The Truth of the Gospel, Part 2

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

(2 Peter 1:19-21 ESV)

As I mentioned in my prior post, many people now view the gospel as nothing more than myth. They believe the account of Jesus to be nothing more than a man-made story. They believe it to be a story that was propagated to either comfort the distraught or to gain control of society.

However, as we saw, the account of Jesus was attested to by eyewitnesses. Men who were there, who saw and heard what had taken place, shared this message. In fact, they even went to their death for this message.

And, as we see above, there is something even more compelling that reveals to us the truth of the gospel. In addition to eyewitness testimony, we have the prophetic word. We have the message of the prophets, which spoke of the coming Savior. In fact, these prophets spoke of the Savior long before he was born into the world.

As we look to Scripture, we see the Savior foretold from the very beginning. The first promise of the Savior was given in Genesis 3, immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve and the entrance of sin into the world. And these promises continue to come throughout the Old Testament.

God also pointed the people to the coming Savior through his acts of salvation performed on behalf of his people. He pointed them to the Savior through his law. And he pointed the people to the Savior through the sacrificial system and the holidays he ordained. Everything in Scripture, from beginning to end, points us to Jesus.

This word, Peter tells us, was not produced by the will of man. It’s not something that men decided to write. Nor is it a message produced in the mind of men. This message is the very Word of God. It’s the Word of God because these men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. In other words, they recorded for us a Word given to them by God himself.

Many people, today, downplay this truth. They downplay it, knowing men to be imperfect and sinful. And for this reason, they tell us, their message contains mistakes. Imperfect men are incapable of bringing to us a perfect word.

In saying this, they discount the inspiration of God. Apart from him, their message was sure to be flawed. But because this message was given by the perfect, omniscient, omnipotent God, it is flawless.

We, then, can take comfort in this Word knowing it to be true. We can take comfort in the gospel knowing that it was delivered to us by eyewitnesses.  And we can take comfort in it knowing that it’s confirmed through the prophetic Word, which was inspired by God himself.