THE GOSPEL EPIC:

1
THE GOSPEL EPIC THE CENTRALITY OF THE CROSS
I Corinthians 151 - 19
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The Gospel of Jesus Christ is news, good news
the best and most important news that any human
being ever hears. This Gospel declares the only
way to know God in peace, love, and joy is
through the reconciling death of Jesus Christ the
risen Lord.
3
This Gospel is the central message of the Holy
Scriptures, and is the true key to understanding
them. This Gospel identifies Jesus Christ, the
Messiah of Israel, as the Son of God and God the
Son, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, whose
incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection, and
ascension fulfilled the Father's saving will.
4
His death for sins and his resurrection from
the dead were promised beforehand by the prophets
and attested by eyewitnesses. In God's own time
and in God's own way, Jesus Christ shall return
as glorious Lord and Judge of all (1 Thess. 413
- 18 Matt. 2531 - 32). He is now giving the
Holy Spirit from the Father to all those who are
truly his. The three Persons of the Trinity thus
combine in the work of saving sinners.
- thiswebelieve.com
5
The central theme of the Scriptures and the heart
of the gospel are Christ and his cross. Nothing
is more prominent throughout the Gods written
declaration.
6
The Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
- Matthew 2028
7
Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world!
- John 129
8
Began to teach them that the Son of Man must
suffer many things and be rejected by the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes and be
killed, and after three days rise again.
- Mark 831
9
The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the
hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he
is killed, after three days he will rise.
- Mark 931
10
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not
come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with
lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know
nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified.
- I Cor. 21 - 2
11
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far
off have been brought near by the blood of
Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has
made us both one and has broken down in his flesh
the dividing wall of hostility  by abolishing the
law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that
he might create in himself one new man in place
of the two, so making peace,  and might reconcile
us both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility.  And he came and
preached peace to you who were far off and peace
to those who were near.
- Ephesians 213 - 17
12
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and
that the tree was to be desired to make one
wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also
gave some to her husband who was with her, and he
ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they
knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
- Genesis 36 7
13
They hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God among the trees of the garden.
- Genesis 38
14
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and her offspring he
shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his
heel (Genesis 315). What we have here is an
astounding gospel prophecy because Gods curse
upon the serpent turned into a word of grace,
giving what has been recognized from the second
century A.D. as the first gospel, the
protevangelium...

• Hughes, Kent, Genesis Beginning and Blessing,
  Page 85

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The God of peace will soon crush Satan under
your feet. (Romans 1620). We identify the
womans seed as the Messiah, through whom Gods
rule of righteousness will be established and the
rule of evil eradicated.
- Stott, John, The Cross of Christ, page 231
16
Therefore, just as sin came into the world
through one man, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men because all sinned
- Romans 512
17
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me.
- Psalm 515
18
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony
about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share
in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not
because of our works but because of his own
purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ
Jesus before the ages began,  and which now has
been manifested through the appearing of our
Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and
brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel.
- II Timothy 18 - 10
19
For while we were still weak, at the right time
Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will
scarcely die for a righteous personthough
perhaps for a good person one would dare even to
die  but God shows his love for us in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by
his blood, much more shall we be saved by him
from the wrath of God.  For if while we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of
his Son,
20
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we
be saved by his life. More than that, we also
rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.
- Romans 56 - 11
21
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every intention of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually.  And the Lord was sorry that he had
made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his
heart.  So the Lord said, I will blot out man
whom I have created from the face of the land,
man and animals and creeping things and birds of
the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made
them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the
Lord.
- Genesis 65 - 8
22
Go down, for your people, whom you brought up
out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves.  They have turned aside quickly out
of the way that I commanded them. They have made
for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped
it and sacrificed to it and said, These are your
gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the
land of Egypt! And the Lord said to Moses, I
have seen this people, and behold, it is a
stiff-necked people.  Now therefore let me alone,
that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may
consume them, in order that I may make a great
nation of you.
- Exodus 327 10
23
And when the king heard the words of the Law, he
tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah,
Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of
Micah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the
king's servant, saying, Go, inquire of the Lord
for me and for those who are left in Israel and
in Judah, concerning the words of the book that
has been found. For great is the wrath of the
Lord that is poured out on us, because our
fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do
according to all that is written in this book.
- II Chronicles 3419 - 21
24
And when the sixth hour had come, there was
darkness over the whole land until the ninth
hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a
loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? which
means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
- Mark 1543 - 44
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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his
blood, to be received by faith. This was to show
God's righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It
was to show his righteousness at the present
time, so that he might be just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus.
- Romans 323 - 26
26
For I delivered to you as of first importance
what I also received that Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he
was buried, that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
- I Corinthians 153 - 4