for most people looking into the gospel for the first time. If you find it to be drudgery, wait to read this until you have been a believer and Bible student for a while, then it will make more sense.

We are going to investigate the phrase "good news" as it appears throughout the Bible, starting with a little background information. This will be a walk from the beginning book of the Bible to the final book.

Old Testament Background

The word "gospel" itself is from the Old Testament Hebrew language. It means bring (or bear) good news (or tidings). The "bringing" or "bearing" cannot be separated from the news, in the linguistic sense. They are always brought by a bearer.

To communicate what is being said in the Old Testament definition of "gospel", today's popular English would not use words like "bear" , "tidings", or even "news".

The reason I say this is that today we would tend to use "share" rather than "bring" or "bear". We might use "developments" or "message" rather than tidings or news.

The word "news" has many unrelated connotations in modern society. Our use of the word generally refers to something new.

The gospel of Jesus Christ may be new to someone who has not yet heard or understood it, but it did not originate in the recent past. However, if we can understand the concept of good news as a message that is always new to someone, the phrase "good news" makes sense today.

Even though I first heard the gospel a long time ago, and believed it, I can still look at it as being good news for myself. Good news lifts the spirits. When I think of all the gospel means, it lifts me up each day.

The phrase "good news" was mentioned in the Old Testament first about 1,000 years before Jesus was born.

"Good news" was a way of generating positive anticipation of coming events based on developments that took place recently, or in the past. It was also used for future hope.

What we now understand as the message not yet called the gospel, was previewed in the beginning chapters of the Bible, dating to events taking place at least 6,000 years ago.

God said to the serpent in the garden, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel".

The woman was Eve, and her Seed, called "He", is generally considered by believers to refer to Jesus.

This early prophecy is sometimes called "the first glimmer of the gospel". It speaks of the entrance of sin into humankind as a result of Adam and Eve following Satan's influence. It shows the origin of the conflict between good and evil in humankind.

The metaphorical heel of Jesus is damaged as He stomps on the head of Satan. This is a thrilling word picture showing how Jesus will remedy the "fall of Adam" and the presence of evil over mankind. God Wins.

New Testament Background

In the New Testament the word takes on a life of its own, owing much of its meaning to what I have explained above about the Old Testament. Jesus adopted Isaiah's use of the words as the beginning of His mission statement.

The New Testament makes the word "gospel" a noun. But when the writers used it, they were aware of the action part of the word inherent in the Hebrew meaning. Even in the New Testament, the gospel is an action of a message. Someone took action to get the message to each hearer. I say this to focus on the human element: the heart behind the communication and action - the desire to help, to bring good. It is also wise to focus on the divine element, that God is the primary bearer of the good message to our hearts.

The first four books of the New Testament are usually called "gospels": Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I don't have a problem with this ancient tradition, but grammatically and biblically it is a misnomer. I think it arose from the first verse in Mark, which introduces the book as "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

The Bible itself never presents the word "gospel" as meaning a historical account of the life of Jesus. In contrast, many passages define "gospel" as clearly something else. This does not diminish the value of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in any way. They are without a doubt the best historical accounts of the life that Jesus lived on earth. I love the four books written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of them include the actual good news. I would never want to diminish them in any way.

To view things in a more accurate perspective, I will be discussing the gospels of David, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, and Peter. I will throw in a few verses from the book of Revelation too at the end. Each of these teachers built on those who came before them, and brought different dimensions of the good news to fill-in the picture. Please be open-minded to this discussion of what I humorously call "the five gospels", because you will discover they all feed into the one actual gospel message.

The Gospel of David

In 1 Chronicles 16:23, the terms "good news" and "salvation" appear together for the first time in the Bible: "Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day."

What was the salvation David wrote this verse about? I will answer this after explaining what led up to David's pronouncement. Many years before, David's predecessor Saul, the first king of Israel, had turned against David and his followers.

Saul and his vast armies went to battle to destroy David's forces. As they did, a third army (the Philistines) went to war against Saul's army, defeating them. Saul was killed and his sinful leadership over God's people was ended . . . God Wins.

1 Chronicles 10:13 states "So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he did not inquire of the Lord, but instead he consulted a medium for guidance. Therefore He killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse."

The salvation mentioned later in 1 Chronicles 16:23 hearkened back to this defeat of Saul's army. It also referred to the appointing of David as king by God Himself. David was saved, salvaged, rescued from destruction, and given a new life as King of Israel. Israel enjoyed salvation from the oppressive onslaught and rule of Saul. God used His power to orchestrate this, which David called a good message.

David eventually assumed his reign in Jerusalem and brought the Ark of the Covenant to that city. If you have seen the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark", you know that to the people of Israel, the Ark housed the presence of God.

King David threw a magnificent celebration for the people. The words "Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day" were read (or sung) aloud at the celebration as part of a Psalm of David. Perhaps David Himself recited them.

In a different, but reminiscent, incident years later a servant of David announced, "“There is good news, my lord the king! For the Lord has avenged you this day of all those who rose against you.” - 2 Samuel 18:31. In this passage, the "good message" was that God has destroyed the treasonous invading army led by Absalom. Again, the good message contains ''God Wins''.

I like to think of these accounts as an inception of the gospel story encapsulating a few basic premises of today's gospel.

1) God stops the evil enemy and destroys its power of sudden death over David and his people. God elevates David in a role of royalty and blessing.

2) The presence of God comes in power and protection as represented by the Ark of the Covenant.

Similarly, in the New Testament:

1) Jesus dies on the cross to stop Satan, destroying the enemy's power of death over believers, elevating them into a role of royalty.

2) God puts His presence, Holy Spirit, and power within them in new birth and ongoing relationship with God.

In Psalm 40:9-17 David mentions good news in the context of salvation, God's love, tender mercies, truth, faithfulness, deliverance, help for the king, help for the poor and needy, praise, joy, and restoration from personal sins into righteous living.

" I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness . . . I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth . . . innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me. . . Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!” But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer;"

In David's writings of Psalm 40 above, confession of sin, and repentance for iniquity are clearly demonstrated as being part of the thought process. Additionally mentioned are God's faithfulness and praiseworthiness. This unwraps the gospel of David a little further. now it is revealed as the good news of righteousness.

David wrote many other passages pertaining to these gospel elements, however those listed above actually have the words "good news" in their context.

The Gospel of Isaiah

It is not a stretch to consider that the prophet Isaiah was familiar with David's writings, when using the phrase "good news". We can thereby understand Isaiah's good news of salvation to stem from God's defeat of an enemy over victims, resulting in elevating them to lives of goodness, peace, righteousness, and victory over evil.

God brought the power of His Spirit and poured it out on their descendents, and His blessing on their offspring. These elements are present and expanded in Isaiah's use of ''good news''.

Of all the Old Testament Prophets, Isaiah presented the best prophetic picture of the goodness of God's plan and message for salvation. It relates in an uncanny way to the overall gospel we now understand. If you weren't aware, these words in Isaiah were written approximately 700 years before Jesus was born.

In Isaiah 1, he writes, "“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; . . ."

In Isaiah 52 we see the term "good news" leading into a message about "The Servant", which is largely considered a designation for the coming messiah, Jesus Christ. It predicts that all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. When this was written, all the ends of the earth were un-exposed to the message of God's salvation, except in the tiny land of Israel. Today that prediction does not seem so outlandish because we see the salvation of God blessing people in so many parts of the globe.

This is Isaiah's statement in chapter 52:7- "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” . . . All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. . . . For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. . . . Behold My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. . . . So shall He sprinkle* many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider." - Isaiah 52:7-16

The concept of atonement may be new to you. But it is central to a thorough understanding of the gospel. Atonement is the state of being free from punishment, enmity, or discord. For example, if a convicted murderer is pardoned and set free from prison, he experiences the state of atonement. But more than knowing freedom, he is no longer at odds with the warden or the prison guards or the police or the family of the victim. In fact the result of atonement is reconciliation, meaning restoration to friendship. The ex-prisoner no longer owes anything for his crime to anyone in the world.

When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, it was to bring atonement to you and anyone else who would accept Him as Savior. No human can atone for their own sins, when it comes to real, eternal atonement. It is impossible. But when Jesus took your place in death, He atoned for yours. He did the same for me. Believers experience reconciliation with God - friendship.

In modern usage, people say they will take an action to atone for what they have done, such as replace an object that they broke at a friend's house. That is not biblical atonement. It is merely reparation, which does not undo guilt, sin, or harm to the other person. It does not produce forgiveness or reconciliation. The atonement of Jesus is reparation plus a whole lot more.

The United States Supreme court ruled in 1833: ""A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered; and if it is rejected, we have discovered no power in this court to force it upon him." I cite this because when it comes to the atonement of Jesus, even though it is enough to cover all mankind, for all eternity, the pardon can be rejected, as in the case before the Supreme Court just cited.

To believe in Jesus as Savior is to accept the pardon, walk out of the prison a free person, and have the conviction wiped from the record. To reject this free offer is like rejecting a presidential pardon, and choosing to face prison and the death penalty.

The prisoner in the story of the Supreme Court was a man named George Wilson, who was convicted of robbing the U.S. Mail and sentenced to death. He chose to take the death penalty after a presidential pardon. Today, the maximum punishment for mail theft is five years in prison and a penalty of up to $250,000.

