What is the GOSPEL?

[votivesoul]

You know, as I catch up on this post, I am reminded of a fact thus far not presented or discussed, and that is, that the gospel is primarily an OLD TESTAMENT prophetic device through which God promised Israel certain very specific things.

Start with this, for example:

Isaiah 52:7,

7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

Paul quotes this exact verse in Romans 10:15 as evidence that the Gospel had its beginning among the prophets and holy men of old.

Then, go here:

1 Peter 1:7-12,

7. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8. Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
10. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Here, Simon Peter makes is plain that the Gospel was something the prophets of old witnessed through the Spirit of Christ, specifically, that it, that is, the Gospel, was not something they would personally experience, but rather, was for a time far into the future.

This again goes to show that the Gospel is truly an Old Testament concept enumerated well before John and Jesus came preaching.

Then, see here:

Jeremiah 31:31-34,

31. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

and,

Micah 7:18-20,

18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
19. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

The promise of the remission of sin through a better covenant!

And what, above all, is the key?

"...they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them..."

As Godsdrummer pointed out regarding the preaching of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and he or she who serves Christ in these things is accepted by Him (Romans 14:17-18).

Being forgiven by God and receiving remission of sin debt against the Creator through His Son is akin to walking through the gates of a new city. As one passes through the "Door" (See John 10:9), that is, as they obey the message preached by those of whom the Lord says their feet are beautiful, they pass from death to life (See John 5:24 and 1 John 3:14).

Consider this, a revelation if you will:

When the Jews left Egypt, they did so after the slaying of the Passover lamb.

The blood the smeared around their doors, that protected them from the Last Plague, was still present upon their doors, in the same place it was smeared.

After the Last Plague struck, and dawn came upon them, the Jews walked underneath the "blood" of the Passover Lamb and as they did so, they walked out a free people, no longer under bondage. The blood that had protected them from wrath the night before was also the sign they were free from their enslavement to Pharaoh the very next day.

In this way, spiritually of course, we see the blood of Christ our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7 and 1 Peter 1:19) saving us from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9), even as it also delivers us from the bondage and slavery of sin (e.g. Ephesians 2:13, Hebrews 9:14, and 1 John 1:7).

Walking through that door, first for the Jews, and now, for us, into the sheepfold, is to walk under the blood and be made free, the true and fuller meaning of "remission".

So, to walk under the blood, to pass by the gates of New Jerusalem, by grace through faith, causes us to receive pardon and remission of sin debt against God. Then, in the Holy Spirit, we receive all the promises of God in Christ Jesus, all that is YES, and AMEN, and so, are made into citizens of the New Jerusalem, which is Kingdom of God.

So, yes, essentially, the message is the Kingdom of God, and forgiveness, or being released by having one's sin debt cancelled on account of the Cross, is the gateway through which one walks into and become a full-fledged child of God with all the rights and privileges associated.

And to do that is how the "least of them unto the greatest of them" shall come to experientially, intimately through relationship, know the Living God, the essential prophetic promise and Old Testament linchpin that holds the Gospel and all its elements together!