Thursday, April 26
Read Revelation 14:6, 7. What is the “everlasting gospel”?
The gospel is referred to here as “everlasting”. This is further evidence that God does not change. An unchanging God has an unchanging gospel. This eternal gospel gives assurance to all who are willing to accept it. The gospel reveals the unchanging love of God, and it’s this message that needs to go to the world. Everyone needs a chance to hear it, which is why God has called His people to spread it.
“[J]ust as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Ephesians 1:4, 5, NKJV). What does this tell even more about just how “everlasting” the gospel really is?
Chosen in Him “before the foundation of the world”. Talk about an “everlasting” gospel! Even before the Creation of this world, God’s plan was for us to have salvation in Him.
Look at some of the words here: “chosen”, “predestined”, “good pleasure”, “adoption”. Look at how much these two verses point to God’s desire for us to have eternal life “in Him”. And the fact that God had done all this in eternity past (see also 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 2 Timothy 1:9) points so clearly to His grace, showing that our salvation comes not from anything we can do nor from any creature merit, but totally as an act arising from God’s own loving character. How could salvation come from anything we could do if we were elected to have that salvation in Him even before we existed? The choice is for us to accept or reject it.
And how is this election made manifest in the lives of the elect? To “be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4, NKJV).This, too, is what we have been chosen for.
We are called to spread the “everlasting gospel” to the world as part of the end-time message prior to Christ’s return. Why must we know and experience the reality of the “everlasting gospel” in our own lives before we can share it with others?
