"Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Jesus speaking Mark 8:34

There are certain questions that are not easily answered from scripture and this is one. However if we diligently search the scriptures we will be able to answer this question. This is not a subject to be approached lightly though as we can see from Galatians that the consequences of preaching “another” gospel are very serious:-

Gal 1:8,9 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you that what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”

What does “accursed” mean? The Greek word is “anathema” and, in this context, means a person doomed to destruction. So we need to treat the gospel very seriously and make sure we preach not only the true gospel but the correct one too. We will come back to this but firstly let us see if we can define what the current true gospel is.

There is I believe one very clear definition of the gospel which we see in Acts 16:31 when, in desperation, the Philippian jailor cried, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s reply was simple: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”.

Is this “the Gospel” to simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If so believe what? What does “Gospel” even mean? Does the New Testament have a definition of the Gospel? Are we told what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If there are different Gospels how do I know that I have the correct one?

Whatever the Gospel is we know from Romans 1:16 that we must believe it to be saved; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek”

Suppose someone claims to be a “Christian,” believes in Christ as a historical person, seeks to follow Christ’s example, is emotional about Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, and regularly goes to church. Yet he thinks it doesn’t matter whether or not Christ was born of a virgin, or whether He is God come as a man, or whether He died to pay the price our sins, or whether He rose from the dead. Is such a person saved? Does he really “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”? Or does he admire and believe in “another Jesus...a different spirit...a different gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:3, 4)? Does it really matter, or would we be just “splitting hairs”?

Part 1

So let’s start at the beginning, what does gospel mean?

From Strong’s 2098 euaggelion {yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on} AV - gospel 46, gospel of Christ 11, gospel of God 7, gospel of the Kingdom 3, misc 10; 77

• 1) a reward for good tidings
• 2) Good tidings
• 2a) the glad tidings of the kingdom of God soon to be set up, and subsequently also of Jesus the Messiah, the founder of this kingdom. After the death of Christ, the term comprises also the preaching of (concerning) Jesus Christ as having suffered death on the cross to procure eternal salvation for the men in the kingdom of God, but as restored to life and exalted to the right hand of God in heaven, thence to return in majesty to consummate the kingdom of God
  • 2b) the glad tidings of salvation through Christ
    • 2c) the proclamation of the grace of God manifest and pledged in Christ
      • 2d) the gospel
        • 2e) as the messianic rank of Jesus was proved by his words, his deeds, and his death, the narrative of the sayings, deeds, and death of Jesus Christ came to be called the gospel or glad tidings

So basically “the gospel” means “good tidings” or “glad tidings” or simply the “good news”, and so the preaching of the gospel is bringing news to people that is good and they should therefore welcome it (much the same I suppose as a lottery winner when given the news they have won millions of pounds). So now what is the good news?

If we turn to Luke 2:9, 10 we see an angel appear to the shepherds and he announces the good news, “...behold, I bring you good tidings (news) of great joy which will be for all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

From these verses we see the following;

• The news is going to bring great joy
• The good news is for everyone, Jews and Gentiles
• The good news is that a child has been born
• In the city of David (Bethlehem)
• From Micah 5:2 we know this to be the birth place of the Messiah
• Who will be a Saviour
• And will be called Christ (Anointed) the Lord (Kurios, title given to God the Messiah)
• We also know from the genealogy that the baby is a direct descendant of King David from the tribe of Judah, Luke 3:23-31 (and Matthew 1:6-16)

So is this the gospel? There is no mention of what we are to be saved from, no mention of the resurrection or the kingdom. So it is only a part, the beginning perhaps. In verse 22 we see that the babe is named JESUS which means “YHWH is salvation” but the name itself does not mean that the babe was YHWH; there are others in the scriptures with the same name who certainly weren’t YHWH. So we must go further.

In Matthew we have the other birth narrative and in verse 23 an angel speaks to Joseph and tells him, verses 19-23;

• The baby Mary is carrying is conceived of the Holy Spirit
• The baby will be a boy (no ultrasound in those days)
• He is to be called JESUS
• As He will save His people from their sins
• And in fulfilment of Isaiah 7:14
• The baby will be born of a virgin and
• His name will be Immanuel – God with us

So we now find some more good news and more about Jesus (so that we can believe on Him not in Him).

• He has an earthly mother but a heavenly Father
• His mother is a virgin, so the birth, or rather conception, is supernatural
• We now know that He will save (deliver) people from their sins
• And He has the title “God with us”

So now we know what Jesus is to save us from – our sins. We also know that another of His names is to be “God with us”, but again this is just a name and does not necessarily mean He is God.  

