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The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
By P.R.Jones




   Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. In the Beginning
  3. God Establishes His Covenant with Abraham
  4. God Weds Ancient Israel
  5. Our Savior is Born
  6. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
  7. The Ressurection
  8. The Final Judgment of the Unsaved
  9. The New Jerusalem
  10. Summary

The entire Holy Bible is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a collection of 66 books written by 40 men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, over a period of 1500 years.  The Gospel of Our Lord begins with the first chapter of Genesis and ends with the last chapter of Revelation.   In Genesis we read;

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and was void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Genesis 1:1-3

In verse 3 we read that God spoke and created light. In John passage 1 of the New Testament, we read an explation that refers to this same chapter in Genesis.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." John 1:1-3

The book of John, written 1500 years after the book of Genesis, is a good example of how cohesive the Bible is. There is complete harmony from Genesis to Revelation and you will never find a contradiction. And so, I will begin my interpretation and explanation of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, starting with the book of Genesis, and ending with the book of Revelation.

In the book of Genesis we read that on the sixth day of Creation, God created man in His image and after His likeness.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Genesis 1:26

I do find it curious that God said, 'Let us make man in "Our" image instead of saying "My" image. Some think that God might have been including His host of angels, however, this can't be proven. But in any case, when God created Adam and Eve, he blessed them and gave them one commandment.

"And God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
Genesis 1:28

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'You may eat freely from every tree in the garden; But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die."
Genesis 2:16

And as we all know, they did eat from the tree and as a result of it, God cursed them both, and also the serpent. God began with the serpent.

"Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field; upon your belly shall you crawl; and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. "
Genesis 3:15

"To the woman He said, 'I will greatly multiply your sorrow and when you conceive; in sorrow shall you bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.'"
Genesis 3:16

"And to Adam He said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it;' cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat from it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, until you return to the ground; for out of it were you taken; for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return.'"
Genesis 3:17-19

When God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He warned them saying, "For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die;" "  God did not have physical death in mind, but rather, spiritual death. For as we read in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death."  And unfortunately for the entire human race, this would be the inheritance for every person ever born into the world, as written by the apostle Paul.

"Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"         Romans 5:12

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:23

Because Adam and EVe had now brought sin into the world, God now had to institute a plan of salvation for mankind.   Without a plan of salvation for the world, God would never be able to enjoy a fellowship with His creation in Heaven.  That is because God is completely Holy and lives in complete Holiness in Heaven.  God then declared that He would have a people for Himself, and in the year 2068 B.C. established His covenant with Abraham and his descendants.

"And I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant; to be a God unto you and to your descendants."
Genesis: 17:7

Jacob, who was Abraham's grandson, would produce 12 sons who would go on to head the 12 tribes of Israel. In Genesis we read that God changed Jacob's name to Israel.

"Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince have you power with God and with men, and have prevailed."      Genesis 32:28

God considered Israel His child, as well as His bride, and He nurtured and protected them. Increasingly, however, the Israelites began to go after other Gods and worship idols, and turn their back to the LORD. Even their spiritual leaders began teaching them what they wanted to hear instead of truth and what was written in Scripture. Eventually, God sent his prophet, Jeremiah, to warn them that if they did return to Him, He would destroy them. In 587 B.C., God divorced Israel and used the Babylonians to completely destroy the 12 tribes of Israel. Only a remnant of Israelis, who heeded God's warning, fled in time to escape destruction.

"Thus says the LORD: I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase."
Jeremiah 2:2-3

"The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: 'Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.' And I said, after she had done all these things, 'Return to Me.' but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,' says the Lord." Jeremiah 3:6-11

"Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise Me, 'The Lord has said, "You shall have peace" '; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, 'No evil shall come upon you.' "
Jeremiah 23:16-17

"And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, 'Repent now every one of his evil ways and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you. Yet you have not listened to Me,' says the Lord, 'that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.' Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Because you have not heard My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolation.'"
Jeremiah 25:4-9

The relationship God had with Old Testament Israel was entirely different than the relationship God would have with His New Testament church.  The doctrines which God established with ancient Israel were based on the letter of the Law.  It was a relationship based on works.  The relationship God would have with His new Testament church would instead be based on the doctrines of grace.

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."   John 1:16


Most everyone knows that John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus.

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."       
John 1:29

Why is Jesus called a Lamb?  The Old Testament ceremonial laws were a shadow of what the Gospel of Jesus Christ represented.  One of these was the sacrificing of a lamb as an act of atonement for the forgiveness of sin. It was a ceremonial law much like we practice baptism and the partaking of bread and wine at the Lord's Table. The acts in themselves have no effect on our salvation, but are a shadow, or representation, of the work that God has done to bring us to salvation.

"And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. And he shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, as a sin offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin. "
Leviticus 5:5-6

"By God's will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But the Christ, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,"
Hebrew 10:10-12

The Lord Jesus was our atoning Lamb who was sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins.

"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour."      Ephesians 5:2

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."      John 3:14-18

There is much talk these days about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible teaches that on the Last Day, or Judgment Day, the Lord Jesus will make His appearance on the clouds of glory to rapture His body of believers.  The Bible never uses the word 'Rapture" because that term was coined recently in modern history.  The following passages describe the Lord's appearance.

"And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws near."
Luke 21:27

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."      Matthew 24:30-31

"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17

Most of us, from the time we were children, grew up hearing that God sends good people to heaven and bad people to hell.  Some of us abandoned that teaching as we grew into adults, and some of us kept it.  Now let's examine what the Lord Jesus Himself taught.

"Verily, verily, I say to you, He that hears My Word, and believes in Him that sent me, has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in Himself; so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself; And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation."
John 5:24-29

"And Jesus said unto her, 'Your brother shall rise again.' Then Martha said to Him, 'I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection on the last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection, and the life. He that believes in Me, even though he is dead, he shall live, And whosoever lives and believes in me, shall never die.   Do you believe this?' She then said to Him, Yes, Lord, I believe You thou You are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world."         John 11:23-27

"And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."
Luke 20:34-37

"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power."    Corinthians 15:12-24

"And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
Revelation 20:10-15

When the Lord comes on the Last Day to rapture his body of believers and banish the unsaved into hell, He will destroy this present universe with fire and create a new heaven and a new earth.

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; whereby both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking forward to and hastening towards the coming of the day of God, whereby the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells."
2 Peter 3:10-13

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
Revelation 1:1-7

When Adam and Eve fell from grace they experienced spiritual death and entered into the world of sin. As a result of their action, sin entered into the world which would in turn infect the entire human race and prevent them from entering into fellowship with a Holy God.  The only way that God could reunited man with Himself was to be born as the Christ, or Savior of the world.  As the Lamb of God, Christ stood in our place in front of the judgment throne and was found guilty, and punished.  Once Christ finished this act of atonement, He was able to reunite man with Holy God.  On the Last Day, the Lord will come in the clouds of glory to rapture his true believers.  They will live for all eternity in the new heaven and the new earth which God will create.  The unsaved will be cast into Hell where they will live eternally separated from God.