We can either accept or reject the atonement and pardon of God. The good news is that we can accept it. People who have not thought this through, might object to the idea that a person might be punished after rejecting the pardon God offers. But those who understand the concept would admit rejecting a pardon for a crime, and then expecting a good outcome is usually an absurd idea.

If you know the Passover story, it will make sense that just as the angel of death passed over the houses of the families who put the blood of a lamb on their door frame posts, final death will pass over those who have let Jesus be their atonement.

Can you imagine some of the Israelites choosing not to put the blood on their doorposts because they would rather let their firstborn die? That is what rejecting the pardon would be like. It is not good news, it is bad news. But the gospel is only good news. That is why hell is never part of the message of good news, except in respect to being pardoned from it. As I said at the beginning, the gospel is NOT, "you're going to hell if you don't __________ (fill in the blank)."

This "good news" passage in Isaiah 52 also expands the definition by adding the exalted, prudent high-kingly aspects of the Servant. It even says "Kings shall shut their mouths at Him." They will be astonished because new understanding will come to them by viewing and listening to the Servant. He will be extolled and "very high". Additionally, Isaiah introduces the pleasure of God toward those who share the good news, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news . . ." Beauty is conveyed upon those who proclaim salvation. I would have to agree. When you bring the good news, YOU are beautiful.

Isaiah 53

We have been examining Isaiah 52. In Isaiah 53 the Servant is still being featured. The entire chapter appears below without verse numbers or line breaks. I made certain sections bold to help the reader follow the gospel thought. All unbolded sections are equally important:

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He [the Servant] shall grow up before Him [God the Father] as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked - but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

This remarkable passage lays out that Jesus substituted himself willingly to take the punishment upon Himself. He did not deserve the punishment. You and I did. It was in God's plan. Jesus died in our stead. He died instead of us. The atonement was substitutionary. That is probably the most poignant piece of information to the gospel message, and is being revealed clearly here in Isaiah 53 about 700 years before it happened.

I say it is poignant because it is what sets Jesus apart and places Him higher than every other leader, teacher, ideology, or religion. It was absolutely necessary for Jesus to die on the cross. It was the only way to fix things, and it revealed His supremacy.

Here it says God bruised the Servant. Genesis predicted Satan would be the one to bruise Him. Is this a contradiction? No. God "played" Satan, in my perspective, as I see the story told in the New Testament. Satan took the bait and swallowed the hook. He unwittingly carried out the bruising not knowing he was helping those he hated and sealing his own fate of destruction. It did not occur to the serpent that he was about to have his head crushed by Jesus.

Satan thought he had won the war when Jesus died on the cross. But Jesus rose from the dead. He kept living on earth long enough to equip His apostles to continue pushing back the enemy of our souls. They were equipped to make room for the kingdom of God in our midst. Jesus will some day return and cast Satan into a lake of fire forever (according to John in the book of Revelation). Again, God Wins.

I think it is fair to point out that in Isaiah's prophecy, the Servant's resurrection is the most likely interpretation of the prediction in Isaiah 53:10 and 11. It was here that it started to become part of the gospel message.

After the substitutionary atonement takes place, after He dies, the Servant shall (1) see his offspring (think spiritual offspring, the disciples, the born again) and (2) the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Both of these things are understood to happen ordinarily during life, not after death. Isaiah also refers to resurrection when prefacing the concept by saying "He was taken from the prison and from the judgment". Jesus really died, was suffering the judgment for all mankind, and was then released from this prison in resurrection.

With Isaiah's prophecy, the Servant's resurrection is foretold. Considering the resurrection of Jesus with hindsight, there is no explanation of Isaiah 53:10-11 more obvious than Jesus' rising from the dead. Satan thought he had won, but when Jesus rose, the serpent's head was crushed. Again God Wins.

Jumping ahead about 700 years, we see the gospel of Isaiah used by God to lead an Ethiopian who was in a position of authority, to Jesus. The full story is in Acts 8:26-39. You should read the whole thing, but I'm going to abridge and excerpt it here:

An angel of the Lord appeared to Philip the evangelist and told him to go South toward Gaza. On the road, the Ethiopian, who was the queen's treasurer, had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was sitting in his chariot reading from the chapter we have just studied, Isaiah 53. The Ethiopian was reading verses 7-8.

Philip ran up and asked the Ethiopian "Do you know what you are reading?" The Ethiopian asked Philip to explain it to him. "Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the [Ethiopian] eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him."

Then God performed a miracle by making Philip disappear! God actually moved Philip instantaneously to a distant place, Azotus, more than 30 miles away. I would call that a sign and a wonder. Philip just went on preaching the gospel at Azotus and in the next cities he came to.

In Isaiah 55, the prophet demonstrates a good-news invitation. "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you - the sure mercies of David. Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people . . ."

Note that the everlasting covenant mentioned above - "the sure mercies of David", appears applicable to the Davidic covenant. The actual covenant with David involved the "sure mercies" about David's seed (descendant). Solomon was a direct descendant of David, and was named as a seed to take part in the fulfillment of the covenant. But Jesus was the seed to which Isaiah referred because Jesus fulfilled all aspects of the covenant.

The future covenant is what Jesus called "The new covenant in my blood which is shed for you". At the time of Isaiah, Solomon lived in the past. But, the prophesy by Isaiah was for the future. So the seed could not be Solomon. (Solomon did not live up to his end of the Davidic covenant because he eventually went after strange gods.)

Believers today are among the recipients and beneficiaries of the new covenant. The following is what God promised David about his seed:

"I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." -2 Samuel 7:12-16. He carries on David's throne forever. Though other descendants of king David are alive today, no earthly king has sat on David's throne since King Jeconiah around 597 BC. Of him Jeremiah prophesied, "This is what the LORD says: " . . . none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah." - Jeremiah 22:30. The throne was destined for the everlasting King, Jesus. The new covenant expands the Davidic covenant.

Of course Jesus did not come to fulfill an earthly kingship. He rules from Heaven over all the earth.

The invitation for everyone who thirsts or hungers to come and consume food and drink for free, is similar to the words of Jesus like "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." - John 6:35 and "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” - John 4:14.

In the following passage of Isaiah, "good news" language continues. The Servant is referred to as the Redeemer. Here we see declared the covenant in which the Holy Spirit is to be upon God's people for all generations.

Isaiah 59: 19 -20: "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” Says the Lord. “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”

We see a glimpse of fulfillment of this prophesy when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism, and later when the Holy Spirit filled believers in the beginning in Acts Chapter 2.

Jesus declared the beginning of Isaiah 61 to be what we would today call His mission statement. Here are verses 1 -7 elaborating more of Isaiah's gospel.

It is Chapter 61 that Isaiah picks up the usage of the phrase "good news" in practical way. The passages we just looked at were leading up to this, and are explained by this, the good news of Isaiah.

Isaiah 61:1-7:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, And the sons of the foreigner Shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the Lord, They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs.

Jesus chose this passage as His marching orders from the Father. In it good news is preached to the poor, the broken-hearted are healed, captives are set free, acceptable year of the Lord is announced, the time of our spiritual enemy's fall is announced (the day of vengeance of our God), the priesthood of believers is stated, the call to servanthood is made, the blessings of God are promised, and everlasting joy is decreed. Now we see Isaiah what can legitimately be interpreted as adding everlasting life (in a state of joy) to the good news.

In the good news of Isaiah 61, I would like to put a magnifying glass on the words "to the poor". Of course, this does not mean to exclude those above low-income financial status. But the good news goes first in priority to those who are poor, downtrodden, victimized, oppressed, and depressed - those in dire need of help and healing.

Isaiah 61 is a revelation in "good news" language showing God's heart of overwhelming love and compassion toward those in need. These qualities of God are inseparable from the good news. Ideally, they should also be inseparable from those who proclaim the good news, for the gospel to understood in the best light.

Part of Isaiah's gospel is to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God. Jesus interpreted the year and day for us, as He quoted Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at the beginning of His earthly ministry. Since Jesus finished this ministry, the year and day take place each day to the extent that God manifests the goodness of His kingdom by setting captives free from darkness, we can experience what might be called the acceptable year of the Lord as people walk in His light, and we can call it vengeance against the spiritual kingdom of evil and darkness every time a new believer is born again.

As Jesus, the Light of the World, gradually fills the earth with the good news and the positive life-changes that result from it, the acceptable year of the Lord is made manifest. Sometime in the future, it will arrive in a bigger way, for a longer time.

The day of vengeance of our God involves primarily vengeance against oppression and affliction from the devil and from his plan to keep people out of the pure benefits of knowing God. God breaks that oppression off the people by breaking the enemy's power.

"Vengeance" in the good news message, is likely to apply to the spiritual enemies of the kingdom of God, like Satan and demons. Jesus accomplished many things on the cross, one of which was to destroy the devil's power over death in believers.

The gospel involves God taking vengeance on evil by freeing people from darkness and oppression, including things like breaking poverty, heartbrokenness, affliction, deception, and spiritual death. Every other nuance of the meaning of the gospel should be framed around this introductory revelation into what the good message is.