But how could a man be born of a virgin? There are examples in scripture of the barren conceiving, and those too old, but the conception is always through the joining together of the mother and father. This is the only “virgin birth”, so there is something very different about this babe.

In Isaiah 9:6, 7 we read:-

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

And from these verses we learn a little more about this Child;

• The child will be a Son
• He will have many names including The mighty God and The everlasting Father
• He will set up and govern a kingdom of peace
• Upon the throne of David (that is on the earth)
• He will judge justly, for ever

[These verses in Isaiah refer to the Jewish Messiah but the Jews, on the whole, could not see that the Child born of a virgin in Bethlehem, from the line of David, called JESUS and Immanuel was the Child spoken of by Isaiah. Their mindset was the coming of a Deliverer to conquer the Romans and establish, immediately, His earthly kingdom. They could not see one Messiah with two comings. The government spoken of in Isaiah 9 would be at least 2000 years after the Child, spoken about in Isaiah 7 & 9, was born. They could not see the valley between two hills and so the hills looked to them as one. And they certainly did not see that their Messiah was in fact God!]

So to summarise so far, the good news, which would bring great joy, originally surrounded a Baby, in the lineage of King David;

• born in Bethlehem
• Who will be a Saviour
• And will be called Christ (Anointed) the Lord (Kurios, title given to God the Messiah)
• He has an earthly mother but a heavenly Father
• His mother is a virgin, so the birth, or rather conception, is supernatural
• We now know that He will save (deliver) people from their sins
• And He has the title “God with us”
• He will have many names including The mighty God and The everlasting Father
• He will set up and govern a kingdom of peace
• Upon the throne of David (that is on the earth)
• He will judge justly, for ever

 Now the Child of course grew and so what did the adult Jesus say about Himself?

In John 8 Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees when He tells them:-

23And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

The important point in this verse is that the word He is in italics which tells us that it is not in the original language but has been inserted by the translators to help the meaning in English. Unfortunately what it does is muddy the waters. Jesus is telling the Pharisees that He is the “I AM”, the name that God used when Moses talks with Him in Exodus 3:-

13Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 

At the beginning of the chapter the covenant name of God – YHWH (LORD in our Bibles) – is used three times so that there is no doubt as to who is calling Himself “I AM”.

So Jesus is saying that we MUST believe that He is God, YHWH, otherwise we will die in our sins, in other words this is fundamental to our being saved.

Jesus reinforces this point later in chapter 8:-

58Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

Jesus reiterates His claim to deity in John 10:-

30 ”I and My Father are one.” 31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.  32Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”

The Jewish leaders were in no doubt as to what Jesus was claiming but, because they could not understand, they accused Him of blasphemy.

So now we must believe that the little Child, born of a virgin, was God. The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of Rev 1:8 and 22:13.

Now we move to the epistles and in Romans 10 Paul tells us:-

9 "... if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved "

So from this statement we now know that we MUST believe that God raised Jesus from the dead – therefore He must have died and not a substitute. It is Jesus’ death that is important because Paul also tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:-

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received (the gospel, verse 1): that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

Here we see why Jesus died, for our sins, to pay the price we could not pay, and this takes us back to the birth narratives where we learnt that a Saviour had been born who would save His people from their sins. And now we know how that was achieved – by His substitutionary death on the cross. We read in Romans again chapter 6 that

“23 the wages of sin is death”.

He died in our place. So we MUST now also believe that Jesus died was buried and rose again.

It is also important to note that Jesus was not killed for us but that He died for us. No one killed Him, He laid down His life for us, John 10:-

17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

How could anybody kill God? We see Jesus work so many miracles that John says all the books in the whole world could not contain an account of His works. He delivered people from demons, He healed the sick, He raised people from the dead, He turned water into wine. He could certainly have come down from the cross, as some taunted Him, but He chose to obey the will of the Father and laid down His life for us. This is very important to grasp. No one can kill God!

