This introduction to The Gospel – Part 1: What is the Gospel—And Why Does It Matter? affirms that truly following Jesus begins with a right understanding of the Gospel in its original context. While many churches today offer simplified or fragmented versions of the message, this study invites believers back to the Gospel’s Jewish roots, where the “good news” (euangelion) proclaimed God’s promised redemption, justice, and reign through the Messiah. Over time, history, tradition, and especially the widening distance between Gentile Christianity and Judaism have reshaped—and at times distorted—the message. By recovering the first-century Jewish perspective, the Gospel is revealed as more than the cross alone: it is the proclamation that God is reclaiming His world through Jesus, the Messiah, whose life, death, resurrection, and coming Kingdom fulfill His promises to Israel and extend hope to all nations. For new believers, this means realizing that salvation is not merely about personal forgiveness or a future in heaven, but about entering into God’s unfolding redemptive plan—a plan that brings freedom, transformation, and the ultimate restoration of creation.

This lesson traces the Gospel back to Genesis, showing that the story of Jesus’ cross and resurrection cannot be understood apart from the Bible’s larger narrative of creation, fall, and God’s rescue plan. Genesis 1–3 reveals humanity’s calling to reflect God’s image and care for creation, but also the tragic entrance of sin that broke our relationship with Him and unleashed death and corruption. The spread of sin escalates through Genesis 11, culminating in Babel, where humanity unites in prideful rebellion and idolatry, prompting God to scatter the nations and assign them to spiritual powers—many of whom rebelled themselves. This backdrop explains why the world is full of deception, injustice, and spiritual conflict, yet it also highlights God’s enduring plan to redeem His creation. The nations’ scattering set the stage for God’s covenant with Israel and, ultimately, the coming of Jesus, the Messiah and rightful King, who has already triumphed through His sacrifice and now waits to bring the age to come—a world restored with peace, justice, and life. The Gospel, then, is not just personal forgiveness but the announcement that God is reclaiming His world through Christ, rescuing humanity from sin and spiritual bondage, and pointing us toward the promised restoration of all things.

This lesson highlights Genesis 12 as a pivotal moment in God’s redemptive plan, where after scattering the nations at Babel, He chose Abraham and promised to bless all peoples through his family. Israel was set apart not for privilege, but for purpose—to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation that reflected God’s character and made Him known among the nations. Through covenants with Abraham and at Sinai, Israel was entrusted with laws, worship, and identity that marked them as God’s people, a light to the world. Though Israel often failed, God’s promises remained everlasting, and His covenant faithfulness never wavered. The prophets reaffirmed Israel’s mission, and in the New Testament, Jesus came as Israel’s Messiah—not to replace them, but to embody their calling and carry forward their mission of blessing the nations. Gentiles, through faith in Jesus, are grafted into this ongoing story, not as replacements for Israel but as participants in God’s global family. The Gospel cannot be understood apart from Israel, for God’s faithfulness to them is central to His faithfulness to the world, and their ultimate restoration remains at the heart of the biblical hope.

This lesson explores the Bible’s promise that history is moving from “this present age” of sin and brokenness toward “the age to come,” a future era of restoration inaugurated by the Day of the Lord. The prophets foretold this appointed day when God would humble human pride, bring justice, and exalt Himself alone. Jesus and the apostles reaffirmed this hope, pointing not to a spiritual escape but to resurrection, judgment, and the renewal of creation. While Greek philosophy and later church traditions sometimes distorted this hope into a disembodied “heaven,” Scripture emphasizes God’s plan to dwell with His people on a restored earth where peace, justice, and joy will reign. For believers, the Gospel is not only about forgiveness now but about anchoring our lives in the certainty that “things won’t always be this way”—that Jesus will return, evil will be judged, and creation will be made new.

This lesson centers on the shocking yet essential truth that the Messiah had to suffer before entering glory. While many in Jesus’ day expected Him to immediately establish the kingdom, His crucifixion left them confused and disheartened. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus revealed that Scripture had always pointed to this pattern: the righteous must suffer before vindication, a theme seen in the prophets, psalms, sacrificial system, and Israel’s festivals. His death was not a failure but the perfect and final atonement, fulfilling God’s covenant promises and establishing the foundation for the coming kingdom. Now seated at the right hand of God, Jesus awaits the appointed time to return, judge evil, and restore creation. For believers, this means living in the tension of “already but not yet”—forgiven and filled with hope, yet still awaiting the age to come. Like the Messiah, we are called to endure trials faithfully, knowing that suffering leads to glory and that our ultimate hope rests in His return to complete God’s redemptive plan.