God avenges by taking away the ashes of destruction that Satan left behind in peoples' lives - by taking away their mourning and replacing it with "the oil of joy" - by taking way their depressing heavy burdens, and replacing them with bright garments of praise - giving them a new reputation as "trees of righteousness", "the plantings of the Lord", to glorify God and what He can do with people He saves. This reduces the enemy's grip on this world. He looses.

I'm not sure that we should superimpose our concept of humanly vengeance on God. Human vengeance against another person comes from hurt, anger, and unforgiveness. God's vengeance comes from a patient plan to grow His kingdom of love and righteousness to its full. He has a strategy that will not fail. He will win in the end.

The word picture of God stopping the harm against us is powerful. But we can't assume He has bitterness in His heart, like hateful people of vengeance would have. God hates sin. He does not hate it because He is a prude. He hates it for the negative things it does to humans. He doesn't hate any humans, not in the way people hate. God loves each person.

Can you imagine, after Jesus took upon Himself all the wrath of God against sin, that the Father would be a hater of people who sin? It is out of the question.

Paul writes, "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord." Romans 12:9. That is the New Testament version of Deuteronomy 32:35, which says "Vengeance is Mine, and recompense [repayment]; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.’

So God want people to stop practicing revenge. For people to engage in revenge as the world sees it is a sin.

Of course, some people will be the recipient of God's wrath after they leave this earth, after physical death. God takes no pleasure in that. People can condemn themselves for eternity with the unwise use of their free wills.

When God takes revenge, even to people in this world and even in the way the world might interpret as physical harm, murder, downfall, or punishment, it is within His sovereignty to do so. We have no right to judge God for anything He does, no matter how heinous it might appear to us humanly.

We see numerous accounts in the Old Testament in which whole cities or nations turned their backs on God, and He destroyed them physically. They chose rebellion and sin, which would hurt His people. He just accelerated the self-destruction process, knowing they would not relent or repent. He had the right to do that. He is God.

We should be glad that God watches out for the righteous and protects us from harm by whatever means He in His perfect wisdom finds appropriate. When God avenges against harmful people, His justice is clear. It produces benefit to those He loves.

God's desire in vengeance is to improve the lives of believers by rebuking the enemy for what was done to them. For a moment, think about the word "vengeance" in Isaiah's gospel message as meaning "improving my happiness". That is the result of God's vengeance. It is the result of the gospel.

This discussion of Isaiah 61 has made a good segue to the Gospel of Jesus.

The Gospel of Jesus

The first mention of the phrase "good news" in the New Testament is in Matthew 4:23. "Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people." He kept this up throughout His earthly ministry. Note that action and the gospel are still connected.

A new phrase "the kingdom", inflates the meaning of "good news" to gigantic proportions. Starting with the passage at hand, the gospel includes the advantageous developments of God's rule and reign in bringing His kingdom to earth through Jesus.

Jesus relates the kingdom with Isaiah 61, which predicted exactly what Jesus was doing, in Matthew 11:5. The poor, the captives, the brokenhearted receive the honor of being first in line to have the good message of the kingdom preached to them.

Jesus stepped into the synagogue and preached that He was the person the Spirit of the Lord was predicted by Isaiah to be on, because God anointed Him to preach this good message. This statement also implied He was claiming to be the coming Messiah because the word "Messiah" meant "anointed one".

The "day of the vengeance of our God" began with Jesus' earthly ministry, in my estimation.

God gave Satan the first installment of His vengeance when atonement became available to all because of the death of Christ on the cross. Satan still undergoes God's vengeance when faithful believers today further God's purposes. The vengeance will be complete when God's dark enemies are finally removed forever.

When God prospers in His plans to elevate His people out of spiritual darkness, the day of vengeance toward evil pushes forward.

Exploding out of the starting gate, early in His ministry Jesus brings His good message of the kingdom. He demonstrates it by replicating God's compassion on the blind and lame, healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

Although the fullness of the gospel had not yet been revealed in teaching, Jesus started out by "show and tell". All the coming apostles and preachers will look back to this first explosion and expand the definition of "good news" around these events.

It is worth noting that although Jesus heals physically, the Bible does not state it to be part of the gospel message. However, healing by Jesus is stated to be real, as we have just read in Matthew.

I have observed that Jesus still heals physically. But it is not part of the definition of "good news". This and many other good blessings from God are mentioned in the Bible, but not defined or equated with the good news itself, rather shown as benefits of believing the good news, or signs accompanying the good news.

When a person becomes saved, and follows Jesus, they should read the Bible, and my advice is to look for all the blessings that believers enjoy. Look in its pages, and look in your own life and surroundings.

Jesus did many loving acts of service to the people around Him. He healed, cast out demons, raised the dead, and performed a variety of other miracles. These are said to have caused the news about Him to spread. So let's remember that valid miracles help the good news to be accepted more effectively, yet they are not to be confused with the gospel message.

We shouldn't confuse the reason Jesus had for healing people as being to help the news spread. That was not the reason. It was to bring God's loving kingdom to earth in the form of help and blessing to those He loved. Jesus actually commanded people He had healed not to tell anyone. One of Jesus' good news statements was "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" - John 20:29.

When John the Baptist was in prison and sent word to Jesus asking about His effectiveness, Jesus replied, "“Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” -Matthew 11:4.

By listing the miracles and the good news separately, Jesus indicated a difference. He also demonstrated to John the Baptist that His miracles were proof of His effectiveness in fulfilling His purposes to make known the good news.

Healings, deliverances, signs, and wonders have a primary purpose of replacing darkness with light and goodness in the lives of hurting people. I admit they do work well to shine a spotlight on the message and open up the hearts of people to the good news. They can even help draw large crowds and spread the fame of the preacher, though that is not their purpose and it should not be abused.

The focus should be on Jesus and his present love toward those being offered God's mercies when the good news is preached.

It is probable that John the Baptist was well acquainted with the Old Testament writings foretelling the coming of the Messiah. He therefore would recognize the various aspects of the communiqué from Jesus as familiar specifics predicted about how the Messiah would fulfill His role.

It would be insightful to examine the gospel Jesus proclaimed as the good news of the kingdom of God. Matthew emphasized this.

In Matthew 6:33 we read, "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." In Matthew 12:28 He said "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." Note that these statements reveal the kingdom as being sought and found in this present lifetime.

In Matthew 4, After Jesus overcomes Satan's onslaught of temptations - after He hears that John the Baptist was put in prison, and begins His Galilelean ministry - it states "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” - Matthew 4:17.

Before Jesus began his ministry, John the Baptist preached the same message (Matthew had recorded these words as first coming from John the Baptist who preached "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” - Matthew 3:2).

The book of Mark says John the Baptist "came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins." - Mark 1:4

Repentance and the kingdom of God are related to each other as part of Jesus' good news. Why repent? Because the kingdom of God is at hand; it is now in our midst. If a conscientious person really gets what is being said, their instinctive response will be to turn from sin and toward God.

Repentance is a major defining aspect of Jesus' gospel as it was with John the Baptist. We have a web page on what repentance means. If you haven't read it, you can click here. Then come back to this page. King David, Isaiah, and John the Baptist emphasized repenting as part of the actions of receiving the good news. Jesus echoed repentance as part of His good news.

Jesus taught about the kingdom of God many times in the New Testament, mostly in terms of the kingdom on earth in this present age. Every part of that set of teachings reveals some related insight about His gospel. You can look up these references as examples: Matthew 13:24-52, 18:23, 20:1, 22:2 25:14, Luke 13:8, 15:7.

The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are sometimes used interchangeably. Heaven is more commonly referred to in a way we might think of as a place. The kingdom of God is not simply a location, it can appear in any place where God is actively in the process of reigning. The word "kingdom" biblically refers as much to His rule and reign as it does the other-worldly place where it happens in full.

Matthew in a different way shows Jesus talking about entering the kingdom. When He says it this way, He refers to a time after this physical lifetime when people pass into God's kingdom, rather than seek or experience its affects temporarily here and now.

The message of the kingdom from Jesus was that we can seek it now, get blessed by it now, proclaim it now, and enter it later.

Jesus told us to pray that God's kingdom would come and God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. -Matthew 6:10.

Jesus told us that hearing His sayings and doing them is like a wise person who builds his house on a rock, a firm foundation. Then He says " “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew -7:24-26

Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. -John 5:24

Note that the phrase "has passed from death into life" is in the perfect tense, designating an action which began in the past but continues in the present.

Jesus did not consider the transition of passing out of death into life to occur at physical death, but at first belief - when first believing and being born again. The verse above mentions the past, the present, and the future. A Christian believer's present and future state is life. We have already passed into eternal life as God decreed, so as not to come into judgment in the future.

It is good to remember that "eternal life" refers to both the quality of life that is eternal, and the longevity of life spent living that quality of life.

The words, "hears", and "believes" are in the simple present tense, meaning it is something happening continually in the present. The verse also indicates that people who continue believing and hearing are not saved by these ongoing actions, but through the past action of first believing. Later we will see this concept reiterated by Paul the apostle in the book of Colossians.

Jesus told His disciples to go and preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He told them to "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." - Matthew 10:7-8.

These miracles helped the kingdom come and God's will be done due to the proclamation and actions of disciples. They helped further the kingdom of God on earth. In each generation since then, believers have been following the same directions.

