The Gospel Unpacked: Biblical Christianity, #2

By Daryl J. Koerth

A detailed look at the gospel message by examining Jesus's words and actions.

This book is my attempt at clarifying the gospel and making its message more accessible to those who have trouble with the Bible's archaic language and cultural concepts. It is my genuine hope that this book helps others relate to the New Testament story and message.

This is the second book in my Biblical Christianity series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rockin' K Publishers LLC
• Release date: Aug 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781959282006

Book preview

Introduction

Let’s get the first question out of the way first: why write a book like this?

There are several very good reasons – I think – why I wanted to write this book. First, a lot of people these days don’t even go to church...and I must say, there are some cases where this is a good thing. I, for instance, do not attend any church. For the past three years, I’ve been disabled. For the previous nineteen years, I was a pagan. So, first and foremost, I wanted to write a plain-language exposition and analysis of the gospel message. As I learned, I saw a lot of things I had wrong. I wanted to correct those mistakes for others, while giving them the opportunity to read about the greatest story ever told.

This is not an attempt to re-write the Bible.

Second, the Bible may be a masterwork of storytelling, but it is also very difficult for many to absorb. Its use of archaic terms, its ancient (and not explained) context, and its sheer verbosity (lots of words to say something simple) make it intimidating – even prohibitive – for readers. I am hoping this book will make the gospel message a lot more accessible.

This is not an attempt to re-write the Bible.

Third, there are a lot of things people get wrong about the message of the gospel. Some of these errors are completely innocent...and some are not. What I mean by saying that – especially since I’m by no means any kind of Biblical scholar – is that some errors are just simple mistakes, while others are intentional. I’ll try to point these out as we go through the story.

Need I say it again? This is not an attempt to re-write the Bible.

Time to settle the second obvious question, which I introduced. Why is an ex-pagan writing a book about Jesus? This is actually quite easy to answer. A little more than three years ago, I had a brief brush with death. This experience not only gave me a near-death experience, but gave me just enough brain damage to totally disable me: blurred vision, unable to walk, unable to speak, totally uncoordinated (can’t even write my own signature), loss of bladder control, and so on. So, erase any images you might have of a stately older gentleman at a computer. Instead, this is coming from a forcibly-humbled 40-year-old man that wets himself and lives with his mommy because his wife and stepson abandoned him and threw away the new house and car.

I have very good reasons for converting back to Christianity. I was just so astonished at some of the things I’ve learned, I felt compelled to share them. Hence, this book.

Enough Q&A. There are fairly important things you need to know about this book.

Right from the start, I should tell you that I’m excluding a full half of the Biblical gospel. Why? Because Mark and Luke were not apostles. I’m not entirely sure who they were or how they got hold of the gospel message, but since they were not included in the chosen twelve apostles, I will not use their books as source material. Therefore, I will only rely on the books of Matthew and John.

Don’t worry. These two New Testament books provide quite enough material for this book.

This book will be divided into three parts. The first part will untangle the identity of Jesus. People have been arguing about the identity of Jesus since he was conceived. The second part will explore each of the miracles and healings Jesus performed. I believe that each of these acts have something meaningful and powerful to convey to us. The third part will examine Jesus’ teachings, and attempt to unpack them in a meaningful way. Jesus taught mostly in parables, and I believe that with the right perspective and interpretation we can learn what Jesus was trying to teach us.

Part One: Jesus’ Identity

Chapter One

Who was Jesus? That’s a very common question. From the Christian perspective, it’s the wrong question. Christians should ask: who is Jesus? There’s a very good reason for this, though it is somewhat obscure and picky.

You see, according to the gospel, Jesus was crucified, died, and was risen. In other words, He gained victory over death and was resurrected. He’s alive.

So, who is Jesus?

Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy to tell us. It starts with Abraham and goes all the way down to Joseph. There are two problems I see with this genealogy. I want to bring out the arguments against it as these arguments are commonly used to debunk the faith. The two issues, as I see them, are: 1) the Jewish bloodline is matriarchal (passed down through the female line), not patriarchal, and 2) Jesus was not born of Joseph’s bloodline, since he was created by the Holy Spirit.

