CHAPTER 8

THE TRUE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST

The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness 

 
The Gospel means GOOD NEWS. It is Good News for all because the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died to forgive the sins of the whole world. Ultimately, in God’s time and order, Father God through His Son Jesus Christ will save and reconcile all men and all angels without a single exception. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Good News of the Kingdom of God, of how we will all enter God’s Kingdom through the gift of God's Righteousness.

Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

In order for us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness as instructed by Jesus, it is vitally important for us to clearly know and understand what the Bible means by the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.

The Kingdom of God

Luke 4:43
He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”

This is exactly what Jesus did. He went about all the cities and villages in Israel preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 9:35). Jesus also instructed His disciples to preach the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:2). Apostle Paul also preached the Kingdom of God (Acts 19:8).

The Bible speaks of the Kingdom of God coming in two phases. There is the first phase of the Millennial Kingdom of God, and later the second phase of the Eternal Kingdom of God of the New Heaven and the New Earth. However, there is the Lake of Fire Judgement Age separating these two phases of the Kingdom of God. We have already covered the subject of the two phases of the Kingdom of God in some detail in Chapter 4. In addition, we give full details on the Millennial Kingdom of God in Chapter 11, and full details on the Eternal Kingdom of God in Chapter 14.

We now need to clearly understand the very important subject of God’s Righteousness. 

The Righteousness of God

Before we can understand the Righteousness of God and how we may receive the gift of God’s Righteousness, it is necessary to clearly understand the unrighteousness of man.

The Unrighteousness of Man

The Bible is clear that no unrighteous person will inherit the Kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

The Bible gives long lists of unrighteous behaviours unacceptable to God in several places (Mark 7:21-23, Romans 1:28-32, Revelation 21:8). There is no doubt about it; an unrighteous person cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. However, the problem is that there is no one, not even one person, who is righteous, in and of himself before God, to be able to inherit the Kingdom of God.

Romans 3:10
As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one”.

Generally, it is not difficult to discern the acts of unrighteousness as listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 above, and in other parts of the Bible. However, many people do not understand that there is another form of unrighteousness, which is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is not so easily discernible, yet it is also unrighteousness.

The Self-Righteousness of Man

The Pharisees were religious people, scrupulous in observing the Law of God given through Moses. However, Jesus Christ condemned their self-righteousness in very strong terms (Matthew 23). The Pharisees were blind to their self-righteousness. Like the Pharisees, all religious people are blind to their self-righteousness and the Bible is clear that a self-righteous person will by no means enter the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 5:20
For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven (the Kingdom of God).

Jesus Christ says that a person’s righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees before he can enter the Kingdom of God, meaning that the Pharisees’ religious righteousness is unacceptable to God. All of man’s religions make people self-righteous and not God Righteous.

The Righteousness of the Law of God

God gave the Israelites His Law through Moses. The Bible says that the Law of God is perfect, holy, just, good, spiritual and righteous (Psalm 19:7, Psalm 119:72, Romans 7:12,14). God is Love and all of His commandments are fulfilled through the two great commandments of love, love for God and love for men (Matthew 22:34-39). Also, we are born with a conscience that shows us things done contrary to the Law of God, which is the Law of Love, unless we disregard our conscience so that it becomes seared (Romans 2:14-15).

The problem is that man always misses the mark and falls short of keeping the Law of God perfectly. It is impossible for man to become righteous before God through God’s Law. Any attempt to be righteous before God through the Law simply ends up in self-righteousness. The Bible says that whoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet stumble in one point, is guilty of all (James 2:10).

The problem is not with the Law of God, but with the fallen nature of man. The purpose of the Law of God is not to make man righteous, but to demonstrate to man how exceedingly unrighteous he is, compared to the perfect, sinless Righteousness of God as revealed in the Law of God (Romans 3:19-20, Romans 7:13).

God uses the Law like a diagnostic instrument to bring man into the knowledge of his incurably sick, helpless, fallen and sinful state. This prepares man to respond to and accept God’s solution for his cure when God draws him to understand and see the complete work of the cross. 

