For many who have come to see and rejoice in what Paul called “the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery,” that revelation is so vast and touches upon so many subjects that they are often at a loss as to where to begin to share it with those who need to know. Paul’s distinctive preaching of the gospel of grace is an excellent place to start, for it shows that the revelation is not a side issue but a fundamental one. After hearing grace teaching, the Spirit has sometimes shown people that they really did not understand the gospel of grace at all, beyond trusting in Christ alone for salvation. Others have been amazed at how it clarifies their understanding of God’s good news for today.
The conventional wisdom among many Christians today is that there is only one gospel in the Bible. Since gospel means “good news,” that is like saying that God has had only one piece of good news to share with man throughout all of redemptive history. There are many statements from Paul that would call into question the one-gospel view. His letter to the Galatians tells of God preaching the gospel to Abraham saying, “In thee (Abraham) shall all nations be blessed” (Gal. 3:8; Gen. 12:3). To him, that was good news indeed, and yet, there was still no revelation of Christ or his work on the cross. Of course, we would agree that Christ is ultimately the center and circumference of all the “good news” in God’s plan for man, but the revelation of the things of Christ was gradual and progressive. The Old Testament spoke in type and shadow.
When we come to the New Testament, many details surrounding the teaching and preaching of Christ show major distinctions between what the Bible calls the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of the Grace of God. The following points show these distinctions.
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This article was published by the Berean Bible Society in the free monthly Bible study magazine,The Berean Searchlight. We have included a few paragraphs of the article here, but you can read the entire article using the link above.