The Gospel - The Good News

The Gospel - The Good News In the Greek New Testament, gospel is the translation of the Greek noun euangelion (occurring 77 times in tr greek, “good news,” and the verb euangelizo„ (occurring 54 times), meaning “to bring or announce good news.” Both words are derived from the noun angelos, “messenger.” In classical Greek, an euangelos was one who brought a message of victory or other political or personal news that caused JOY. What is the good news? Until we know the bad news, we can’t truly appreciate the good news. The bad news is that we are all sinners deserving of hell for our sin against a holy God (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Our sin has kept us from His presence and eternal life (John 3:15–20). No one can earn his or her way into the presence of God because there is “no one righteous” (Romans 3:10). Our best human efforts to please God are “as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Until we understand that we are destined for hell because of our sin, we cannot appreciate all that Jesus did for us on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21). If we don’t realize how hopeless we are, we won’t recognize the great hope Jesus offers (Hebrews 6:19). Unless we recognize that we are sinners, we can’t appreciate a Savior. ---- The good news is that God loves us (John 3:15–18). He wants a relationship with His human creation and has communicated with us in a variety of ways such as nature (Romans 1:20), the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16), and Jesus coming in human form to live among us (John 1:14). God does love us! He does want to bless us! He wants a relationship with us and desires to teach us His ways so that we can become all He created us to be (Romans 8:29). Teachers who focus only on the good news are leaving out a vital part of God’s plan of salvation, which includes repentance (Matthew 3:2; Mark 6:12) and taking up our cross to follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). The good news involves Jesus’ death on the cross as the sin offering to fulfill the Law’s righteous requirement (Romans 8:3–4; Hebrews 10:5–10). Under the Law, animal sacrifices were offered year after year as a reminder of sin and a symbol of the coming sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 10:3–4). When Christ offered Himself at Calvary, that symbol became a reality for all who would believe (Hebrews 10:11–18). The work of atonement is finished now, and that’s good news. The gospel also involves Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The fact that Jesus offers to share that victory with us is the greatest news of all (John 14:19). The elements of the gospel are clear in 1 Corinthians 15:3–6, a key passage concerning the good news of God: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living.” Notice, first, that Paul “received” the gospel and then “passed it on”; this is a divine message, not a man-made invention. Second, the gospel is “of first importance.” Everywhere the apostles went, they preached the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Third, the message of the gospel is accompanied by proofs: Christ died for our sins (proved by His burial), and He rose again the third day (proved by the eyewitnesses). Fourth, all this was done “according to the Scriptures”; the theme of the whole Bible is the salvation of mankind through Christ. The Bible is the gospel. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). The gospel is the good news that God loves the world enough to give His only Son to die for our sin (John 3:16). The gospel is good news because our salvation and eternal life and home in heaven are guaranteed through Christ (John 14:1–4). “He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4). The gospel is good news when we understand that we do not (and cannot) earn our salvation; the work of redemption and justification is complete, having been finished on the cross (John 19:30). Jesus is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2). The gospel is the good news that we, who were once enemies of God, have been reconciled by the blood of Christ and adopted into the family of God (Romans 5:10; John 1:12). “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). The gospel is the good news that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). To reject the gospel is to embrace the bad news. Condemnation before God is the result of a lack of faith in the Son of God, God’s only provision for salvation. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17–18). God has given a doomed world good news: the Gospel of Jesus Christ! --- I'm indebted to Chuck Missler, @khouse for the following quiz. Quiz: Where is the first place the gospel appears in the Bible? The answer may surprise you.. Genesis Chapter 5, where we have the genealogy of Adam through Noah. This is one of those chapters which we often tend to skim over quickly as we pass through Genesis it’s simply a genealogy from Adam to Noah. In our Bible, we read the Hebrew names. What do these names mean in English? The Flood Judgment Methuselah comes from muth, a root that means “death”; and from shalach, which means “to bring”, or “to send forth”. The name Methuselah means, “his death shall bring”. Methuselah’s father was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth. (Can you imagine raising a kid like that? Every time the boy caught a cold, the entire neighborhood must have panicked!) And, indeed, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came. It is interesting that Methuselah’s life, in effect, was a symbol of God’s mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood. Therefore, it is fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, speaking of the extensiveness of God’s mercy. The Other Names If there is such significance in Methuselah’s name, let’s examine the other names to see what may lie behind them. Adam Adam’s name means “man”. As the first man, that seems straight forward enough. Seth Adam’s son was named Seth, which means “appointed”. Eve said, “For God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”[4] Enosh Seth’s son was called Enosh, which means “mortal, frail, or miserable”. It is from the root anash, “to be incurable”, used of a wound, grief, woe, sickness, or wickedness. It was in the days of Enosh that men began to defile the name of the Living God. Kenan Enosh’s son was named Kenan, which can mean “sorrow, dirge, or elegy”. (The precise denotation is somewhat elusive; some study aids unfortunately presume that Kenan is synonymous with Cainan.) Balaam, looking down from the heights of Moab, uses a pun upon the name of the Kenites when he prophesies their destruction. We have no real idea as to why these names were chosen for their children. Often they may have referred to circumstances at birth, and so on. Mahalalel Kenan’s son was Mahalalel, from mahalal which means blessed or praise; and El, the name for God. Thus, Mahalalel means the “Blessed God”. Often Hebrew names include El, the name of God, as Dan-i-el, “God is my Judge”, etc. Jared Mahalalel’s son was named Jared, from the verb yaradh, meaning “shall come down”. Enoch Jared’s son was named Enoch, which means “teaching, or commencement”. He was the first of four generations of preachers. In fact, the earliest recorded prophecy was by Enoch, which amazingly enough deals with the Second Coming of Christ (although it is quoted in the Book of Jude in the New Testament): Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against.” — Jude 14–15 Methuselah Enoch was the father of Methuselah, who we have already mentioned. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah. Apparently, Enoch received the prophecy of the Great Flood, and was told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld. The year that Methuselah died, the flood came. Enoch, of course, never died: he was translated (or, if you’ll excuse the expression, raptured). That’s how Methuselah can be the oldest man in the Bible, yet he died before his father! Lamech Methuselah’s son was named Lamech, a root still evident today in our own English word, “lament or lamentation”. Lamech suggests despairing. (This name is also linked to the Lamech in Cain’s line who inadvertently killed his son Tubal-Cain in a hunting incident.) Noah Lamech, of course, is the father of Noah, which is derived from nacham, “to bring relief or comfort”, as Lamech himself explains in Genesis 5:29. Now let’s put it all together: Hebrew English Adam Man Seth Appointed Enosh Mortal Kenan Sorrow; Mahalalel The Blessed God Jared Shall come down Enoch Teaching Methuselah His death shall bring Lamech The Despairing Noah Rest, or comfort. Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest. Here’s the Gospel hidden within a genealogy in Genesis! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwdWLzUmCnsamBxM4I8E58eOGACJbLFrm&feature=shared