Some people confuse the kingdom of God on earth with the number of Christians on earth. That is not what Jesus usually meant. Growing the number of Christians is not the same as growing the kingdom. However, the two forms of growth do interconnect. The kingdom is much more than a quantity. It is the quality of life meant for believers on earth in contact with God. Yes, miracles are part of this. Blessings of all types are included too. It leads to a high quality of life in eternity forever.

At the other end of the pendulum, the kingdom of God on earth is not the healings and miracles. Those are blessings that come from His actual kingdom (presence, rule, and reign, breaking forth to people. From one of Jesus' apostles we read the kingdom of God is not God's physical blessings such as food and drink, but rather "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" -Romans 14:17 - as a result of God's kingdom rule and reign.

Jesus also said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Using a similar metaphor, " Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. - John 10:7-9

The book of Mark in recounting the same story as in Matthew 4:23 states, "Now after John was put in prison, 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 introduces two aspects previously revealed in Matthew: "the time is fulfilled", and "believe in the good news". When Jesus said "the time is fulfilled", it indicated that the time of the kingdom of God to be in the midst of believers had begun.

When Jesus said, "believe in the good news", the concepts of faith and belief entered the definition of the gospel as far as we can tell. This was revolutionary. Jesus was telling the people his message was good news and they would be wise to believe in it, repent, and experience the kingdom of God.

In Mark, Jesus said "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it." -Mark

Here we see Jesus teaching that the good news is something so important that it is worth dying for. Note the words "let him". Jesus is proposing that people should be willing go all the way in following Him, even to crucifixion if it comes to that. It is important to note that this message of denying ourselves, taking up the cross of Jesus, and following Him, is a radical departure from the elements of the gospel we have seen so far. That is true because it is not part of the gospel. This is seen by the fact that the gospel is mentioned as something different than denying one's self, or dying for it. The subject of the sentence is the believer, the verb is denying, or dying, and the objects are Jesus and the gospel. The verb cannot be the object or part of the object. "Deny" and "die" are not part of "gospel".

Do not let any teacher try to convince you that following Jesus by denying yourself and following the path to crucifixion is an essential element of salvation. It is not part of the good news. However, it is a perfectly true statement by Jesus that we would all be wise to heed. How does it relate to us today? Repentance can include turning away from sins and selfishnesses that impede our spiritual growth and enjoyment of the presence of God. The same is true of turning away from fear, even the fear of death.

Jesus graphically implored His listeners to take the gospel seriously and choose to start on the right foot. A modern way of saying this is, "If anyone wants to follow me, let them be all in." A person who is all in, even to the point of dying for the good news, is a person who is pleasing to God.

Jesus told the Parable of the Sower to explain what happens when the gospel of the kingdom is shared. He includes some of the tricks that the powers of darkness do to prevent it from taking hold.

"Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” - Matthew 13:3-9

"Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” -Matthew 13:18-23

In Mark 10:14,15 Jesus said “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”

The phrase "receive the kingdom of God" here seems to refer to the kingdom of God here on earth, while the words "enter it" would refer to taking place after this lifetime. If a believer seeks the kingdom of God now as Jesus told us to, let that person do so with the sweet, innocent, heart of a child. Let us all receive the kingdom and its blessings here on earth in our Christian lives in that way. It could also be said to employ the same attitude whenever praying, praise, worshipping or seeking God. When we die physically, it will be second nature for each of us to enter the kingdom of God with this childlike heart.

This teaching is profound, and we should follow it, but it does not introduce a new element for becoming saved, and is therefore not part of the gospel definition. However, when we first receive Jesus, we are receiving the kingdom, and the childlike heart is involved. So, consider it as something related to the gospel.

Right after this passage in Mark 10, comes the one in which a rich young ruler approaches Jesus and asks, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life"? After Jesus cornered him for his shallowness, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” - Mark 10:21

Again, Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter in a dramatic way. In fact He sees into this young man, and gives instructions for him personally in accordance to that revelation. I very much enjoy the phrase "Jesus looking at him, loved him." That is MY Jesus! He sees to the heart of even the immature, worldly, disingenuous, rich kid, and loves on him. He pours spiritual light, meant just for him, into his soul. Jesus knew that the young man needed the light to shine on the huge obstacle in the path to eternal life.

Jesus was definitely not making known another element to define the gospel message intended for everyone in general. (We don't each need to sell everything we own to be saved.) However, I am confident that the message was meant for more people than that young ruler. It was for anyone who is afraid to face the huge obstacle between them and heaven. To some it might not be their wealth or status, but Jesus shows each of us in our own way. For the young ruler, Jesus put a spot light on what he needed to repent of. Repentance IS an element in defining the good news. Selling all the young man had, giving it to the poor, and physically following Jesus, was the actual act of repentance that needed to be done in his special case.

We should each intend for Jesus to show us what to repent for and how. Remember, simply to repent from not believing in Jesus is quite enough to qualify for the repentance part of the gospel definition. But repentance in any or all other areas will yield practical and spiritual blessings and mature us into better followers of Jesus.

I'm going to take a detour and discuss something I left out of the quote above. The young rich ruler asked Jesus "'Good Teacher, what must I do to that I may inherit eternal life?'" So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. . . ."

There is a lot of significance to Jesus' question, but I'm going to hone in on one part in particular to help clear up a common misconception. Many people take the phrase "there is none good but One, that is, God," as saying all people are naturally evil except God. The word used for good in the original language of the New Testament, agathos, had multiple meanings, like our word good today. This word "good", had not only everyday usage meanings pertaining to "good people", but meanings that might be found in a specialty we call theology.

The word seen in the Greek lexicon means good, right, moral, or intrinsically valuable. A form of the word, translated "good things" means "valuable possessions or vast treasures". My opinion is that whereas the young rich ruler, meant "moral and valuable" teacher, Jesus flipped the coin to the theological definition of "good" when it comes to God. At least the theology of Jesus. Christian theology says His other attributes were "perfect", like being totally knowing, totally everywhere, and totally powerful. Jesus was teaching the young man that whereas he was calling Jesus a valuable, moral teacher, God is totally, or infinitely good. In that theological sense, nobody else but God is good.

Jesus never denied being THE good teacher. But He pivoted the discussion from the young man's attempt to make a good impression, to the revelation of the supreme goodness of God. That is why the verse is not a contradiction to other verses such as Matthew 13:38, Romans 5:7, 14:16, 15:4, Galatians 4:17-18.

There is also a truth that God is making us more good. Paul said in his flesh dwells no good thing, but we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit if the Spirit of God dwells in us. -Romans 7:18 and 8:9. So we are being made more like Jesus, and moving further in our goodness toward that goal. We can't get to heaven by being good. But we can secure entrance into eternal life and then grow more good, morally, valuably, and spiritually.

I also want to address other verses such as Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous, no, not one." Paul wrote later in the same book that believers are given the righteousness of Jesus, so voila, we are decreed righteous, and we grow more righteousness if we want to. Isaiah said that in the heart of man dwells no good thing. Jeremiah, said "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" That heart corresponds to Paul saying "in my flesh dwells no good thing." We believers are not in the flesh, not in our old unregenerated hearts, but in the Spirit. Even still, a nonbeliever can have many good qualities and be called a good person without error in our society. The theological definition does not have to be used every time a person is considered good.

End of detour! The gospel has as one of its benefits that the totally good God will help believers to be more good than they were before, and more like Him, because they have the HOLY Spirit of the GOOD God living in and through them.

Jesus reminds us all things are possible for God and in particular when it comes to getting even the most unlikely person saved. - Mark 10:26,27. In this passage we see the word "saved" as related to entering the kingdom of God. I would say, getting saved is part of the gospel definition, wouldn't you?

Prior to the last supper, Jesus told his followers that he would be betrayed, arrested, and killed. During the last supper Jesus explains to the disciples when passing out the wine, "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many." -Mark 14:24

This brings to mind the gospel of Isaiah we have discussed. It also reminds us that John the Baptist said of Jesus: "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." - John 1:29

After His resurrection, Jesus explained the meaning of His death to His disciples.

Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” -Luke 24:46-49

There are three "necessary" things: Note that Jesus said it was necessary for (1) the Christ to suffer and (2) rise from the dead and (3) rise from the dead, and (3) that repentance and remission of sins be preached".

I wrote a term paper in college entitled "The Necessity of the Atonement", in which I investigated the big question in my mind, "Why did Jesus have to die, in order for our sins to be forgiven?" In the paper I examined all the meanings for blood sacrifice in the Old Testament and determined they were put in place to get Israel to understand the idea that sacrificing an innocent lamb was God's acceptable method for atonement.

Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, was the ultimate point. God repeatedly in the Bible prefigured the death of Christ through historical events. He did so even from the time of Abraham when the ram who was caught in the thicket was sacrificed as seen in Genesis 22:13.

In my estimation, the death of Jesus on the cross was necessary because it negated every possible claim or argument as to why people cannot escape being punished for their sins. It did this not by proving that punishment is unjust, but by admitting that punishment IS just. Then by offering a way for just punishment to be undergone by a worthy substitute, which is also just, and the most profound way a wise and loving God could save the people He loves. In this way, "mercy triumphs over judgment".

