What is the true Gospel that Jesus preached?
Did Paul preach a different gospel to the Gentiles?
Here, at last, is made plain the truth about the Kingdom of God.
WHY SHOULD there be such perplexity — such confusion — in every phase of life today? It should be the function of religion to point the way. Yet here, too, we find only confusion of tongues — hundreds of religious denominations and sects, in a Babylon of disagreement.
Even in the professing Christian religion of the Western World, we find different sects and denominations preaching a variety of different GOSPELS! Some designate their gospel as "The Gospel of Jesus Christ." Others call their gospel "The Gospel of Salvation." Still others profess "The Gospel of Grace," some "The Gospel of the Kingdom." And many now blossom out with a modern "Social Gospel," while some call their gospel "The ISRAEL Message."
WHY HAVE THEY LOST THE ONLY TRUE GOSPEL WHICH GOD SENT BY JESUS CHRIST? WHY?
How Many Gospels Are There?
Does it make any difference which Gospel we believe? Listen to the answer of the Eternal God as inspired in Paul's letter to the Galatians — the first chapter, the 8th and 9th verses:
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." And it is made a double curse! For the next verse says: ". . . So say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed!"
WHY, then, has the world lost sight of that Gospel? WHY do people believe different gospels today?
This is an astounding, incredible situation! It ought to shake you out of passive indifference. YOUR eternity is at stake! This is not a non consequential, unimportant matter!
Jesus Christ said it is necessary to BELIEVE THE GOSPEL to be saved! Yet the many — the hundreds of millions — today, do not know what that Gospel is! Again, His parting commission to His apostles, being sent out as His ministers to build His Church, was this: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel." They were to preach THE GOSPEL.
Jesus then said: "He that BELIEVETH and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:16). Notice! Jesus said, "He that BELIEVETH." Believeth what? Why, BELIEVETH that which they PREACHED, of course — THE GOSPEL! Not a gospel. Not any gospel. THE Gospel! On the authority of Jesus Christ, it is necessary to believe THAT PRECISE IDENTICAL GOSPEL in order to be saved! And to BELIEVE the true Gospel, we must first come to KNOW what it is!
Now with whom, and from where, and to whom, did the true Gospel originate? With Christ? No, not with Christ!
The Message Sent from Heaven
God the Father had promised to send a messenger into this world from heaven, bearing a message from HIM — God the FATHER! God had promised that in Malachi 3:1, "Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me [and that messenger, as explained in Mark 1:2, was John the Baptist, preparing the way before Jesus Christ] and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, EVEN THE MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT, whom ye delight in."
The very first sermon by which God had the Gospel preached to Gentiles, when Peter was sent to the house of the Gentile Cornelius, recorded in the 10th chapter of the Book of Acts, gives us very explicit directions for locating the one and only TRUE GOSPEL. Open your own Bible! I want you to read this with your own eyes! This is what the inspired Peter said, as recorded in Acts 10:36-37: "The word which GOD sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached."
Which Gospel Did Jesus Preach?
Notice carefully these points: 1) With whom did this Message — this Gospel — originate? Peter said: "The word which GOD sent." 2) To WHOM did God send it? Peter said: "unto the children of Israel." Although now, ten years later, this same Gospel was being opened up to Gentiles of ALL nations, originally it was sent to the CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, and it was sent by GOD THE FATHER. It did not originate with Jesus Christ, nor with Peter, nor with the Apostle Paul. It was sent by GOD the Father of Jesus Christ! 3) BY WHOM was it sent? Who was the divine Messenger who brought and preached the message? Peter said: "by Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ was the divine MESSENGER. Malachi called Him the Messenger of the COVENANT. That message, then, is the NEW Covenant Message; for Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant, and Jesus Christ of the NEW, as affirmed by many scriptures. This message, then, is the NEW TESTAMENT GOSPEL. Now, 4) WHERE was it first preached? To what geographical location shall we look for its beginning? Peter said: It "began from Galilee." Yes, GALILEE, then, is the place where it was first preached. Not Jerusalem! Galilee!
When did Jesus begin to preach this particular Gospel in Galilee? Peter said: "after the baptism which John preached." The true GOSPEL of the NEW Covenant, then, did not begin with John the Baptist. It began after John had completed his baptismal ministry.
Now these very definite directions lead us directly to the first chapter of Mark. The first verse tells us this is the record of the BEGINNING of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then it relates the baptizing ministry of John, preaching, NOT the Gospel, but "the baptism of repentance," which prepares the way for the GOSPEL which the living God sent by Jesus Christ.
And then we come to verses 14 and 15: "Now after that John was put in prison" — there is the exact TIME for the beginning of the preaching of the
TRUE GOSPEL — "JESUS" — there is the divine Messenger BY whom God sent it — "came into GALILEE" — the precise geographical location. So we now have the TIME, the Israelites residing there TO WHOM God sent the Message, the PLACE, and the MESSENGER — so whatever we find Jesus preaching here IS THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOSPEL.
And what do we read? "Jesus came into Galilee PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the KINGDOM OF GOD is at hand: REPENT YE, and BELIEVE THE GOSPEL."
Notice, Jesus said, "Believe THE GOSPEL!"
WHAT Gospel? The one He was proclaiming — "the Gospel of the Kingdom of God."
But, one may ask, don't we need to believe on Jesus? Of course. Other scriptures teach that. But at this particular time Jesus said we must believe Him — believe what He said — believe the Gospel of the Kingdom of God!
Some believed on Jesus, but did not believe Jesus — did not believe what He SAID (John 7:31; 8:30, 31, 46).
What About the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
But if the one and only TRUE Gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, what about the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Is that a false gospel?
Not at all. The Gospel of Jesus God's Messenger — the Gospel He pro-Christ is the Gospel He brought as claimed is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is NOT man's gospel ABOUT the PERSON of Christ. It is CHRIST'S Gospel — the Gospel Jesus PREACHED — the Gospel GOD SENT by Him, and therefore it is also called, in Scripture, the Gospel of God. The Gospel of God is God's Gospel — His Message — His Good News which He sent by Jesus.
Also the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Christ's Gospel — the Gospel Christ brought from God — the Gospel He proclaimed.
We hear a great deal today of the gospel of MEN about the PERSON of Jesus Christ — confining the message solely to the things ABOUT Jesus. As a result, millions believe on Christ, who do not BELIEVE CHRIST! But Jesus' Gospel IS HIS MESSAGE!
And yet it was not only His, but His FATHER'S who sent Him, as He Himself said. In John 12:49-50, Jesus said: "I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, HE gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that HIS, commandment is life everlasting; whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak."
Yes, the Father SENT Jesus bearing a Message, which is Good News of THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Jesus is God's Spokesman — the WORD that was made flesh and lived, and taught, on this earth! In John 14:24 Jesus said, "The word which ye hear is NOT MINE, but the Father's which sent me.
And descriptive of the religion of the Old Testament, and the GOSPEL of the NEW, it is written in Luke 16:16, "The law and the prophets were UNTIL JOHN: since that time the KINGDOM OF GOD is preached."