[Jesus’ death was not only a physical death but a spiritual death. In Genesis 2 Adam was told that he would die if he ate the forbidden fruit but clearly he lived for another 900 years before physically dying so at the time he ate he must have died spiritually. In Isaiah 53 we read, verse 10, that God made Jesus’ soul an offering for sin (we see this also in Hebrews 9:14), and so it is clear that Jesus died physically and spiritually. At the cross Jesus called out “My God My God why have you forsaken Me?”Jesus was physically and spiritually separated from God and then uttered “It is finished”, that is the debt has been paid, His blood had paid the price for our sins.  Ephesians 2 tells us that we were al born “dead in trespass and sin”. Now obviously if we are born we cannot be physically dead so it must be a spiritual death, and when we are born again our spirit is regenerated so that we can commune with God again. In Hebrews 2:9 Jesus is said to have “tasted death for everyone” and so he tasted death for those that are to be cast into the lake of fire – the second death. The torment on the cross is beyond our understanding, but Jesus endured it all for us all.]

But why was only Jesus’ death sufficient? The answer is in 2 Cor 5:21

“For He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus, God the Son) who knew no sin to be sin for us (all mankind), that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”.

Only an infinite being could pay an infinite price, only a sinless sacrifice could shed His blood for the sinners (Exodus 12:5), the perfect Passover Lamb (Rev 5:6, 1 Cor 5:7)

So, don’t we have a part to play, surely we must need to do something. No the scriptures are very clear there is no work that we can do to avail ourselves of the salvation in Christ, Romans 4:5

“But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness”.

Also Ephesians 2:8,9

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”

So where are we now with our understanding of what The Gospel is? A recap is in order, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we MUST believe;-

• A baby was born in Bethlehem, a human being
• A descendant of King David
• Who would be a Saviour
• And would be called Christ (Anointed) the Lord (Kurios, title given to God the Messiah)
• He had an earthly mother but a heavenly Father
• His mother was a virgin, so the birth, or rather conception, was supernatural
• We now know that He would save (deliver) people from their sins
• And He has the title “God with us”
• He will have many names including The mighty God and The everlasting Father
• He will set up and govern a kingdom of peace
• Upon the throne of David (that is on the earth)
• He will judge justly, for ever
• As an adult Jesus said that He was God, therefore
• He was the Creator (Col 1:16)
• He is the Sustainer (Col 1:17)
• He worked/works miracles (see the gospels)
• He prophesied and fulfilled prophecies (Matt 24 et al)
• Paul tells us that God raised Him from the dead;
• He died for our sins
• He was not killed
• All sins, of
• All mankind
• He died once for all (Heb 7:27, 9:12 etc)
• Was buried and
• Rose again
• Jesus laid down His life for us, no one took it from Him
• Jesus led a perfect sinless life, and was therefore the perfect sacrifice without spot or blemish (1 Peter 1:19)
• Salvation is by the grace of God not through the works of the Law
• There is nothing we can do to obtain salvation, going to church or being good will never be enough, there was only one perfect sinless sacrifice, so just believe.

But have we not missed something here? What is God’s motivation behind the good news, why did He turn His back while His Son hung on a cross for you and me?

Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:3, 4 that

“God our Saviour ... desires all men to be saved...” and therefore Jesus died:-

• For all (1Tim 2:6; Isa 53:6)
• For every man (Heb 2:9)
• For the world (John 3:16)
• For the sins of the whole world ( 1John 2:2)
• For the ungodly (Rom 5:6)
• For false teachers ( 2Peter 2:1)
• For many (Matt 20:28)
• For Israel (John 11:50-51)
• For the Church (Eph 5:25)
• For “me” (Gal 2:20)

But what is behind God’s desire? The answer is LOVE, and so wonderfully put in John 3:16:-

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And in Romans 5:8

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

And in 1 John 3:16:-

“By this we know love, because He (Jesus) laid down His life for us”

God lovingly offers the free gift of salvation to whosoever will believe:-

Romans 6:23 “... but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 4:10, “Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Ephesians 2:8, “... it is the gift of God”

Romans 5:15-18, “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.  16And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.  17For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

A free gift from God that can never be earned!

God knows all things, God is Love. He knows that you are a sinner and that’s why Christ died for you. He doesn’t ask you to confess or repent of your sin, He just asks you to believe. He has done the work through Christ, there is nothing you can do or add to the finished work (John 19:30). God also knows that you will continue to sin (1 John 2:1) and the road to perfection will take time as God takes you from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18).

So we return to the Philippian Jailer and with him we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we are saved, hallelujah.

Part 2

Different Gospels

So now the bad news, there are different gospels, 2 Cor 11:-

3”But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!”

