Dear Brethren and Friends,
Are we in the Living Church of God preaching the true Gospel? Most of us understand that Gospel, and understand that we are truly preaching it. But a number of our newer members, and even some of our older brethren, sometimes become very mixed up about this absolutely vital topic! It seems difficult for some to understand that there are two major aspects of the true Gospel.
Remember, linguists acknowledge that our modern English word “gospel” originates from the Old English word “godspell”—meaning “good news” or “glad tidings.”
After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, He appeared to His Apostles and commissioned them to, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15–16). Christ later inspired the Apostle Paul to pronounce a double curse on anyone who would dare preach a different Gospel. He told the Galatian Christians, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8–9).
So, our very salvation depends upon our willingness to believe in and respond to the true Gospel. Again, we need to realize that and be willing to prove to ourselves that the Gospel is the message Jesus preached about the coming Kingdom of God. And it is also the good news that the King of that Kingdom has died for our sins so that you and I can be part of that coming Kingdom! Without the King, there would be no Kingdom, nor could you or I take part in it! The true Gospel is comprised of both of these vital aspects. Either one without the other is in-complete.
It is just as silly to say that the true “Good News” is only about one part or the other as to say that “mankind” consists only of men—leaving out the female of the species. When we read that “God created man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27), we need to read and acknowledge the rest of the verse which states that “male and female He created them.” Either one without the other is in-complete. And either part of the Gospel without the other is not the complete Gospel! We need to understand that there are two fundamental parts of the true Gospel:
First, the good news is that the Christ of the Bible really is coming back to set up the Kingdom of God on earth and to bring genuine peace and joy to all humanity (Revelation 11:15; Psalm 72).
Second, this includes the good news that Jesus Christ of Nazareth came into this world to die for our sins and to make it possible for us to be forgiven for those sins. And also it involves the wonderful promise of receiving the Holy Spirit—thus making it possible for us to grow in grace and in knowledge and to be those “overcomers” to assist Jesus Christ in ruling this entire world when the Kingdom of God is set up on this earth.
Think!
What part of the Gospel did the Apostles primarily preach as the inspired New Testament Church of God began? Scripture makes this plain. At their very first service on Pentecost, in 31ad, the Apostle Peter told the assembled crowd, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (Acts 2:22–24).
Later, Peter cried out, “‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.’ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation’” (vv. 36–40).
This powerful message of Christ’s sacrifice and the “gift” of the Holy Spirit was wonderful good news! Still later, the Jewish authorities were disturbed about the message the Apostles were preaching. Notice how the Apostle Peter responded when the Jews challenged them about this message. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the “stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.” Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’” (Acts 4:8–12).
So, the very “cornerstone” of our salvation is belief in the “name” of Jesus Christ! All of this is an absolutely vital part of the “Good News” of the New Testament message.
The Apostles were brutally beaten for their preaching. And what was the main emphasis of their inspiring preaching? “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42).
In Acts 8:5, we read that the evangelist Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ to them. And verse 12 shows that Philip preached both elements of the true Gospel: “But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized” (v. 12).
So, the true Gospel is about the work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ to reconcile us to God through His death, and Christ’s message of the coming Kingdom of God on earth. Probably because the Kingdom was not to come for another two millennia, the original Apostles’ main emphasis was frequently on the tremendous recent event that had just taken place: the death and the startling resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Later, when God first sent the Apostle Peter to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, notice what Peter was inspired to preach. “The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:36–43).
It should be obvious that Peter’s Gospel message had a great deal to do with Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for our sins!
When the Apostle Paul reflected on the main emphasis of the “good news” he preached, he was inspired to write this to the Corinthians: “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:1–5).
Indeed, were it not for Christ’s death and resurrection, the coming Kingdom of God would have no meaning for us as Christians today. We cannot separate the two and have one aspect of the Gospel without the other. Neither could the Apostles. Near the end of Paul’s life, as we read in the inspired book of Acts, Paul was certainly still preaching both aspects of the Gospel. “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30–31).
Dear brethren, I am sure that nearly all of you deeply understand from our telecasts, our dozens of magazine articles, our booklets, our messages on the Internet and our sermons, that we nearly always emphasize that part of the Gospel that has to do with Christ’s Second Coming and the coming Kingdom of God to be set up on this earth! I would have to recite hundreds of instances of this to even begin to start to commence to give you the whole picture. But that is a fact. It should be obvious to anyone. We take this approach because most people in the world who call themselves “Christian” already understand at least part of the message about Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. But we do not deny or negate the full Gospel message by emphasizing the part that is “new” to most of our viewers and listeners and readers. Of course, since God’s intervention in human affairs is now speeding up in a powerful way, now is especially the time to emphasize Christ’s Second Coming, and the wonderful Government of God soon to be set up to bring peace on this earth.
Still, for those who sometimes may become confused about the two vital aspects of the Gospel, I wanted to make it clear that just as God has made “mankind” both male and female, so the Gospel has two parts, or two aspects. One involves Christ’s sacrifice that brings about our reconciliation to God, so we can receive the Holy Spirit and then be able to participate in the second aspect of the Gospel—the coming Kingdom of God in which we hope to be those “kings and priests” whom Christ is now preparing to assist Him in ruling in Tomorrow’s World (Revelation 5:9–10). Let us believe “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Let us deeply appreciate the magnificent good news of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. And let us equally appreciate God’s love in sending His Son back to this earth as King of kings!
With Christian love,
