Gospel of the Christ

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV)

1. The Gnostic Christ

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. (1 John 4:2-3 NIV)

1. Christ as Proper Name

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist— he denies the Father and the Son… ²⁴ See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us– even eternal life. (1 John 2:22-25 NIV)

1. The Genesis of Messianic Hope

So the LORD God said to the serpent… ¹⁵ “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed (Hb. zera, nMSC); He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” … ¹⁷ Then to Adam He said… ¹⁹ “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:14-19 NKJV)

• And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son (Hb. ben) and named him Seth (Hb. sheth; “Appointed”), “for God has appointed (Hb. shith) another seed (Hb. zera, nMSA) for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” ²⁶ And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then (“At that time” NIV) men began to call on the name of the LORD (i.e. in hopes of the Seed). (Genesis 4:25-26 NKJV)
• Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (cf. Book of Enoch 1:9) (Jude 1:14-15 NIV)
• When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, ⁴ what is man (Hb. adam) that you are mindful of him, and the son of man (Hb. ben-adam) that you care for him? ⁵ Yet you have made him (i.e. Adam, et al.) a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. ⁶ You have given him (i.e. Adam, et al.) dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet… (Psalm 8:3-6)
• For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. ²⁴ Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For he “has put everything under his feet.” (cf. Ps. 8:6) … (1 Corinthians 15:21-27 NIV)
• And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect (Gk. oikonomia: Gk. oikos “house” + Gk. nomos “law”) when the times will have reached their fulfillment– to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head (Gk. anakephalaiomai, Gk. ana “again” + Gk. kephalaioo “bring under headings”), even Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10 NIV)

…that in the fullness (tou/ plhrw,matoj, nGNS) of the times (tw/n kairw/n, nGMP) of the household administration (oivkonomi,an, nAFS), all things (ta. pa,nta, aANP) in the heavens (evpi. toi/j ouvranoi/j, nDMP) and on the earth (evpi. th/j gh/j, nGFS) would again be brought together under headship (avnakefalaiw,sasqai, vAMInf) in the Messiah (evn tw/| Cristw/|, nDMS).” (Ephesians 1:10)

1. The Abrahamic Messianic Hope

As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. ⁵ Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. ⁶ And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. ⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed (Hb. zera, nMSC) after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. (Genesis 17:4-7 KJV)

• The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say (i.e. interpretation/translation) “and to seeds,” meaning many people (cf. translation: “descendants” or “offspring”), but “and to your seed,” meaning one person (cf. translation: “seed”), who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16 NIV)
• It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith… ¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring… He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” (cf. Gen. 17:5) He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed– the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. (Romans 4:13-17 NIV)
• He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets… ²⁵ And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Acts 3:21-26 NIV)

1. The Davidic Messianic Hope

And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed (Hb. zera, nMSC) after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. ¹⁴ And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever. (1 Chronicles 17:11-14 NKJV)

• The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One (Hb. mashiyach)… ⁵ Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, ⁶ “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” ⁷ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. ⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2:2-9 NIV)
• I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: ⁴ “Your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations.” … ²⁴ My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him, and in My name his horn shall be exalted. ²⁵ Also I will set his hand over the sea, And his right hand over the rivers. ²⁶ He shall cry to Me, “You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.” ²⁷ Also I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. (Psalm 89:3-27 NKJV)
• The LORD (Hb. YHVH) says to my Lord (Hb. adonay): “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstoolfor your feet.” ² The LORD (Hb. YHVH) will extend your (cf. adonay) mighty scepter from Zion; you (cf. adonay) will rule in the midst of your enemies… ⁵ The Lord (Hb. adonay) is at your (cf. YHVH) right hand; he (cf. adonay) will crush kings on the day of his wrath. ⁶ He (cf. adonay) will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers (Hb. rosh; “heads” KJV/NKJV/NRSV/NLT) of the whole earth. (Psalm 110:1-6 NIV)
• For to us a child is born, to us a son (Hb. ben) is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
• A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. ² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him… ⁴ He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. ⁵ Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist… ¹⁰ In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. (Isaiah 11:1-10 NIV)
• Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey… ¹⁰ He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. (Zechariah 9:9-10 NIV)

1. Christ: The Arm of the Lord

Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. ³⁸ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” … ⁴⁴ Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. ⁴⁵ When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. (John 12:37-45 NIV)

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” … ⁹ Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God… ¹³ See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted… ¹⁵ so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. ^53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? ² He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (Isaiah 52:7-53:2 NIV)

• The LORD will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail… ³² Every stroke the LORD lays on them with his punishing rod will be to the music of tambourines and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm. ³³ Topheth (i.e. Valley of Ben Hinnom, cf. 2 Ki. 23:10; Jer. 7:31f; 19:6) has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze. (^NIV Isaiah 30:30-33)
• You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” ¹⁰ See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. (Isaiah 40:9-10 NIV)

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does… ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father… ²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out– those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:19-29 NIV)

• See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶ For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the LORD. (Isaiah 66:15-16 NIV)
• The great day of the LORD is near– near and coming quickly… ¹⁵ That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom… ¹⁸ In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth. (Zephaniah 1:14-18 NIV)
• For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. (Malachi 4:1)
• He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:34-43 NIV)

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. (Acts 17:29-31 NIV)

1. The Suffering Before the Glory

“How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27 NIV)

This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead… ³³ Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. ³⁴ For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand ³⁵ until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'” (Acts 2:23-36 NIV)

And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. ¹⁹ Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. (Acts 3:17-21)

As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said. ⁴ Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas… (Acts 17:2-4 NIV)

But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:26-28 NIV)

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow… ¹³ Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:10-13 NIV)

1. The Crucified Heir

The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves… ²⁷ I am among you as one who serves. ²⁸ You are those who have stood by me in my trials. ²⁹ And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, ³⁰ so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:26-30 NIV)

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped… ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11 NRSV)

1. The Crucified Co-heirs

He asked. “Who do you say I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah…” ²⁰ Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. ²¹ From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. ²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” ²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” ²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16:15-27 NIV)

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵ The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (John 12:23-26 NIV)

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, ²⁸ and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. ²⁹ For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, ³⁰ engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. (Philippians 1:27-30)

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? … ⁵ If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5 NIV)

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. ¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:16-18)

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith- ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-11)