And Galatians 1:6

“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,”

I believe that, in Part 1, we have faithfully outlined the true gospel and so any gospel that deviates from this must necessarily be a false gospel. For instance:-

Any gospel that denies the deity of Christ

His virgin birth

His coming in the flesh

Judaism, Islam (well all the rest really)

Any gospel that denies His death and resurrection

Islam

Any gospel that requires a return to the Law (the Jewish Law)

Circumcision

Hebrew Roots

Parts of the Messianic Christianity movement

Any gospel that is works based i.e. we must do something to earn salvation

Knocking on doors or distributing literature (JW’s)

Attending church on Saturday (and much more, SDA)

Atoning for one’s own sins (purgatory, RC)

Repenting of sin (before regeneration)

Any gospel that denies the sufficiency of Christ’s death;

The mass as a continuing sacrifice (RC)

calvinism

And there will be more.

But you say “didn’t Jesus preach a different gospel to Peter, and didn’t they both preach a different gospel to Paul?” And the answer is yes they did.

The first thing to note is that salvation has always been of faith, faith in a coming deliverer (Jesus) or faith in the Saviour who came down from heaven to die in our place (Jesus). But during different dispensations the message has been different.

So for Noah’s day the message was “A flood is coming so have faith in the Ark”. The flood is judgement and the Ark is Christ, so have faith in Christ and you will be saved from judgement.

Jesus preached “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt4:17). Jesus’ preaching was to the Jews. They had rebelled against their God (YHWH) and gone their own way. Jesus was calling them back to God as a pre-requisite to the setting up of the Messianic kingdom. On the whole they rejected God again.

Jesus then spoke to them only in parables so that they would hear but not understand. He revealed the message behind the parables to His disciples who would in due course preach the gospel of grace.

So in accordance with Romans 9-11 Israel has, for a time, been cast aside by God while He deals directly with the Gentiles and any Jews that will believe in Jesus.

At the day of Pentecost Peter delivers his first sermon (to the Jews), his message is “Repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). The offer of the kingdom has been withdrawn and so is dropped from the message. But the promise of the Holy Spirit (in Joel) has arrived so this has been added to the gospel.

Peter is holding the fort while the gospel transitions between the message of Jesus (to the Jews) to the message for all men (Gentiles and some Jews) that will be revealed to the apostle Paul (when he visits Jesus in heaven 2 Cor 12:2-4).

This message was the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24) and it is the message given to the Philippian jailer “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. Repentance has now been dropped as the gospel is now all of grace and not of works.

But don’t we still need to repent of our sins? Yes but we can’t do it in our own strength, before salvation, we do it in the strength of the Holy Spirit after salvation. We can add nothing to believing otherwise we end up with a works gospel.

So we have the gospel to the Jews followed by a holding gospel until the gospel of the grace of God. It is important to get the right gospel so that any message preached matches that gospel. Those preaching a gospel of works or repentance are a gospel behind and therefore nobody can be saved under that gospel now. It would be ridiculous now to put our faith in Noah’s Ark!! So our faith must be in believing on Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

Part 3

So how do we preach the gospel?

We saw in Part 1 that the gospel was based on God’s love for mankind and is a gift from Him. So God’s motivation must be our motivation. We must preach that God

loves people, that He wants all men to be saved, that He wants no one to perish in the fires of Hell. Now there is no one way to put this across to people but this must be the emphasis.

There are essential elements of the gospel that must be conveyed to the seeker in order that they have all the information necessary to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we have discovered they must be told, and believe, that:-

Jesus fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies regarding His first coming.

A baby was born in Bethlehem, a human being

A descendant of King David

Who would be a Saviour

And would be called Christ (Anointed) the Lord (Kurios, title given to God the Messiah)

He had an earthly mother but a heavenly Father

His mother was a virgin, so the birth, or rather conception, was supernatural

He would save (deliver) people from their sins

He has the title “God with us”

He will have many names including The mighty God and The everlasting Father

Jesus was (and remains) God manifest in the flesh

Jesus led a perfect sinless life, and was therefore the perfect sacrifice without spot or blemish

Jesus laid down His life for us, no one took it from Him

Paul tells us that God raised Him from the dead;

He died

Was buried and

Rose again

He will set up and govern a kingdom of peace

Upon the throne of David (that is on the earth)

Salvation is by the grace of God not through the works of the Law

It is a gift of God because of His love for mankind

Now this looks like a long list to try to convey to someone who is seeking God, but remember how you were saved. Did you get saved the first time someone told you about Jesus or was it a road of discovery that lead you to Jesus. Was it as we read in 1 Cor 3:6, “I (Paul) planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase”. There may be many people involved in bringing a soul to the point where God can give the increase and the soul cries out to God to be saved. So don’t worry if you forget some essential part, another saint will come along and fill in what is missing.

