Audio Transcript
If you are reading the Bible with us, as we begin our October readings, we recently read Hebrews chapters 9, 10, and 11. I love these chapters as we marvel once again at the atonement of Christ and how he fulfilled the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament, with all its priestly activities and purity rituals and animal sacrifices and its blood atonement. Every one of those Old Testament temple rituals was pointing right at Christ in his sacrifice for us on the cross — all pointing to Christ, our high priest, who “entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). Glorious reminder!
But here’s the dilemma: Before the cross, and before Hebrews could be written about the death of Christ, Jesus was already preaching the gospel during his earthly ministry. In fact, in the very first chapter of Mark we are told that he was proclaiming the gospel. And in Luke 4:18, we read that Christ was anointed to preach the good news, which is strange. So, if the gospel is the cross, what gospel was he preaching? Today on Ask Pastor John: the gospel before Jesus died.
It’s the observation of a podcast listener named Frank: “Pastor John, thank you for Ask Pastor John. I listen every week without missing an episode. Here’s my question for you: When Jesus sent out the seventy-two, two by two, as we read about in Luke 10:1–12, they obviously didn’t have a gospel to share — not a gospel of the crucified Savior. So, they shared a gospel of the kingdom. And then I see earlier, at the very beginning of Jesus’s ministry according to Mark, ‘Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”’ (Mark 1:14–15). So, before Calvary, what was this gospel, and did it save people?”
Heart of the Gospel
Let’s work our way step by step to build a biblical definition of the gospel before Good Friday, before the death of Jesus. And let’s do it by seeing how the Bible itself actually uses the word gospel and gives explicit indications in the context of what is included in it.
Frank is assuming, as I do, that at the heart of the gospel is the death of Jesus Christ as a substitute for sinners: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Paul calls that preeminent truth “the gospel.” And since the death of Christ for our sins and his resurrection are at the very core of the good news, what was the good news before it happened, before he in fact did die and rise again? Let’s just go step by step.
1. God Is Creator
One essential element of the gospel is that God exists. Now, this is so obvious, they almost never mentioned it — that he exists as the Creator of the world. But we can see this as an essential part of the gospel. We can see it in Acts 14:15 when he tells the men of Lystra to turn from their idols. He says, “Men . . . we bring you good news” — there’s the gospel — “that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.”
So, if there were no God, and if he were not the Creator, then the whole idea of divine good news would make no sense. That’s number one.
2. God Is King
The next aspect of the gospel that becomes clear before Christ dies is that God is King — King over Israel, King over the world — and he is at this moment (that is, at the moment that Jesus is ministering on the earth) breaking into history to establish the kingdom. Mark 1:14–15: “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom [that is, the rule] of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” So, the gospel includes the good news that this Creator God is at hand, in the ministry of Jesus, to establish his reign.
Now, why is that good news? It’s good news because of Isaiah 52:7:
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation [notice those great words: peace, happiness, salvation],
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
That’s what Jesus was saying with the words, “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). The good news of peace and happiness and salvation is here.
“The good news of peace and happiness and salvation is here.”
So, the gospel includes: God is the Creator. He’s the King of the world; his reign as the King is arriving now. And that reign includes happiness and peace and salvation for all who, Jesus says, should “repent and believe” (Mark 1:15) that good news, trust that good news, trust their lives to that good news.
3. Jesus Is Lord
Then comes a crucial part of the pre–Good Friday gospel — namely, Jesus himself. Jesus is the presence of God’s reign and is himself God’s way of bringing salvation. We learn this from the angels as soon as Jesus is born: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). There it is: good news, gospel. “I bring you [gospel] of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).
That’s how the kingdom is coming. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus is the Messiah, Christ. Jesus is the Lord God himself, Immanuel, God present with us (Matthew 1:23). So, when it says, “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe this good news,” it implies, “Believe on Jesus — Savior, King, Lord.”
4. Jesus Is Savior
And now the question is, “Well, how will he be Savior? How is this kingdom going to come? What will the good news really look like?” And Jesus gives the answer in Mark 10:45 and John 10:11: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He said that before he died. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Before Jesus died, he was telling them how this coming of the kingdom and the King, Jesus, would be a salvation, a happiness, a peace. It would be because he gave a ransom. It would be because he laid down his life.
And this was prophesied in the Old Testament. This is not brand-new news.
He was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned — every one — to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5–6)
In other words, the death of Christ as a substitutionary atonement for sins was not first announced after Good Friday. It was part of the gospel before Good Friday.
And so was the resurrection: “No one takes [my life] from me” (John 10:18). Jesus said that before he died and rose. “I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). Over and over, he predicted his resurrection on the third day (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34).
So, the gospel includes God as the Creator. He’s the King of the world. His reign as King is arriving now. It’s arriving as happiness and peace and salvation. It is coming through the arrival of God’s Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who will be the Savior and Lord. And he will accomplish this happiness, this peace with God, this salvation, and establish his reign by giving his life as a ransom for sinners and rising again. All that was in place as the gospel before Christ died.
Growth in Understanding
And if we ask, “How much did various people understand in order to be saved?” Because people were saved by the death of Christ before the death of Christ. We know that from Romans 3:25: “. . . whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” The best way to answer that question, I think, is to say, “People genuinely embraced Christ with very different levels of understanding.” And whether that initial faith was real and saving with its imperfect understanding was proved (whether it was real) by whether a person kept on embracing the gospel as more and more of it was revealed to them.
And I think that’s exactly the way it is today. My goodness, isn’t it wonderful and amazing that God is merciful to save so many people with different kinds of fragmentary and often distorted views of the gospel? I mean, just think around the world of the various inadequacies and distortions that the gospel has, and in and through it, God reveals himself to people in true ways. God can see the genuineness of the faith, and then it is proved to be real or false by whether a person embraces more and more of the gospel as it is revealed to them.
That’s why people sometimes speak of feeling like, “I’ve just had a second conversion,” because they saw something that they hadn’t seen before, and it’s wonderful. But my guess is that’s because there was a true seed of Holy Spirit faith in them so that they were made ready and docile to see that new dimension.
So, let’s keep sharing the gospel, no matter how fragmentary, no matter how inadequate we feel, and let’s keep on believing as we understand more and more.
