The Gospel message is best understood by beginning with God’s promise to Abraham and concluding with the Apostle Paul’s experiences. A reference to the Gospel appears in Paul’s letter to the Galatians in a quote from an Old Testament passage: “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).
This shows the Gospel was known and understood from early times, and was directly revealed to Abraham by God. The quote in Galatians 3:8 comes from Genesis 22:18: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Two elements of this Gospel message are frequently repeated: that nations will be blessed and that that blessing will come through Abraham.The blessing on all nations was not to come from Abraham himself, but from the “seed” of his body, his offspring.
Galatians 3:16 makes clear that the promises were made to Abraham and to one seed, “who is Christ.” Christ is the seed of Abraham. Jesus Christ is the “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2). When we become Christ’s, “then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
Our inheritance from God differs from an earthly inheritance in two significant ways: we will perish, never to live again, unless God forgives our sins and resurrects our mortal bodies to immortality. Paul explained to the Galatians how the penalty of death has been nullified and how we can become inheritors forever. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us….” Paul explains that this “curse” is the death penalty, which Christ freely took on Himself for us (Galatians 3:13).
Our Savior assumed the death penalty so that “the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles [all nations] in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14). Later when Paul wrote to the Ephesian church he said we are marked “with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, [which] is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance…” (Ephesians 1:13-14, New International Version).
To the congregation in Rome, Paul explains we are Christ’s if we have the Holy Spirit—that, just as Christ was resurrected from the dead, we will be raised to immortality through that Spirit (Romans 8:9-11). In the letter to Corinth Paul describes the good news using different phrases but conveying the same message, the same two elements that he wrote about to the Galatians. First, Christ (the seed of Abraham) died for our sins. Second, He rose from the dead to receive the blessing of His inheritance, the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 20-24).
The resurrection to an inheritance is a major theme of 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul describes how many people witnessed Christ’s resurrection (verses 5-8) and the importance of it (verses 12-19). He then goes on to explain the order of the resurrections (verses 20-28), the moral implications of Christ’s resurrection (verses 29-34) and the bodies of the resurrected dead (verses 35-49).
Paul told the Philippian church he was imprisoned because of the Gospel, and that he was defending and confirming the Gospel message while in chains (Philippians 1:7,16-17). He told Ananias, the high priest, he was being judged “concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead….” (Acts 23:6) and before Felix, the Roman Governor of Judea, he declared, “…there will be a resurrection of the dead ….Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged by you this day” (Acts 24:15 and 21).
King Agrippa Festus, the successor of Felix as Roman procurator (governor) of Judea, said concerning Paul’s accusers: “When the accusers stood up, they…had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive” (Acts 25:18-19). Paul recounted his conversion and the mission Jesus Christ gave him, explaining the mission he had been given was “to turn [the gentiles] from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18) and asking “Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8).
Paul told the Colossians the same thing, that he prayed they would receive knowledge, wisdom and spiritual understanding by God’s power since they had been delivered from the “power” of darkness and were then subject to the power of the Kingdom of the Son of God (Colossians 1:13). We are not already in the Kingdom of God because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom, but God will raise those who have repented and received the Spirit of God through baptism and the laying on of hands to eternal life.
The Apostle Paul also explained to Agrippa that the repentant could “receive forgiveness of sins [the first element] and an inheritance [the second element] among those who are sanctified by faith in [Christ]….To this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come–that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead….” (Acts 26:18, 22-23).
The whole of the Bible confirms the story of the Gospel. The Law details the account of the Gospel given to Abraham. The Prophets foretell the coming of the Christ to fulfill the promises. The Writings proclaim Christ’s return to restore the Kingdom to spiritual Israel. The books of the New Testament also record witness of His message as well as His death, burial and resurrection so we can inherit the Kingdom of God.
From the beginning and throughout the book of Acts, Christ told His apostles to proclaim their witness of His resurrection so the world would understand that He brought the fulfillment of the promise to the fathers (Acts 1:8; 4:33; 13:31-33). The Gospel is the promise of an inheritance to Abraham through his seed, Jesus Christ, so that upon repentance and baptism to receive God’s Holy Spirit we can inherit the Kingdom of God for eternity when we are resurrected.
