It is become cliché to the point that it is utterly beyond reasonable definition. What exactly is "the Gospel"? Everybody knows what is the Gospel, right? Well? Over the past couple of weeks I’ve asked as many people who would give me the opportunity, "What is the Gospel?" Not a single person was able to give me an answer. They open their mouths, as though about to speak, then fall silent.
The textbook (Christian textbook) answer is this: the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus Christ has died on the cross for our sins and has risen from the grave in triumph over death. I’m afraid I have to challenge the textbook. In Luke 9:6, the disciples were sent out throughout the land of Israel, "preaching the Gospel". Yet, when the Messiah died on the cross for our sins, they were just as confused and disappointed as anyone. How could they have preached the gospel and then missed it entirely when it came about?
In Luke 24:27, Messiah explained from the Law of Moses and the prophets how the Messiah must be crucified and must rise again, yet it doesn’t say that He shared with them the Gospel, though this is what the Gospel is supposed to be my modern scholars of theology.
The word "Gospel" (eulogiah) is used almost 100 times in the New Testament. Never once is it defined or explained. It is as though the audience was expected to know exactly what it was the author was describing. If Messiah’s death, substitutiary sacrifice and resurrection had been the substance of this term, why was the message so foreign to the audience?
Probably the largest barrier to understanding New Testament doctrines from a Jewish perspective is that a characteristically Christian vocabulary must be avoided by Jewish theologians and translators. This means that while the elements contained within the gospel message may be intrinsically Jewish, the common vocabulary that we, as followers of Messiah Yeshua easily accept will only be spelled out in broad detail.
The substance of what we understand to be the gospel message is this:
· that God desires to live in an intimate relationship with His people.
· that we have rejected that relationship through sin and self will.
· that in God’s plan is the inclusion of all peoples.
· that He has established a plan for reconciliation for us.
· that by His mercy we may be saved.
If there is a specific place in the Old Testament Scriptures where we can find these elements, we may logically conclude that this must be the Gospel message. It is also likely that when, in the New Testament, the writers and speakers refer to the Gospel, they are referencing this specific passage of Scripture.
Moses was called to the Tabernacle of Meeting one last time before He was called Home. In this very special meeting, the great prophet was shown that the people of the Lord would drift from the Covenant relationship with their God, that they would be enticed toward idolatry and unfaithfulness, and that the Most High would respond by driving them out among the nations and casting off as a distinctive nation, exiling them from the Land. Yet, when in their hearts they became inclined to turn and repent and seek reconciliation with the Lord, they would need something to point the way for them to go.
God said to Moses, for this purpose, give to them a song.
The Song of Moses, found in Deuteronomy 32:1-43, is the Gospel message containing all the necessary elements which draw us back to Him.
The Most High desires an intimate relationship with His people.
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD'S portion [is] his people; Jacob [is] the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
(Deu 32:7-10)
We have rejected that relationship through sin and self will.
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness]; then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange [gods], with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock [that] begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
(Deu 32:15-18)
In God’s plan is the inclusion of all peoples.
They have moved me to jealousy with [that which is] not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with [those which are] not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
(Deu 32:21)
He has established a plan of reconciliation for us and by His mercy we are saved.
For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that [their] power is gone, and [there is] none shut up, or left. And he shall say, Where [are] their gods, [their] rock in whom they trusted, Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, [and] drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, [and] be your protection. See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; [and that] with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, [and] to his people.
(Deu 32:36-43)
The Gospel is not a new doctrine that was conceived within the contexts of the New Testament. In Hebrews 4:2 we are told that "the same gospel was preached unto them (Israel of the Old Testament) but it did not profit them not being mixed with faith."
The message of the Bible is consistent from beginning to end. The good news of God’s providing for our failure is the same that it has always been. Even the inclusion of gentiles in this relationship of faith was foretold within
itself.
itself.
