Day 2 – The Gospel Was God’s Plan From the Beginning

The Gospel Did Not Begin at Bethlehem

When we hear the Gospel, we often think about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

And rightly so.

The death and resurrection of Christ stand at the very centre of the Gospel.

But the Gospel did not begin in Bethlehem.

It did not begin when Jesus called His disciples.

It did not begin when Jesus preached the Kingdom of God.

And it did not begin at the cross.

The Gospel was part of God’s redemptive purpose from the beginning.

Before humanity understood the full depth of the problem of sin, God already knew His purpose of redemption.

Before Christ came into the world, God had already begun revealing the promise of a Saviour.

From the opening pages of Genesis, Scripture begins pointing us toward God’s answer to sin.

The Gospel is not God’s emergency response to a problem He did not expect.

It is God’s redemptive plan, revealed throughout Scripture and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The Beginning of the Problem

Genesis 1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth.

Everything God created was good.

Humanity was created in God’s image and placed in fellowship with Him.

Adam and Eve were given everything they needed.

But God also gave them a command.

They were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Then came the serpent.

The serpent questioned God’s Word.

He planted doubt.

He challenged God’s goodness.

He suggested that God’s command could not be trusted.

And humanity chose to believe the serpent rather than obey God.

Sin entered the world.

The relationship between humanity and God was broken.

Fear entered.

Shame entered.

Death entered.

And humanity began hiding from the God who had created them.

The problem was not merely that humanity had broken a rule.

Humanity had rebelled against the Creator.

Sin had entered God’s good creation.

And humanity needed more than advice.

Humanity needed redemption.

But God Came Looking

One of the most powerful moments in Genesis comes immediately after humanity’s rebellion.

Adam and Eve hid from God.

But God called to Adam:

“Where are you?”

God was not asking because He did not know where Adam was.

He was calling Adam out of hiding.

This reveals something important about the heart of God.

Humanity ran from God.

God came looking for humanity.

This is a pattern that continues throughout Scripture.

The Gospel is ultimately the story of God seeking the lost.

And eventually, that search would lead to Jesus Christ.

The First Promise of Redemption

Genesis 3:15 is often described as the first Gospel promise, sometimes called the protoevangelium—the first announcement of the Gospel.

God speaks about the offspring of the woman and says:

“He will crush your head.”

The serpent would strike His heel, but ultimately the serpent would be defeated.

The language points forward to a conflict in which the serpent is ultimately crushed.

The New Testament helps us understand this promise in the light of Christ.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

At the cross, it appeared for a moment as though evil had won.

Jesus was rejected.

Jesus was beaten.

Jesus was mocked.

Jesus was crucified.

Jesus died.

But the cross was not Satan’s victory.

It was the place where Christ accomplished redemption.

And the resurrection revealed the final victory.

Death could not hold Him.

The grave could not defeat Him.

Sin could not overcome Him.

Christ conquered.

The Bible Is One Unfolding Story

When we read the Bible, we should not see it as a collection of unrelated stories.

It is a unified story of God’s revelation and redemptive purpose.

Genesis establishes the problem.

God’s promises reveal His purposes.

The covenant with Abraham moves the story forward.

The Exodus reveals God’s power to redeem.

The Passover points toward the need for sacrifice and deliverance.

The sacrificial system teaches the seriousness of sin and the need for atonement.

The priesthood points toward the need for mediation.

The prophets announce God’s promises and call His people back to Him.

And throughout this unfolding story, Scripture moves toward the coming Messiah.

Jesus Himself taught His disciples to read the Scriptures in this way.

After His resurrection, He explained how the Scriptures pointed toward Him.

The Old Testament was not an unrelated book that existed before Christianity.

It was part of the revelation through which God prepared the way for Christ.

The New Testament then reveals the fulfilment of God’s promises in Jesus.

This is why we must read Scripture carefully.

We should not force Jesus into passages where the text does not support a direct connection.

But neither should we miss the great redemptive movement of Scripture that ultimately finds its fulfilment in Him.

The Bible tells one unfolding story and Christ stands at the centre of its redemptive fulfilment.

God Did Not Abandon Humanity

After sin entered the world, God could have left humanity to its rebellion.

But He did not.

God continued to speak.

God continued to call.

God made promises.

God established covenants.

God raised up prophets.

God revealed His purposes.

Generation after generation, God continued preparing the way for the coming Saviour.

And eventually:

God sent His Son.

The Promise Points to Christ

The promise of Genesis 3:15 ultimately finds its fulfilment in Jesus Christ.

Jesus came into the world to deal with the problem of sin introduced in Genesis.

He came to destroy the works of the devil.

He came to deal with sin.