How do we deal with these two problems?

Let’s address the matrilineal bloodline first. This was adopted into Rabbinic Law before the patriarchal Roman occupation, but when in Rome. Yes, that was an attempt at a joke, and it was horrible. The point is that the Roman occupation had a lot of effects on traditional Jewish culture, and the patriarchal hierarchy was one of them.

Second, Jesus’ bloodline. The Holy Spirit was not part of Joseph’s or Mary’s lineage, obviously. Still, how do you explain the virgin birth and how Jesus fits into the story? Imagine yourself in Biblical times. There are two things that identify the Messiah: descended from the line of David, and somehow ordained by God. So, the Holy Spirit put the Messiah into Joseph’s family...which is descended from David.

Guess what John says? That Jesus is literally the Word of God, embodied in human form.

Yeah. John doesn’t mess around with proving anything to anyone. He just puts it right out in front. Jesus is the Messiah. Deal with it.

I like John’s style, though I respect Matthew’s thoroughness. Both are needed. This is a big story that Israel has literally been waiting for thousands of years to come to fruition. The way it was done is perfect, truly.

Now that we’ve dealt with the two big controversies, we can ask the big, loaded question.

Who is Jesus?

I wasn’t joking. That is one of the most loaded questions ever asked.

We already know He is the Messiah, though we don’t know yet what that means. Let’s take a quick look at His name, because that is very telling.

Just wait. This is astounding.

Jesus’ name, in its original Hebrew long form, is Yehoshua. This is a combination of two Hebrew words. The first, Yeho, is a short form of God’s name: Yahweh. The second word, shua, means to save.

That’s right: His name is literally Yahweh Saves. Awesome.

I can already hear the question, so let’s just get it out of the way. If His name is Yehoshua, why do we call Him Jesus? There are two reasons for this: human laziness and translation troubles. Yehoshua got shortened to Yeshua, and when the name got translated into Greek it became Yesus. The last jump, into English, traded the y in for a j, and the name became Jesus. There you have it: the magic of human laziness and different languages with different letters.

Chapter Two

The second key part of Jesus’ identity is His baptism and test in the wilderness. I see these two stories as linked. Closely linked.

Jesus gets baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, and as He comes out of the water, God speaks from Heaven and says, This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). That’s a public announcement of Jesus’ divinity.

Immediately after the baptism, we get this story about the Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. The tester puts Jesus through three tests: 1) His hunger after 40 days of fasting, 2) a temptation to test His status with God by throwing himself off the temple, and 3) a temptation to take power over the kingdoms of the world by worshipping the tester. Jesus passes all three tests with flying colors. Let’s break down each of these tests, though, so we can gain a greater understanding of what’s going on.

The first test is hunger after 40 days of fasting. The tester tempts Jesus by saying, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread (Matthew 4:3). There is an assumption made that as the Son of God, Jesus can transform stone into bread. Assume this is true. This test, then, is an attempt to undermine Jesus’ trust in the Father. What does Jesus do? He answers with a quote from the Hebrew scriptures and simply trusts God to deliver Him.

The second test is a bit more direct and perilous. The tester takes Jesus to the top of the temple in Jerusalem, and tempts Jesus to test God’s love for Him. The tester uses scripture to tempt Jesus to throw Himself off the temple, because if Jesus is the Son of God, God will command His angels to save Jesus. This is a test of how far Jesus will push the Father. They are standing on top of the temple, where God’s presence can be found on Earth. If Jesus were to jump, He would be forcing God’s hand (in a way): send angels to rescue Him, or let Him die. Again, Jesus responds with a scriptural reference and declines to participate.

The final test is a little more complex. The tester takes Jesus to the top of a mountain to show Him all the kingdoms of the world, and promises to give all of them to Jesus if He will worship the tester. See, Jesus is king of the world, and His mission is to usher in the kingdom of heaven. The tester is offering Jesus a shortcut that will ignore the Father’s plans, as well as deny the Father His