Tuesday, October 04, 2005
What is the Gospel? Do we even know?
Kristen of Walking Circumspectly posted this excellent article which I so appreciated that I decided to share it here as well.
Kristen writes of the author of the following article; "My good friend and brother in Christ, Michael Millier, commented on the last post, and he brought up a subject I am fond of: the true Gospel, particularly as it relates to the Tanakh (the Old Testament) and the saints who lived before Jesus came.
Michael, his wife Deborah, and their children currently serve the Lord in the Philippines; they lived in Israel for several years before moving to Manila. (Michael, feel free to fill in anything I've left out.)"
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? Do we even know?
Have you ever wondered what the Gospel really is? When we mention the Gospel, many think it is something that began with the Apostolic Scriptures, i.e., the so-called New Testament. But the Gospel message did not appear for the first time in Matthew, nor even in the Apostolic Writings. God "preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham" (Gal. 3:8). The generation in the wilderness "had the Gospel preached to them just as we have" (Heb. 4:2). Clearly Moses, David and all the people of faith in the Tanakh (i.e., the so-called Old Testament) possessed faith unto salvation. Thus, the Gospel message must be something older than we think.
What then is the Gospel? When we search all four gospels, we never find that Yeshua (i.e., Jesus' Hebrew name) preached a sermon presenting the Four Spiritual Laws, nor did He ever lead anyone in the 'sinner's prayer.' He never shared a tract with a single person. He never asked, "Do you know for sure that you would go to heaven if you died?" He never told anyone, "You need to have Me in your heart." If these cliches were not the message taught by Yeshua and His disciples, what was the message?
His message was the Gospel: "Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" (Mat. 4:17; cf. Mat. 3:2 where John the baptizer said precisely the same thing). Or put another way, Yeshua proclaimed, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mar. 1:15). What exactly does that mean, though? It means: Turn your life back from sin because God's rule and reign have already begun through His Messiah!
That's the Good News!
It means that the King has come, as prophesied in the Tanakh. It means that even though Yeshua died and was buried, He rose from the dead and therefore will return to complete His earthly mission as Messianic Ruler (1 Cor. 15:ff). It means that we must therefore submit to the authority of this G-d-installed King (Psa. 2). Now! (Act. 17:30, 31) And the way to do that is to respond to G-d's kindness and turn away from sin, modeling our lives from that point on after Yeshua's.
Salvation truly comes by G-d's grace bestowed upon people to help them to repent; multiplied upon those who respond to that grace and actually *do* repent. But let us be clear: a Gospel message that neglects to state the need for repentance is no Gospel message at all!
Yeshua was preaching repentance. His Gospel was not a sales pitch for people to feel better about themselves. We cannot say that His message was therefore devoid of grace; just the opposite. But neither was it an easy sell. Nevertheless, the message had a "pay-off." Yeshua's Gospel required a *radical* life change, however, in order for a person to "collect" anything lasting from the G-d of grace.
It required turning away from sin.
And folks, how do we know what sin is? We know via the Torah (i.e., what is commonly called the Law). In case we did not know from the rest of the Bible, G-d has graciously and clearly defined sin for us in the Apostolic Scriptures. Sin is quite simply any transgression of the Torah (1 Joh. 3:4). This definition was restated so that we could know what sin is, so that people could repent of it.
More likely than not, if our Master were preaching His Gospel in much of the Christian world today, He would quickly be disregarded as a legalist. He would probably be called a Judaizer. I am certain that He would be told by someone to let go of 'the old ways of the Law' and learn to walk in the 'new way of the Spirit.'
We as followers of Yeshua should be passionate about restoring the whole message of the Gospel to the Body of Messiah. We each must strive to assist both Jewish and non-Jewish believers to return to the feet of the Master for a fresh encounter with the One they have confessed as Lord. It's time to take off our gentile-centric theological goggles, stop pitting Law against Grace, and to deal honestly with the real Messiah and His real message-the man from Nazareth who rebuked sin, hypocrisy and pretense while encouraging true repentance and obedience to the commandments of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (link)
Kristen writes of the author of the following article; "My good friend and brother in Christ, Michael Millier, commented on the last post, and he brought up a subject I am fond of: the true Gospel, particularly as it relates to the Tanakh (the Old Testament) and the saints who lived before Jesus came.
