The Mystery of the Gospel

Since before the beginning of creation, *God (see note [1] for the use of “*God”) foreknew that man, who He was going to create, would rebel against Him. Yet, He created man anyway because the almightiness and full goodness of God must be expressed through the act of creating. Once the creation was complete, there must exist a most noble creature appointed to take charge of all the rest of the creatures. In order to rule, the noblest creature must be like God. In order to be like God, the creature must have free will. This highest noble creature is man, who was created in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). God gave man absolute free will; not even God Himself would force man to change his decisions.

*God foreknew that man would sin and perish, but He also foreknew that if man was given a chance, there would be many people who would choose to repent and obey Him. Therefore, *God already had a plan for the punishment of sin and man’s salvation from sin. Salvation is the Gospel and one of the age-old mysteries of *God, which was hidden for generations, but finally made manifest to His saints by the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:26). Although the Gospel is preached to all of the people, the mystery of the Gospel is only revealed to those who sincerely accepted the Gospel, the saints of *God.

The mystery of the Gospel is:

*God’s righteousness requires an innocent person to die in the place of a sinner in order to free that sinner from the punishment of sin. An angel may volunteer to become a man to die for a sinner. However, an angel can only die for the punishment of one sin committed by a sinner because each and every time a man transgresses a commandment of *God, that man must bear the punishment of death. However, angels are creatures like man, with a limited life; their life was created and can only die once for another. Therefore, one angel can only die for the punishment of one sin which was committed by a sinner. Another big problem is that every human being commits countless sins in the entirety of his or her life. How many angels would be enough to die for the sins of just one person in order to save that person from the punishment of his or her sins?

The angels are creatures created by God to be both His and His chosen people’s servants because man was created to be *God’s children and to gain His inheritance. The inheritance of *God is the whole of creation, which is the result of the full expression of God’s goodness and power. The angels also were given free will by God. Even though there are many angels who would volunteer to become man and die for mankind, it would not be a perfect plan for the salvation of mankind.

Since Adam was necessary to give life to the rest of mankind, who are born from him, it is necessary that there must also be one person who would be able to die for the whole of mankind in order for mankind to be reborn from that person. Therefore, saving mankind requires one of the three Persons of God to become a man and die for each and every sin of every person. So, God the Word became a man and was born by the Virgin Mary. His name is JESUS (meaning: the Self-existing One is the Savior). Since Jesus became a man, He could die for mankind. Jesus is also God, whose life is unlimited (self-existing, no beginning and no ending), unlike that of the angels. Therefore, He can die for each sin of every person. Additionally, those who truly repent and believe in the atoning death of Jesus will be reborn by *God in the Lord Jesus Christ and belong to the holy generation of *Christ (see note [1] for the use of “*Christ”), who is also known as the last Adam (I Corinthians 15:45).

The first Adam was created by God and was a living soul. From him, another living soul was made, Eve, and many other living souls were born from them. Yet, the first Adam sinned, brought death into the world, and death came to all human beings who came from him (Romans 5:12; I Corinthians 15:21).

Jesus, the last Adam, was born by *God and is the Life-Giving Spirit. By Him and through Him, the Church was created, and whoever believes in His atoning death is born in Him by *God, cleansed from all of his or her sins, and receives the life of Jesus Himself, which is symbolized by the consumption of bread and grape juice during communion [2]. His life is the resurrected and eternal life. If eternal life existed without resurrected life, there would be no hope for those who already died because of their sins; someone who already died needs to be resurrected before they can receive eternal life. Eternal life is to live happily with *God in His eternal Kingdom forever.

Death separates us from *God due to our rebellion against Him and even for the transgression of just one of His commandments. Resurrection is the result of making peace with *God by having His forgiveness, being cleansed of all of our sins by *Christ, being with *God in His love, and by calling Him Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Even though the mystery of the Gospel was made manifest to *God’s saints, the amount of knowledge about the mystery given to them depends entirely on each one’s heart. To illustrate this point:

Imagine three large jars out in an open yard during a rain shower. One of them is completely filled with sand, another one is only half filled with sand, and the last one is completely empty. Which one of the three jars receives the most rain water?

If the rain symbolizes the revelation of the mystery of the Gospel, the jars symbolizes the hearts of the believers, and the sand symbolizes knowledge that belongs to the world, which the believers love and treasure in their hearts, then what kind of heart does one need to have in order to fully understand the revelation of the mystery of the Gospel?

We understand the Gospel through studying the Bible, the living Word of God. Therefore, we must spend more time to read and meditate on the Word of God daily, and then carefully apply its sound teachings to our lives (Joshua 1:8). Additionally, we need to discuss our understanding of the Bible with our brothers and sisters in the Church because, as long as we are in our dying body, we are limited in our knowledge and must learn from each other. We cannot only depend on hearing sermons if we do not read and meditate on the Word of God on our own. Whenever we read and meditate on the Word of God, we are in communication with God, and that is the opportunity for us to learn from the teachings directly from God the Holy Spirit, Who leads us into all truth.

In order to improve our relationship with God, let’s make it a good habit to meditate on the Word of God before we go to bed, and let’s analyze and evaluate, based on the Word of God, everything that happens in our lives.

*God chose to reveal to His saints, both the Israelites and the Gentiles, the mystery of the Gospel, so that they would know the riches and glory of the Gospel. The fact is that *Christ is in the saints, regardless of whether they are Israelites or Gentiles. He is the hope of glory, which is the hope to happily enjoy the resurrection, eternal life, and the inheritance of *God. The presence of *Christ in the saints is also a mysterious miracle because each of the saints became a member of the supernatural body, the flesh and blood, of *Christ. The body and life of *Christ is within the Church and each of the people of God. Just as the flesh and life of Eve was a part of Adam, one day, our bodily resurrection, or the transformation of our physical body, will have part of the physical resurrected body of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can be united forever with Him in the mystical Wedding of the Lamb.

Let’s give thanks to *God for giving us that blessed hope and for revealing its meaning to us. Let’s give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for realizing that hope for us. Let’s give thanks to the Holy Spirit for helping us to understand the mystery of the Gospel, our blessed hope; and when that hope comes true, He will help us to enjoy the happiness and glory of being one with God.

May God help us to always live worthy to the Gospel and to preach the Gospel truthfully by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

Pastor Timothy Christian Huynh and Priscilla Christian Huynh
Edited by Grace Christian Huynh
02/18/2017

Notes

[1] Wherever the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible uses a definite article with a noun to denote GOD, we translate it into English as “*God”. We understand that: “God”, without a definite article, was used as a collective noun for all and any of the three Persons of the Godhead. And “God”, with a definite article, was used to refer to God the Father. In Biblical Greek, the noun CHRIST always has the definite article to denote the Lord Jesus, so we translate it into English as “*Christ”.

[2] The Lord Jesus said that He drank of the fruit of the vine (grape), not wine (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18).

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