Searching for the Gospel

Usually we think of the Good News of Christ, com­monly known as The Gospel, as that por­tion of scrip­ture in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Epistles of the New Testament.  But the Good News of Christ can be found through­out the Bible, even in the Old Testament. Jesus con­firmed this when He said to the Jews who were per­se­cut­ing Him, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me” (John 5:46 NKJV).  Jesus Himself said that the Old Testament tes­ti­fies of Him:  “You search the Scriptures (Old Testament), for in them you think you have eter­nal life; and these are they which tes­tify of Me” (John 5:39 NKJV).

After Jesus rose from the dead He chided two of his fol­low­ers on the road to Emmaus for fail­ing to believe “all that the prophets” had spo­ken about Him.  “And begin­ning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things con­cern­ing Himself’” (Luke 24:25–27 NKJV).  How would you like to have been at that Bible study?

The Gospel is first announced in the third chap­ter of Genesis. Immediately after the fall of man, when Satan thought he had obtained a great vic­tory, God proph­e­sied Satan’s defeat through Christ on the cross.  God said,  “…he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15 NKJV).  Theologians call verse fif­teen the “Protoevangelium,” the first announce­ment of the Gospel.

Referring to Genesis 12:3 NKJV, Paul says the Gospel was preached to Abraham.  “And the Scripture, fore­see­ing that God would jus­tify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham before­hand, [say­ing], ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed’ ” (Galatians 3:8 NKJV).

We hear the gospel in Genesis 22, when God tested Abraham by telling him to sac­ri­fice Isaac.  Seeing there was no lamb to sac­ri­fice, Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb?”  Abraham replied, “My son, God will pro­vide for him­self the lamb…”  (Genesis 22:8 NKJV).  Then hun­dreds of years later John the Baptist pro­claimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29 NKJV).We see the Gospel in Numbers 21.  When the chil­dren of Israel spoke against the Lord, He sent fiery ser­pents and many of the peo­ple died from their bites.  When the peo­ple repented, the Lord told Moses to make a bronze ser­pent and put it on a pole.  Those who looked upon the bronze ser­pent were saved (Numbers 21:8–9 NKJV).  Jesus used this account to preach the Gospel in John 3:14–16 NKJV.

Time and space do not allow me to con­tinue, but you can see that the Gospel of Christ is found through­out the Old and New Testaments.  Why not go on a search for your­self.  The whole Bible is full of good news wait­ing to be dis­cov­ered, The Gospel of Jesus Christ.