This last year, I have led a Bible study two nights a week which began with the Epistle to the Galatians, an epistle noteworthy because Paul did not commend the Church in Galatia for any attribute: faith, hope or love. Galatians is a defense of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ by the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.
Upon concluding that study, we moved to the character & nature of God revealed in the Gospel presentations of the Book of Acts. We began with the later presentations: Paul at Athens, before Felix, before Festus because the presentations to the Gentiles were more foundational. Paul started from his audience's ignorance & brought them through the judgment of God to the hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are wrapping the early presentations of the Gospel, the presentations by the Apostles & deacons, which were first to the Jews & the God-fearing Gentiles, those who already had the foundation of Moses & knew the judgment ... & the promises ... of God to His own.
In 2 days, it will be the first anniversary of meeting to embrace the Gospel for ALL of life ... so what is the Gospel?
Upon concluding that study, we moved to the character & nature of God revealed in the Gospel presentations of the Book of Acts. We began with the later presentations: Paul at Athens, before Felix, before Festus because the presentations to the Gentiles were more foundational. Paul started from his audience's ignorance & brought them through the judgment of God to the hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are wrapping the early presentations of the Gospel, the presentations by the Apostles & deacons, which were first to the Jews & the God-fearing Gentiles, those who already had the foundation of Moses & knew the judgment ... & the promises ... of God to His own.
In 2 days, it will be the first anniversary of meeting to embrace the Gospel for ALL of life ... so what is the Gospel?
- God is sovereign over all creation. Creation is HIS! Every person is HIS! Every everything is HIS. It exists because He appointed it for (to reveal) His glory ... & because He is the Almighty, everything & everyone will fulfill its role in His revelation of His glory.
- God created Adam, ideal in flesh & spirit, innocent (without sin) but not perfect (incapable of sin). When Adam sinned, every person descended from Adam participated in sin & became guilty before God of rebellion against HIS eternal & infinite sovereignty. The righteous judgment of God against the guilty is eternal damnation, but God was merciful & gracious in that He withheld the judgment which Adam was due from the moment Adam was guilty. Why? Because the appointed revelation of God's glory included His kindness toward those who do not deserve it.
- Because every person is conceived guilty & continues from there to accumulate guilt, no person descended from Adam can provide a sufficient satisfaction of God's righteous judgment for himself, or anyone else.
- God, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ from Nazareth, was born of the virgin Mary in such a way He was not descended effectively from Adam. Before you balk at such a birth, for a God who created heaven & earth and all which is in them, for a God who raised the first Adam from the dust of the earth, such a thing is small. What is enormous is the infinite God clothed in a finite man.
- Born without sin, living in perfect harmony with God the Father in the presence of natural men, Jesus proved by obedience His capability to be the sufficient satisfaction of the wrath of God against the guilty. Before we get into the question of "all the guilty" or "some of the guilty", let us grasp that Jesus alone in all history could satisfy the wrath of God against the guilty. When Jesus died, He suffered, according to God's plan, the torments of man but much more importantly, He suffered the righteous wrath of the just God against the guilty so that the guilty could be at peace with God.
- Now, we have the issue of "for all" or "for some". If it was "for all", then all are at peace with God. Yet we know from Scripture, some will be cast out from God's presence, therefore all are not at peace with God. If Jesus Christ's death was "for all" except for the sin of unbelief, then it was "for some" sin rather than "for all" sin.
- Consistent with the body of Scripture, Jesus died to satisfy the entire wrath of God against the guilty He appointed from before creation to be the revelation of the glory of His kindness.
- Jesus Christ did not just live & die. He was buried &, as Scripture testified He must, rose from the dead glorified and physical. His resurrection has caused us who believe to be born again to a living hope ... a hope which is founded upon the certain promise of life beyond death, a life in the glory of the kindness of God toward those who do not deserve His kindness or His life.
- Jesus Christ did not just live, die & rise from the dead but He ascended to heaven where He serves as the Mediator for His own before the Father, from Whom was sent the Holy Spirit to those appointed to Life to bring them from death to life, from darkness to light, in whom He plants His Word which germinates as faith in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ accounted by God as righteousness, to produce belief in His Word resulting in trust of His character & nature bringing us to repentance, a turning from all which opposes God (including our own selves) unto the God who made us that we could praise Him in His revelations, thank Him in His gracious provision & declare our dependence upon His merciful ordination.
- That you are His by the fact of creation & a rebel according to your nature demands you repent at His command. THIS is the invitation of the Gospel. Repent! Glorify God & give Him thanks! Beg mercy from the Only Judge because God has appointed Jesus Christ as Judge and a day when He will judge the earth.
- Do not get tangled in "are you of the some?". If you are able to receive the Gospel, believe in Jesus Christ, trust His promises & repent, do not fear but believe!