Jesus not only suffered and died on the cross, he experienced the full weight of all mankind's suffering throughout all eternity. He was 100% the recipient of all possible just penalties against human failings. Otherwise, he would not to my logic be a perfect substitute. Beyond that, it was by virtue of both His sinlessness and His divinity that His death could accomplish all this.

This is a deep and heavy subject to discuss, but it explains, at least in my mind, how far Jesus went to rescue us from punishment and save us into eternal life. It reveals the extent to which God went, in love, righting the wrongs of the enemy's evil oppression on humanity.

The sacrificial execution of Jesus Christ on the cross stands as the pinnacle of all earthly history. That is why earlier I mentioned it as being such a poignant element of Isaiah's prophecy.

Jesus made this statement: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends." - John 15:13. Of course, Jesus' death was the ultimate example of this greater love. The love of God, in a magnitude far beyond all we could imagine, was behind all that took place to save us. It is an important element of the gospel.

So we see the atonement was necessary. Also necessary was the resurrection. In fact the two events should be taken together as one three day event, in the plan of God to save us.

After Jesus died for our sins, took our punishment on Himself, and rose from the dead, He announced that He was given a supreme level of authority. With that authority, he authorized His remaining apostles by generating the Great Commission:

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen." -Matthew 28:18-20

Mark's version includes "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

Preaching is the third "necessary" thing in Jesus' statement: "thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations." Remember that the good news is an action. The necessary thing Jesus called "preaching", can be done in many ways. It is not just verbal, as this website attests.

If you are not yet a believer in Jesus, and someone approaches you with the good news, please try to keep in mind that they are doing something kind and loving. They are trying to save your life. They are probably nervous and afraid of approaching people. On the other hand, if one of these people becomes annoying, try to look past that. Let it remind you that if God can love this person, maybe He can love me too.

I started this section by listing all the things the gospel is NOT. I'm going to do that with "preaching" as well: when it comes to communicating the gospel, preaching is NOT: being kind to others, living in a way that people will make people want to follow Jesus, hinting about Jesus, talking about God, inviting people to church, being yourself, telling people you are a Christian, helping the poor and needy, "living" the gospel, influencing others, arguing with people, stating your pet peeves, talking about politics, telling people to believe in God, going to church, smiling at people, putting a bumper sticker on your car, or painting beautiful landscapes of God's creation.

None of the things above that "preaching is NOT" are wrong. But they do not take the place of making sure "that repentance and remission of sins be preached in Jesus' name" or the gospel is communicated well to others in an active way.

On the other hand, preaching is also not confronting people about their beliefs, giving condescending directions, a one-sided argument, a tirade about how sinful the culture is, warnings of impending doom, or dictatorial ultimatums. Believers do not need to scare people into becoming saved by using such rhetorical techniques. At the same time, we do not need to sweep under the rug, the real danger people put themselves in when they reject the good news.

Another word the public has twisted the meaning for is "lecture". Among teenagers, a lecture has a completely different meaning, such as in "don't lecture me about grown ups' morals". In dysfunctional communication whoever wants to win will "lecture" the other person into agreement. Preaching is not lecturing in that second sense of the term's usage. But preaching can include lecturing in the positive, informative way. Anyone who has graduated from college has listened to many lectures, which are usually informative presentations on interesting topics from the perspective of the speaker.

It is not the negative meanings of preaching or lecturing that reflect the gospel. Believers who share Christ with others try to ensure "that repentance and remission of sins be preached in Jesus' name" (Luke 24:46-47). Those are the words of Jesus. Christians are not always perfect at preaching the gospel, but it is our privilege as followers of Jesus to try our best.

Preaching the good news is understood in a fuller context by examining the parallel thought in Matthew's version of the Great Commission: "make disciples".

Sometimes this does not involve preaching, but other things like mentoring, befriending, or counseling others toward discipleship. When we invest ourselves positively in the lives of others, it makes the good news all the more believable.

Preaching is not part of the definition of the good news, it is an action communicating the good news, hopefully with effectiveness in making disciples. It is possible that when the Bible writers said to preach the good news, they only thought of it in one way, verbal preaching. But if they were phrasing the same imperative in today's language they might include things like, playing the good news message on Youtube to see, or performing a song that tells the good news, or writing a web page, instagram post, tweet, facebook ad, or any number of other forms of "preaching".

If the good news is communicated extremely well, it will not come out as an insult to the hearer's previous choices. For example, when I talk to Muslims about the gospel, I try to make sure they do not leave thinking my message included "Islam is wrong, your culture is wrong, your parents were wrong". Otherwise it would cloud their view of what I am trying to say.

Making disciples is an action of the good news. People don't usually jump straight from newborn believers to disciples, but it is not out of the question. Most discipling takes place after a person is saved. Discipling is to get them equipped to help others become saved and mature in their walk with Jesus. Discipleship is also a lifelong love of serving God, in my experience.

Luke quotes John the Baptist telling the Jewish multitudes, "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."

That was not the gospel message, but it is an interesting thing to consider that many of the people that heard John the Baptist and Jesus considered themselves saved because they were descendants of Abraham. Both John and Jesus set them straight that this was not the case. They had taken the various promises God had made to Abraham thousands of years before and turned them into a false understanding that they would be saved because of the covenant with Abraham. The Jewish cult of the Saducees did not believe that being saved mattered after this lifetime, because we would then cease to exist. Jesus had to convince them that a person COULD be saved in eternity.

Repentance IS one of the gospel elements, and John the Baptist shows that "fruits" of repentance indicate validity of repentance. This is not at all the same as doing good works to earn our way to heaven. It is showing through our lives that we have turned from sin and selfishness, to God.

May I remind you that repentance itself is not a work that earns our salvation, but it is an element of the message God wants us to hear along with the good news. For Christians, ongoing repentance and good-works-doing comes from a mindset of thankfulness for what God has done, and continues to do, for us. It comes from our love for God, and the wisdom He gives that if we live in good ways, it is good for us. The opposite true. If we live in bad ways, it is bad for us. Repentance is good for us. God wants what is good for us.

John explains what "fruits" look like. They look like compassion, generosity, sharing what we have with others, refraining from violence and false accusations, and being content with our wages. That led into his prediction about Jesus: "I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I is coming, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire . . . "

Water baptism is not Jesus baptism, it is an outward symbol of Jesus baptism. Jesus immerses us in Himself, with the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer. Luke quotes Jesus as giving this good news:

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” - Luke 11:13

As did Matthew, Luke quotes Jesus as saying. "whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God." - Luke 12:8-9

Although confessing Jesus to people (as in sharing the good news) is not a requirement for salvation. However it is an important related concept. The apostle John later wrote, "whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God abides in him, and he in God." 1 John 4:15. We will also explore this concept as we look at "the gospel of Paul" below.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are very similar to each other in telling the history of Jesus and reflecting His gospel. In the first three books of the New Testament the accounts of Jesus show a slightly different view of the good news than in the fourth book, the Gospel of John.

The apostle John wrote his history of Jesus with personality and profoundness. The first section is in the form of an oracle or legend. It this He introduces Jesus to his listeners as if he was telling the creation story of Genesis over again, this time including Jesus. In the beginning, Jesus!!!!! He tells of Jesus as Creator, Light, Life, the Word that spoke the world into being, then becoming human, being a leader on a par with Moses. emitting grace and truth. John preached the good news, like it was good press.

About Jesus John stated: "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:10-13

In Chapter 3, John provided perhaps the most widely used gospel quotes of all time, such as "Most assuredly, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” and "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." followed by "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

John shows Jesus us more insight in Chapter 6.

"For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”" -John 6:40

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day." -John 6:43

I think this statement has been hard to understand. It must be taken in context. Jesus was responding to some of His listeners complaining that He was referring to Himself as the bread who came down from Heaven. These people were clueless as to who Jesus was and what He was saying. They knew His parents. The grumbling and cluelessness indicated that the Father was not at that time in the process of drawing them to Jesus. Jesus responds with "Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day." In a sense, Jesus rebuked them and gave them the message of salvation at the same time.

But was there a further truth behind the statement regarding "drawing" people to Him? Yes. Theologians have debated it, but the fact remains the Father wants to draw everyone to Jesus, but some will not be drawn. Those who allow the Father to draw them to Jesus will be raised up into heaven on the last day. God doesn't wish for anyone to perish according to scriptures like Matthew 18:14, 2 Peter 3:9, and Ezekiel 33:11. How do you know if the Father is drawing you to Jesus? If you allow yourself to come to Jesus, it was the Father that drew you to Him. Elsewhere we mention other aspects of being drawn by the presence of God and the power of the gospel.

In Chapter 11 just before raising Lazarus from the dead, He stated to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John glorified Jesus. He, more that the other apostles, revealed the deity of Christ. Jesus is God. Jesus is "I AM".

People in Samaria said "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” - John 4:42

In John 5:24 Jesus said, "“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."

John preached the good news of Jesus, by telling us many things about Him, all of which were good. His good news is more focused on Jesus than the other three we have discussed. John reveals his close earthly relationship with Jesus, and in this book he speaks as if he was talking about an old friend, as well as the Lord. John saw a link between the Word that was spoken in Creation, and the word that Jesus spoke in his travels from town to town. Jesus preached, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” - John 8:31-32

John revealed Jesus as the water that will quench our thirst forever, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the true vine that nourishes the branches and produces fruit,

In John 12:32-33 Jesus predicted His own crucifixion and its meaning: "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die."

