THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL: Discourse 1

Compiled by Solomon Tweneboah

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15, NKJV).

Contained in the above Bible text is the summary of the entire Bible; the central theme of the Bible is compressed into this one text. It announces the great controversy that would exist between the serpent and the woman, and between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The text puts into perspective the battle between right and wrong, good and evil, which began in Heaven, and how it was going to continue here on this Earth.

In Revelation 12:7,8, the Bibles declares, “And war broke out in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in Heaven any longer.” In this war, Michael and His angels fought and conquered the dragon and his angels, and there was no place found in Heaven for the dragon and his angels any longer. “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:9). So the Bible clearly states that the dragon, that serpent of old, is called Devil and Satan.

Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” The Son of God, when He was sent forth at the fullness of time, was born of a woman. Usually, a woman takes seed produced by a man in order to conceive; but in the case of The Son of God no man produced that Seed. The Seed was produced by God Himself through the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 1:18-21, the Bible says “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” Also in Luke 1:34,35 the Bible says, “Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Indeed, The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and overshadowed her and she conceived. The angel also told Mary in Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible”; so God made the impossible possible. That Holy One who was conceived was physically born of a woman only; making Him the Seed of the woman. His name is Jesus Christ, The Messiah, Michael, Immanuel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Son of man, Son of God, Alpha and Omega … the Savior of the world.  

In Genesis 3:15, God tells Satan, in the presence of Adam and Eve, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.” Briefly, God describes how the war which started in Heaven will eventually end; how the enmity, hostility, hatred, animosity, struggle, rancor, opposition, acrimony … between the Seed of the woman (Christ) and the seed of the serpent (Satan) will play out, and eventually, how Christ will redeem His people and completely destroy Satan. Embedded in the text is how Satan would claim ownership of this world and seek to establish his kingdom, and how Christ will reveal all the devil’s plans to the universe and destroy all his work (1John 3:8).

God declared that Christ (the Seed of the woman) will finally bruise (crush) the head of the devil, and the devil will also bruise (crush) the heel of Christ. In Romans 16:20 and Leviticus 22:24 the word ‘bruise’ also means ‘crush’. Therefore, crushing the head of Satan indicates the final annihilation (total destruction) of Satan, while the crushing of Jesus’ heel signifies His suffering and death on the cross of Calvary. The nail marks in Jesus’ hands and feet and the scar in His side will be eternal reminders of the fierce strife in which the serpent bruised the woman’s Seed (Zechariah 13:6).

God declared that two kinds of bruising (crushing) will occur; one to the heel of the woman’s Seed and the other to the head of the serpent’s seed. One bruising has occurred already at the cross of Calvary when Christ suffered and died in man’s behalf. And this emphasizes the point that the other bruising - crushing of Satan’s head, will definitely take place in the fullness of time.

Sometimes people become skeptical and they ask; did God know beforehand that the angel, Lucifer, would later become Satan? If He did, why did He create him in the first place? Also, did God know beforehand that Adam and Eve would later become disobedient to Him? If He did, why did He create them in the first place?

Indeed, God is Omniscient (all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise). He tells the end from the beginning. In Isaiah 46:9,10, God says, “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure.” Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the all-seeing God and nothing is unknown to Him from eternity in the past to eternity in the future. God knew perfectly well at the time He was creating Lucifer that the angel would later become proud and fall because of iniquity. God knew also that some of the Heavenly angels would agree with Satan and they too will fall with him. But He also knew very well that many more angels would choose to love God and remain obedient to Him forever. God created every angel with the freedom of choice; they were not created as robotic beings; no, not at all. They have the choice to will and do good or the choice not to do so. Consider this; do you think God would be threatened to stop doing His pleasure (stop creating the universe and all the living beings) merely because some angels will choose to do wrong? No, no, no; His counsel shall stand, and He will do all His pleasure.

In the same vein, God created man – Adam and Eve, and gave them the freedom of choice. God knew perfectly that Adam and Eve would be lured by Satan to use their choice wrongly, but He also knew very well that when Adam and Eve get the chance to live, many of their descendants would choose to love God and be obedient to Him no matter the odds. Isaiah 53:11 says, “He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.” The joy of justifying many satisfied His soul and God pledged to work unceasingly to uplift man despite his fall. And since the fall of man, the work of God has been the effort to restore in him the image of God; the image man lost due to his fall.

Matthew 5:48 says, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” God created man in His own image and after His own likeness (Genesis 1:27), so man was perfect from the day he was created. Only one thing marred the perfection of man; only one thing brought man down from his elevated image and position; and that thing is sin. In Matthew 1:21 the Bible says, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Since the fall, the work of God has been an effort to save man from sin; to take man out of sin and make him perfect once again. But God will not accomplish this in man without man’s choice. Only those who wholeheartedly choose to allow Jesus to accomplish this work in them will be justified by Him.

