The Basics

• Since I’m not sure how much anyone may already know, I’ll cover all the basics, so bear with me if you already know some of what I write. (When I quote the Bible, I’ll follow it with a reference on where it’s found in the Bible in parentheses. I use the NIV version).
  
  THE BASICS

The Bible:

• The Bible is split into two parts. The Old Testament and the New Testament. A testament is a covenant. A covenant is an agreement, only more so. Think of marriage as a covenant. It’s kind of a serious, lasting agreement.
• The Old Testament is the old covenant between God and His chosen people (the Israelites). A long time ago, was a man named Abraham. God made an agreement with him that his descendants would be God’s chosen people, so that God could use them to show the world His glory. Abraham had a son (Isaac) and Isaac had two sons (Esau and Jacob). Jacob was renamed Israel (and his descendants are called Israelis).
• The New Testament is a new covenant between God and His chosen people (expanded to people from all over the world, instead of just Israel. More on that later).
  

The Gospel:

• Gospel means “Good News”. The good news is the New Covenant. More on that later.
  

The Law:

• Remember above, God made a covenant with His chosen people, descendants of Abraham. After a certain amount of time, God gave to Moses a list of commands (everyone has heard about the first 10, but there are hundreds more). This list of commands was named The Law.
• Israelites were His People because He chose them. That was the main point. And then He gave them the Law, explaining that if they are His people, they would observe the Law. Unfortunately, they lost focus on the “chosen” part and focused on the “law” part.
  People started thinking they could be brought to God by following the Law, instead of accepting His free gift of choosing them.
  

The Gospel:

• Okay, back to the Gospel. So, God set up a new covenant, to return to emphasizing the mercy of God, instead of the Law.
  
• Okay, that’s the basics. Here’s a couple of words you may run into that might need explanation…
• Gentile: A non-Jew.
• Samaritan: Sworn enemies of the Jews. Samaritans and Jews argued about everything (For example, Samaritans believed God should be worshiped on the Samaritans’ Mountain, while Jews believed He should be worshiped in Jerusalem). Within Israel, Jews were considered God’s chosen people (remember above), so they tended to look down on Samaritans and Gentiles. When Jesus told a story, and He wanted to shock the Jewish leaders into re-thinking generally accepted prejudices, He often used Samaritans and Gentiles as the good guys.
• Righteous means “without sin”. Nowadays we call someone who thinks they don’t do anything wrong as “self-righteous” with the understanding that they aren’t really
  
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  A Little Beyond the Basics
  
  Okay, a little closer look.
  
  The Gospel (or good news) of the new covenant (or New Testament):
  
  First, the bad news…
• Okay, remember God had chosen the Israelites as His chosen people, and then gave them the Law as a blueprint for how a good person should act. And then people took that Law, and started treating it as a way to get to heaven. Paul said, “But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works.” (Romans 9:31-32).
• Israelites believed they could follow the law, so, Jesus came and explained than that no one can possibly follow the law. He explained that the Law went deeper than they understood. For example, “You shall not commit adultery”. Remember that one? So people said, “Hey, I haven’t had sex with someone who isn’t my wife, so I haven’t broken the Law”. But Jesus explained that the commandment was an example and not the complete issue. He said, “…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”. He did the same thing with murder. Being angry with your brother or cursing your brother makes you just as guilty as murdering him would.
• So, His point was, no one can possibly follow the law enough to make themselves righteous, because the Law requires absolute goodness, not just partial goodness. Paul explained this further when he said, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law” (Romans 2:12). So those who follow the Law are found guilty by the Law and those who do not follow the Law are guilty as well (judged by “right and wrong” instead of the Law).
• Paul continues to explain that every single person is guilty as well. “What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are under sin. As it is written: ‘there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.’” (Romans 3:9-11). “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
• So all have sinned. And then Paul explains the results of sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die”. (Romans 8:13).
• So, if the law cannot save you, and cannot make you righteous, what is it good for? “Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin”. (Romans 3: 20).
• Okay, so all that part was the bad news. All of us are guilty of sin. Sin leads to death. We are all doomed to death and separation from God. However…
  
  Okay, now onto the Good News:
• Remember, the old covenant was between God and Abraham concerning Abraham’s descendants. Then, on the night Jesus died, he was sharing with His disciples the Passover Meal (a Jewish celebration from the time of Moses) which involved bread and wine among other things. And, near the end of the meal, Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22: 20).
• Now, remember, the old covenant was based on God choosing people, but the people turned it into a way to get to God by doing good deeds. So Jesus established a new covenant based on the original premise. That God would choose people and they would come to Him not on their own merits.
• Paul says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. (Romans 5: 6-8).
• “It does not therefore depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Romans 9:16). “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law”. (Romans 3:28). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).
• Paul continues. “So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” (Romans 11:5-6).
• “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1). “…if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9).