What is the 'Gospel'  PART 2


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 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.

 

 

 

© Copyright Bob Christmas