There is no one correct way of telling people the good news.

 

 

One of the best ways of witnessing (or evangelising) is to tell your testimony; you know that off by heart – after all you were there when it happened. Practice giving your testimony to other saints so that you can convey the essential, the most important parts, in a simple manner that anyone can understand. Also bear in mind that in this day and age people’s attention spans are very limited so if you can keep it short and to the point then all the better. If a soul is interested then there will be time to put flesh on the bones and answer all their questions. If they are not interested (at that stage) then you will at least given them enough to believe on Jesus should they continue to ponder things in their heart.

Nowadays, on the whole, you will be talking to people with no Biblical background at all. So some of the aspects of the gospel that where plain and simple a generation ago may not be so now. For instance when I grew up we had a form of Christian assembly at school where the Bible would be read and hymns sung.

There would be special times at Easter and Christmas and whilst we may not have understood all the soteriological impact, we did know Jesus was born of a virgin at Christmas and died on a cross for us at Easter. We also knew that God raised Him from the dead 3 days later on what we knew as Easter Sunday and He could raise us from the dead as well. We may not have known what it meant to be born again or how sin came into the world and its impact. We may have believed evolution rather than creation. We may have been taught about other religions and not been shown the uniqueness of Christianity, but we did have some understanding that is lacking today.

So what I am saying is that to get me from unbelief to belief was a shorter journey than it will be for people you speak to today. So be patient, don’t overload people at first just give them enough that, if they did seek Jesus that day, they would have enough to believe on Him.

Try to avoid clever tactics that seem to be all the rage nowadays and make sure you have the right gospel. For instance I see on Facebook and on the street banners saying, “Repent, and believe the Gospel” Mark 1:15. Nothing wrong with that, it is scripture, but it is a gospel behind and therefore has no power to save.

I see people attacking those who wish to have, quite legally, an abortion. Is this any worse than gluttony? Do we see banners saying, “Fat people repent or face the fires of hell”. No, because a lot of us are still in that particular sin even after being saved!

A Christian may see abortion as a sin or even murder but what about the poor woman having to make the decision. It is not a “sin” to her, it is a heartbreaking decision. And it is legal. But we don’t even need to worry about the baby as it will go straight into the arms of Jesus. What would have happened if it had grown up in today’s world? Chances are it would be unsaved and destined for hell.

Be very careful that you do not condemn the unsaved – Jesus did not come to condemn (John 3:17) he came to save; if we follow Him then we follow His example.

God knows we are sinners; He died for us even while we were still in our sins. And He knows you will continue to sin and that is why it is all about His love and grace. Can you stop sinning? No. You may sin less as the Holy Spirit leads you from glory to glory and you become more like Jesus. But remember there was only one sinless

and that was the Lord Himself – it will not be you!

Yes we need to tell people that Jesus died to pay the price for our sin, and that we are all sinners (you will almost certainly have to go back to the garden of Eden to explain this but keep it simple) but remember it is only our belief that will keep us from heaven or open the door to go in. If sin kept us from heaven then none of us would ever enter in, because we all sin.

There is nothing we can do about the sins we have committed in the past, all we can do is cast ourselves on the Lord, believe on Jesus and He will forgive your sins – and that will include all your future sins. When we are saved we will want to ask the Lord to forgive us for specific sins in our lives and we will repent of these, turn away from them, and when we sin again we will ask the Lord to forgive us and He will because He is just and faithful. Calvary covered it all.

But we can only repent with God’s help we cannot do it in our own strength so to ask someone to repent and then believe is putting the gospel back to front. You find it so hard to repent, turn away, even though you are saved and have the Comforter with you! How can an unsaved person possibly repent without the Holy Spirit?

Jesus’ message of repentance was to the Jews. If you read Mark 1 you will see that Jesus was preaching the gospel of the kingdom and the full quote is “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.’” So the gospel related to the kingdom of God, the Messianic kingdom being offered to the Jews by their Messiah. Can this gospel be preached to a gentile? Of course not, so why do people try to do it?

