According to Mark’s Gospel, Jesus begins his public work with a proclamation. After his baptism by John and his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus “came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near: repent, and believe the gospel’” (Mar k 1:14-15, my translation). Matthew and Luke present basically the same message.
Let’s look closely at what Mark’s narrator and Jesus say here. The Gospel describes Jesus’ message as the gospel. Jesus challenges people to “repent, and believe the gospel.” In between, Jesus proclaims “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near.” That core announcement — “It’s time, and God is breaking into the world” — that is the core of Jesus’ own gospel.
"How could Jesus transact this?"
gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is one who is worthy of the glory of heaven and his name is Jesus. God himself came to earth in the person of Jesus. Referred to as the Son of God, or Messiah (in Hebrew), or Christ (in Greek), and long propheciedthroughout the Old Testament to come, Jesus first and foremost lived a life that was finally worthy of good in return. To Jesus alone did God say, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). Jesus alone perfectly obeyed God's laws. Jesus alone loved with a perfect love. Jesus alone committed no sin.
More than just coming to teach us and serve as our example for living, Jesus also came to die. When Jesus died upon the cross, he took upon himself sin's penalty of death on behalf of all who will believe and follow him. Only Jesus was capable of dying for another's sin because only he was withoutsin; he had no personal sin-debt to pay.
Jesus' death on the cross was the single forthcoming act of mankind's salvation which the Old Testament sacrificial system was designed to teach all along. (That was the expression of the gospel to those whom had preceded Christ.) As only God would and could do, Jesus, out of love for his people, became their sacrificial lamb.
"How could Jesus transact this?"
While God's holiness keeps us at a distance from him, and God's justice requires that sin and sinners be dealt with, it is God's love and mercy that we have to thank for providing the way we can become holy and enter his presence. That way was for God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, to bear his own legal consequence of our sins for us. Jesus could transact this because:
- Jesus' characteristic of holiness enabled him to live a life free of sin, perfectly obeying all his laws, which qualified him to serve as our guiltless substitute (foreshadowed by the Old Testament's sacrificial use of spotless lambs),
- Jesus' characteristics of being both just and eternal permitted his substitutionary death on the behalf of others, which fully satisfied his law, and enabled him to survive the grave; plus...
- Jesus' characteristic of love led him to endure that ultimate penalty on our behalf so that all who believe in him will be imputed with his own holy righteousness and FOR THAT REASON ONLY qualify to enjoy his glory forever.