He came to reconcile humanity to God.

He came to bring life where sin had brought death.

And He accomplished this through His death and resurrection.

The cross therefore was not an accident.

Jesus was not simply a good man who unfortunately became the victim of political and religious opposition.

He willingly gave Himself.

He said:

“No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.”

His death was voluntary.

His sacrifice was purposeful.

His resurrection was victorious.

The cross was part of God’s redemptive purpose.

What began as a promise in Genesis was ultimately fulfilled through the Son of God.

God’s Plan Was Always Moving Toward the Nations

The Gospel was never ultimately intended for one nation, one culture, or one geographical region.

God’s redemptive purpose was always moving toward the nations.

When God called Abraham, He promised that through him all nations would be blessed.

The prophets repeatedly looked forward to God’s salvation reaching beyond Israel.

And when Christ came, He commanded His disciples to take the Gospel to all nations.

This matters because the Gospel does not belong to a particular culture.

It is not Western.

It is not Eastern.

It is not Jewish.

It is not British.

It is not Macedonian.

It is not Russian.

The Gospel belongs to Christ.

And Christ calls people from every nation to Himself.

This means that no culture owns the Gospel.

No denomination owns the Gospel.

No individual owns the Gospel.

The Church is not the author of the Gospel.

The Church is entrusted with the Gospel.

Our responsibility is to receive it faithfully, preserve its truth, live according to it, and proclaim it.

The Gospel Was Not Invented by the Church

This is important for us to understand.

The Christian Church did not invent the Gospel.

The Gospel came from God.

The apostles did not create the Gospel.

They were entrusted with it.

Paul did not invent the Gospel.

He proclaimed the message concerning Christ that he had received.

The Church therefore does not have authority to reinvent the Gospel.

It is called to remain faithful to what God has revealed.

This becomes especially important whenever human traditions, customs, interpretations, or religious practices begin to compete with Scripture.

We should not automatically assume that something is true simply because it is old.

We should not assume that something is biblical simply because it is popular.

And we should not reject something simply because it is unfamiliar.

Instead, we return to the foundation.

We open the Scriptures.

And we ask:

What has God actually revealed?

That question will become increasingly important as we continue through The Open Gospel.

Our goal is not to attack people.

Our goal is to examine everything by the truth of God’s Word.

The Promise Became a Person

The Gospel is not ultimately a theory.

It is not merely a theological system.

It is not simply a religious philosophy.

The promise became a Person.

Jesus Christ entered human history.

The eternal Son became flesh.

The One promised throughout Scripture came into the world.

And in Him, God’s promises find their fulfilment.

This is why we must never separate the Gospel from Jesus.

The Gospel is not simply:

“God loves you.”

That statement is true, but it is not the whole Gospel.

It is much greater.

The Gospel is:

God has acted in history through His Son Jesus Christ to save sinners.

Why This Matters Today

Perhaps you have wondered why Christianity contains so many traditions, practices, interpretations, and customs.

Perhaps you have wondered which things are truly from God and which things developed through history.

Those are important questions.

But before we examine any tradition, we need to understand the foundation.

The Gospel came first.

Before there were church buildings, there was God’s revelation.

Before there were denominations, there was God’s Word.

Before there were theological systems, there was God’s redemptive purpose.

And before there was anything we could do for God, God had already begun His work of redemption.

This changes the way we approach Christianity.

We do not begin by asking:

“What does my tradition teach?”

We begin by asking:

“What has God revealed?”

We do not begin with human authority.

We begin with God’s Word.

That is why we must always return to the foundation.

Jesus Christ.

The Gospel.

The Scriptures.

The Invitation

The Gospel invites us to step back and see the bigger story.

Our salvation did not begin with our decision.

It began with God’s redemptive purpose.

Our hope did not begin with our ability to become better people.

It rests upon what God has accomplished through Jesus Christ.

The promise of redemption was revealed from the beginning.

The story unfolded through Scripture.

And the promise was fulfilled in Christ.

Perhaps you have spent much of your life seeing the Bible as a collection of separate stories.

Today, begin seeing it as one unfolding story of God’s revelation and redemption.

Perhaps you have placed your confidence in religious tradition.

Today, return to God’s Word.

Perhaps you have been trying to earn God’s acceptance through your own efforts.

Today, look again to the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you have wondered whether the Gospel belongs to a particular culture.

It does not.

It belongs to Christ.

The Gospel is God’s message of salvation.

Christ is its centre.

Scripture is its foundation.

Grace is its gift.

Faith is the response.

And God alone receives the glory.

Therefore, keep your eyes on Christ.

Trust His Word.

Receive His grace.

And allow the Scriptures to lead you deeper into the truth of the Gospel.