What did the Jews need to repent of? Their rejection of God. It is like you being convicted by the Holy Spirit of some sin after you are saved to bring you back into a correct relationship with God. The Jews were in relationship with God but they had, on the whole, backslidden. They had rejected God in many ways:-

The temple was a den of iniquity instead of a house of prayer

Money was being made from the buying and selling of sacrificial animals

Usury was being practiced

The clergy were lording it over the laity

The commandments of men were being taught as if there were from God

Compare this with the state of the church today; do you think God is calling the church to repent of its wickedness?

So the gospel is very simple “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. Do not confuse the church with Israel. Do not confuse the Old covenant with the New Covenant. Do not confuse God’s dealing with the Jews and His dealing with the Church. There are many differences but here we are only dealing with the gospel, and you can see that it is very easy to get into a mess with just this subject.

Preaching the gospel in Acts

Peter, the holding gospel

Acts 2:38, repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and receive the Holy Spirit

Acts 3:12, to the men of Israel, v 19 repent and be converted

Acts 5:31, to the high priest et al, Jesus died now resurrected to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins plus the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him

Philip, the gospel in transition

Acts 8:5, Christ preached to the Samaritans

Acts 8:12, preached the things concerning the kingdom and the name of Jesus and men and women believed and were baptized

Acts 8:17, Peter arrives and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit

Acts 8:30-40, Philip preached Christ from the OT scriptures, Eunuch told to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and be baptized

Ananias, Saul’s conversion

Acts 9:1-19, v17 receive your sight (cf John 9:41), be filled with the Holy Spirit and be baptized

Paul, first preaching

Acts 9:20, preached to the Jews that Jesus is the Son of God

Peter, Cornelius’ salvation

Acts 10:34-48, first preaching to the Gentiles, Christ crucified, died, resurrected, whoever believes in Him receives remission of sin and the Holy Spirit, be baptized

Barnabas

Acts 11:21,23, great numbers believed and turned to the Lord, Barnabas saw the grace of God

Paul, in the synagogue at Antioch

Acts 13:15-41, God has raised up a Saviour – Jesus, crucified, died raised from the dead, good news, revealed as God’s Son, through Jesus is the forgiveness of sins, by Him all that believe are justified

Peter at the Jerusalem council, getting there

Acts 15:11, we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved

Paul to the Philippian jailer

Acts 16:31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved

Paul in Athens

Acts 17:18, he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection, some men joined him and believed

Apollos at Achaia

Acts 18:27, he helped those who had believed through grace

Paul at Ephesus

Acts 19:4, believe on Him that would come after him (John), that is on Christ Jesus

Acts 20:24, the mimistry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God, v 27 I have declared to you the whole counsel of God

 

 

Current evangelism

Now let’s look at a current method of evangelism and see if it is biblical or not. If you type RCCR in Google you will get:-

Acronym finder: What does RCCR stand for? RCCR stands for Relate, Create, Convict, Reveal (sales methodology)

This is a secular website and the acronym is explained and where it is used – it is a sales technique. When I was in banking we used this all the time when selling loans and adding PPI to the loan. We would relate to the customer to put them at ease, talk about how nice it will be to drive that brand new car. We would then create an opening to discuss PPI by asking how they would cope with repayment if they were made redundant for instance. Then we would convict them of their need for a product to help in this situation by telling them it would be irresponsible not to. We then reveal the product PPI and get their agreement to it.

This sales technique has been copied and used to evangelise the lost. Strangely a sales technique is being used to give something away, a free gift. You don’t normally need to sell a free gift!

The main proponent of this in relation to Biblical evangelism states the following:-

“Now, it’s my observation that often the world unwittingly stumbles upon biblical principles. One area I’ve noticed this in is the area of selling. So what we’re going to do is look at the way of a salesman using the RCCR principle: Relate, Create, Convict, Reveal, as related to us in John, chapter 4.”

By his own admission this methodology comes from the world! The method is used by salesman all over the world to gain more sales. I have used it (before I was saved) to great effect. But can the Christian learn from the world? What has the

world to offer us? Are we trying to sell something or telling people about a free gift?

In discussing Biblical evangelism he states the following;

“If we aren’t aware that those who fail to repent are strangers to conversion, we are liable to think that simply “praying a sinner’s prayer” or responding to an altar call will save someone. We can ensure that we are not bringing false converts into the church by preaching biblically. That means using the Law to bring the knowledge of sin.”

Notice that his gospel is one of repentance not belief. This is an out of date gospel and has no power to save. Furthermore the Bible asks us to make disciples not converts. But more importantly we cannot bring anyone into the body of Christ – only God can give the increase.

