The Gospel First Mentioned In The Bible

Hello Saints,

I wanted to share this simple truth with you regarding the first mentioning of the Gospel. Please note, I will be posting on end-time prophecy, which is vital, because if we are not anchored in the truth, we can be easily deceived.

The first mentioning of the gospel is found in the account of the fall of Adam and Eve. Our merciful and loving Savior comes to Adam and Eve after they sinned and prophecy on the redeeming plan of Salvation.

Prophetic Plan of Salvation

Gen 3: 15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

The Lord turns from addressing the literal serpent who spoke to Eve, to pronounce judgement on the old serpent the devil, who took the form of the serpent. The enmity God adds or puts in the heart of man after the fall was necessary in order for man to resist evil. Sin had corrupted the essence of man to a point where it was impossible for man to resist the devil. Therefore, God had to add or put enmity between God's people (the woman) and between satan and his followers. Enmity is an in depth study, so I won't go to far into it right now. When He said, " he will crush your head" vs "you will strike his heel, " the more serious of these injuries is the striking of the head! God will one day destroy satan symbolized by striking his head. However, the striking of the heel refers to how the devil is able to tempt us and attack us in various ways. Notice the singular forms for both the "seed" of the woman and of satan. Jesus is the (he) one seed of the church that will save His people and crush/destroy satan, the seed, in the end.

Note: This is the first time the church is symbolized as a woman; however, you will find that the church continues to be symbolized as a woman throughout scripture, especially as we will come to end-time prophecy.

Adam, viceroy of God on earth so long as he remained loyal, had, by transferring his loyalty from God to the serpent, ceded his authority to satan.


Although great sorrow, guilt and suffering was keenly felt by Adam and Eve, the pronouncement of the plan of salvation must of brought great comfort to the two dismayed offenders standing before God.

Praise the Lord for knowing the plan He had for us and for predestinating for the adoption of children through Jesus Christ. Eph 1:4-5

In this connection I will quote Genesis 3:15 from the King James Bible (which is familiar to most Christians): And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This verse has been called "the Protevangelium" or the Gospel before the Gospel. It tells us that even though Satan would plot against Christ through His enemies, in order to put Him to death on the cross, the cross would in fact be the instrument of victory over the devil and his works.

The seed of the devil would be the enemies of Christ, and Jesus actually called them children of the devil. But "the seed of the woman" was Christ Himself, and that phrase pointed to the virgin birth of Christ. Hence Paul says that Christ was "made of a woman" because He was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Ghost.

And because of the virgin birth Jesus of Nazareth was free from the taint of the sin nature (inherited from Adam). It was a divine necessity that Jesus of Nazareth should be both FULLY GOD and FULLY SINLESS MAN in order to die for the sins of the whole world. He generally called Himself "the Son of Man", and He generally addressed His mother Mary as "Woman". That was not to disrespect her, but to distance Himself from His human family. Therefore He also said that all those who do the will of God are His mother, and brothers, and sisters.

Though not a direct proclamation perhaps just a little foreshadowing of the Gospel is even earlier when God says let us make man in our image. There is no salvation without the complete and solitary work on God on our behalf.
Also, as Adam is caused to fall into a deep sleep, Eve is made a new creation in Adam we see the foreshadowing of the NT scripture 2 Cor 5:17. And of course the bride and groom is the imagery we see in the NT.
Enjoyed your posts.

amen

Son of man

“and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:15‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Jesus the promised son of man would overcome the devil but the devil would wound him as he destroyed the serpent he would be stricken by him

the seed of Abraham

“that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭22:17-18‬ ‭KJV‬‬

And to Isaac his son

“and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭26:4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

and to Jacob his son

“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭28:12-14‬ ‭KJV‬‬

and to David his descendant

“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. ….: And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.”
‭‭2 Samuel‬ ‭7:12-14, 16-17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

You can see the promise of Jesus was always there but it was hidden and begins To unfold as it is passed on through Seth’s line adam to Noah to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to David and on to Mary it’s why when we get to the gospel Jesus is called so many things

Son of man through the first promise Son of Abraham through anrahams promise son of David through David’s promise ect its all coming from the things established in the ot

