THE HIDDEN GOSPEL

 

 

The Gospel had been hidden in plain sight within the annals of the Hebrew Scriptures (OT), although, on the surface, they seemed to preach a righteousness earned by performing the commandments:

 

·       “And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.” (Deuteronomy 6:25)

 

However, the New Testament (NT) presents us with a more nuanced picture:

 

·       What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works…(Romans 9:30-32)

 

But hadn’t Israel’s righteousness been based on her performance? Weren’t the promised blessings and curses based upon obedience? In the next chapter, Paul claimed that the righteousness through obedience to the commandments was the result of a deeper righteousness—one that was to be based on a heart of faith that would trust and love God. Paul continued:

 

·       “For I bear them [Israel] witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness…For Moses writes about the [2] righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the [1] righteousness based on faith says…”(Romans 10:2-3, 5-6):

 

The Scribes and the Pharisees had been “ignorant” of the most important part of the OT— the absolute need for the mercy and love of God to which we learn to reciprocate, “I love You, God.” The educated leaders had replaced it with their self-righteousness. Consequently, they rejected God’s mercy and righteousness in Jesus Christ.

 

However, the truth should have been apparent to them:

·       For Moses writes about the [1] righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. [2] But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim) (Romans 10:5-8, quoting Deuteronomy 30)

 

Paul wrote about the two forms of righteousness found in the Mosaic Law—obedience and God’s mercy. According to Paul, God’s mercy didn’t require any great feats like going to heaven. Instead, faith is easy. A child was capable of receiving God’s mercy by the simple movements of their heart and mouth.

 

The Israelites should have known better. The OT had declared that all Israel had been under God’s curse. Therefore, they required the mercy of God [1]:

 

·       “‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” (Deuteronomy 27:26)

 

This should have taught them all that they needed God’s mercy through love and faith, depending upon genuine confession of their sins. However, they twisted this verse to remove the curse and its requirement for absolute obedience. They should have also taken into account their obvious sinfulness:

 

·       Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. (Psalm 143:2)

 

They misconstrued the meaning of the Temple. When King Solomon dedicated the newly finished Jerusalem Temple, he prayed:

 

·       “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’ if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions…(1 Kings 8:46-50)

 

The need for even the educated leadership to repent would have sounded strange to their ears. However, the Hebrew Scriptures point to two types of righteousness—one was based on grace-through-faith; the other was based upon faithfulness in following the law. However, the second was based on the first. The law wouldn’t be kept faithfully without the first, as almost all of Israel’s prophets had declared. However, the leaders had blinded themselves to their true status before God:

 

·       “‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.” (Isaiah 58:3-4)

 

They were hypocrites, blinded by self-righteousness. Consequently, Jesus denounced them as such:

 

·       “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. (John 5:39-42)

 

Self-righteousness has no room for the love of God. It is too full of itself to make any room for God. The second form of righteousness—obedience to the law— served as evidence of the first—the heart of love—as Moses had taught:

 

·       “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who [1] love him and [2] keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,” (Deuteronomy 7:9)

 

Why the requirement of love? Simple—God had liberated Israel from almost 400 years of Egyptian bondage. Love and gratitude should have resulted naturally!  Obedience without the love of God (closely associated with trust in God, our hope of righteousness) is shallow and quickly perverted. Self-righteousness has no concern for the righteousness that can only come from God, as long as it strenuously holds tight to its own righteousness.

 

The Jews should have recognized that Jesus was essentially teaching a Hebrew message that had deep roots in the Hebrew Bible:

 

·       “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him…If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:21, 23-24)

 

Once again, we see two aspects of righteousness: (1) Loving God in faith, (2) resulting in obedience—keeping His commandments.

 

Is the OT about trusting God in faith? The NT repeatedly claims that it is:

 

·       For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”(Romans 4:2-3 quoting Genesis 15:6)

 

·       By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8; alluding to Genesis 12)

 

A trusting love of God is inseparable from obedience to Him. If we trust Him, we will do what He tells us to do for our own welfare! Trusting and obeying are different but complementary and inseparable. Therefore, Jesus often taught:

 

·       “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:10)

 

The Israelite leadership did not abide in His love. Instead, they killed Jesus as they had done with the prophets God had sent them.

 

Even the common people of Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth, had been blinded by their ethnic pride. Consequently, they attempted to kill Jesus when He exposed their hypocrisy (Luke 4).

 

Jesus’ Apostles had also been similarly blinded to the Scriptures. They too had regarded many —Gentiles, children, and outcasts—as unworthy of Jesus’ attention.

 

The Gospel was hidden in plain sight, but Israel had been blinded by their own pride. Even today, they remain blinded to the harmony between the two parts of the Bible. Such a harmony could only have been made possible by the Authorship of One superintending Being.