The Old City of Jerusalem and Tel Shiloh in Israel share an interesting geographic feature. The landscapes of both cities, where God’s presence dwelt over His sanctuary (Joshua 18:1; 1 Kings 8), resemble a natural amphitheater. Whether standing on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem or the site of the Tabernacle in Shiloh, you can slowly spin 360 degrees and notice the nearby inhabited slopes. The Glory Cloud over the Tabernacle and the First Temple visibly reminded the surrounding community of God’s presence.
The geography of these two cities proclaims Scripture’s cover-to-cover truth: God intends to dwell amidst His people, at the center of the community, as the focus of our worship. Scripture begins with humanity communing with God in Eden (Genesis 1—3) and ends with redeemed humanity enjoying restored communion with God in a new Eden—an eternal state (Revelation 22). God’s heart for evangelism reflects His desire for communion with us.
In the Beginning
Humanity’s fellowship with God was severed when Adam and Eve joined Satan in his rebellion against their Creator (Genesis 3:9, 23–24). The serpent brought sin into the world through the first couple (v. 13), but when God brought the guilty parties before Himself for judgment, He promised a Conqueror. God decreed that the woman’s Seed would crush the serpent’s head, though the serpent would strike His heel (v. 15). This promise is called the protoevangelium, meaning “first gospel” or “first good message,” in Greek. Scripture would later unfold the meaning of God’s decree as more about the coming Messiah was revealed: The woman’s Seed would die (cf. Isaiah 53), but He would destroy the serpent. The decree applies to both past and future advents of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, beginning with His death on the cross and culminating soon with Satan’s prophesied defeat (Revelation 20:2, 10).
Evangelism is the Good News, or gospel, that the Messiah’s death and resurrection saves humanity from the penalty for joining the serpent, Satan.
The first time that God judged sin in Scripture, He hinted at the Messiah’s role as the saving hope for mankind. Evangelism is the Good News, or gospel, that the Messiah’s death and resurrection saves humanity from the penalty for joining the serpent, Satan. The remainder of Scripture traces the means through which God ultimately brought the Deliverer and demonstrates God’s heart for redemption.
What Is Evangelism?
Compared to other religions, faith in the Messiah is unique: Keeping commandments cannot merit restoration to God. Sin is a debt before God that we cannot repay with good works (Hebrew, mitzvot). We can only pay the cost of sin on our own by suffering eternal condemnation. Evangelizing the world is sharing the Good News to everyone that the Messiah paid our sin debt for us. He has covered (atoned for) our sins. That’s Good News!
When Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame and nakedness with the work of their own hands, God Himself covered them with animal skins (Genesis 3:21). The concept of sacrificial covering (atonement) originates here; all subsequent animal sacrifices to the one true God of Scripture point to the atoning death of the promised Deliverer. Each slain animal is a reminder of Genesis 3:15–21: A death must occur to achieve atonement.
Therefore, a true relationship with God through His Son sets believers apart from followers of other religions. They all lack good news. Hinduism cannot evangelize. It is not good news that people must earn salvation (moksha) by purifying themselves from evil in life after life, aiming to be yoked eventually to the supreme deity, Brahman. Catholicism, Islam, and Talmudic Judaism are all merit-based systems. In these, the burden is on followers to earn favor with God. They can only proselytize, but the absence of the good news means they cannot evangelize.
Abraham: The Father of the Faithful
After Eden, “men began to call on the name of the Lord” (4:26). Yet, after two global judgments on every nation (chaps. 6; 11), God chose to work through one nation, Israel, beginning with one man, Abraham, as the conduit of blessing upon all mankind (12:1–3). The woman’s Seed (3:15) would also be Abraham’s Seed, blessing all earthly families (12:3).
Abraham’s testimony teaches us what saving trust (belief) looks like. The atoning Seed would come through him, but Abraham sought reassurance that God could be trusted to multiply his offspring in the first place. Abraham “believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (15:6). Salvation comes through faith in God alone, not by good works. Our deeds serve as evidence of saving faith (James 2:17–18). When Abraham’s trust was tested, having been commanded to sacrifice his seed of promise, Isaac, he had full confidence that he and the boy would return (Genesis 22:5).
Salvation comes through faith in God alone, not by good works.
Abraham reminds us of Genesis 3:21: The covering for shame comes from God. As Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb” (22:8). Jesus said to the Judeans, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).
After the Messiah’s death and resurrection, the Lord used the apostle Paul to proclaim that Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness before he received the sign of circumcision. Why? So Abraham would be the father of the faithful for both the uncircumcised (Gentiles) and the circumcised (Jewish people) who trust God like him (Romans 4).
God’s Heart for Israel and the World
So, was God’s heart always for both Israel and the Gentiles, even prior to the Messiah’s arrival? Yes! A foreign multitude left Egypt with the Israelites (Exodus 12:38), and God’s heart for foreigners is evident in the Law of the Torah (e.g., Leviticus 19:34; Deuteronomy 27:19). Many Gentiles turned to Israel’s God in the Old Testament, such as Rahab the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabite, Uriah the Hittite, Naaman the Syrian, possibly Gentile kings like Hiram of Tyre (2 Chronicles 2:12; 1 Kings 5:7), the Ninevites who heard the prophet Jonah, and the brutal Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (Daniel 4:37). Isaiah said that the Messiah of God would restore Israel and be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:5–6).
Israel was never sent out across the world to spread the news about God. God strategically planted His people at the crossroads of international trade. The nations were to travel through the land of Israel to see a Chosen People that looked different, causing them to investigate the one true God (Exodus 19:6). The Messiah’s Great Commission to go into all the nations and share the Good News is given for an era that coincides with the temporary suspension of Israel’s theocracy (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:6–8). When this theocracy is restored, God will give Israel something they could never attain themselves: a new, clean, and circumcised heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Ezekiel 36:26–28).
Whether you are Jewish or Gentile, you can have a new heart now (Romans 2—4; Colossians 2:11). Today is the day for salvation (Isaiah 49:8; 2 Corinthians 6:2). Has the Messiah, the Great Physician, performed heart surgery on you? Has He koshered (circumcised) your heart and made you clean? Repent and ask the Lord to give you eternal life in the Messiah, saving you from the serpent’s fate (John 3:16). “‘For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn and live!’” (Ezekiel 18:32).
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