The Gospel: Genesis to Revelation

1. Who God is

The road begins with God: the Maker of all, holy, just and good.

1. Genesis 1:1 · Begin with God, who made all things

   In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

   Before anything was, God is. He made everything out of nothing by His word, so everything belongs to Him and answers to Him.

   The gospel starts with God, not with us.

2. Exodus 34:6–7 · Hear the name the LORD proclaims

   The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness

   God makes Himself known as compassionate, patient and faithful, yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His mercy never cancels His justice.

   How can He be merciful to sinners and still just? The cross will answer.

3. Isaiah 6:3 · Stand before the holy God

   Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.

   God is holy: pure in Himself and set apart in majesty. The seraphim cover their faces, and Isaiah cries that he is undone.

   God's holiness is why sin is never a small thing.

4. Habakkuk 1:13 · See why sin cannot stand before Him

   Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

   God's purity cannot approve or overlook evil. A holy God cannot live with sinful people as though nothing were wrong.

   This is the problem the whole gospel answers.

5. Matthew 28:19 · Meet the one God: Father, Son and Spirit

   in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

   One name, three persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the one true God, and salvation is the work of all three together.

2. Made for Him

Man was made in God's image, to know Him and live for His glory.

1. Genesis 1:27 · See man made in God's image

   So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

   Man and woman are made in God's image, to know Him, reflect His goodness and rule His world under Him. All that God made was very good.

2. Genesis 2:16–17 · Hear the one command in the garden

   you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.

   God bound Adam in a covenant of works: life for obedience, death for disobedience. Adam stood for all his children, so his choice would be theirs.

   What the first Adam failed to do, the last Adam would do.

3. Isaiah 43:7 · Learn why you were made

   created for My glory

   God made His people for His glory. To know Him, love Him and enjoy Him is the purpose of a human life.

   The road ends where it began: a people living for God's glory.

4. Revelation 4:11 · Join heaven's song to the Creator

   Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things

   All things exist because God willed them and for His pleasure. Every creature owes its Maker worship and thanks.

3. The fall

Adam broke the covenant, and sin and death came on all.

1. Genesis 3:6 · The road turns: man disobeys God

   she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

   Doubting God's word and wanting to be as God, the woman ate, and Adam with her. The covenant was broken; shame, fear and hiding followed.

2. Psalm 51:5 · See that sin runs from birth

   Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

   David confesses that his sin goes down to the root. Since the fall every child is born with a heart turned away from God.

3. Romans 5:12–19 · Trace sin and death back to one man

   just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

   Adam acted for all his children. His guilt is counted to them, his corrupted nature passes to them, and death reigns over them.

   Paul goes on to the other side: by one Man's obedience many are made righteous (5:19).

4. Ephesians 2:1–3 · See how deep the fall goes

   dead in your trespasses and sins … by nature children of wrath.

   Without grace we are not merely weak but spiritually dead, led by the world, the flesh and the devil, and rightly under God's wrath.

   The dead cannot raise themselves. Salvation must be God's work.

4. The wages of sin

Sin separates us from God and earns death. We need a Savior.

1. Isaiah 59:2 · See the wall that sin builds

   your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you

   Sin is more than wrongdoing; it is separation. It cuts us off from the God we were made to know.

2. Romans 3:23 · No one is excepted

   for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

   Jew and Gentile, religious and irreligious: every person has sinned and fallen short of the glory they were made for.

3. Romans 6:23 · Read what sin pays

   For the wages of sin is death

   Death, of body and soul, now and forever, is what sin earns. It is a just wage, not a cruel accident.

   The same verse holds out the gift: eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

4. Hebrews 9:27 · Face the judgment ahead

   man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment

   Death leads to judgment, not a cycle of repeated lives. Christ was offered once to bear sins and will appear again to save those who await Him (9:28).

   We need a Savior who can bear sin and bring us to God.

5. The promise and the covenants

From the first gospel to the new covenant, God promises a Savior and binds Himself to send Him.

1. Genesis 3:15 · Turn toward hope: the first promise

   He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

   In the very sentence on the serpent God promises a Son of the woman who will crush its head, though struck Himself. The covenant of grace is first revealed.

   Every promise that follows unfolds this one.

2. Genesis 15:6 · Merge with Abraham: righteous by faith

   Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

   God promises Abram offspring beyond counting, and Abram believes. God credits righteousness to him. Paul explains this as righteousness received through faith (Rom 4:1–5).

   Paul calls Abraham the pattern for every believer (Rom 4:23–24).

3. Exodus 12:13 · Shelter under the blood

   when I see the blood, I will pass over you

   On the night of judgment a lamb dies in each household's place, and its blood turns the judgment away. Israel's sacrifices kept teaching it: life for life.

   Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Cor 5:7).

4. 2 Samuel 7:12–13 · Merge with David: the King promised

   I will raise up your descendant after you … I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

   God promises David an enduring house. Solomon will build the temple; the royal promise reaches its final fulfillment in Jesus, whose kingdom never ends.

5. Isaiah 53:5–6 · See the Servant pierced for us

   He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities

   The Servant suffers not for His own sins but for His people's. The LORD lays their iniquity on Him, and by His stripes they are healed.

6. Jeremiah 31:31–34 · Merge with the new covenant promised

   I will make a new covenant … I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts

   Unlike the covenant Israel broke, the new covenant gives inward obedience, knowledge of God and forgiveness. God secures these blessings through Christ.

7. Galatians 3:24 · Look back: the law led to Christ

   the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

   The covenant at Sinai was conditional and could not give life. It served the promise: it exposed sin, guarded Israel and pointed them to Christ.

