95 - What is the Gospel

What is the Gospel? 1 Cor. 15:1, 2

It is amazing how few people understand this and how frequently people go to this chapter to define the gospel in terms of verses 3 & 4. But verses 3 & 4 do not define the content of the gospel, rather they provide the basis for the gospel.

Reasons why Old Testament saints do not get resurrected until the second coming

1)  The body of David is said to be still in his grave on the day of Pentecost, therefore Old Testament saints were not resurrected at the time of the crucifixion. Acts 2:25-32 ^NASB ""For David says of Him, 'I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN. 'THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE'." The context is Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. At this point Peter has just stated the fact of Christ's resurrection. He is going to illustrate the principle of Christ's resurrection and he goes to the Old Testament. Verse 25 is a quote from Psalm 16:8. [27]  " 'BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY'." The point of this is that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was not allowed to stay in the grave but there was a resurrection. Peter applies this and says, [29] "Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day." On the day of Pentecost David is still in his grave, Old Testament saints are not resurrected yet.

2)  Daniel 12:13 in combination with Isaiah 26:19, 20 demonstrates that it is impossible for Old Testament saints to be resurrected prior to the second coming. Daniel 12:13 ^NASB "But as for you, go {your way} to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise {again} for your allotted portion at the end of the age." The end of what age? The end of the Tribulation period. Isaiah 26:19 ^NASB "Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew {is as} the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits." So there is clearly an Old Testament doctrine of resurrection.

3)  The principle of the dispensation of Israel. There is no basis for their resurrection until the dispensation of Israel is concluded, which is at the second advent.

4)  The witness of Moses and Elijah. If they are the two witnesses of Revelation, and that is the most likely interpretation, they couldn't come back in a resurrection body and die.

5)  The unconditional covenants, i.e. the covenants based on the Abrahamic covenant, are not fulfilled until the second coming. So no resurrection of Israel occurs until the time of their fulfilment. It is when the Lord is going to fulfil His covenants to Israel that they are resurrected. That is why the Lord made a promise to Abraham that he would inherit the land; not his descendants but he himself. But he never inherited or possessed the land during his life time, therefore that is a reference to his possession of the land in his resurrection body.

6)  Matthew 27:51, 52 is where the graves open up at the time of crucifixion. Those came out of their graves but that was a resuscitation, not a resurrection. Ephesians 4:8, Christ took captivity captive, and this was the transfer of Old Testament saints from Paradise to the third heaven, but that does not give them their resurrection body.     

Paul is talking to Greeks. They were Greek believers but remember these are believers who are still having major problems with the philosophical-cultural baggage that they brought with them when they got saved. They are Christians but they are thinking like pagans. Resurrection was a challenge to the thinking of the Greeks because they did not value the human body. The material world was less significant than the ideal world. Also they had an emphasis in Platonism on the pre-existence of the soul.

Biblically, resurrection goes back to the Old Testament and the first real indication is in Genesis with Abraham but we get the divine interpretation of that event in Hebrews 11:17ff. ^NASB "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten {son}." This does not mean that God was authorising human sacrifice or that human sacrifice had ever been accepted, it was a test of Abraham's doctrine, the doctrine in his soul, whether he would rest in God. [18] "{it was he} to whom it was said, 'IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED'." He knew God would not go back on His word. So when Abraham took his son Isaac up on to the mountain to sacrifice him he knew that even if it went right to the end and he kills Isaac that there was going to be a resurrection, otherwise God would not be true to His promises. [19] "He considered that God is able to raise {people} even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type."

Verses on the resurrection:

Mark 8:31 ^NASB "And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."

John 11:25 ^NASB "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies'."

The first two sermons preached after the day of Pentecost both focused on the resurrection. Acts 2:14-36; 3:12-26.

1 Corinthians 15 is the chapter in the New Testament about the resurrection. The emphasis in this chapter is on the centrality of resurrection to Christianity. The first two verses are an introduction: that resurrection is an empirical reason for Christianity, otherwise our faith would have no real purpose. Verses 3-19 deal with the historical realities of the resurrection. Verses 20-28 talk about the impact of the resurrection on the angelic conflict and human history. Verses 29-34, the implications of Christ's resurrection. Verses 35-58 answer questions regarding the resurrection.   

1 Corinthians 15:1 ^NASB "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,." The verse actually begins with the Greek conjunction de [de] which contrasts two clauses or sections. We see that this introduces a whole new section that is completely different in its theme from the previous section of chapters 12-14 which dealt with spiritual gifts. The first verb is gnorizo [gnwrizw], present active indicative. The present tense is a historic present. It is not a continuous action present because Paul is not saying: "Now I am now making this known to you." That would be a continuous action present. This is what is called a historic present where the present tense is used to describe an event which occurred previously as though it was taking place in the present to dramatize the event or the reality. Paul is talking about what has gone on already, what he gave to them when he was first with them. This is reinforced by the fact that the subsequent verbs in this passage, for example "that which I preached to you," is an aorist middle indicative  of euangelizo  [e)uaggelizw], "what you received" is an aorist active indicative of paralambano [paralambanw], and "in which you stand" is a perfect active indicative of histemi [i(sthmi], are all past tense verbs. That means that the present tense of "make known" should be understood as a historic present. It is a past time action emphasized or dramatized by the use of a present tense verb. The question for us is: How do we make known the gospel? The first way we make the gospel known is through personal conversation. The second way is through teaching.

What is the gospel? It means the good news, so what exactly is the content of the gospel? What is the bare minimum that somebody needs to believe in order to be saved? First of all we have to understand that the Greek word euangelion is the word from which we get our English word "gospel" which means good news, good tidings, a good message. It is an indication that something good is happening. In order to understand what it means to proclaim the gospel, the verb e)uaggelizw, or the noun e)uaggelion, we will look at some gospel presentations in the New Testament. How do we know what it is? We go to the Bible and let the Bible define itself.

Acts 8:4 ^NASB "Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching [e)uaggelizw] the word." This was after persecution had developed in Jerusalem. [5] Philip went down to the city of Samaria and {began} proclaiming Christ to them." This is a synonym, it is not euangelizo. This is a word that emphasizes the method, the word kerusso [khrussw]. The noun is kerux [khruc], and a kerux was simply the town cryer, the herald who walked through the streets of a town making an announcement. So the verb has to do with proclaiming something. In Scripture the verb kerusso is most frequently associated with the content of the gospel. It is the word that we would translate "preaching." The Bible makes a distinction between preaching and teaching that has been lost on Christians today. We preach the gospel; we teach the Word. Most of the time preaching simply means that proclamation and it is most often related to the object of the gospel and it is not a form, a style. Reaching has to do with line upon line, verses upon verse, precept upon precept, and it is teaching that inculcates the Word of God into the hearer so that they can think biblically about life, have discernment, and they can learn how to stand on their own two feet spiritually and evaluate the situations in their life from the perspective of the Word of God, make decisions from a framework of divine viewpoint and not human viewpoint based on what the Word of God says. So we see here in Acts 8 that what is being preached, because of the verb, is the gospel. Philip preached Christ to them, he announced Christ the Messiah to them. [6] "The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing." What did they do in terms of a response? Verse 12: "But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike." The response: believing, not changing their life, not repenting, or doing anything else.