The Gospel 4

The Gospel 4

By Apostle Felix

56  And not only that, Abraham, your ancestor, was overjoyed when he received the revelation of my coming to earth. Yes, he foresaw me coming and was filled with delight!” 
57  But many of the Jewish leaders doubted him and said, “What are you talking about? You’re not even fifty years old yet. You talk like you’ve seen Abraham!” 
58  Jesus said to them, “I give you this eternal truth: I have existed long before Abraham was born, for I AM!” 

John 8: 56 – 58

The chapter eight of John, starts with the religious people dragging a woman caught in the act of adultery before Jesus. He was found in the temple, teaching the word of God. They brought the woman, off course according to the law had to be condemned to death. The letter brought a woman to be condemned before grace. But Jesus came into this word as grace and truth. He did not come to condemn but save which was lost. Jesus, who is grace, forgave the woman, who did not deserve forgiveness.  The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the message of justification by grace.

From that encounter, Jesus wanted the people know what His mission was. He had to announce to them that He was the light, who had come to give light and not to condemn. The Pharisees took offense because they felt He was boastful of Himself without any valid testimony. They didn’t want to accept His testimony because it did not sit well with their theological position. Jesus was no longer implicit in His claims, but was explicit about His mission that He speaks the  life giving word and whosoever hears His word shall be free indeed. The Pharisees were infuriated by His claims because His claims were as one who was greater than all their respected ancestors, such as Abraham. In His response, Jesus claimed to be greater than Abraham, and not only greater but that His is God. Jesus said, before Abraham was, I AM. I AM is the name of God.

5  So when Jesus the Messiah came into the world he said, “Since your ultimate desire was not another animal sacrifice, you have clothed me with a body that I might offer myself instead!
Hebrews 10: 5

Jesus was God before He borrowed the body for redemptive purpose. He never began or created. God decided to become man in order to identify with man. God ordered Israel to make a Tabernacle in the wilderness as God’s dwelling place. God could not come and live in man as intended from the beginning of time. This was because man had sinned. So God had to demonstrate His desire to dwell in man by asking Israel to built a Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a very significant structure in Israel because it signified the God with man. The Tabernacle was a typology of man, being dwelt by God. It was a shadow of a body God had to occupy. The Tabernacle of Moses was a place of death and resurrection figuratively. The High priest sacrificed an animal on his behalf and the nation. He then entered the holiest place to present the blood of animals for the remission of sins. The high priest entered the holiest place at his own risk. Death was the result if God had to reject the sacrifice. The high priest walking out of the holiest place was like one coming back from the dead.  The Tabernacle was the gospel in the shadows.

The gospel is about Christ and His mission of redemption. The message of the gospel is Christ becoming man, taking the sins of the world by becoming sin and suffer as a result. He died on behalf of man who had rebelled and rejected God. He resurrected so that man can be saved and have eternal life. This gospel is explained by the Lord Jesus, Himself to the two men on their way to Emmaus. This account is found in Luke 24: 15 – 18.

25  Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 

These men had been with Jesus but yet could not recognize Jesus after resurrection. Jesus began to unveil to them revelation of Himself throughout the scriptures. Jesus was excavating Himself from the law and prophets to the two men. But their eyes were still closed. They could not see the Christ in the scriptures. It is possible for one to read and recite scriptures but void of the gospel of Christ. The two men were vexed in the law but did not know Christ. But when Jesus broke the bread before them, their eyes opened and saw who Christ was really was.

30  Joining them at the table for supper, he took bread and blessed it and broke it, then gave it to them.
31  All at once their eyes were opened and they realized it was Jesus! Then suddenly, in a flash, Jesus vanished from before their eyes! 

Luke 24: 30, 31

Continue tomorrow!