How Do We See the Gospel in the Book of Genesis?
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The following is a transcribed Video Q&A, so the text may not read like an edited article would. Scroll to the bottom to view this video in its entirety.
The Gospel, by Jesus Christ is seen in the Book of Genesis in a variety of ways. The fullness of the Gospel is not presented in the Book of Genesis but we get glimpses, we get bits and pieces of the Gospel in the Book of Genesis.
For example, in Genesis three, when Satan successfully tempts Adam and Eve to rebel against their creator, God comes in judgment and he speaks to the serpent and he says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, I will put enmity between your offspring and the offspring of woman. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel."
In that passage, we get a prophecy from the Lord, which speaks to the demise of the serpent. Now we don't know exactly how it's going to be fulfilled, but we know that the Lord has prophesied it. When we consider the extent of Christian scripture and when we get to the new testament, we see that actually that seed, which will come from the woman, is Jesus Christ himself and Jesus Christ will bring about the demise of the serpent.
Another way that the Gospel is seen in bits and pieces in the Book of Genesis, is in Genesis, chapter 12, where God comes to Abraham, he calls him out, he's going to establish through Abraham a great nation. One of those promises that the Lord gives to Abraham in Genesis, 12 is that he's going to bless all the nations of the Earth through Abraham.
You have this gigantic promise in one sense and you're wondering how in the world can it be fulfilled. We fast forward to the new testament and in Matthew, we see that the descendant that is going to make this come about is Jesus of Nazareth. He is related to Abraham. He is a descendant of Abraham. The way that this is fulfilled, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to the nations.
The Bible identifies Jesus of Nazareth as the Lord and savior of this world. Jesus commissions his disciples to go into the nations and make disciples, he tells them and acts to go into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the Earth and to preach that message, which saves.
Then we see at the end of Christian scripture, in the book of revelation in chapters five and chapter seven, a picture of a great multitude in heaven and this multitude in heaven and this multitude is the redeemed of God and John says, "Within that redeemed of God, there are men and women from every tribe, from every tongue, from every language group and from every nation." You see the fulfillment of the Gospel and it's totality as men, women and children are saved from all the nations.