In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

In John 20:30 John writes, "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. "

Jesus not only shared the benefits of believing the good news. He also showed the detriments experienced by not doing so. These things are not part of the good news. So nobody should consider Hell a part of the gospel. It isn't good news, it is bad news, when the unbeliever suffers punishment. But what is good news is that by believing in Jesus we can escape hell and judgment. Many people see Hell as part of the good message. Avoid Hell, go to Heaven, by believing Jesus. But it escaping Hell is a side benefit compared to receiving the wonders of God's presence and love, and someday going to Heaven. I used to worry a lot about going to Hell, when I was a new believer. I wanted to make sure that gospel "took", and I was saved. If I knew then what I know now, from decades of walking with Jesus and reading the Bible, I would not have wasted my time worrying. I would have used that time to experience more and more of God.

The more positive we are about Jesus in our lives, the better things go for us, both now and in eternity. As a teenage, I was walking on the railroad tracks, and a friend was walking on an elevated patch of ground beside them. My dog was with me on the tracks. I was daydreaming and didn't notice the train coming. My friend yelled to me repeatedly, and I finally look up, saw the train, and tried to get my dog off the track as well as myself. My friend's warning was good news. He saved my dog's life and mine as well.

I tell you this because the warnings of not believing the good news are like my friend Tony yelling at me to get off the train tracks. "The train is coming". "Listen to its horn blowing". It would be insane to consider his words an offensive message that the train is going to kill me because I deserved it. But some people hear the good news that way. They hear "God wants to punish you for walking your dog on the tracks".

The Gospel of Paul

The good message Paul preached included all of the good message of Jesus. Paul received in-person training from the risen Jesus Christ, so His writings about the gospel are not all "his take" on the matter. But he did have a great deal of experiences in spreading the good message and seeing how it operated in practice numerous times with many cultures. Paul wrote about the gospel from many different perspectives in many different passages, and no one passage supercedes any others.

Paul often wrote from the perspective of his great knowledge of Judaism, but he was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. So we see flavorings of Israel's culture superimposed on gentile culture.

In the book of Romans, Paul introduced into the gospel language that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" -Romans 3:23. This is a message much like "being dead in your trespasses and sins". Before knowing Jesus, we were slaves to sin. We were living in death. In Romans 6:23 Paul says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." I like to change the words around a little to say, "death is the wages of sin". That makes more sense in today's English. Few people quote the words just before: "now having been set free from sin, and having become voluntary loving servants [slaves] of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life."

Jumping forward to the book of James, we see him quoting the old testament by saying "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law."

What does this mean for us? It means it was established in the Mosaic law that all have sinned and are guilty of the penalty of the entire law. We fall short of the glory of God. We need our sins to be forgiven in order to be saved. Only by God's grace, through the finished work of Jesus on the cross, can a person who has sinned be saved.

Paul also expands the concept of grace beyond what we know from previous writers about the good news. That is what he meant by "the free gift of God is eternal life" above. ("Gift" and "grace" are forms of the same original word.) He focuses on salvation by grace through faith, and righteousness imparted through faith. These are contributions to the understanding of the gospel that Paul is known for. Romans 5:1-2, Ephesians 2:8-10. Grace is God loving and favoring us, even though we don't deserve or merit it. A free gift.

In Romans 1:16 Paul wrote "For I am not ashamed of the good news of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."

This is one of my favorite verses about the good news. Of course the gospel is more than the power of God. But the good news carries God's power in it, His present awesome power. He is right there sending saving power through the gospel into the ears and hearts of the listeners. It is power unto salvation. It can effectively get a person saved if they respond in belief to it."

In Romans 8:15-17, Paul pointed out that those who become born again are heirs of God as adopted sons and daughters. "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, (Daddy) Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. . . "

John 1:12-13 had said something similar "But as many as received Him, those who believe in His name, to them He gave the right to become children of God: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

In Romans 10, Paul writes:

“. . . The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” -Romans 10:8-13

It is good to note that some readers have applied faulty reverse logic to the passage above. For example if I say, "If you win the lottery and eat a banana you will become rich", it does not mean that if you win the lottery and do not eat a banana, you will not become rich. The banana doesn't make you rich. In the same way, Paul says "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" Faulty logic says you have to do two things to be saved, confess and believe. But we showed in Mark 16 that the Bible also says "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." It that lack of belief alone that qualifies us for condemnation. In most cases it is faith alone, not confession, baptism, or any other additional action, even repentance. But even if these other things are not required before salvation occurs, we should do them all because God wants us to. That reason is good enough.

In Acts 16 a jailer fell before Paul and Silas and asked, "'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' So they said 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved'" Then they told him to have the rest of the people in his household do the same.

In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul's gospel is given a new dimension. He refers to the good news as "the message of the cross" (1 Corinthians 1:8)

In Chapter 2, Paul writes, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." -1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

I love how the mighty apostle Paul, speaks the gospel meekly, not persuasively, stripping out all but the most poignant part, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Then God backed up Paul's statements with "demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Like Jesus and his miracles, it is "show and tell time".

It does not state exactly what the demonstration was, but we can imagine it being an increase in the felt presence and power of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders, perhaps healings. At least that is how I picture it. I have seen many times where God's spirit touches the hearers with tears, joy, conviction of sin, or a supernatural hunger for Him. Demonstrations like these are common when sharing the good news with people who are ready for it.

In Romans 15:15-19, Paul writes,

"I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient - in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation"

Paul kept taking the gospel to new people who had not heard it. He did so with God's presence and Spirit backing up his words. To me, this is a very good model for communicating the good news. Whether through signs and wonders or by other means, "the power and the Spirit of God" might accompany the message. I believe in the power and Spirit of God doing this, not just in ways that are outwardly observable, but in effective ways such as when I would go to a Billy Graham crusade. I would feel a "spirit" of evangelism present that captured my attention onto Dr. Graham, revealed things in me I needed to confess and repent for, and solidified my faith in Jesus. I had felt a similar thing when I first the words, "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?" spoken by a sweet older lady at a "Christian Party" when I was 16 years old. In the coming years I could see that power on the faces of thousands of people when I was on stage involved in evangelistic ministry. My prayer is that everyone who reads this website will experience "the power and the Spirit of God" backing up my message.

What is our reward for preaching the gospel? Paul answers that question. "What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the [e]law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you. " -1 Corinthians 9:18-23.

It gave Paul satisfaction to know that he was not making money off preaching the good news, but instead serving all in a way fitting to each person, by winning them to salvation. He preaches for the sake of the good news, and thereby lives in a way fitting to someone partaking eternally in its benefits.

Perhaps the passage most quoted as being Paul's gospel, or "the gospel" is from 1 Corinthians Chapter 15:

"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time." 1 Corinthians 15:1-8

The central point is Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures". This is Paul's short version of the good news message he first spoke to the Corinthians.

In the book of Galatians, Paul addresses a move by some people to preach a "different" gospel there. He writes:

"Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. . . . But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ."

The following passage does not mention the good news, but makes a revolutionary statement about what I call "God Wins".

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

When it says "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal", it is contrasted with what the new weapons of warfare are. They are weapons residing in God, and are mighty.

This is revolutionary, not because it is the first time we are exposed to this concept in the New Testament, but because it so plainly lays out that the enemy is not human beings, but the effects of our spiritual enemy within our own lives and thoughts. Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. He told Peter to put away his sword, for "for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." - Matthew 26:42

This is to point out that something changed between the original meaning of "good news" and "God Wins" around the time of David, and the version of warfare where the nations who opposed Israel were considered the enemy. If you look at the Old Testament carefully, you will see that when God took over the battle, Israel defeated its enemies. The weapons were in God all along. But the carnal minds of people reverted time and again to using the wrong weapons and misidentifying the true enemy.

Did you know the old Testament said "Do not take revenge?" - Leviticus 19:18. I already quoted Deuteronomy 32:35, where God says "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." In the New Testament Paul repeats that statement as I quoted earlier. In most of today's cultures, revenge is against the law. But dozens of movies and TV shows present revenge as something that is somehow a good excuse for doing something evil. If a head of state is offended at a statement by their enemy, and starts a violent ware against them out of Vengeance that is bad for everyone.

"God Wins" without using humans to commit revenge. We do not help God any with our anger, bitterness, or hatred. In fact, we are slapping Him in the face. Revenge is not our prerogative, it is His. It is not a human right. So let's all be careful who we slap in the face.

Paul saw that some of the Galatians were turning away from God, because of a perverted message made to resemble Paul's good news. This account is not the first or last time it happens. The enemy has been doing it ever since there were Christians to incapacitate. Regarding the Corinthians Paul also said false apostles approached believers, these false apostles were "deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

Paul writes in Ephesians:

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace"

Paul calls it the gospel of peace here, and tells us to put on the shoes of the gospel." This reminds me of Isaiah's quote "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation" Paul wants us to put our beautiful feet into shoes made of preparation for communication of the gospel."

