Proclaiming the Good News

KEY VERSE: “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” —Acts 13:38

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Acts 13:26-39

THE GOOD NEWS which Jesus preached and which the Apostle Paul emphasized was that now justification through forgiveness of sins was possible. The sacrifices of the Mosaic Law could never take away sin, but they did point forward in a typical way to a better sacrifice which could take away sin—Jesus’ sacrifice as a sin-offering.

The New Testament brings the various pictures, types, and prophecies of ancient times into sharp focus. Emerging from the dimness of the myriad of animal sacrifices throughout the centuries, and particularly the exacting rites of the Atonement Day services, Jesus Christ appears before us in brilliant illumination. He is the Lamb of God, the ransom price, the offering for sin. He was the one charged with the responsibility of making the legal atonement for the sin of the world before the bar of God’s justice.

Paul wrote, “Wherefore when he [Jesus] cometh Into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. … By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”—Heb. 10:5-10

The Heavenly Father had fashioned the various offerings and sacrifices carried out under the Law Covenant, but none of these gave pleasure to him since they could not actually take away sin. “For the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”—Heb. 10:1

Jesus himself taught that the main purpose of his earthly ministry was to fulfill this commitment of becoming the ransom price. He said, “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom [‘a corresponding price’, Young’s Concordance] for many.” (Matt. 20:28) The Apostle Paul confirmed this when he wrote of “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”—I Tim. 2:5,6

As also shown in Scripture, “without shedding of blood [there] is no remission [of sins].” (Heb. 9:22) It is only the shedding of blood and the application of its value that makes possible the actual remission or satisfaction of sins. The use of Jesus’ merit to make this atonement for the world is the vital step in what is termed the sin-offering.

Jesus’ work of sacrifice began at Jordan, where he offered himself to the Father in complete consecration. For three and one-half years he continued the work that entailed a course of suffering, humiliation, and misunderstanding by the world. It was finally completed upon the cross at Calvary by his death. Whereas suffering could never atone for the sins of the world, it was an integral part of the picture from the moment his sacrifice began.—Heb. 13:11-13

Jesus’ ministry was living testimony that through him forgiveness of sin could at last come to the human family, first for the church class during this Gospel Age, and afterward for the remainder of the world during the Millennial Age.

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