What is the Gospel message? I know, John 3:16, right? However, if you read the Old Testament, you will find the power of the saving grace of our Lord through and through. Think about what those stories are about. The kings? Look at them; this one has a harem, that one is having an affair, this one is setting up the altars of Baal! I used to think, What are we doing? Why do we even have this included in the Bible? It makes the people of God look pretty bad doesn’t it? God’s people were enslaved, they enslaved others. It’s a lot of darkness. However, there’s a reason for the Old Testament, and even though I encourage new believers to read the New Testament first, there is tremendous depth and pertinent lessons contained the chapters of the Old Testament. Reading the New Testament builds up your faith and matures you a bit before you read the Old Testament. Then, when you start studying the Old Testament, you will see the Covenant promise of Jesus Christ revealed throughout the Old Testament. It takes faith and maturity to see this in the scriptures. As you mature, you can see how faithful and long-suffering our God was with His people.

How is the Gospel message threaded through the Old Testament? I can take us all the way back to Adam and Eve on this question, but let’s look at Abraham. He was considered a friend of God, chosen to have his lineage be the lineage that the Savior would come through. Why? Because he was righteous before God. Very few in history can be called a friend of God and Abraham was a friend of God. God chose Abraham to be the one through which the Seed would come. In spite of his lineage and the many, many mistakes that they made throughout history there remained a thread—a promise kept, revealed in the law, revealed through Samuel, revealed through David, revealed through the prophets, that the long awaited-for Messiah would come, the King of kings, the Lord of lords would come through Abraham because God is a God of promises! In spite of the mistakes of man, God is flawless and He chose each person who would be counted in the most precious lineage in all of history, the one leading to His only begotten Son—that’s what we discover in the Old Testament. 

We know that Israel did not see Him, and they are still awaiting their messiah. They expected their King to come in gallantly and say, “I am here to save Israel and rescue her from her oppressors. I promised I would come and here I AM.” Which is likely why we see the Pharisees so intricately involved with King Herod when Jesus was born. They aligned themselves with worldly kings while they awaited their heavenly King. 

That’s not what God calls us to do. He calls us to walk worthy of the Gospel, and that walk is one of humility. Christ came humbly, on a donkey, serving and feeding the Israelites until He died for them. All the while they took from Him, they misunderstood Him, challenged Him, and ultimately conspired to kill Him. They mocked Him, spit on Him and they tore His clothes, casting lots for the pieces just as scripture tells us they would. They whipped Him until His flesh slid off His bones. When they hung Him on that cross, the very people that He came to save sentenced Him to death. Through it all, He never sinned. 

No matter what His struggle was, no matter how many times He was rejected, no matter how many times He was mocked, He never sinned. He never turned against them. He extended His love, because His passion was to fulfill the Covenant promise and pave the way to righteousness for His people! The only way to accomplish this was the shedding of His own blood. Even then, when He rose again, He came to His people, He came back to His people, and as He met with His disciples in Luke 24, He opened up the scriptures to them, explaining how He Himself fulfilled them. The Bible tells us that the Spirit burned within them as He opened the scriptures to them, exposing the truths contained therein, of how He—the Messiah—had fulfilled the promises that God laid out thousands of years prior, written in the pages of the Old Testament. 

In Acts Chapter 2, the disciples and many others sitting in the Upper Room were there waiting for the promise. What promise? The promise was His Spirit, known as the Spirit of Holiness, that would empower them to preach the Gospel. Not only preach the Gospel but to live a life in the Gospel, one that is worthy of the Gospel, bringing forth truth, righteousness, and understanding. I could not imagine trying to teach the Word of God without the Spirit of Holiness dwelling inside of me, bringing forth the revelation of His Word. He knows who I am speaking to better than I do. He can bring forth the message that will pierce their hearts. I cannot do that, but He can, and He does. 

In Acts Chapter 2, the disciples are in the Upper Room praying constantly. We know the beauty of this story; they were waiting upon the Lord—waiting for the fulfillment of another promise—and as the Spirit of Holiness came into the room they begin to speak in tongues! Just outside, Jews from nations all over were there, hearing the Gospel message in their own tongue. Then, Peter comes out and he delivers the Gospel message in the power and authority of the Spirit within! He does not tiptoe around things as though he’s trying to convince them to join a club. Can you imagine? Okay, now if you accept Jesus in your heart and you get baptized, you can have salvation! No! He spoke the hard truth to their hearts about what the Messiah did for them! We see it again in Acts Chapter 3, when they are being persecuted for reaching out to heal the lame man. Peter tell them directly, “You killed the Messiah!” 

When we go through the Gospel message, we have the Spirit of Holiness giving us the words and imparting within us the message that needs to be delivered, one that cuts through the heart. The Bible says, “They were cut to the quick,” all the way through the garbage, to pierce their heart! Everything that the world steeped into them, everything that “religion” had dumped on them—the truth and the purity cut through all of that and reached to the heart of man. In truth, we do not have time to sugarcoat things, we have to pierce the heart and cut to the quick with the truth of the Gospel, the truth of what Christ did, and the truth of Who He is. 

To be continued next week…

Blessings and Love,

Ricci Wilson