In the Book of Titus, Paul writes: "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

This is a "testimony" by Paul about the gospel and how it worked so well in the lives of him and pastor Titus. Note the phrase, "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit". Paul is speaking about being born again and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

In Colossians 2:13-15 Paul states: "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

This passage explains how people before experiencing faith in Christ, are unknowingly living in a state of spiritual death. That state, if never interrupted by salvation, would go on and on.

Paul tells the readers that although they were once dead, now they are alive "together with Him", (Jesus), and suggests that they are now united with Jesus in His resurrection from the dead (as in Romans 6:5). When Paul said they were dead in the uncircumcision of their flesh, he was simply stating that these were believers who previously lived a sinful gentile lifestyle, as opposed to a Jewish lifestyle bound by religious rules and regulations. Jesus has made them alive, resurrected, and forgiven. He has made them free from strict rules. Jesus has removed those harmful, negative things, placed them out of the believers' way, and nailed them to the cross. This word picture of nailing them to the cross is a picturesque way of showing how God has taken negatives out of our lives by applying the power of Christ's atonement to them, canceling them, and placing them out of sight.

Paul followed that word picture saying that Jesus disarmed principalities and powers (satan and his demons) . He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Again, the gospel includes, "God Wins."

Although we don't know for sure who penned the book of Hebrews, I am including passages from that book here because if it was not Paul, it was surely a disciple heavily influenced by Paul's teachings.

Hebrews 2:14: These children are people with physical bodies. So Jesus himself became like them and had the same experiences they have. Jesus did this so that, by dying, he could destroy the one who has the power of death - the devil. (God Wins.)

We examined earlier, the dynamics of old testament sacrifices prefiguring the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. The writer of Hebrews, gives us a more thorough and thoughtful explanation:

"In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." - Hebrews 9:16-28

Earlier I recognized atonement-related aspects and incidents in the Old Testament as symbolically prefiguring the atonement of Jesus Christ. Whereas Hebrews goes one step further and shows them as being "copies of the heavenly things." The writer wanted us to see how God's design and strategy were revealing things of heaven through things on earth.

Within our modern justice systems, the logic of substitution comes out in the right for one person to pay another's criminal bail or fine. Heroes die to save the lives of others, which is also substitution.

The one thing that strikes me about sacrificial substitution in God's atonement process is that God's reasoning ability is far greater than that of any human. His authority is beyond that of any person. His decree must therefore stand more credibly than that of any human potentate. God decreed that the substitutionary atonement of Jesus on the cross was the last, best, and only possible solution for saving people from punishment for their own sins. Believing in Jesus makes it possible to receive that solution.

That is why I write these things. So people who think there is another way to get to heaven or avoid punishment for sins, rather than to believe in Jesus, would see things differently, more clearly. There is no convenient alternative choice that will work.

The Gospel of Peter

When Peter preached his first recorded gospel message, he spoke mainly to Jewish people. He reminded them of Old Testament scriptures that pertain to the coming of Jesus as their messiah and the Holy Spirit to be poured out on earth. He pointed out the fact that the Jewish high priests and their crowd instigated the execution of Jesus. He indicted those who consented to these actions by shouting "crucify Him" before Pontius Pilate.

Peter struck a nerve of guilt and shame in his listeners, then informed them that God raised Jesus from the dead and that He sits on the Father's right hand in heaven ruling and reigning. He was obviously a man on fire for Jesus, and didn't mind confronting people for their sin of crucifying our Lord.

Peter then said: "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” - Acts 2:22-39

At the very end of this long sermon, a God-inspired tirade, Peter stated words we recognize as echoing the gospel of Jesus - "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

About 3,000 people responded by repenting and believing in Jesus for remission of sins that day. Peter taught them "with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” - Acts 2:40

The Lord "added to the church daily those who were being saved." Please note that this statement is not meant to imply that believers are in the process of being saved. It means more numbers of people "were being saved" every day.

About my use of the word "Jews" or "Jewish" in connection with the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the first few chapters of Acts. When I say "Jews", it is like saying "nearly everybody in the vicinity". It is not meant to highlight a people group, or their differences from us. Technically they represent a minority in today's world, but in the world experienced by Jesus and Peter, they were the vast majority. I mention them as Jews, because there were other groups who received the good news at the hands of the apostles who were non-Jews. For example, the Samaritans, the Romans, the Greeks, and other foreigners to Israel. On the day of Peter's first sermon cited above, there were people of many nationalities present identified in Acts 2:9-10. By identifying certain people as Jews, neither the Bible, nor I blame their Jewishness on anything bad that was done to Jesus or His disciples. Those things were done out of common characteristics among all kings of people, such as fear, hatred, sin, and evil. These are characteristics of people in every nation, as are the opposite such as kindness, generosity, love, and unselfishness. Christians would be very wise not to harbor prejudice or anger against Jews or any other group.

Some time shortly after this first recorded evangelistic sermon of Peter, He and John went to the temple to pray, and on their way they ran into a lame beggar at the gate entering the temple. Peter said, "'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him." -Acts 3:1-10

The word spread immediately, likely to hundreds of people at the temple, and they ran to see Peter and the healed man, with whom they were already familiar in his lame state. So Peter gave another wonderful sermon, similar to the first.

His good news message this time was, " Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

We have not yet discussed the word "converted". It is another word that means too many things today that are irrelevant to the original thought. Peter is likely calling on the remembrance of David writing in the Psalms, such as "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" - Psalm 19:7, or when he prayed to God, "Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You" - Psalm 51:13. That Psalm is a beautiful story of repentance by David. You should read the whole thing. "Converted" is often used as a synonym for "saved". But it is more telling. If using Psalm 51 as a guide, it shows mercy, love, change, purging, cleaning, deliverance from guilt, praise, and a contrite spirit. These things that David went through, he wanted to teach to others, so they would be transformed to exude lives walking in God's ways.

Why repent? So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Our hearts need times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Those times are unbelievably lovely and transformational. Peter had just experienced a profound outpouring of this refreshing in the upper room, in Acts Chapter 2, just before Peter's first gospel message quoted above.

In today's language, marketers sway consumers with features, benefits, and selling propositions. Nobody is selling the gospel commercially. But we have seen similar "selling propositions" to people to become saved like eternal life, relationship with God, freedom from sin and its consequences, and being born again. But here, Peter offers a "selling proposition" of equal value, to receive refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Please do not get hung up on my jargon here. Peter's gospel includes an offer that if you become saved, then you will receive seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. He also offers another proposition and that is that those who are saved will some day experience the end of Jesus' current time away from earth, and "the restoration of all things." Most of us understand this as the "second coming", the physical return of Jesus to earth to set up His kingdom.

The Bible predicts the return of Jesus. Here we see that from the believer's point of view it is a benefit of believing. Therefore, it is a related issue to the gospel, but not an actual element of the gospel. You might think I am a little hung up on semantics. But it is good to see these distinctions.

If a person wants to believe or share the gospel in an effective way, it is good to know the various aspects so they present the gospel in a way that is not confusing to them or others. I absolutely do not want readers to go out after reading this section, and argue with others as to what the gospel is or isn't. That is not what I am doing here. But what I am doing is giving a clear view of the good news from scriptures, and helping people to be thoughtful about the issue.

Also in Peter's sermon of Acts 3, Peter preaches, "To you first [these early Jewish listeners] God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

So we see Peter understands that God sent Jesus to bless us. As we turn from our iniquities (sins and corruption), blessing comes into our lives, more and more. This is the truth. It may not be what we always feel, but eventually every believer understands this concept from life experience. Following Jesus brings blessings to us. We do not selfishly follow Him to receive blessings. But I can tell you that we someday look back on our lives and clearly see the thousands of blessings God provided to us. It does not take a genius to see that the Bible presents blessing as an outcome of the gospel - a benefit or "selling proposition", if you will.

If you have been persuaded or programmed to think of money as another word for blessing, then your thinking is probably out of whack. Preachers from some camps often relate the two topics, and those from others preach against money as being a desired blessing. The truth is blessings that come from salvation are very numerous. Money is not a more satisfying blessing than most of the others. We all need balance to see the various pieces of biblical wisdom about being poor, being rich, and being somewhere in between. In the secular world money is a thing of great value. But in the reality of a believer, money is relatively insignificant in the big picture. You can see in Peter's sermons that money is not the kind of blessing on his mind. In fact, the written account leading to his first sermon starts with Peter and John's statement "silver and gold, I have none."

So blessing is a promise of the good news. Financial blessing? Sure. But in scale to the full gamut of blessings God offers, even a billion dollars is relatively insignificant compared to hundreds of better and more advantage blessings intended for us by God.

Peter's third evangelistic sermon in Acts is given when he was taken into custody by the temple leaders for healing the lame man and preaching the resurrection of Jesus. They asked Peter, "By what power or my what name have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

People can be healed in Jesus' name and saved. In fact they cannot be saved in any other way. "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

Unfortunately among the recipients of this evangelistic message (the Jewish leaders), there appears to have been no takers. They marveled, however. They accepted the fact that "a notable miracle had been done through Peter and John in Jesus' name. So they commanded them not to speak or teach about Jesus any more. Peter and John responded:

“Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot do anything else but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

They returned to their friends and told them what happened. The prayed together for the furtherance of the good news, for boldness, and for signs and wonders to be done in Jesus' name. "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. -Acts 4:31

Signs and wonders did increase drastically and many new believers were added in response to the good news, such as displayed in Acts 5:12-16.

