The Two-Hundred-Sixty-Third (What is the Gospel)

This week was originally planned to be a review and summary of things we’ve learned over the past few months.  The reason being that sometimes we get into these studies and their details but don’t take time to step back and put it all together.  We’re still going to do that somewhat, but as I heard an episode of a podcast I started to listen to recently, I realized that we needed to take an even bigger step back.

The particular podcast I was listening to, called The Life Podcast, is one in which the host brings on guests, most of the time, and talks to them about various topics having to do with scripture and their testimony regarding their participation or other involvement in the “Torah movement” in Christianity.  If you’re not aware, this movement is where more and more believers are realizing what we’ve recently been studying.  Namely, that the commandments, all of them, are still important, YHWH still desires that we follow them, and that they are vital to our walk with Yeshua and being in His body.

I believe this movement is prophetic, because whereas even just a couple decades ago there were maybe but a handful of believers that were in this movement (relatively, of course, compared to the overall number of Christians in the world), today there are resources, online groups to join, and websites dedicated to not only spreading this truth but also providing resources to better understand it.  Not only that, belief in commandments like honoring Shabbat (that is, the actual Shabbat on the seventh day) have come into mainstream.  While Charlie Kirk, tragically, is now with the Lord, a video just showed up in my facebook feed of him talking about this very topic.  He spoke of its importance, and how he, personally, honored Shabbat.

To me, there is no other explanation of this explosion of truth-spreading than the Holy Spirit.  The traditions of men held and promulgated by churches all over the world, starting with the original, Catholic church, are too strong and ingrained in church-goers to be overcome by anything other than a spiritual movement.  That’s not to say, however, that everyone involved in churches or the teaching of these doctrines are not of YHWH.  Don’t misunderstand me on that.  

As scripture says, there is a season for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).  While these verses are referring to times for physical things of the world, despite them being quoted by Christians for a wide array of teaching or motivation, the concept is still valid in terms of how YHWH operates.  He gives a time for people to realize the error of their ways and turn to Him.  He then sends prophets to attempt to more effectively convince the people of their error and turn to Him.  Finally, He sends the judgment required for their error to those who refuse to repent.

The key in all these times is to listen to what He’s saying and what He’s trying to do.  Do we know Him and His word enough to recognize it’s Him?  Are we so locked in, ingrained in our routines and traditions to believe that anything else is heresy or some “cult?”  Or, are we looking for Him, seeking Him, every chance we get, while still testing the spirits (1 John 4:1) to see if they are from Him?  By the way, I don’t know of any more important test, or even valid test, than verifying everything against scripture.  John is not talking, in that verse, about asking a theologian or comparing it to whatever is taught in seminary.  That would be like the disciples in Yeshua’s time checking with the Pharisees about what Yeshua was teaching.

The foundation of all this is of the utmost importance, and in the episode of the podcast I was listening to, the guest, a man by the name of John Diffenderfer, caused me to question whether or not we have focused enough on this foundation.  I highly recommend listening to this episode, by the way, even if you don’t continue to listen to the podcast as a whole.  Full disclosure, they do have guests that I don’t personally agree with, so this is not a full endorsement of everything on this podcast, by any means.  I do believe the Holy Spirit was in this episode with John though, because of its basis in scripture and what that scripture means for believers; really causing us to look hard at how we worship and what it means to be in the body of Yeshua.

Anyway, it brings us to the topic this week: The Gospel.  As I looked back through previous studies we’ve had, I was almost embarrassed at the lack of time we’ve spent on this topic when it should really be at the center of everything.  Yes, it’s important to get into details of scripture and the people it’s written about in order for us to fully understand everything and all the threads and nuances that go through it.  However, if we don’t tie that to Yeshua and the gospel at all, then, like John alludes to in the episode, those are just interesting factoids we throw around, sometimes only to the extent of showing how knowledgeable we are in scripture or pointing out the lack of knowledge someone else has.

We did have a week where the topic was the gospel, but out of the whole, 6 minute read, there was one sentence that actually, somewhat, stated what it is: Yeshua’s life, death, and resurrection.  Is that something you can live by?  Is that something you can live for?  If you stopped someone on the street and said, “Do you know the gospel?  It’s Yeshua’s life, death and resurrection,” will they repent and turn to Him?  Like I said, embarrassing!

We’re going to remedy that today and go into depth on what the gospel is.  Hopefully, if you don’t know it, you’ll learn it, and if you do know it, we’ll reinforce it.  Regardless, this should be the foundation from which we do all studies, and as a result, we’re going to add a summary of it, along with the link to this week’s study, every week going forward.

Yes, at it’s very basic level, the gospel is that Yeshua, the Son of YHWH who was fully man and fully God, lived as a man, died physically, and rose physically three days later.  However, that does not give you near enough detail to understand not only what that means to you, but why it was necessary in the first place.  In order to do that you must go back to the beginning, to the garden of Eden.

The moment Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-7) and were subsequently banished from the garden (Genesis 3:21-24), man was subject to the law of sin and death.  No longer could he eat of the tree of life and continue to live forever.  At that point, he was destined to physically die, with his spirit going to Sheol as it separated from the body due to physical death.  We covered this in our study on death.

Sin, by the way, is defined as going against the commandments of YHWH (1 John 2:1-6), whether on purpose or not (1 John 3:4).  So, the first commandment ever given by YHWH was to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  The transgression of that one commandment led the entirety of mankind ultimately ending in death, from Adam all the way to us and to our descendants.