6. Christ the Savior

The promised Son comes, obeys, dies for His people, rises and reigns.

1. John 1:14 · See the Word become flesh

   The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

   The eternal Son, true God, became true man without ceasing to be God: one person in two natures, the one Mediator between God and man.

2. John 8:29 · Watch the obedient Son

   I always do what pleases Him.

   Where Adam failed, Jesus obeyed in everything. He lived without sin, keeping God's law perfectly in His people's place.

   His obedience is the righteousness counted to all who believe.

3. John 10:11 · Follow the Shepherd who gives His life

   The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

   Jesus does not die merely as an example. He lays down His life on purpose, for His sheep, in their place.

4. John 19:30 · Cross the bridge: It is finished

   It is finished. And bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit.

   On the cross Christ bore the sins of His people and finished the work the Father gave Him. Nothing remains to be added to it.

   This is the bridge between a holy God and sinners.

5. Romans 3:25 · See God's wrath turned away

   God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith

   Christ's death is the atoning sacrifice, a propitiation that satisfies God's just wrath. God shows Himself both just and the justifier of the one who believes.

   Mercy and justice meet, as the name proclaimed at Sinai required.

6. 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 · The tomb is empty

   Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day

   Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised bodily on the third day, as the Scriptures foretold. His sacrifice is accepted.

7. Hebrews 1:3 · See Him seated on high

   After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

   Having made purification for sins, Christ ascended and sat down at God's right hand. He reigns now, upholding all things by His word.

7. The call: repent and believe

The gospel is offered freely to all. God calls, gives new life, and sinners come.

1. Ezekiel 36:26 · See the new heart God gives

   I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you

   God promises to do what sinners cannot: take away the heart of stone and give a living heart by His Spirit. The new birth is His work.

2. Mark 1:15 · Turn: repent and believe in the gospel

   Repent and believe in the gospel!

   Jesus calls everyone to turn from sin to God and to trust the good news. Repentance and faith are God's gifts and also our duty.

3. John 3:16 · Hear the offer to whoever believes

   For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish

   God's love gave His Son, and the promise is open to all: everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

4. John 6:37 · Come, and you will not be turned away

   Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.

   Everyone the Father gives to the Son will come, drawn by His call, and no one who comes is ever turned away. Both are true.

   God's choosing is no barrier to the one who comes. It is why sinners come at all.

8. Justified and adopted

Through faith alone, sinners are declared righteous and made God's children.

1. Romans 4:5 · See God justify the ungodly

   to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

   Justification is not a reward for work. God declares the ungodly righteous when they trust Him, as He did Abraham.

2. 2 Corinthians 5:21 · Watch the great exchange

   God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

   Our sin was counted to Christ, who knew no sin, and His righteousness is counted to us. On that ground God declares us righteous.

3. Galatians 4:4–6 · Receive the Spirit of the Son

   that we might receive our adoption as sons … God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, Abba, Father!

   The Son came to redeem us so that we might be adopted. The Spirit of the Son lives in every believer and teaches us to call God Father.

4. Ephesians 2:8–9 · Saved by grace, through faith

   For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

   Salvation is God's gift from first to last. Faith receives it, works do not earn it, and no one may boast except in the Lord.

9. A people for God

Saved sinners are gathered into a people: baptized, growing in holiness, kept to the end.

1. Acts 2:41–42 · Join the church: believers baptized

   Those who embraced his message were baptized

   Those who embraced the message were baptized and added to the church. They kept to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.

2. 2 Corinthians 3:18 · Be changed into His image

   are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

   Beholding Christ, believers are being remade by the Spirit into His likeness. The image spoiled at the fall is being restored.

3. Ephesians 2:10 · Walk in the good works prepared for you

   For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works

   Good works do not save, but the saved do them. God made us new in Christ so that we would walk in the works He prepared.

4. Philippians 1:6 · He will finish what He began

   He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

   God does not begin His work in a believer and abandon it. Those He has truly called He keeps, and brings them safely to the day of Christ.

5. 1 Peter 2:9 · See the people God has made

   you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession

   What Israel was called to be, the church from every nation now is in Christ: a holy people belonging to God, called to declare His praises.

10. Glory

Christ returns, the dead are raised and judged, and God makes all things new.

1. Matthew 25:31–32 · The road divides at His return

   When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him

   Christ will come again, visibly and in glory, to judge all nations. He will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

2. John 5:28–29 · Hear the voice that raises the dead

   all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out

   In one hour all the dead will hear Christ's voice and rise: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

3. 2 Peter 3:13 · Look for the new heavens and earth

   in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

   God will not abandon His creation. As He promised, He will make a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness is at home.

4. Revelation 21:4 · See every tear wiped away

   He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death

   The curse is undone. Death, mourning, crying and pain belong to the former things, and they are gone forever.

5. Revelation 22:3–4 · Arrive: His servants see His face

   His servants will worship Him. They will see His face

   There is no more curse. God and the Lamb reign, and His servants worship Him and see His face. This is what we were made for.

   God's glory in a people who worship, love and serve Him forever.

A people for God

What now?

The good news calls for an answer. Anyone who calls on the Lord Jesus will be saved.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Romans 10:13

1. 1
   Call on Him

   Tell God you have sinned and turn from it. Ask Him to forgive you for Jesus' sake, and trust Christ alone to save you.

2. 2
   Read about Jesus

   Start with the Gospel of John, written “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). (John 1)

3. 3
   Join His people

   Find a church that teaches the Bible, be baptized, and grow with God's people in the apostles' teaching, the fellowship and prayer. (Acts 2:41–42)