Again Peter along with other apostles were arrested. They were thrown in prison, but an angel of the Lord busted them out! He told them to them "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” -Acts 5:17-20

The leaders apprehended the apostles again, and interrogated them as to why they disobeyed. Then Peter and company said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

There was consistency in the good news spoken by Peter, but he uses different aspects to deal with different situations. When he speaks to the leaders of Israel, he repeatedly emphasizes that God exalts Jesus to a very high position. We should consider Him exalted as well.

In the scripture above, repentance is a gift given to the people. We have not seen it put quite this way before. Paul reflects this thought in 2 Timothy 2:25. In the good news of Jesus Christ, repentance is not a chore. It is not a grueling decision. It is a gift. It is granted to us by God, according to this line of reasoning. If people are reluctant to repent because of a negative slant of this type, they are getting it all wrong.

In Acts Chapter 8, Philip the evangelist preached the good news in Samaria, "the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city."

Luke in Acts 8:14 writes: "When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit."

In this account, Peter and John went to Samaria out of joy and happiness that the gospel was well-received among these non-Jews. The apostles arrived after the people heeded Philip's message and helped midwife them further into the new birth by offering to them the same God-given experience the apostles had been through, that of being baptized by the Holy Spirit.

This particular model of baptism in or by the Holy Spirit is not meant to be a gospel element. Let's take our focus off the word "baptism" as the important point and put in on the phrase "in the Spirit". There are other ways to receive the presence of the Holy Spirit in powerful ways. To all believers, baptism by the Holy Spirit is offered, and is not a one time formulaic experience. It can happen at the time of accepting Christ, plus some time later, plus multiple times after that. The filling by the Holy Spirit can be personally experienced on a small, medium, or large scale. It can happen to one person or a large crowd. The Bible nowhere limits it to a one-time phenomenon, and believers in the Bible experience it multiple times (for example: Revelation 1:10, 4:2, Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 2:1, In fact we are told to walk in the Spirit, sing in the Spirit, Galatians 5:16, Ephesians 5:18-19, Romans 8:9,14:7 ) If anyone is indwelt by the Holy Spirit in the born-again experience, that counts. If anyone experiences refreshing from the presence of the Spirit, that counts too as being baptized, or immersed in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Some people get hung up on semantics and try to make a doctrine out of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But the opposite is true, the Holy Spirit is a person and He loves to immerse people who seek His presence, with Himself. Spirit baptism is an indication that a person is saved and walking with God. Paul wrote "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Walking (or living) in the Spirit produces the "fruit of the Spirit", - Galatians 5:22-25 Jesus said, "by their fruits, you shall know them." - Matthew 7:15-20

So the filling of the Holy Spirit is a sign that we are saved. But, in the same chapter just quoted, Jesus strictly warned us not to judge people or harass them. He is the only judge -Matthew 7: 1-5 and 19-23. However, we should beware of false teachers and pretenders exhibiting no fruits of the Spirit, but rather only works of the flesh.

The gift of the Holy Spirit into our lives is a foremost blessing and benefit of the good news. He helps us bear wonderful fruit such as goodness of character and positive influence on others for the gospel. He helps us do more than humanly possible.

In Acts Chapter 10, Peter is sent to gentiles who had been praying, and to whom an angel of the Lord appeared, telling them to go get Peter.

After Peter arrived, he "opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” -Acts 10:34-43

Then the Holy Spirit fell in power on Cornelius, as well as his friends and family who were gathered to hear Peter. The gentiles as a group, now joined the Samaritans and Jews as ethnicities who were introduced to the good news and the filling of the Holy Spirit. They received both willingly and were born again.

Peter's messages appear not only in the historical accounts of Jesus and the book of Acts, but also in the three books of the Bible that he penned.

The book of 1 Peter starts with a greeting mentioning the a sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, a phrase signifying the atonement. Then Peter states "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:2-5

Peter is speaking to believers, reminding them of the good news of Jesus in his own words. Note that Peter references the death and resurrection of Jesus, the born again experience, and salvation to eternal life in heaven through faith.

In Chapter two, Peter again refers to being born again and what to do as a new baby in Christ: "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

Those who have not yet become born again, are targeted by the final clause "if indeed you have tested that the Lord is gracious" in my opinion. If you do not yet believe, consider that when you do, you will begin to taste that the Lord in gracious, and you will be able to lay aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking so you can as a newborn babe, desire the pure milk of the word, so you many grow thereby. The "word" in this context as it applies to today is the inspired truth from the Bible and the direct or indirect communication by God through whatever means He chooses. Such communications would not contradict or supercede the truth of the Bible in the moment.

Peter later says that God's divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. - 2 Peter 1:2

This illustrates the path of growing as newborn babes by desiring the pure milk of the word, which turns into tasting that the Lord is gracious, then partaking of other spiritual food to grow thereby, and doing so until we partake of the divine nature.

Peter liked to use food to illustrate his points. The passages above are all about tasting, drinking, and partaking. But the meanings are spiritual. David wrote long before, "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who trusts in Him" Psalm 34:8.

Peter encourages us to taste of the good things of God our entire lives. We can do that in many ways. The most direct are to experience His presence in relationship activities with our spiritual eyes on Him, such as prayer, thanksgiving, praise, worship, and service.

To those who choose to believe the good news, Peter tells us: "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy." -2 Peter 2:9

The Gospel in the Book of Revelation

This section could have been placed in "The Gospel of Jesus", because Revelation is a book about a vision to the Apostle John from Jesus. We mentioned earlier that the book's major theme is "God Wins". It goes through many amazing end times prophecies that lead from this present age to the age to come. It is mostly in word pictures, but was originally viewed in a combination of voice, sound, and moving pictures in visionary form, by the Apostle John.

Revelation Chapter 7 shows a snapshot of the result of the good news in heaven:

"After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”

The key statement for our study here is "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!". Of course, the Lamb is Jesus. "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12

Note in the Revelation 7 passage above that worship is a key characteristic for people in heaven saved from the sin, condemnation, and evils of this world.

It says elsewhere in Revelation that bright robes can signify the righteous acts of the saints (holy believers). - Revelation 19-8

The passage below shows the only use of the word "gospel" in the book of Revelation:

"Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people - saying with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.'” - Revelation 14:7

This passage shows an angel holding the everlasting gospel to preach to all the earth. This passage seems to indicate an angel at or near the end of this age, holding up the gospel for all to honor and delight at, for it has and is being released to all the earth, just prior to the time of judgment by God.

What impresses me about this picture is the element of victory, with the gospel feeling almost like a flag being waved and planted on a victoriously won territory.

It is a time of great worship and celebration. The angel reiterates the message from the beginning which was repeated almost a hundred times in scripture and echoed from a thousand pulpits over the years:, "Fear God and give glory to Him."

Worship in the context of the verses above is a major theme of the larger passage. Here, the angel says, "worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

John's revelation of the angel's words "a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne" reminds me of the prophecy made by King David about 1,100 years before John wrote the book of Revelation: "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before You." - Psalm 22:27

In Revelation, a third angel proclaims about those who made it to Heaven, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." - Revelation 14:12

This patience in the context of the Apostle John who endured many hardships, is not just patience as we know it in our culture, like being patient with our kids. It includes perseverance through trials, times of suffering, and difficulties in life, during which the believer is trained and empowered by the Holy Spirit to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

This is how God Wins! It is the fruit of the gospel. We are His secret weapon. We are also His reward and His bride. (Revelation 19:6-8, 21:2-4, 21:9, and 22:16-17)

It all culminates in the two final chapters of Revelation when the earth has passed away, judgment day has come and gone, and the real party begins.

Review

The gospel message was revealed by God gradually, starting in the garden of Eden. Then the gospel concept was expanded through the priestly acts of atonement God gave to Israel. The word "gospel" was first used in relation to King David in 1 Chronicles and 2 Samuel. David wrote in an anointed way about the good news as illustrated in his Psalms. Later the good news took on new meaning through Isaiah the prophet, then prophetically as well through John the Baptist "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." Jesus expanded the hearers' insight to the good news greatly throughout His ministry. Peter and Paul echoed the good news in the remaining decades of their lives, adding insight and experience to its understanding.

Regardless of the progressive revelation, the good news always kept its core premises, which existed since before time in the mind of God. The growth of understanding was through progressively revealing during the centuries by the Bible writers. It never contradicted any part that had come before.

The same basic message remained and was reiterated in different ways by the authoritative apostles, yet maintaining consistency throughout their time. The Christian church attempted to keep the message consistent afterward.

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* The word "sprinkle" brings to mind the sprinkling practice of Israel's priests for atonement of sins, the anointing for holiness of the priests, and the desire to be a sweet savor to God. Moses sprinkled as a sign of God's covenant involving the passing over of the angel of death to set the nation of Israel free from Egyptian bondage. This passage in Isaiah envisions the Servant sprinkling atonement for sins over the nations of the earth, and possibly other sprinkling as well like the benefits of holiness, and pleasing God.
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