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Matthews referring us back to all the promises of Jesus so we know he is the one that came to fulfill Gods promises made to Adam and Eve to Noah to Abraham to Isaac and Jacob to David and Daniel and Ezekiel and zechariah and Jeremiah ect

It’s really a revelation when we start seeing Christ from the beginning in those promises every promise God made for all the people of earth is through Christ he was speaking of it beforehand nd is still speaking to people through the gospel about the same promise

man cause death since then the plan of salvstion has been unfolding even from the garden and is made complete from n the gospel which is the fulfillment of all those many covenant promises throughout the ot

IMO, the gospel must include the position to which we are reconciled. If we don't, we'll come up with an idea that we are 1) born to be saved or 2) saved simply to go to heaven when we die.

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭3:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Anything about Jesus in the ot is the gospel

The scriptures mention several gospels: the gospel of peace, the gospel of God, the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the glory of Christ.

It behooves us to not simply focus on salvation. Certainly, the gospel of Christ has power to save us, but that is not the whole story. And, simply acknowledging that Christ Jesus will one day defeat the enemy, is not the whole of the "good news". Many are so focused on salvation that they never stop to ask "for what reason are we saved"?

There seems to be an even earlier foreshadowing in Genesis 1:3-4.

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

The Apostle Paul alluded to this in direct relation to Jesus in 2 Corinthians 4:6.

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Also, there are those who claim that Jesus can be found in the very first word of the Hebrew text in Genesis 1:1.

Hi Nehemiah6,

I have to disagree with this statement of yours, expressing that Jesus was free from the sin nature of man.

On the contrary, Jesus had to take on the human sin nature in order to fully identify with humanity in the weaknesses that are common to us; being fully sympathetic with the problems and difficulties that the sincere Christian has to face.

In fact, one purpose of the incarnation was that Deity might come so close to humanity as to experience the very same problems and infirmities that are our common lot.

For the first time human nature was led to victory over its natural tendency to sin, and because of Christ's victory over sin we too may triumph over it.

Hebrew 4:15

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."

You are confusing human nature (humanity) with "the flesh" (the sin nature). There was no moral weakness in Christ. Christ was fully human but the sin nature was absent. Therefore Christ could not sin and did not sin. Had He even sinned once, He would have been disqualified as the sinless Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

* Jesus had to take on our sinful nature in order to overcome sin in the flesh and be considered a sufficient sacrifice. Without being subject to temptation as we are or the possibility of sinning, diminishes a true representation of an adequate sacrifice. It was possible for Jesus to sin. He did not have are sinful behavior, but He did have our sinful nature.

* Jesus mission to save sinful humanity from sin was all about Him overcoming sin. If it was not possible for Him to sin, he really did not overcome anything!.

* Actually, it states very clearly that God did send Jesus in sinful flesh according to Romans 8:3.

Rom 8:1-3
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh.

Hebrew 4:15
"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."

* Satan tempted Jesus throughout His entire life on earth with the intent on causing Him to fail at His mission of salvation. If it was not possible to tempt Him to fail, the devil would have accused Jesus of not being a sufficient sacrifice and all the heavenly host and the universe looking on would have to agree with the adversary.

* This school of thought that Jesus did not taken on the sinful nature of mankind is rooted in the erroneous belief the immaculate conception of Mary. It also states that Mary was preserved from all sin by the merits of her son's future life, death and resurrection. False!

* Approximately four thousand years had transpired by the time Jesus was born. Thus, He took on four thousand years of the sinful nature of mankind, making Him an adequate and sufficient sacrifice on mankind's behalf.

Thank you for this good and loving description of how and why our Lord is Our Lord. God bless you always.

That's a good citation and true too about Jesus especially in the fulness of how he would be born unto the virgin and destined to kill Satan's kingdom. However actually if you want to be technical the very first mention would be Genesis 1:1-4. Remembering that Jesus is the Word of God and the Light of God, retold in the basic opening of the Gospel of John. PRAISE JESUS!

Genesis 1:1-4
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

John 1:1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Also just to not be a nitpicker, will say this is a top tier post, one of the best I have read for a long while. You are certainly on to the truth, God has given you a good understanding, may he multiply your wisdom, PRAISE JESUS