ISAIAH PREACHED THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST BEFORE PAUL

May 13, 2010

Paul defines the gospel he preached in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 where he wrote: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

According to these verses the gospel Paul preached concerns the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. To say it includes other things is to add to the gospel. When Paul preached the gospel he tells us why Christ died. He died for our sins, meaning he died as a sacrifice for our sins. Let’s put it this way: we did the crimes but he paid the fine. We are guilty of every sin the law of God condemns but Jesus on the cross paid our sin dept. He did not die as a martyr or a hero but as a sacrifice for sinners and was raised from the dead. This is what Paul preached when he preached the gospel of Christ. This is the only gospel Paul preached and it is the power of God unto salvation. (Rom. 1:16)

But notice that when he preached the gospel of Christ he did so from the Old Testament Scriptures. He said CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS ACCORDING TO THE SCIPTURES. This means that someone in the Old Testament wrote about and preached the gospel of Christ before Paul and Paul quoted them when he preached the gospel. One man who preached the gospel of Christ in the Old Testament before Paul was Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:3-12
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Whether Isaiah understood everything he wrote is beside the point; the fact is, the gospel Paul preached was according to what the prophets like Isaiah wrote in the Old Testament. This means the gospel of Christ is an Old Testament doctrine. It also shows us that the gospel Paul preached was originally promised to Israel. What you read in Isaiah 53 is a promise God made to Israel that he would send them a Savior who would die for their sins and iniquities. The personal pronoun “our” in verse 5 referred to the people Isaiah wrote to, the nation of Israel. But Paul took this promise of their Savior and preached it to gentiles like us who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. The gospel of Christ is one of many spiritual blessings originally promised to Israel that gentiles are now made partakers of in Romans 15:27.