Why is that important, though?  What does it matter that we die?  Believe it or not, there are actually people in the world that are perfectly content to die.  They’re indifferent in that they realize everyone dies, so it’s just something that we all do, and since they can’t do anything about it they just accept it as their inevitable outcome.

As we learned in our study of death, it is simply a separation.  Physical death is the separation of our spirit from our body.  However, even before physical death, because of Adam and Eve’s sin, we are born into a spiritual death: a separation from YHWH.  Anyone who has experienced the true love of YHWH knows that this separation is worse than any physical death anyone might ever experience.  After all, YHWH is love (1 John 4:8), and therefore, by extension, a spiritual separation from YHWH is a separation from love itself.  At least, a separation from the only love that is fulfilling beyond comprehension and meaningful in any way.

So, how do we become restored to YHWH?  How do we again receive the ability, even the right, to come back into union with YHWH and love itself?  Unfortunately, the answer is that we can’t…on our own.  The sinful nature passed down from Adam and Eve is damning.  Its law is that we must die and there is nothing that we can do about it by ourselves.  We can’t follow YHWH’s Law perfectly and come back in union with Him.  We can’t make a sacrifice to come back in union with Him.  There is literally nothing we can do in order to restore things back to the way it was before Adam and Eve sinned, when man was still in union with YHWH.

To put it more clearly, in terms more understandable today, the law of sin and death is the same as if we passed a law today that required everyone to be executed no matter which crime they committed, large or small.  Throw your trash on the side of the road?  Death sentence.  Murder someone?  Death sentence.

You see, because YHWH is Pure and Holy, He cannot be in union with anything that is not.  Otherwise, He compromises His righteousness.  In our analogy, if He allows a litterer to come in union with Him, He is condoning the “sin” of littering.  If He allows a murderer to come into union with Him, He is condoning the sin of murder.

Because of this immutable law, the law which requires death as a consequence of sin, we can’t even die ourselves in order for us to come back into union with YHWH.  That death would be the fulfillment of the law of sin and death.  It would be our payment for our own sins.  If a murderer is in a state which allows the death penalty, and his sentence is death for his crime, can he then come back after he completes his sentence?  Of course not.  He is physically put to death, and that’s that.      

So, we know that we cannot do anything to atone for our sinful nature.  The only possible way to come out from under the law of sin and death is for someone who has no sins of their own to complete our sentence for us.  And that is where Yeshua came in (Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 20:28, Romans 3:25, 5:8, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 21, 1 Peter 2:24, 3:18, 1 John 2:2).  That is why He had to die, and that is why we know He saved us from death.  

Ok, so far we know two out of the three parts of our oversimplification that the gospel is Yeshua’s life, death, and resurrection.  He had to live, from birth to death, as a man fulfilling all of YHWH’s commandments in order for Him to be considered sinless.  He had to die in order for His death to be the atonement, or cleansing, of our sins and bring us out from under the law of sin and death.  But what about His resurrection?

Not only did Yeshua’s death allow us to be free from the law of sin and death, His resurrection gives us hope for our future.  If He had not risen, we would have no reason to believe we will rise after physical death (1 Corinthians 15:17).  Essentially, if a sinless man such as Yeshua is still held by death, we, as sinners, would most certainly still be held by death.  However, because of His sinlessness, death could not hold him (Acts 2:24), and as a result, we can be assured of our future resurrection.  

That, my friend, is the gospel.  That is the good news.  That while we are born into a sinful nature, and therefore are born into the law of sin resulting in death, we are able to come out from under that law and come into life everlasting.  And the way we can do that is by believing in this gospel.  Isn’t that interesting?  Quite possibly the most quoted verse of all scripture is John 3:16, but unless you truly understand why you’re believing in Yeshua, your belief in Him is meaningless.  It results in nothing.  

The demons even believe in Him (James 2:19, Matthew 8:29, Luke 8:28).  Are they saved?  People will be casting out demons, performing miracles, and prophesying in His name (Matthew 7:15-23), thereby recognizing His power and authority, yet they will not be saved.  He will deny He ever knew them.

And once you know and believe the gospel, that’s when you can truly come into the body of Yeshua and live your life according to Him.  You deny yourself, your will, your perceived worldly knowledge, your traditions, your rituals, your routine, in all, your life.  Every single aspect of it.  You live, operate, believe, and breathe, as Him.  

This doesn’t necessarily mean quitting your job, selling everything you have, leaving everyone you know, and going to live in the woods.  It means having a relationship with Him, consulting Him in everything that you do, and listening to Him and what He’s leading you to do.  Without this, even a belief in the gospel could be equated to a belief in something you learned in school, for example.  Because of our being born into a sinful nature, a true belief in the gospel necessarily requires a change in us.  Otherwise, we’re no different than demons.  We would just be sinful people that believe in Yeshua.

Give yourself to Him.  Review the gospel regularly to remind yourself of it.  Literally everything in scripture stems from it in some way.  Before we believed in the gospel, we were Gentiles in our sinful nature.  In our acceptance and belief in the gospel, we became visitors, those who participated in some, but not all, of the commandments of YHWH.  In our change, or giving of ourselves fully to Yeshua, we become sojourners of Israel, those who fully follow His commandments and are called Israelites just the same as the native-born.  And by that, we become the “all Israel” that Paul says will be saved.

Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene