THE GOSPEL DECLARED AND DELINEATED
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is declared and expounded throughout the Epistles, as well as announced in the Gospels. There is no point in this world where a believer passes beyond a need to hear the Gospel declared. In it the essentials for spiritual life are found. When it is properly expounded, it fully addresses every facet of life. It is God's power "unto salvation" -- not initial salvation, but salvation in its entirety.
The following references confirm the remarkable consistency of inspired writers in making continual references to the Gospel of Christ. This should not surprise us, for if the Gospel of Christ is "the power of God unto salvation," how could it be possible to arrive at a place in this world where we no longer need to hear it? Until salvation has been fully experienced, the means by which it is being accomplished must not be removed, or ceased to be declared and heard. Those in Christ are in the process of "being saved" (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor 1:18; 2 Cor 2:15, NKJV). The most glaring evidence of the fact that we are not completely saved is our body. At the present time, it remains under the curse. But there is coming a day when it too will be "saved." Until that time, we are "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom 8:23), or "the redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph 1:14). Until that day, believers need "the power of God unto salvation," which is "the Gospel (Rom 1:16). Those who affirm that the Gospel is not to be preached to the church have only revealed their ignorance. Pay them no heed!
CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS
Christ’s death, necessitated because of “our sins,” is the subject of Divine elaboration. All of the points shown below are inherent in that death, and are the subject of extensive Divine exposition.
1. He bore, or carried, our sins in His body on the tree (1 Pet 2:24).
2. He was made to be sin for us (2 Cor 5:21).
3. In His death, He was cursed by God (Gal 3:13).
4. He gave His life a ransom for many (Matt 20:28).
5. He took away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
6. He gave His life for the sheep (John 10:11).
7. No man took His life from Him, He laid it down that He might take it up again (John 10:17-18).
8. He purchased the church with His blood (Acts 20:28).
9. We are justified freely through the redemption of Christ (Rom 3:24).
10. God has set Jesus forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom 3:25).
11. God commended His love to us in the death of Jesus (Rom 5:8)
12. We are justified through His blood (Rom 5:9).
13. We are reconciled to God through the death of His son (Rom 5:10).
14. We are buried by baptism into Christ’s death (Rom 6:3-4).
15. God condemned sin in the flesh of His Son (Rom 8:3).
16. God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom 8:32).
17. In His death, Christ is our Passover, sacrificed for us (1 Cor 5:7).
18. We are bought with the price paid in Christ’s death (1 Cor 6:20).
19. If One died for all, then all are dead (2 Cor 5:14).
20. He died that we might no longer live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us (2 Cor 5:15).
21. He gave Himself to deliver us from this present evil world (Gal 1:4).
22. In His death, He redeemed us from the curse of the Law (Gal 3:13).
23. We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7).
24. We are made nigh unto God by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13).
25. In His flesh, Jesus abolished the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances (Eph 2:15).
26. He gave Himself to sanctify and cleanse the church (Eph 5:26).
27. Christ died in order to present His church to Himself without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing (Eph 5:27).
28. He made peace through the blood of His cross (Col 1:20).
29. In the cross, He plundered principalities and powers, making a public display of them (Col 2:15).
30. In His death, he delivered us from the wrath to come (1 Thess 1:10).
31. He died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we might live together with Him (1 Thess 5:10).
32. He gave Himself to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a special people, zealous of good works (Tit 2:14).
33. He tasted death for every man (Heb 2:9).
34. Through His death, He destroyed the devil (Heb 2:14).
35. He obtained eternal redemption for us (Heb 9:12).
36. Through Christ’s blood, our conscience is cleansed, or purged, from dead works (Heb 9:14).
37. Through His death we receive the promise of an eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15).
38. The New Covenant, or “will,” has been sanctified by the blood of Christ (Heb 10:10).
39. In offering Himself in death, Jesus has perfected forever all who are sanctified (Heb 10:14).
40. Through His blood, we enter into the holiest place-the very presence of God-Heb 10:19).
41. The way to God has been dedicated through Christ’s death (Heb 10:20).
42. Through His blood, we are washed from our sins and made kings and priests unto God (Rev 1:5-6).
HE WAS BURIED
The burial of Christ was not simply a technicality. He was active during the time He was buried. Too, it provided time to assure that He really did die, tasting death for every man in the fullest sense of the word. Here is also a point at which unity with Christ is realized.
☛ In His burial He was “numbered with the transgressors” (Isa 53:12).
☛ While His body was in the tomb, He preached to the spirits that were disobedient in the days of Noah (1 Pet 3:18-20; 4:6).
☛ In our baptism, we are “buried with Christ” (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12).
☛ The burial of Christ was “the sign of the prophet Jonah” to an adulterous generation (Matt 12:39-40).
☛ His grave was made with the wicked, and the rich as well (Isa 53:9).
☛ The woman with the precious alabaster box of ointment anointed Jesus for His burial (Matt 26:7-12).
☛ The grave was not capable of holding the body of Jesus (Acts 2:29-26-32).
HE ROSE AGAIN
The resurrection of Christ is the engine of our salvation – the source of its power. Over and over this is affirmed in Scripture.
☛ Jesus was declared to be “the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4).
☛ We are raised from baptism like Jesus was raised from the dead “by the glory of the Father” (Rom 6:4).
☛ Jesus was “raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25).
☛ We are reconciled by His death, and saved by His (resurrection) life (Rom 5:10).
☛ In regeneration, we are united with Him “in His resurrection” (Rom 6:5).
☛ Jesus being raised from the dead, we can now be joined to Christ and bring forth fruit unto God (Rom 7:4).
☛ Righteousness is imputed to us if we believe on “Him who raised Jesus from the dead” (Rom 8:24).
☛ His resurrection is God’s pledge that we will also be raised (1 Cor 6:14; 2 Cor 4:14).
☛ The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in believers, giving life to their mortal bodies (Rom 8:11).
☛ The resurrection of Christ validated His death, and inducted Him into His intercessory ministry (Rom 8:34).
☛ Confessing the Lord Jesus with our mouth, and believing in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, results in our salvation (Rom 10:9).
☛ If Christ is not raised, our faith is vain (1 Cor 15:17).
☛ The power employed to raise Jesus from the dead, is precisely the power that is now devoted to those in Christ (Eph 1:19-21).
☛ Believers are raised up together with Christ and made to sit with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6).
☛ Jesus is the “Firstborn from the dead,” that in everything He might “have the preeminence” (Col 1:18).
☛ In His resurrection, we were “delivered from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 1:10).
☛ The desire to know the power of His resurrection dominates those living by faith (Phil 3:10).
☛ He is able to save us because, being raised from the dead, He “ever lives to make intercession” for us (Heb 7:25).
☛ The blood of the cross obtained its effectiveness when, after His resurrection, Jesus entered into heaven with it (Heb 9:12).
☛ The risen Christ, having entered into heaven, is now appearing in the presence of God “for us” (Heb 9:24).
☛ We are begotten again to a living hope “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3).
☛ Jesus was raised from the dead that our “faith and hope might be in God” (1 Pet 1:21).
☛ The resurrection of Christ is what validates our baptism (1 Pet 3:21).
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