BIBLE CLASS 101 | CHAPTER 17:16 – 17:34 | THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

BIBLE CLASS 101 | CHAPTER 17:16 – 17:34 | THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

While the Old Testament and the gospels did reveal that Christ would die and be raised for the sins of his people (Israel), the shed blood of Christ was not at the heart of “the gospel of the kingdom” preached during the earthly ministry of Christ and early Acts. To “believe on Christ” at that time was to believe that he was the Son of God, the promised Christ and King of Israel. As late as Luke 18:31-34, after extensively preaching “the gospel of the kingdom,” the apostles still did not understand that Christ would have to die. (See p. 34.) After his death, they did not preach the cross as good news, but as a wicked deed that Israel needed to repent of. This is because there are many things that the cross of Christ accomplished that God purposely kept hidden until he revealed them through Paul. He kept this “hidden wisdom” a secret so that Satan and his princes would not know it, “for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”