Michael, his wife Deborah, and their children currently serve the Lord in the Philippines; they lived in Israel for several years before moving to Manila. (Michael, feel free to fill in anything I've left out.)"
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? Do we even know?
Have you ever wondered what the Gospel really is? When we mention the Gospel, many think it is something that began with the Apostolic Scriptures, i.e., the so-called New Testament. But the Gospel message did not appear for the first time in Matthew, nor even in the Apostolic Writings. God "preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham" (Gal. 3:8). The generation in the wilderness "had the Gospel preached to them just as we have" (Heb. 4:2). Clearly Moses, David and all the people of faith in the Tanakh (i.e., the so-called Old Testament) possessed faith unto salvation. Thus, the Gospel message must be something older than we think.
What then is the Gospel? When we search all four gospels, we never find that Yeshua (i.e., Jesus' Hebrew name) preached a sermon presenting the Four Spiritual Laws, nor did He ever lead anyone in the 'sinner's prayer.' He never shared a tract with a single person. He never asked, "Do you know for sure that you would go to heaven if you died?" He never told anyone, "You need to have Me in your heart." If these cliches were not the message taught by Yeshua and His disciples, what was the message?
His message was the Gospel: "Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" (Mat. 4:17; cf. Mat. 3:2 where John the baptizer said precisely the same thing). Or put another way, Yeshua proclaimed, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mar. 1:15). What exactly does that mean, though? It means: Turn your life back from sin because God's rule and reign have already begun through His Messiah!
That's the Good News!
It means that the King has come, as prophesied in the Tanakh. It means that even though Yeshua died and was buried, He rose from the dead and therefore will return to complete His earthly mission as Messianic Ruler (1 Cor. 15:ff). It means that we must therefore submit to the authority of this G-d-installed King (Psa. 2). Now! (Act. 17:30, 31) And the way to do that is to respond to G-d's kindness and turn away from sin, modeling our lives from that point on after Yeshua's.
Salvation truly comes by G-d's grace bestowed upon people to help them to repent; multiplied upon those who respond to that grace and actually *do* repent. But let us be clear: a Gospel message that neglects to state the need for repentance is no Gospel message at all!
Yeshua was preaching repentance. His Gospel was not a sales pitch for people to feel better about themselves. We cannot say that His message was therefore devoid of grace; just the opposite. But neither was it an easy sell. Nevertheless, the message had a "pay-off." Yeshua's Gospel required a *radical* life change, however, in order for a person to "collect" anything lasting from the G-d of grace.
It required turning away from sin.
And folks, how do we know what sin is? We know via the Torah (i.e., what is commonly called the Law). In case we did not know from the rest of the Bible, G-d has graciously and clearly defined sin for us in the Apostolic Scriptures. Sin is quite simply any transgression of the Torah (1 Joh. 3:4). This definition was restated so that we could know what sin is, so that people could repent of it.
More likely than not, if our Master were preaching His Gospel in much of the Christian world today, He would quickly be disregarded as a legalist. He would probably be called a Judaizer. I am certain that He would be told by someone to let go of 'the old ways of the Law' and learn to walk in the 'new way of the Spirit.'
We as followers of Yeshua should be passionate about restoring the whole message of the Gospel to the Body of Messiah. We each must strive to assist both Jewish and non-Jewish believers to return to the feet of the Master for a fresh encounter with the One they have confessed as Lord. It's time to take off our gentile-centric theological goggles, stop pitting Law against Grace, and to deal honestly with the real Messiah and His real message-the man from Nazareth who rebuked sin, hypocrisy and pretense while encouraging true repentance and obedience to the commandments of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (link)
Comments:
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Excellent post! God never divided up His scriptures, people did that. To fully understand we do need to see it as a whole.
I didn't have enough time to read all of your post but I'm interested in what you have to so I will return. Just wanted to say hi. You are also welcome to visit my site. ttyl.
