MODULE ONE
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

This course, when completed acts as 3 Credits towards the 60 Credit Mihael Starin Seminary Biblical Studies Certificate or towards the 120 Credit Mihael Starin Seminary Biblical Studies Teachers Diploma or towards the 150 Mihael Starin Seminary Advanced Biblical Studies Diploma

1. The objective of this study module is to understand the Biblical outlines of what the Gospel is. At the end of this study you should be able to teach or share with others:

a) The core reason of why there is even a Gospel.
b) The Biblical teachings concerning atonement through the use of the Old Testament allegories and types.
c) The central place of the Blood of Jesus Christ within the Gospel.
d) The implications of the Gospel in your own life and as a message.
2. Listen or watch the teaching session for this module.
3. Study the notes.
4. Answer the questions.

THE GOSPEL IS THE GOOD NEWS THAT WE ARE LOVED BY GOD

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (This is perhaps the most well-known verse about God's love for humanity.)
Romans 5:8: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (This verse emphasizes God's love even for those who haven't yet accepted him.)
1 John 4:7-8: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." (This passage connects God's love to our own capacity to love.)

THE STARTING POINT IS THAT GOD LOVES HIS CREATION

a) God Made Us To Know Him, Love Him And Fulfill Our Lives In And Through Him
b) He Made Us To Bear His Image (Reflect His Glory)
c) God’s Love For Persons Is Totally Consistent He Can Do Nothing Else But Love People He Has Made
THE LOVE OF GOD CAN NOT BE EXPERIENCED BY PERSONS BECAUSE OF SIN
John 8:34: "Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin."
Isaiah 59:2: "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear." (This verse directly states the separation caused by sin.)
Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (This verse emphasizes that sin is universal and creates a gap between humanity and God's perfect glory.)
a) When We Commit Sin We Become Servants Of Sin
b) Sin Separates Us From God
c) Sin Brings Spiritual Death Into Our Human Experience

THE GREAT CONFLICT OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
God’s Love For Persons Cannot Be Experienced Because People Have Become Servants Of Sin

THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL IS THAT GOD INITIATES A PLAN TO RESOLVE THE CONFLICT

Romans 5:8: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Ephesians 2:4-5: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." (This verse highlights God's merciful love that offers salvation.)
a) He Communicates To Man By Becoming A Man Himself
b) He Lives In Perfection To Reveal To Man That Perfection Is Possible
c) As A Perfect God/Man He Becomes Like The Sacrificial Lamb At Passover
d) He Takes Upon Himself The Sins Of The World
e) He Takes Everything That Is Of Sin, Death And Satan And Through His Death Becomes Victorious Over Them
HOW IS THIS GOSPEL MADE REAL IN OUR LIVES
a) Calling Us
John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you."
b) Receiving Him
John 1:12 For as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the children of God.
c) Being Adopted By Him
Romans 8:15-16: "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,"
Galatians 4:4-7: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of (woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who cries out, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."
Ephesians 1:4-5: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will,"
d) His Dying In Our Place
2 Corinthians 5:21 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
e) Our Sin Being Atoned For
Read Isaiah 53 Romans 3:21-26 Hebrews 9-10
f) Our Being Separated For A Purpose
Read Galatians 5 on the Fruit of the Spirit

THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD

Exodus 12:13 “ As for you, the blood will be a sign on the houses in which you are: when I see the blood I shall pass over you; when I strike Egypt, the mortal blow will not touch you.”
1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Romans 3:24-25: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;"
Hebrews 9:14: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Revelation 1:5: "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,"

a) The Lamb Is A Symbol Of Substitution, The Innocent Being A Substitute For The Guilty
b) The Blood Of The Lamb Is The Visible Symbol Of The Substitution
c) The Death Of Jesus, The Lamb Of God, Is Portrayed In The Symbolism Of The Jewish Passover
d) The blood of the Lamb at Passover is observed by the Angel of death and those under the cover of the Blood are saved from death
e) The Blood of the Lamb was for God to see, the Blood of Jesus is for God to see
f) The Blood covers the guilty and treats them as being innocent