God’s Solution for Man’s Unrighteousness

God understood the problem of the unrighteousness of man right from the beginning, and He had already worked out a solution for it even before He created the heavens and the earth.

1 Peter: 1:20
He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

1 John 2:2 (NIV)
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Please note that Jesus Christ was foreordained from the foundation of the world to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

God’s Righteousness of Faith

As we have seen, it is impossible for man to attain to the same perfect, sinless and holy Righteousness of God, through the observance of the Law. However, Father God has made it possible for all men to receive His Righteousness through the gift of His faith to believe in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1, 18
1 Therefore, having been justified (dikaioo) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification (dikaiosis) of life.

 In these verses, the Greek word for justified is dikaioo, which means made righteous and the Greek word for justification is dikaiosis, which means righteousness.

The free gift of God’s Righteousness will come to all men by the gift of God given faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in God’s time and His order.

The Righteousness of God must be revealed by God given faith

Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it (in the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

The expression ‘from faith to faith’ means the saving faith given by God and received by man. Apostle Paul grieved for his fellow countrymen, the Jews, who remained unsaved because they were unaware of the Righteousness of God. All people remain ignorant of God’s Righteousness until it is revealed to them through the gift of faith to believe in the sacrifice of Father God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:3
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

Man, in his fallen state, can only keep the Law of God legalistically, which makes him self-righteous and not God Righteous. Apostle Paul was a Pharisee, and he understood the righteousness of the Law in its legalistic form only until God moved into his life and led him to salvation through the Damascus experience. Through the legalistic observance of the Law, Paul had thought that he was righteous and blameless, but when he truly came to understand the free gift of God’s Righteousness, apart from the Law through faith in Christ’s sacrifice, he recognised that his self-righteousness was like rubbish.

Philippians 3:8-9
9 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

Each person must go through his own ‘Damascus Experience’ by coming to genuine repentance for his unrighteousness and self-righteousness, and receive the free gift of God’s Righteousness of Faith for Salvation. Everyone must turn to God in repentance and have faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Saviour of the whole world. 

Acts 20:21 (NIV)
I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

Though our salvation is totally a gift from God, it is important to understand that repentance and faith are necessary conditions for salvation. However, both repentance and faith are also gifts from God.

The Gift of God’s Righteousness of Faith

The Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Romans 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

It is extremely important to understand exactly what Abraham believed about God that made him righteous before God. If we wish to receive the gift of righteousness of faith and be accounted righteous before God, then we must believe God in the same way as Abraham.

Galatians 3:6-9
6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that [only] those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, [saying], “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Please note that God preached the Gospel to Abraham. How? By saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” This of course, is the Covenant promise. The Abrahamic Covenant is the Covenant of faith, whereby God has unconditionally bound Himself to fulfil every aspect of the Covenant through the Seed of Abraham, who is Jesus Christ. Also, please note that this scripture says that those who have the faith to believe in the Abrahamic Covenant are blessed along with believing Abraham, and they are called sons of Abraham.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of every aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant. So, it becomes vitally important for all of us to understand and believe every aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant, which we have already covered in detail in Chapter 6.

Abraham believed the Gospel that God preached to him, “in you all the nations shall be blessed” meaning that the whole of humanity would be blessed by being saved through his Seed, Jesus Christ. Abraham’s belief in this true Gospel made him righteous with God’s Righteousness.

The Faith of Abraham

Romans Chapter 4 is an important chapter, which speaks about the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all.

Romans 4:16
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law , but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

True believers, both Jews and Gentiles, are 'those who are of the faith of Abraham'. They are sons of Abraham through faith. Faith in what?  Faith in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is belief in the fulfilment of the Abrahamic Covenant through the work of the cross. Apostle Paul absolutely understood and believed that Jesus Christ, the Seed of Abraham, would fulfil all aspects of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Galatians 3:16
Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds” as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed’, who is Christ.

 The Faith to be Born Again

Only the gift of genuine God given ‘Abrahamic faith’ enables us to identify ourselves with the full work of the cross to become born again believers. Let us understand what Jesus meant when He said that we need to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God.