After creating Adam in the beginning, God gave him a clear instruction. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’ (Genesis 2:16,17, NKJV). Adam and his wife, Eve, disobeyed God’s commandment when they listened to Satan, that old serpent, and thus sinned. As the Bible declares in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This Bible text suggests that since the gift of God is eternal life, the wages of sin is eternal death. So Adam and Eve were supposed to face eternal death in the same day they offended. But the good news is, when God came into the garden, instead of pronouncing eternal destruction and death upon them, He rather offered them the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Did God not mean what He said? No, He meant every word He said. The wages of sin, eternal death, was definitely going to come but someone else took that death penalty upon Himself; someone else offered Himself a ransom to bear the consequences of their guilt. Jesus, the Word of God, through whom God created everything including Adam and Eve, loved them with an everlasting love, so much so that He chose to die in their place so that Adam and Eve could live. Jesus offered to pay the price of their disobedience with His own life so that Adam and Eve could have the gift of eternal life. This is the everlasting gospel.

Therefore, in the same day Adam and Eve were supposed to die, an animal was killed and God used the skin of the animal to make tunics (coverings) to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). That animal, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8), typified Christ dying in place of guilty man, and the tunics (coverings) of skin given them is the robe of Christ's righteousness He put on them that same day. Christ Jesus – He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

In different ways and circumstances, God has presented, demonstrated and illustrated this delightful gospel to mankind. Every story in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, unfolds this gospel of redemption. Every law, every commandment, every ordinance, every ritual given by God in the Bible reveals this wonderful gospel. Adam and Eve recognized and understood how the animal died as their substitute, and how they were saved from shame and nakedness through the use of the animal’s skin. This understanding Adam and Eve got was used to educate their children, and that explains why Cain and Abel brought offerings (sacrifices) to God (Genesis 4:3,4) when they grew up. All the descendants of Adam who feared and revered God, before and after the flood of Noah (Genesis 8:20,21), offered sacrifices by killing animals to demonstrate their faith in the coming Messiah – the Seed of the woman. Even before the nation Israel was founded, patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob showed their faith in the coming Savior by sacrificing animals.

Since the founding fathers of the nation Israel spent about 400 years in bondage in Egypt, God commanded Moses after freeing them from slavery, saying, “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments of it, even so you shall make it.” (Exodus 25:8,9). God showed a tabernacle or temple or sanctuary to Moses and commanded him to tell the children of Israel to make a specimen of the that sanctuary for Him. In Revelation, John writes, “Then the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail” (Revelation 11:19). This indicates that the temple shown to Moses is the temple in Heaven which was also shown to John. The sanctuary which Moses and the children of Israel made on earth (earthly sanctuary) was just a specimen, type or shadow of the real one in Heaven (Heavenly sanctuary). The inauguration of the earthly sanctuary as well as the laws regarding the consecration of the priests and their work was the inauguration of the old covenant which God made with Israel (Hebrews 9:18-22). The purpose of this first covenant was to create an intimate relationship between God and His people (Exodus 19:4-6).

With clean and unblemished animals, God commanded the children of Israel to offer various kinds of sacrifices in the sanctuary for the remission of their sins. “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). All the animals which were sacrificed in the sanctuary pointed to the ultimate sacrifice which was going to be fulfilled by Christ, the Lamb of God. Priests were chosen from the lineage of Aaron to serve in the sanctuary, and they served as mediators or intercessors between God and the people. The work of God – to pay the price of man’s sin and to bring mankind back to perfection, was depicted or symbolized in the duties performed by the priests as well as the sacrificial offerings.

However, the Bible says the blood of sheep, goats, calves and bulls could not completely pay for the price of sin or provide eternal redemption. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Moreover, the priests who interceded for the people in the sanctuary were also not without sin, therefore, the first (old) covenant was not faultless. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second” (Hebrews 8:7). The first covenant was not perfect because it was just a shadow or specimen of a better covenant that was yet to come.

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). In the fullness of God’s own time, when the time God appointed was fully ripened, the promised savior, the Son of God, the Seed of the woman, was born according to the prophecies. “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). ‘In the fullness of time’ – this phrase suggests that God has a timeline for the redemption of man, and any duty He performs within that timeline has its specific appointed time. Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). Therefore, while it is still day – while there is still space on God’s timeline, while we still have life, let us choose to fear God and give Him glory by keeping His commandments; let us surrender our lives to God wholly and do His will, for the night is coming when no man one can work for our redemption.

In His mission statement Jesus declares, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus went on to show how He was going to give life abundantly to the world – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Thus, He gives abundant life to the world by giving His life for His sheep because He is the good shepherd. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:5-7). "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1John 5:11).

Therefore, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”! (John 1:29). Jesus, the Son of God, being also the Lamb of God, is the real sacrifice that actually forgives sin. All the lambs, goats and bulls that were sacrificed were specimen or type that symbolized the Lamb of God. Since the wages of sin is eternal death, only the person who has eternal life in Himself can pay the price of sin with His own life, and Jesus, being equal with God (The Father) in personality, purpose, and mindset gave Himself up for man’s sake (John 1:1). Angels could not die for man; only someone in the Godhead (The Father, The Word, Holy Spirit) who has eternal life in Himself could redeem man. The Bible says, “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). So the Son of God, having life in Himself, left all the glory He had with the Father before the world begun (John 17:5) in Heaven, and was incarnated. “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.” (Hebrews 10:5-7; Psalm 40: 6,7).