~Brittany (Daniel's friend)
~Brittany (Daniel's friend)
Dear Camlost~
Hi! I had to smile at your description of your "infiltrating my site".*smiles* ...had visions of you hacking your way in. LOL! So, top of the results for Gospel...hmmm, Wow. Sorry you were disappointed with the article. Hopefully we can make up for that as we consider it further though. Please know that you are most welcome here, and I do hope that you come back and share your insights often. I'm so glad to *meet* you.
I'm truly honored that you've taken the time to leave me such a thoughtful response concerning this article I'd posted. I'm humbled that you've sought out my thoughts on the matter, though I'm not sure what "situation" you may possible think me to be in, and my thoughts stemming from? So, in the interest of clarification, and for the record, I am not of Jewish descent, nor is my husband, and honestly doubt that many would even consider us to be "Messianic" for that matter, though I've learned over the years that this is a relative term, according to whom you're speaking with... I mean truly, the term's always bothered me a bit. Aren't we all, as the Redeemed, truly "Messianic"? I do, however, love our Lord, and adore studying His Word, which has led me/us to learning more of our Hebraic heritage over the years...
I find it so intriguing that the source of the word "Hebrew" is the verb "avar", which means "crosses over", with Abraham being the first to be called a Hebrew. Therefore, etymmologically speaking, as Christians - we are Hebrews, as we are ones who have crossed over also, from paganism, idolatry, sin and the world, to the worship of Yahweh, in a spiritual allegorical sense. It certainly does sound like we have alot in common already. It really isn't every day that we run into fellow believers who yet have a capacity to appreciate the Feasts and so many other wonderful way the Gospel is seen in the Old Testament. So thanks so much for making your presence known!:-)
Anyways, it was not my impression at all that the author of the article, Michael, was claiming that one should keep the law to earn justification, but rather that, as a result of our having been justified, we will keep it, as a response to His free gift of salvation. He very clearly, in my estimation, stated the Gospel when he said the following;
"It means that the King has come, as prophesied in the Tanakh. It means that even though Yeshua died and was buried, He rose from the dead and therefore will return to complete His earthly mission as Messianic Ruler (1 Cor. 15:ff). It means that we must therefore submit to the authority of this G-d-installed King (Psa. 2). Now! (Act. 17:30, 31) And the way to do that is to respond to G-d's kindness and turn away from sin, modeling our lives from that point on after Yeshua's.
Salvation truly comes by G-d's grace bestowed upon people to help them to repent; multiplied upon those who respond to that grace and actually *do* repent. But let us be clear: a Gospel message that neglects to state the need for repentance is no Gospel message at all!"
******************
Anyways, I just got home late this evening from a very long wknd. away from home, and am honestly quite exhausted right now, and should probably be asleep already. But I wanted to drop you a quick note here just to say that I will most assuredly make a point to post my own more complete response to each of your points asap, as these are questions/issues that my husband and I have and are still prayerfully considering. It's with great interest that I look forward to sharing with you further some of my own conclusions, and "open questions before the Lord" even.
I wonder though, did you happen to check-out the "link" that was posted right at the very end of the article? It's occurred to me that, as it further discusses some of these points you've raised, it may be helpful or at least interesting to you. So, you may want to go there and have a read as well, while you're waiting on me.
Also, if you find anything else that you think may be of interest to me, along these lines, please do not hesitate to pass it along to me via my email. It's forever an open topic of discussions, musings, and searching here as well, as I'm reading so many materials right now on these ideas... I too still have many questions, but I am exhilerated as He's leading me/us ever onward.
And know that on this we are agreed... "The just shall live by faith." Habakkuk 2.1-4
Funny, I was just reading an interesting article tonight, given me by a Messianic friend, in which the author, Daniel Botkin, states; "Even the Old Testament saints were not justified by keeping the law; they were, like us, justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. When it comes to salvation, justification, redemption, atonement, forgiveness, eternal life, etc., we receive all this by faith apart from the deeds of the law, because Jesus died for our sins. You and I are on the same page when it comes to the question of how we are saved." It's a very interesting article called "Christians Keeping Old Testament Commandments? Not a Yes/No Question, but a Question of Which Ones"... in which the author makes some very good points, observing the fact that Christians do, in fact, believe in keeping the law, at least those commandments which *they* believe are still valid. He writes, "For example, Christians believe that God still expects them to obey the commandments that prohibit murder, adultery, theft, and lying. Even though we are not justified by doing the law, 'the doers of the law shall be justified' (Rom.2.13)... Even though no man is justified by the law in the eyes of God (Rom. 3.20; Gal.3.11), James says that "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only"(Jas.2.24) You are not justified in the eyes of God by keeping the law, but your keeping of the law is the proof that you are justified."
