THE GOSPEL IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES

 

 

The Gospel is the foundation of the Biblical faith, although it had been hidden in plain sight within the Hebrew Scriptures:
 

·       How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news [the Gospel] of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns”…The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God…Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm [the Messiah] of the LORD been revealed? (Isaiah 52:7, 11–53:1)

Our Savior is the Good News and its long-awaited promise! To fail to understand the Good News is to build a house on a wobbly foundation. Instead, the house must be built on a sound foundation, lest it fall:

·       According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:10–11)

We encounter the Gospel hidden in plain sight in the life of Abraham:

·       And [God] brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And [Abraham] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:5–6)

Do we credit Abraham for believing in God? No! Why not? Because his faith had been a gift from God:

·       “For I have chosen [literally “known”] him, that [Abraham] may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” (Genesis 18:19)

In this case, “known” doesn’t mean to “know about.” Instead, “known” is like “Adam knew Eve,” signifying that they had become intimate. Hence, Abraham had become a forerunner of us who would believe because of the free gift of God, who had, in some sense, regenerated Abraham’s heart causing him to believe and to reject sin (repentance).

However, not every Israelite heart had been regenerated (made alive):

·       But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (Deuteronomy 29:4)

Yet, there would come a time when God would regenerate their hearts:

·       And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)

Instead, regeneration of hardened hearts would be granted to Israel at the end of this age:

·       And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:26–27)

Results of regeneration—>faith and repentance: Israel would then believe and turn from their sins:

·       I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:39–41)

Because regeneration, a change of heart, opens the door to both faith and repentance, we will never turn away from the Lord. Both go together. They are inseparable—faith (a turn to God) and repentance (a turn away from the life of sin). These represent one turn—away from the old to the new. Consequently, we cannot turn to God without the desire to also turn from sin, even though this turn will characterize the rest of our lives as we continue to turn to our Lord, the very thing He asks us to do:

·       “Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God…” (Jeremiah 3:12–13)

God had only asked Israel to confess their sins and return to the Lord (repentance). Nevertheless, Israel’s history is characterized by a continuing pattern of rebellion. In contrast, in Christ, although we might be a broken bunch of people (1 Corinthians 1:26-29), we gladly return to confess our sins. Why? Because our Savior has regenerated us and is keeping us. For this, the Old Testament saints would have to wait:

·       For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:13–15)

True liberating forgiveness would only come in the wake of the Cross:

·       Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19–23)