The implication also is that anyone saying a “sinner’s prayer” or “responding to an altar call” will be a false convert. Well, I for one said a sinner’s prayer.

My heart was prepared by the preaching of the gospel, by some brave souls planting and others watering and when my heart was ready God brought me to my knees and I confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and I believed in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead and I was saved. I had said a simple prayer of belief in Jesus. If this is a sinner’s prayer then I said it and was saved.

But the biggest problem with this gospel is the final phrase “using the Law to bring the knowledge of sin”. Why Law with a capital L? Because it is referring to the Mosaic Law and in particular the 10 commandments. So let’s go back to the origins of the Mosaic Law in Exodus and see if we can answer some basic questions regarding the Law;

To whom was God speaking? Ex 19:3 “tell the children of Israel”

Which nation was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation? Ex 19:6 “... speak these words to the children of Israel”

Who did God bring out of the land of Egypt? Ex 19:1 “... after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt...”

Who are the “you” in Ex 20:2? The nation that God brought out of Egypt – Israel?

Who are the “you” in Ex 20:3-17? Those referred to in verse 2 – Israel

Who are the 10 commandments for? Israel

Are they for the gentiles? No

Clearly the 10 commandments and the rest of the Law were given to, and were for,

Israel. The Law was not for the gentiles. The gentiles never had YHWH as the “LORD your God”, they had Baal and many others but only Israel had YHWH.

Now let us look at how the proponent of this gospel uses the Law.

“For what purpose was God’s Law designed? The following verse tells us ‘(quotes 1 Tim 1:9)’, it also lists the sinners for us (lists the sinners), the Law’s main design is not for the saved, but for the unsaved. It was given as a “schoolmaster” to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24)””

In 1 Tim Paul is dealing with a heresy where “... some having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the (Mosaic) law ...” Paul then states that the law is good when used lawfully. What Paul is saying is that if there was not a law against murder then we could all do this with impunity, but there is a law and so we don’t do it. Israel was given the law to keep them in God’s will. It had no power to save.

This table may help to put things in perspective:

Old Covenant New Covenant

Israel Church

Old Testament (2Cor 3:14) New Testament ( 2Cor 3:6)

 

A good covenant

Rom 3:14

A better covenant

Heb 8:6

Came by Moses

John 1:17

Came by Jesus

Heb 8:6

Ended by Jesus

Rom 10:4

Begun by Jesus

Heb 10:9

Many sacrifices

Heb 9;12

One sacrifice

Heb 10:12

Yoke of bondage

Gal 5:1

Liberty that frees

Gal 5:1

Not of faith

Gal 3:12

The just live by faith

Gal 3:11

Could not redeem

Heb 10:4

Redeems

Gal 3:13

No power to save

Heb 10:4

Saves to the uttermost

Heb 7:25

Many priests

Heb 7:23

One High Priest

Heb 7:26

Levitical priesthood

Heb 7:11

Melchisedec order

Heb 7:11

Under law

Rom 6:14

Under grace

Rom 6:14

Cannot give life

Gal 3:21

Gives life

John 3:36

Cannot make perfect

Heb 7:19

Makes perfect

Heb 7:19

No inheritance

Rom 4:13

Eternal inheritance

Heb 9:15

For Israel

Deut 5:3

For all men

Matt 26:28

[To see how the law works in an unbelieving gentile (or unbelieving Jew for that matter) we need to look at Romans chapter 2:14,15;

“...for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them”

So clearly the gentile does not have the law, in the sense of the OT Mosaic law, but they do have the law, of God, written in their hearts. It is then the gentiles “conscience” that either accuses or excuses their behaviour.

God made us and He put certain things in our hearts such as eternity (Eccl 3:11), the law as we have just seen, but also we have God in our knowledge (Romans 1:28). He has given everyone “light” (John 1:9) and He has given us the creation (Romans 1:20) through which his invisible attributes are clearly seen.

With all that God has given us we can, and do, know the truth, but our conscience will, on the whole, excuse our conduct rather than accuse us of it, and why? Because we love sin. Now that we are saved sin is an anathema to us but while we were sinners it was our lifestyle.]

Then we move to Gal 3:24 and we need to see who the schoolmaster was in charge of, was it the Jew or the gentile?

The actual purpose of the law is given in Gal 3:19 where Paul tells us that “it was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come”. The law came after the promise to Abraham (430 years later) and could not alter the promise (to Abraham (Genesis 12)) but because the children of Abraham (Israel) transgressed the law was added.