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14,15). On the cross of Calvary, Jesus carried the sin of the world in His body. He did no sin (Hebrews 4:15; Galatians 3:13) but as the sheep, goat or bull died in place of the sinner, so Jesus suffered and died in our place. “For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and died. Yes, Jesus finished His work as the Lamb of God; He paid the price to purchase mankind from sin; He bought us from the camp of sin and death and freed us from the power of Satan. His death on the cross in our behalf has given us the power to become the children of God. Through Jesus, God has demonstrated His immense love towards us fully; if we neglect this great salvation, how shall we escape the wrath that is to be poured upon the ungodly.

“I have glorified You upon the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). In this prayer for His disciples, Jesus acknowledges that He has finished the work the Father gave to Him to do – ‘I have glorified You upon the earth.’ Yes, Jesus manifested the Father’s name to the world; He gave the world the word the Father gave Him to give (John17:8); He demonstrated the Father’s love, kindness and saving grace through His sacrifice. Indeed, His work in glorifying the Father upon the earth was done.

But all the work Christ needed to do in order to redeem man did not end when He died as a lamb. When His work as the Lamb of God was finished at the cross, His work as a High Priest had just begun. Jesus resurrected victoriously from the dead and came out of the grave giving mankind victory over eternal death. His resurrection is a guarantee to all who believe in Him that they too will resurrect at the last trumpet. Indeed, in this life people die; it started since Adam and Eve lost their Eden home, and it will continue as long as we continue to be on this earth. But Jesus refers to this kind of temporary death ‘sleep’ because there will be a resurrection (John 11:11-14; Daniel 12:2); it is not eternal death Adam and Eve were warned about. In John 5:28,29, Jesus says, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” Apostle Paul admonishes us in 1Thessalonians 4:14-17 and 1Co 15:52-57, “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 an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This is the blessed assurance God gives to all who fear Him and give Him glory.

In the earthly sanctuary, by law, no one could become a priest unless that person was a Levite – from the lineage of Aaron (Hebrews 5:4). Therefore, since Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, He would not qualify to be a priest, let alone a High Priest (Hebrews 7:14). “For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the Heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’" (Hebrews 8:4,5).

“Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:1,2). “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus’ work for the redemption of man was symbolized by both the lamb as well as the priest in the earthly sanctuary. The lamb died as the sinner’s substitute while the priest mediated before God with the blood of the lamb for the sinner. In the true tabernacle which God pitched and not man, Jesus is also our great High Priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens.

Certainly, now there is another High Priest, not after the order of Aaron according to the law, but after the order of Melchizedek. “Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?” (Hebrews 7:11). Christ, having offered His life for sinners, appeared before the Father in the Heavenly sanctuary as our High Priest, Mediator, and Intercessor of the new covenant. In this new covenant, Jesus’ blood, not that of animals, is poured and taken into the sanctuary in Heaven. Jesus Himself, is the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not men according to the order of the Levitical priesthood. “For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law” (Hebrews 7:12).

In the days of prophet Jeremiah, God assured His people, “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:31,32). Now, it is Jesus who intercedes for us in this new covenant; Jesus pleads for us in the Heavenly sanctuary before the Father, “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1Timithy 2:5). He is the Son of man as well as the Son of God. Through His sacrifice and faithfulness, Jesus claims salvation for us. He has obtained a more excellent ministry, and He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was built upon better promises (Hebrews 8:6). The reality of Jesus’ ascension and ministry in the Heavenly sanctuary is a sure and steadfast anchor to the Christian, the guarantee that His promises have substance and are worthy of confidence (Heb. 7:22).

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,” (1Peter 3:18). Jesus died on the cross that mankind could be bought, He resurrected and appeared before God in the Heavenly sanctuary so that He might bring us to God. So having been bought and brought to God, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus is the reason we have faith. As one with God, He expressed the faithfulness of God toward us. God never gave up in His efforts to save us, and that is why we will reach the reward in the end if we don’t give up. Jesus ran with patience and remained faithful. Faith in Him is only the response we can give to His faithfulness. Beholding the joy set before Him – seeing the human race redeemed by His grace, not only did He endure misunderstanding and abuse, but also the shame of the cross.

Jesus invites you to be a partaker of His eternal kingdom. He has done all that is necessary for your salvation. He invites you to alert your family and friends to join this eternal kingdom. Invite your family and friends to share this everlasting gospel; print and share hard copies with those who have no access to the internet. Let this gospel reach everyone you know and care about.

“Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water" (Revelation 14:6,7). But we cannot continue to commit sin deliberately and give God glory at the same time; we will only be liars if we think we can. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23). Because of sin, we fall short of the glory of God. Only sin made man fall; and if we stop committing deliberate sins Christ will lift us up and give us perfection through His power. Adam and Eve committed sin deliberately even though they were deceived. Through Christ we know the ways of the devil and through His strength, we must not fall victim to Satan anymore. Through prayer and study of His word, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Let us hold on to the faith in we have in Jesus; believe only God’s Word, and continue praying for The Holy Spirit. The LORD bless you and keep you. The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The LORD lift up His face to you and give you peace.

Shalom