John 3:3-6
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Notice when replying to Nicodemus, Jesus says that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, one has to be born of water and the Spirit. To be born of water refers to the physical fleshly birth of a baby from its mother’s womb through the breaking of the waters at the time of delivery. Whereas, to be born of the Spirit refers to the spiritual birth of a believer through repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The Bible clearly says that we must all go through two deaths and two births before we can enter the Kingdom of God. We are all familiar with physical birth and physical death. However, only a few people understand that there is also spiritual death and spiritual birth. 

We all come into this world with an Adamic nature, which the Bible calls the ‘old man’. Our ‘old man’ is our fallen, sinful, self-righteous human nature, which all of us are born with because of Adam’s sin. All of humanity, being descendants of Adam, is born spiritually dead. Therefore, we are all born into this world spiritually separated from God, as children of Satan, until God makes each of us spiritually alive in Christ, as born again children of God.

Spiritually speaking, our ‘old sinful Adamic man’ must be put to death in order for us to be born again and receive the life of our ‘new righteous Jesus man’.  How does this happen?

Romans 6:5-6
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

It is very important to understand what Apostle Paul is saying in these verses. Paul is referring to the spiritual death of the ‘old man’ and the spiritual birth of the ‘new man’ in believers through their personal identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. 

Paul says that we believers should know that we are spiritually united together in the likeness of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, our ‘old sinful Adamic man’ was crucified with Him, and when Jesus was resurrected three days after His crucifixion, our ‘new righteous Jesus man’ was resurrected with Him. This signifies the born again reality of becoming a true Christian. This we understand, receive and embrace by the gift of saving faith, which God grants to each and every one of us in His time and order.

Galatians 2:20 (KJV)
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
 
In this verse, Apostle Paul describes his 'born again' new life in Christ by identifiying himself with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul says that he (his old sinful Adamic man) was crucified with Christ, and he (his new righteous Jesus man) now lives by the faith of the Son of God. 

A born again Christian has the resurrected life of Jesus Christ living in him through God’s indwelling Holy Spirit, and he remains totally righteous before God because God has become his Righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Jesus Christ died for All

The power of the Gospel is such that Jesus Christ died to take everybody’s ‘old man’ with Him when He was crucified on the cross because He died for the sins of the whole world. Jesus Christ died on the cross for the universal salvation and reconciliation of all people.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and 15 He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

It is vital for our salvation that we believe in our hearts the absolute truth of the Gospel that Jesus Christ has already earned everybody’s salvation for them because He died for all, and He died to forgive the sins of not only believers but also the sins of the whole world. Each and every unbeliever will come to believe in the complete work of the cross and identify himself with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in God’s time and His order.

1 John 2:2 (NIV)
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Apostle Paul clearly understood the true Gospel of Jesus Christ for the universal salvation of all people.

Romans 6:10
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Notice once again that Jesus Christ died to sin once for all. Jesus’ last and most important prayer to Father God before He died on the cross was to ask His Father for the forgiveness of His very murderers (Luke 23:34). We can be one hundred percent sure that Father God will grant His Son Jesus’ request. As Jesus’ murderers will be forgiven, then surely there are no sins that cannot be forgiven.

What about the so-called unforgivable sin, ‘blasphemy against the Holy Spirit’? As we explain in Chapter 18, the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit remains unforgiven ‘in this age’ and ‘the next age’, but not forever. All unbelievers will be forgiven during the Sixth Age, the Lake of Fire Judgement Age, which we explain in Chapter 12.  

The work of the cross for the Universal Salvation and Reconciliation of the whole world was finished approximately 2000 years ago. However, not all people have entered into the blessing of their salvation yet, because God is working out His Plan for the salvation of all people in His time and order, which extends beyond this age.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfuits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

Christ is the First of the firstfruits. God’s Saints, the true Elect believers are the firstfruits with Christ (James 1:18). Therefore, the order for them to be made spiritually alive in Christ (born again) is different from all those who die as unbelievers. These Elect believers are made spiritually alive in Christ before they die. However, all people who die as unbelievers will be made spiritually alive in Christ after they die, after they are resurrected from the dead and judged in the Lake of Fire.

