How many times have we all heard something like “I have good news & bad news for you, what do you want to hear first?” You don’t have to answer that. If we haven’t personally heard it from the local car mechanic or refrigerator repairman we’ve seen it countless times in movies, cartoons and social media memes.

Here’s another question: “How many times have you shared the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ starting with God’s wonderful plan for an unbelieving friend’s life and saved the bad news for a later in the conversation?” I plead “guilty as charged”.

One more question (for now): “When did you realize that the first thing you need to do to fix something that’s not working properly or broken is to identify the problem?”

Back to Genesis. We know the story. God created a “very good” world for the first couple. Adam and Eve sinned against God by disobeying the one commandment God had given them They were cast out of Eden; their perfect relationship with their Creator broken; the consequences of their sin reverberating throughout history, all the way to us today.

Not only did God tell Adam and Eve the consequences of their sin, but He also spoke to the serpent (Satan), announcing both bad news and good news:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, ESV)

Satan’s judgment announced the bad news that there will be ongoing spiritual warfare between the children of the devil and the descendants of the woman. At the same time, it announced the good news that one special man from the woman’s seed would destroy the works of the devil, although He would be wounded in the process.

That verse is known as the “first gospel”, or “protoevangelium”, proclaiming the BAD news of SIN and the GOOD news of the Gospel![i]

One last question: “Shouldn’t the “first gospel” be the model we use when presenting the gospel message to the lost world around us?” After all, it’s common sense that identifying the problem should always come before recommending the solution. In the case of God’s gospel, there are eternal consequences.

[i] What is the Protoevangelium?