In verse 23 Paul says that “before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law”, who are the “we”? It can only be Israel as the law was only given to Israel, it was Israel that transgressed. The gentiles couldn’t transgress because they weren’t given the promise; the promise was to Abraham and his seed. Abraham was the sixth from Eber, the father of the Hebrews. So logically in verse 24 who is the “our” and “we”? The Jews. So who is the schoolmaster for? The Jews. Is the schoolmaster for the gentiles? No.

Gal 3 is all about Paul trying to stop the Judaizers corrupting the simplicity of the gospel and bringing the Galatians back under the Law of Moses. He tells them that they first believed by faith just as Abraham did (verse 6), but those that were under the law were under a curse (v 10) and no one could be justified by the law. He then enters into a dialogue explaining why the law came (V 19) and why it was to keep Israel until “faith came” (v23). This dialogue is to show them that salvation can only

be of faith and cannot be of works.

Unfortunately this popular evangelist uses the law to convict gentiles of their sin. But if the law is not for the gentile what good can it do to show them that they have transgressed it? The Law is not their schoolmaster. And again we need to be careful that we do not condemn the lost, remember Jesus came to save not condemn. According to John 3:17 all the unsaved are condemned already i.e. they have been judged and found guilty and are just waiting for God to carry out the death sentence upon them

He also describes salvation as a “legal transaction. You broke God’s Law (the 10 Commandments), and Jesus paid your fine. That means that God can legally dismiss your case.” Is salvation a legal case in a court of law or is it God’s love manifest through His grace? A few sentences later he admits, “I can’t point to a Bible verse that uses this exact language, but I can say that legality is the essence of the cross”, I thought the essence of the cross was “Love”.

What we end up with, sadly, is a works gospel. Rather than believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, people are made to see that they are sinners and must repent of their sin to be saved. God knows we are sinners that’s why Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. It is no good getting an unsaved gentile believing in a works based gospel that was originally designed for Israel.

Instead of people believing on Jesus you end up with converts running away from hell. If the gospel was repent or you will go to hell then it would work. But the gospel is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

One more thing with this gospel method. After you have gone through the relate and create stages if you then cannot get conviction of sin you do not proceed to the reveal. This is leaving people out to dry and withholding the truth from them. Is this what Jesus wants?

Part 4

Whoever wants to be a disciple of Jesus must lovingly and willingly “deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me”, Jesus speaking in Mark 8:35.

Once saved we will set about the work that God had prepared beforehand (Eph 2:10). In our own strength we cannot do the things that God wants and so as our Comforter and Guide Jesus has sent His Holy Spirit to indwell us, and then we can say, with Paul, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13). God will then lead us on a journey from glory (saved) to glory (more like Jesus).

In believing on Jesus we must believe all that He taught (Matt 28:20). A lot of Jesus’ teachings are contained in the Sermon on the Mount, for example:-

Love our enemies

Bless those who curse you

Do good to those who hate you

Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you

Resist not evil

Elsewhere we are taught to:-

Not pick up the sword (use violence) ( Matt 26:52)

To submit to the governing authorities (do not rebel) (Romans 13:1)

Live as sojourners or pilgrims on this earth as our home is heaven (1 Peter 2:11, Phil 3:20)

Trust God (Romans 15:12, 1 Tim 4:10)

This raises a question:-

Do we need to love our enemies to be saved?

Do we need to do good to those who hate us to be saved?

Do we need to submit to the government to be saved?

The answers are of course no. To be saved we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. However once we are saved what would our answers be to the same questions? We do need to love our enemies etc and to do this God has given us His Holy Spirit.

If you see brethren who are not obeying Jesus’ teachings then they need to be taken aside and taught the word of God more fully. For example if a gang member gets saved we would not expect them to continue carrying a knife or gun for protection but to trust God instead. If he is truly regenerate he will lay the gun down willingly and follow his loving Saviour.

But what if he doesn’t? Well certainly he will be at least in rebellion towards God but at worst he could be in danger of losing his salvation by following himself rather than his Saviour. He may be on the road to establishing a gospel for himself that does not accord with the scriptures; he may be on the road to following another Jesus. Hebrews 6:1-6 contains a stark warning.

So having been saved by faith let us continue our salvation in trust. Yes we will all sin but we have an Advocate who is just and faithful to forgive us our sins if we confess our sins to Him (1 John 2:1, 1:9).