The first time the word “gospel”
appears in the Bible is in Matt 4:23:
23 And
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of
disease among the people.
The Greek word use here is euaggelion that literally means Good
News.
My question is: what were the Good News Jesus had to all the hungry souls following him?
John 1:16,17:
16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for (upon)
grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and
truth came through Jesus Christ.
The interesting thing to notice in
this passage of John 1, is that the verb came,
in the original Greek is in the singular. In other words, grace and truth is ONE thing! The other
interesting thing about the meaning of the word came (ginomai) is that it means “I come into being” or “I am born”.
So Jesus is the incarnation of grace and
truth!
The next questions are: Why did Grace and Truth need to
come? And What was wrong before Jesus came?
Hebrews 8:6-13 (Jeremiah 31:
31-34):
6 But now He has
obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better
covenant, which was established on better promises. 7 For if that
first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a
second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says:
"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 9 not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took
them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not
continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their
hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None
of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the
Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of
them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and
their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no
more." 13 In that He says, "A new
covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete
and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The reason why the Law was given
On the night before God delivered
the people of Israel from Egypt, He instructed them to kill a lamb, and apply
the blood to the door post of their houses. On that night, He would pass and destroy
every first born on land of Egypt, but when He pass by the houses and see the
blood He would PASSOVER (Exodus 12:7-13). That was the first Passover and its
meaning. The judgment was done all over Egypt, but all the children of Israel
were delivered, not by their well doing, but by the blood of an innocent
animal.
Their journey from Egypt to Sinai
was filled with episodes of murmuring. Every time things didn’t go the way they
wanted, they were quick to say: 11 Then they said to Moses, "Because
there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? 12 Is
this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may
serve the Egyptians?' For it would have been better for us to serve the
Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness." (Exodus
14:11,12).
That happened in front of the Red
Sea, when they didn’t have water, when they didn’t have bread, when they didn’t
have meat… The interesting thing to notice here is that God NEVER punished then
for sinning so openly against Him. But on the contrary, every time they
murmured God poured out grace and blessed them with an open sea, fresh water from
the rocks, manna and meat. Why was God so good to them? Because they were the
seed of Abraham and were under the same blessings and covenant Abraham was! In
that covenant, Abraham was just a beneficiary, while God the Father and God the
Son went in covenant together, one as a pillar of smoke and the other as a
pillar of fire. All that happened while Abraham was in deep sleep!(Genesis
15:5-18)
The same way, God was dealing with the Children of Israel not based on
how good they were, but in how good He was/is.
The problem started when they
arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai. God summoned Moses up the Mountain and
started to tell him all the blessings He was about to continue pouring upon his
people. The only thing they needed to do was to accept and rest on the covenant
that had brought them that far (Exodus 19:3-7). When Moses brought those words
to the people, here is how they respond: 8 Then all the people
answered together and said, "All
that the Lord has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words
of the people to the Lord.
It sounds like a very good and
humble answer, but in the original Hebrew, the words they used were full of
self-sufficiency and pride as if they were well able to do whatever God would
command them to do. That explains why God changes his loving tone and started
to tell Moses that from that time on, the people would be punished with death
as a result of judgment every time they failed to do what God had told them to
do. (Exodus 19:12,13). On the next chapter of Exodus (20) God gives the 10
Commandments, written with his on fingers on stones. Before the 10 were
presented to the people, they had already broken the first and second which
say: 3 You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 "You
shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. (Exodus 20:3,4).
God knew that men could not keep the commandments, but men didn’t know that.
So the Law was designed to bring us to the end of ourselves, until we realized our desperate need for a Savior.
Romans 3:19-24
19 Now
we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be
justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But
now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by
the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God,
through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who
believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:19
19 Well
then, why was the law given? It was given to show people how guilty they are.
Galatians 3:23-29
23 But
before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith
which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was
our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But
after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26For you are
all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many
of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither
male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And
if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
promise.
1 Corinthians 15:56,57
56The
sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But
thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:5-9
5 Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our
sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as
ministers of the new covenant, not of
the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But
if the ministry of death, written
and engraved on stones, was
glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of
Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing
away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the
ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
Romans 10:1-4
1 Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For
I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the
righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who
believes.
Romans 7:9,10
9 I was alive once
without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And
the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
Galatians 5:1-4
1 Stand fast therefore
in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again
with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if
you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And
I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to
keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ,
you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
The King James version says: 4 Christ is
become of no effect unto you , whosoever
of you are justified by the law; ye are
fallen from grace.
The New Living Translation Says: 4 For
if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you
have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.
We will continue on this subject on the next post! :)
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