Friday, August 22, 2008

A great paragraph on "the gospel"

As I was reading through the concordance on "gospel," I found this great paragraph on the gospel in the book of Romans:

Romans 15:14-21

Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel 2098 of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient—in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel 2098 of Christ. And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel 2097, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, but as it is written:

“To whom He was not announced, they shall see;
And those who have not heard shall understand.”



There's something not quite right in this idea of mine I think, about 2097 being the message that saves and 2098 being the message that sanctifies.... But for now it's the best I can do until I do more research. It seems to be a high predictor of context of any passage.

This paragraph, along with passages in a former post, are one of the select few where they are used together.

You may draw your own observations, but here are mine:

1 -- Paul is confident that they are "filled" with knowledge (vs 14)

2 -- Paul still wants to disscuss particular points with them

3 -- He calls this effort, ministering the "gospel 2098 of God" (vs 15)

4 -- Paul switches to the word "gospel," 2097, as he discusses the original exposure of the Word to the lost (vs 20)

5 -- He verifies again that 2097 is about the beginning of the message by quoting the OT which says "To whom He was not announced...."

What do you think?

Is the case being built to reconsider 1 cor 15 as the "gospel" 2098 message for the... lost?


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