"The appearing" is what is called the "Incarnation"--when God was made flesh. Christ is the Will of God made known to us--God's grace revealed to us, the Way of reconciliation opened to us, the Light Who makes us God's lights, the revealed righteousness of God Who makes us God's righteousness, the Word of Truth by which we are saved and that we walk in, the Life Who brings us from the darkness of sin and death into the Light and the Life:
See John 1:1-5, 14 above.
1 Corinthians 2:6-10: "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him'--but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God."
Ephesians 1:9-10: "And He made known to us the mystery of His Will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."
1 Timothy 3:14-16: "Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the Truth. Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory."
Titus 1:3: "and at His appointed season He brought His Word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior..."
Hebrews 9:26-28: "Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him."
1 John 3:4-9: "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."
Christ's death, burial, and resurrection by His Father IS the Good News! It IS the Gospel. It IS the only way to gain eternal life--immortality with God. To reject the Gospel (or to obey the Gospel, and then turn from it again) is to reject life and immortality. The ONLY Way we can come to the Father is THROUGH, IN AND WITH Christ, Who IS the Gospel!
Psalm 12:28: "In the Way of righteousness there is life; along that Path is immortality."
John 3:14-18: [Jesus said,] "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God's One and Only Son."
John 3:36: [Jesus said,] "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
John 4:14: [Jesus said,] "but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 5:24-26: [Jesus said,] "I tell you the Truth, whoever hears My Word and believes Him Who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the Truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself."
John 6:40: [Jesus said,] "For My Father's Will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:54-58: [Jesus said,] "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
John 6:66-69: "From this time many of His [Jesus'] disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.'"
John 12:47-50: "As for the person who hears My Words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept My Words; that very Word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of My Own accord, but the Father Who sent Me commanded Me what to say and how to say it. I know that His command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told Me to say."
John 14:6: "Jesus answered, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
John 17:1-5: "After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: ‘Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent. I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.'"
NOTE: IN THESE VERSES IS THE DEFINITION OF "THE GOSPEL." 1 Corinthians 15:1-4: "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..."
AGAIN, A DEFINITION OF "THE GOSPEL": Romans 1:1-6: "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God--the Gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, Who as to His human nature was a descendant of David, and Who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Him and for His Name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ."
Romans 1:16-17: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.'"
Romans 5:21: "so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:22-23: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Ephesians 1:13: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation."
2 Thessalonians 1:8: "He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus."
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14: "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the Truth. He called you to this through our Gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."
ANOTHER DEFINITION OF "THE GOSPEL": 2 Timothy 2:8: "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my Gospel..."
Titus 3:4-7: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."
1 John 1:1-3: "That Which was from the beginning, Which we have heard, Which we have seen with our eyes, Which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The Life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the Eternal Life, Which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ."
1 John 2:24-25: "See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what He promised us--even eternal life."
1 John 5:10-13, 20: "Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life...We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him Who is True. And we are in Him Who is True--even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and Eternal Life."
Jude 1:20-21: "But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life."