This lesson brings the Gospel to its practical conclusion, showing that faith is not merely intellectual belief but active trust that reshapes our lives in light of God’s promises. The Day of the Lord has not yet come, which means we live in the tension of the present age while waiting for the resurrection, justice, and restoration that God has assured. Faith, modeled by Abraham in Genesis 15 and reaffirmed by Habakkuk’s call to “live by faith,” is the choice to trust God’s word even when fulfillment seems delayed, and to order our lives accordingly—with humility, hope, urgency, and eyes fixed on eternity. Unlike realized eschatology, which claims the promises have already been fulfilled spiritually, the apostles insist that salvation is still future in its fullness, and that discipleship requires endurance, repentance, and loyalty to Jesus until that day. Living by faith means aligning our actions with the reality of the coming kingdom—turning the other cheek, loving enemies, embracing suffering, and rejecting shortcuts—because we trust that God will make all things right. In the end, faith is trust that acts: the right human response to God’s redemptive plan, shaping how we live now in anticipation of the age to come.

This lesson emphasizes that discipleship is not about admiration or mere confession but about obedience to Jesus’ words in light of the coming Day of the Lord. Drawing from Matthew 7, Jesus warns that not everyone who calls Him “Lord” will enter the kingdom, but only those who do the will of the Father—obedience being the true foundation that will stand in the storm of judgment. His parable of the wise and foolish builders highlights the apocalyptic weight of His teaching: obedience determines endurance. From the beginning of His ministry to the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus consistently commands discipleship as obedience to His words, empowered by the Spirit, marked by repentance, and aimed at preparing for His role as Judge of the living and the dead. The apostles understood this as God calling a people from the nations to bear His name, not by perfection but by lives surrendered in loyalty and trust. Obedience, then, is not optional—it is the essence of faith, the evidence of repentance, and the training ground for endurance as we await the restoration of all things.

Paul was not a convert who left Judaism to start Christianity but a Torah-faithful Jew whom Jesus appointed as “apostle to the Gentiles.” He continued to worship at the Temple, keep the commandments, and affirm Israel’s Scriptures, while teaching that Gentiles could belong to Israel’s God through faith in the Messiah without taking on Jewish identity markers like circumcision. His letters, written mostly to Gentile communities, address their unique challenges—idolatry, holiness in pagan settings, and how to relate to Israel’s covenants—while protecting both Israel’s covenantal identity and the inclusion of the nations. Paul’s gospel rests on Israel’s apocalyptic hope: the Messiah’s sacrificial death brings atonement, the Spirit is given as a foretaste of the coming age, and the mission extends God’s promises to the nations. Reading Paul in this Jewish framework guards us from misinterpretation and helps us see the gospel as the climax of Israel’s story, not its replacement.

Paul understood the death of Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, fulfilling what the Torah and prophets had already foreshadowed through the sacrificial system and promises of a suffering Messiah. Jesus’ blood was not symbolic but accomplished real things: reconciling us to God, satisfying His judgment, declaring us righteous, and freeing us from sin’s power. This sacrifice fits into Israel’s larger hope of “this age” and “the age to come”: first, the Messiah had to suffer and die, then He would return in glory to raise the dead, judge the nations, and restore God’s kingdom. For Paul, the cross was not a contradiction of Jewish hope but the very foundation that secures forgiveness now and makes the coming kingdom possible.

Jesus’ and Paul’s message grows out of Israel’s story and points forward to the Messiah’s return—a future hope that shapes how we live now. The Great Commission continues that story, calling us to become learners who obey Jesus while we await “the end of the age.” This hope (eschatology) drives discipleship in four practical ways: it fuels mission, strengthens endurance in suffering, calls us to holy living, and frees us for self-denial. Scripture warns against false futures—political power, escapist spirituality, or denying the resurrection—that derail discipleship; the true future is Jesus’ return, the resurrection of the dead, just judgment, and the restoration of creation. So stay a learner, fix your hope on His coming, and live with purpose today!