Which Gospel?
Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
A friend asks: “Have you heard the good news?” and you
reply: “What good news?” Naturally! All good news is not the same. Yet few
people follow this procedure when they read in the Bible the phrase “the
gospel” — which simply means “the good news.” They have been taught that “the
gospel is the gospel” and “there is only one gospel,” but this is simply not so
in the light of the Bible itself.
God has not proclaimed only one gospel, one item of good
news, down through the ages, but many. He has qualified the word “gospel” by
distinctive titles, just as a woman labels her preserves to distinguish the
different goodies she has put up for the winter.
The “gospel of the kingdom” and the “gospel of the grace of
God” are not the same, and certainly the “gospel of the circumcision” and the
“gospel of the uncircumcision” are not the same.
When we come upon the phrase “the gospel” without any
qualifying title, we should immediately ask: “Which gospel?” and invariably the
context will provide the answer. Luke 9:6, for example, simply states that the
twelve disciples went about “preaching the gospel,” but Verse 2 of the same
chapter explains how the Lord had sent them “to preach the kingdom of God” —
not the cross, but the kingdom, since He, the King, was in their midst. These
disciples could not have engaged in “the preaching of the cross,” as Paul later
did, for it was not until at least two years later that the Lord “began” to
tell them how He must suffer and die (Matthew 16:21) and Peter “began to rebuke
Him” (Ver. 22) and none of the twelve even understood what He was talking about
(Luke 18:34).
But whereas “the gospel of the kingdom” had been committed
to the twelve while Christ was on earth, “the preaching of the cross” (as good
news) and “the gospel of the grace of God” was later committed to the Apostle
Paul and to us (1 Cor.inthians1:18; Acts 20:24).
Today we do not proclaim the kingdom rights of Christ.
Rather we proclaim “redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”
(Ephesians 1:7).
Les Feldick Ministries
i Kow Whom I Have Believed - A Song you will LOVE
30706 W. Lona Valley Rd.
Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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I believe you are correct in this. The kingdom of God on the earth is for Israel,or the circumcision and those who are proselyte Israelites. The gospel that Paul preached is of the uncircumcision, or the Gentiles/nations. There allotment is not on earth but in the celestials and are called the body of Christ and sit with Him next to the Father at His right hand.This is not the same as Israel and the allotment promised to them in the earth. Paul preached Christ crucified ,died, was buried(entombed) and risen from the dead for the sin of the world, to take away sin.Pauls gospel was transcendent grace, without works, and free from law keeping and all the rituals and rulkes and regulations that were part of that system, and any and all religious rules and regualations that people make up
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