I take this to mean that as true believers, we are and will continue to be interested in learning the ways of Jesus, the Way, the man who was even called "Torah" by His followers...
But then, we're not exactly "kosher" anyways. hehehe... But I can with confidence say that we are truly learning to love, and I think understand even, some of "the Spirit of the Law", and all of this truly does encompass a post of its own, one in which I do hope to soon put some more of my thoughts (so far, for they're still being formed by His hands) to words in this. Please do take into account that I myself am such a fledgling in these theological matters, and as much as I'm enjoying reading and learning and talking of it all, I still know SO LITTLE! But I/we are honestly searching Him out...
My eyes are starting to cross now, so I'd better call it quits for now. I hope that I haven't rambled on too much so as to dishearten you any. Hopefully I will have something more to offer you in the way of a *true* response, more worthy of your comment soon.
Blessings in Him to you and yours,
Yes, truly *Under the Mercy*,
Beth
***************
The just shall live by faith; during the captivity good people shall support themselves, and live comfortably, by faith in these precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. The just shall live by his faith, by that faith which he acts upon the word of God. This is quoted in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38), for the proof of the great doctrine of justification by faith only and of the influence which the grace of faith has upon the Christian life. Those that are made just by faith shall live, shall be happy here and for ever; while they are here, they live by it; when they come to heaven faith shall be swallowed up in vision. ~ Matthew Henry
Hi! I had to smile at your description of your "infiltrating my site".*smiles* ...had visions of you hacking your way in. LOL! So, top of the results for Gospel...hmmm, Wow. Sorry you were disappointed with the article. Hopefully we can make up for that as we consider it further though. Please know that you are most welcome here, and I do hope that you come back and share your insights often. I'm so glad to *meet* you.
I'm truly honored that you've taken the time to leave me such a thoughtful response concerning this article I'd posted. I'm humbled that you've sought out my thoughts on the matter, though I'm not sure what "situation" you may possible think me to be in, and my thoughts stemming from? So, in the interest of clarification, and for the record, I am not of Jewish descent, nor is my husband, and honestly doubt that many would even consider us to be "Messianic" for that matter, though I've learned over the years that this is a relative term, according to whom you're speaking with... I mean truly, the term's always bothered me a bit. Aren't we all, as the Redeemed, truly "Messianic"? I do, however, love our Lord, and adore studying His Word, which has led me/us to learning more of our Hebraic heritage over the years...
I find it so intriguing that the source of the word "Hebrew" is the verb "avar", which means "crosses over", with Abraham being the first to be called a Hebrew. Therefore, etymmologically speaking, as Christians - we are Hebrews, as we are ones who have crossed over also, from paganism, idolatry, sin and the world, to the worship of Yahweh, in a spiritual allegorical sense. It certainly does sound like we have alot in common already. It really isn't every day that we run into fellow believers who yet have a capacity to appreciate the Feasts and so many other wonderful way the Gospel is seen in the Old Testament. So thanks so much for making your presence known!:-)
Anyways, it was not my impression at all that the author of the article, Michael, was claiming that one should keep the law to earn justification, but rather that, as a result of our having been justified, we will keep it, as a response to His free gift of salvation. He very clearly, in my estimation, stated the Gospel when he said the following;
"It means that the King has come, as prophesied in the Tanakh. It means that even though Yeshua died and was buried, He rose from the dead and therefore will return to complete His earthly mission as Messianic Ruler (1 Cor. 15:ff). It means that we must therefore submit to the authority of this G-d-installed King (Psa. 2). Now! (Act. 17:30, 31) And the way to do that is to respond to G-d's kindness and turn away from sin, modeling our lives from that point on after Yeshua's.
Salvation truly comes by G-d's grace bestowed upon people to help them to repent; multiplied upon those who respond to that grace and actually *do* repent. But let us be clear: a Gospel message that neglects to state the need for repentance is no Gospel message at all!"
******************
Anyways, I just got home late this evening from a very long wknd. away from home, and am honestly quite exhausted right now, and should probably be asleep already. But I wanted to drop you a quick note here just to say that I will most assuredly make a point to post my own more complete response to each of your points asap, as these are questions/issues that my husband and I have and are still prayerfully considering. It's with great interest that I look forward to sharing with you further some of my own conclusions, and "open questions before the Lord" even.
I wonder though, did you happen to check-out the "link" that was posted right at the very end of the article? It's occurred to me that, as it further discusses some of these points you've raised, it may be helpful or at least interesting to you. So, you may want to go there and have a read as well, while you're waiting on me.
Also, if you find anything else that you think may be of interest to me, along these lines, please do not hesitate to pass it along to me via my email. It's forever an open topic of discussions, musings, and searching here as well, as I'm reading so many materials right now on these ideas... I too still have many questions, but I am exhilerated as He's leading me/us ever onward.
And know that on this we are agreed... "The just shall live by faith." Habakkuk 2.1-4
Funny, I was just reading an interesting article tonight, given me by a Messianic friend, in which the author, Daniel Botkin, states; "Even the Old Testament saints were not justified by keeping the law; they were, like us, justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. When it comes to salvation, justification, redemption, atonement, forgiveness, eternal life, etc., we receive all this by faith apart from the deeds of the law, because Jesus died for our sins. You and I are on the same page when it comes to the question of how we are saved." It's a very interesting article called "Christians Keeping Old Testament Commandments? Not a Yes/No Question, but a Question of Which Ones"... in which the author makes some very good points, observing the fact that Christians do, in fact, believe in keeping the law, at least those commandments which *they* believe are still valid. He writes, "For example, Christians believe that God still expects them to obey the commandments that prohibit murder, adultery, theft, and lying. Even though we are not justified by doing the law, 'the doers of the law shall be justified' (Rom.2.13)... Even though no man is justified by the law in the eyes of God (Rom. 3.20; Gal.3.11), James says that "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only"(Jas.2.24) You are not justified in the eyes of God by keeping the law, but your keeping of the law is the proof that you are justified."
I take this to mean that as true believers, we are and will continue to be interested in learning the ways of Jesus, the Way, the man who was even called "Torah" by His followers...
But then, we're not exactly "kosher" anyways. hehehe... But I can with confidence say that we are truly learning to love, and I think understand even, some of "the Spirit of the Law", and all of this truly does encompass a post of its own, one in which I do hope to soon put some more of my thoughts (so far, for they're still being formed by His hands) to words in this. Please do take into account that I myself am such a fledgling in these theological matters, and as much as I'm enjoying reading and learning and talking of it all, I still know SO LITTLE! But I/we are honestly searching Him out...
My eyes are starting to cross now, so I'd better call it quits for now. I hope that I haven't rambled on too much so as to dishearten you any. Hopefully I will have something more to offer you in the way of a *true* response, more worthy of your comment soon.
Blessings in Him to you and yours,
Yes, truly *Under the Mercy*,
Beth
***************
The just shall live by faith; during the captivity good people shall support themselves, and live comfortably, by faith in these precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. The just shall live by his faith, by that faith which he acts upon the word of God. This is quoted in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38), for the proof of the great doctrine of justification by faith only and of the influence which the grace of faith has upon the Christian life. Those that are made just by faith shall live, shall be happy here and for ever; while they are here, they live by it; when they come to heaven faith shall be swallowed up in vision. ~ Matthew Henry
I just read this, and wanted to link it here as it addresses the above post and comments beautifully. I certainly couldn't write it any better. hth!
It's an article written by Robin Sampson called "Torah Observance and Paul"
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/heartofwisdom/34472/#c51867
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It's an article written by Robin Sampson called "Torah Observance and Paul"
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/heartofwisdom/34472/#c51867
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