Saving faith is God’s gift and it is not of human origin. It is impossible for us to believe in and identify ourselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through mere human faith because human faith is always self-righteous. Many Christians fail to understand the vital difference between God given saving faith and human self-righteous faith. The faith to believe in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed the gift of the same faith that God granted to Abraham ‘when he believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness’. The gift of this same ‘Abrahamic faith’ is granted to God’s Elect who are blessed along with believing Abraham.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The so-called sinner’s prayer, which many preachers require unbelievers to pray for their salvation, does not save anybody without the gift of saving faith from God.

Romans 10:9-13 (NIV)
9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Yes indeed, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but it requires the same gift of faith that God granted to Abraham. A truly born again believer understands and believes the Abrahamic Covenant, the true Gospel, that God has a Plan to bless Israel and to save the whole world through His only begotten Son, the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

When a person believes and accepts, by God given faith, what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross for him and for the whole world, a powerful and wonderful transformation takes place in that person’s life. A truly born again person is transformed from darkness to light, from blindness to sight, from captivity to freedom and from being a child of Satan to being a child of God. He receives the blessed assurance of God’s Holy Spirit that all of his sins, past, present and future, are forgiven and that he stands totally righteous before God with God’s Righteousness.

Even though a believer still battles with the temptations of the flesh, the glorious and powerful spiritual reality of the Gospel is that a believer’s sinful ‘old Adamic man’ has already been crucified with Jesus Christ on the cross and his sinless ‘new Jesus man’ has already been resurrected with Christ when He was resurrected from the dead, approximately 2000 years ago.

Ephesians 2:4-6
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, 5 made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus.

How amazing, glorious and powerful the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is! A truly born again believer is indeed spiritually alive, sitting together with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places, by faith. The spiritual reality of the Gospel is permanent and eternal, whilst the physical reality of our fleshly bodies in this fallen world that surrounds us is temporal and transient. 

The Fruits of God’s Righteousness

Once having been made righteous by God given faith in Jesus Christ, God expects us to produce the fruits of His Righteousness. We must understand the important difference between the Righteousness of God, which we have by faith, and the fruits of God’s Righteousness, which comes through our Christian living. The gift of God’s Righteousness is what Jesus Christ earned for the whole world on the cross, whereas the fruits of God’s Righteousness are the results of the outworking of God’s Holy Spirit throughout the life of a true believer.

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

A true believer has the covering of God’s Righteousness through God given faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is looking forward to entering the coming Kingdom of God in his new, immortal, resurrected, glorious saved body as the Bride of Christ, at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In the meantime, the focus for the believer is to be filled with the fruits of God’s Righteousness to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:9-11
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Every aspect of our salvation is a gift from God. We do not choose God, but God chooses us (John 15:16), and ultimately, He will choose all in His time and His order.

Repentance and faith are gifts from God (Romans 2:4, Ephesians 2:8-9). The Righteousness of God is a gift from God (Romans 5:17). The Holy Spirit, which helps believers to produce the fruits of Righteousness, is a gift from God (1 Timothy 1:6-7). The fruits of Righteousness themselves are gifts from God (Philippians 1:11). Our salvation is one hundred percent the work of God’s grace from start to finish, and man is in no position whatsoever to boast about any aspect of his salvation. All the glory goes to God.

The True Gospel

In conclusion, the true Gospel is founded on the following two vital truths about Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross:

Firstly, Jesus Christ is the one and only begotten Son of Father God, and there is no other Son of God like Jesus Christ. He is neither a Trinitarian Son of God as falsely believed by most Christians, nor a created Son of God as falsely believed by Jehovah Witnessess.

Secondly, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, died on the cross to forgive the sins of the whole world, and He is indeed the Saviour of the world. Ultimately, in God's time and order extending beyond this age, all without any exceptions will come to believe in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, through the gift of God given faith in the finished work of the cross.

May God grant you the gift of His saving faith to understand and believe in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who become believers in the true Gospel, in this lifetime, have the tremendous privilege of rising in the First Resurrection as God's Elect, the Bride of Christ, at Christ’s Second Coming, and have the honour of ruling and reigning with Him in the Millennial Kingdom of God and beyond for eternity.