Jennifer Bales

The word “Gospel” is so familiar and frequently used that it is possible to lose sight of its genuine meaning, “good news.” This question is vital as we face a series of movements within our churches which seek to redefine the meaning of the Gospel. In each case we are being offered “another Gospel” (Gal 1:6). The Good News of Christ faces a threat on the order of that faced by the Galatian Christians. What Happened to this Good News? The fathers in the early church spoke the Gospel, but their concerns tended to focus on apologetics, the Trinity, Christology, the canon of Scripture and the church. As often as not the “Gospel” message among the early fathers was that Christ had come, and salvation is available to those who trust Christ and behave themselves. This was not good news for sinners. By the thirteenth century the Gospel of grace was understood as a progressive transformation of a person’s moral life. The gospel equaled sanctification. People were thought to be morally sick

"That Christ earned our redemption as the reward for his faithful work comforts us, for it assures us that we are saved by his merit and not our own. We are acceptable to the Father not because of our obedience, but because of his obedience. As Heidelberg Catechism Question 60 puts it, Although my conscience accuses me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil; yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart."

121 Q. Now explain the meaning of this article, “From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.” A.* With my eyes turned to the heavens and my heart at peace in all distress, persecution, and rumors of war, I believe in and await the coming of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. I am fully confident that as He came the first time to earn our salvation, He will come again to impart to us the full fruit and enjoyment of that salvation He earned, in order that, as it is written, “having now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from wrath by His life. For if when we were still enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5[:9, 10]). 122 Q.* Does this article then bring you comfort rather than terror? A. Since all the Articles of Faith have been composed for our comfort, this one too is here certainly not to trouble us but to comfort and delight us. Second, Christ

Today: Christ's righteousness for us remains unshaken. His love toward us undeterred. His mercy toward us unchanged. And so, our peace with God remains the same.

Genesis 2:4 "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." What is the significance of the genealogies and the "generations" in the Old Testament? Why did the authors of Genesis record them? They had Faith. Faith in Christ who from their perspective was "the promised seed." The only reason the generations of Adam and Eve were recorded in Genesis was to track the awaited promised seed from Genesis 3:15. The saints that recorded the lineage of Eve were convinced of Gods promise to send a seed that would "crush the head of the serpent." Because of this they wrote down and recorded the generations of descendants. You can see the anticipation of the promise with Abel... "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord." Genesis 4:1 And Lamech when he had Noah... "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from