THE GOSPEL OF GOD*by Russell S. Miller

THE GOSPEL OF GOD*
* by Russell S. Miller*

This phrase, the gospel of God, found seven times in the New Testament,
is mainly used by the Apostle Paul (Rom.1:1; 15:16; IICor.11:7;
IThes.2:2,8, 9), though it is also found in I Peter 4:17. But the Apostle
Paul says that the gospel of God was promised afore by His prophets in
the Holy Scriptures. So the question, What is this gospel of God, is
worthy of our inquiry and finds its answer in the fact that God has
always had good news for Adam and his sinful, sorry, helpless sons and
daughters in whatever the prophets and Moses did say should come. And
this is now revealed in the Pauline revelation:

That Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should
rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the
Gentiles? (Acts 26:22,23).

This is why Paul tells us in Galatians 1:16 that God's Son is revealed
IN him, NOT in the prophets, and this is confirmed in I Peter 1:12.
Paul's gospel is therefore the revelation of Jesus Christ? in all that
God had promised and in all that God kept secret regarding the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is, of course, blessedly true where the Lord Jesus Christ is
concerned that all the types and shadows of the Mosaic sacrificial
system (Heb.10:1-4) mysteriously pointed forward to Christ and Calvary's
cross. Thus we can see the importance of I Corinthians 15:3,4:

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how
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.

Here Paul incorporates that which God had promised afore with that which
he had received and delivered to the Corinthians, and to us. And this he
calls the gospel which I preached unto you? (ICor.1:1-3) . Isn't this the
very key that unlocks our understanding here? It was not CONTRARY to the
Scriptures that Christ died for our sins, but rather it is in ACCORDANCE
with the Scriptures.

IN WHOM WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS,
ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE (Eph.1:7).

Now it becomes clear that the saints of old were not saved on the basis
of the Mosaic Law. Rather their atonement awaited the merits of Christ's
propitiatory sacrifice on Calvary's cross as revealed though Paul:

NEITHER BY THE BLOOD OF GOATS AND CALVES, BUT BY HIS OWN BLOOD HE
ENTERED IN ONCE INTO THE HOLY PLACE, HAVING OBTAINED ETERNAL REDEMPTION
FOR US? (Heb.9:12).

BUT THIS MAN, AFTER HE HAD OFFERED ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOR EVER, SAT
DOWN ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD (Heb.10:12).

It is faith in the blood of Christ that saves us today. No longer does
the Mosaic Law, or water baptism, nor Peter's call to repentance in Acts
2:38, have any merit, but faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ:

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Even the righteousness of God which is BY [FAITHFULNESS] OF JESUS CHRIST
unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference?
(Rom.3:21,22) .

And who, but the Apostle Paul, could write more appropriately concerning
God's Son Jesus Christ our Lord and the Good News that awaits believers!

Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God;

To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be
just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Rom.3:24-26) .