A Forshadowing or Harbinger Of The Gospel

What is the gospel, or "The Gospel"?  It is the very, very good news that the Lord God has made a way to restore each of us individually to Himself, as His child, through the payment made by Jesus on the cross.  He has made a covenant with us, which is now called the New Covenant, and He has fulfilled His part of this new covenant/agreement by paying our penalty for us.

And in the process, he is changing us, which is not just icing on the cake.  This is new life.  This is freedom.

Why did He do this?  Because He loves us, each of us.

Now as a forshadowing of that good news, the Lord God set up a system with His chosen people that demonstrated the process of sacrifice or payment for sin.  That was also a covenant, and is now called the Old Covenant.

OK, even from the beginning, the Lord God wanted to restore us to Himself, and bless, not curse, His sons and daughters.  We see this in Deuteronomy 28 where the Lord God shares the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience.  Both the blessings and the curses are quite comprehensive.

Psalm 103:3-5 summarizes the the Lord's blessings or benefits this way

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:

3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,

4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.  (NKJV) 

Some folks have found that forgiveness of all our iniquities is so wonderful (and it is) that they ignore the other blessings.  Alas.

Some other folks have then overcompensated by calling verses 3 through 5 "the Full Gospel".  Well, that's OK, but the Gospel itself really does include the whole package.

The New Covenant really is better than the Old Covenant, since the Old Covenant was impossible to keep.  But what was promised in the Old Covenant is even better than the expectation of many believers today.  I believe the primary reason believers limit the Gospel to forgiveness of sin (and the hope of heaven) is circumstances in their lives.

Circumstances argue against the promises of God.  However, if we walk by faith and not by sight, then we choose to believe the Word of the Lord rather than anything else, and eventually circumstances give way to the power of the Lord to save.

The enemy keeps saying to us, "Did God really say ...?", as he said in the Garden of Eden.  Rebuke him.

Hey, if you can't believe these declarations:
"He heals all your diseases,
He redeems your life from destruction,
He crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
He satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s",
then how can you be sure He is sharing the truth about:
"He forgives all your iniquities" ?

Hey, stop believing only a part of the Gospel.  Jesus loves you.

Larry Carroll