The Gospel which the early Church embraced was more comprehensive than today’s diluted version. Many of the current so-called "gospels" are incomplete or even counterfeit. The Bible stipulates one true Gospel as the way to eternal life. Jesus told his Jewish listeners, "Whoever trusts in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive" (John 7:38, 39a). The "streams of living water" refer to the evidential presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of one who puts his trust in Jesus. The only Scripture in existence when Jesus spoke these words was the Hebrew Bible. If you want to trust Jesus "as the Scripture has said," you must study the Hebrew Bible to discern the complete Gospel.

The Gospel that is based on the Hebrew Bible and understood by the early Jewish church was not man accepting Jesus as his Savior, but God accepting the Lord Jesus as the only Savior. Christ fulfilled the reconciliation requirements of God. Jesus’ payment was complete, and a new covenant was established through His blood. The resurrection of Jesus was the Father’s sign that the sacrifice for our sins had been accepted by Him. God was, and forever will be, satisfied.

Before the coming of Jesus, a number of rabbis taught that a person must experience a spiritual birth, a response to God’s call on his life. Conversion equaled rebirth. Being "born from above" was a shift from following the letter of the law to abiding in loving obedience with God. Being born again was the point at which you put your full trust and reliance in the Lord. That’s why Jesus was so surprised when Nicodemus professed ignorance of this new birth: "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this?" (John 3:10). The early Church understood salvation as a process based on repentance and loving trust in Jesus.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God expressed His heart’s desire for a viable love relationship with His chosen people. God lays the same relational requirement in both the Old and New Testaments; that is, to love Him. If we try to keep God’s commands without loving Him, we’ll become proud and get caught up in what we do for Him. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 13 that "without love, we are nothing." Living out God’s commands because of our love for Him keeps us humbly dependent on Him, and contrite when we fail.

The foundation of love is found in the ten commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai. God promises to show His love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. Deuteronomy 6:4, 5, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength," affirms the importance of love. The Hebrew word for love, ahav (ah-hahv’), means to be filled with desire and delight and passion for the one you love. You long to be in your loved one’s presence. The heart-cry of God throughout the Tanakh (the Old Testament) is a longing for a love relationship with His people.

Quoting from that same Deuteronomy passage, Jesus delivered the greatest commandment: " ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second [which is from Leviticus] is like it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-40). The Greek word agape (ah-gah’-pay) is used for love here, and its meaning is similar to the Hebrew ahav. If Paul emphasizes to the Church that "in Christ Jesus . . . [t]he only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6), then the Church began at Mt. Sinai, not at Pentecost.

Accepting the Gospel: Accepting the Covenant

The early Jewish followers of Jesus clearly understood the significance of covenants. Today we understand dimly at best. God had established covenants with His people through Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. Jeremiah had prophesied that the Jews could expect yet another covenant. God is the initiator of the covenants between Himself and His people. Each covenant carries with it God’s promises and man’s responsibilities if he accepts God’s terms.

Paul reminded the Gentiles about covenants as part of the heritage received from the Jewish people: "Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises" (Romans 9:4).

These words sound quaint and very antique to us in the post-modern West. But what a thundering impact Jesus’s words must have had on the Jewish ears who first heard them: "This is my blood of the covenant [gasp!], which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:28).

But the new covenant did not eradicate the old. The old became the enduring foundation for the new. And today, we cannot adequately appreciate the new unless we have a heart-knowledge of the old, as the early Jewish followers did. For it is from the heart that we put our loving trust in Jesus to enter a covenant relationship with our heavenly Father through His Son’s shed blood. A converted person has entered into a covenantal relationship with the Father through the blood of Jesus. The Father’s sign that He has consummated the relationship is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in that individual.

Let’s review the key covenantal elements of conversion in both Old Testament Israel and the Hebraic church—repentance, agape (ahav) love, and obedient trust:

1. Salvation requires your Repentance

John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter at Pentecost all affirmed repentance as the first step of salvation. Biblical repentance always demands a turning from sin and a turning to God. Do you see these two distinctives? Turning from sin and turning to God. That’s the vital message in this verse: "I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus" (Acts 20:21).

Repentance grieves you that you have grieved God; you hunger for the forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration that only He can give. That grief is the "godly sorrow [that] brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret" (2 Corinthians 7:10).

2. Salvation requires your Agape (ahav) Love

In the early church, there was a loving intensity for God in accepting the Gospel message that is often lacking today. Remember, God desires a love relationship with His people. This love is wonderfully manifested by those who know the Gospel of the Hebrew Scriptures and understand the depth of their own depravity. For them it is easy to see God’s grace in the atonement and to appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf.

Trevor McIlwain of New Tribes Missions has gotten a phenomenal response by teaching natives the Bible in chronological order, from Genesis to Revelation. When they complete the Old Testament, they see the depth of their own sin. Then when they hear about Jesus, they are delighted to respond in love to His sacrifice on the cross.

3. Salvation is incomplete without your Obedient Trust

The unwavering trust that God requires of His children is the fabric woven throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Look at some of God’s promises to those who trust Him to take care of things: "Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him" (Psalm 32:10). "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5, 6). "So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘The one who trusts will never be dismayed’" (Isaiah 28:16).

Salvation for the Jews was based on a loving trust in God that resulted in obedience: "Abraham trusted God, and it was credited to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).

No Salvation Without Forgiveness

One truth in particular startles many Gentiles. Jesus declared, "If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:15). The question for us is, Can we be forgiven of anything by our heavenly Father if we do not forgive others who have violated us?

The early Church understood that our Father will not consummate a relationship with an unforgiving person. Why? Because the Father refuses to forgive him. There will be no evidence of the Holy Spirit operating as a stream of living water in a bitter, unforgiving person. That person has failed to appreciate how much he or she needs to be forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus. That’s a relational fact, something fairly obvious to early believers–but not so obvious to those who have given themselves to the false, man-centered gospels of today.

The Indwelling Holy Spirit: Caring For the Needs of Others

The Jewish people at the time of Jesus’s birth had been anticipating the Messiah for centuries. In Matthew 11, the imprisoned John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, "Are you the one who was to come?" Jesus sent them back to John, responding with six actions that the Jews knew from the prophet Isaiah would identify the Messiah when He came: The blind receive sight; the lame walk; those who have leprosy are cured; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; and the good news is preached to the poor. The Messiah was to be recognized by His care for others, a theme repeatedly emphasized for all God’s people throughout both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

Hebraic faith required action from a believer. In this light, Jesus, Himself, reveals what He will demand as a sign of our faith at the final judgment: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).

Each of us needs to consider seriously our covenant responsibilities. If your faith has not caused you to care for others, then you have no faith. James reaffirms this critical Hebraic truth: "Faith without deeds is dead" (James 2:26). This is a far cry from the contemporary faith in which a person goes forward at a meeting, then settles back into a comfortable lifestyle and stays at the "Baby Christian" level forever after.