Two thousand years after the first Christians started proclaiming the “simple” gospel message, there is still plenty of confusion about the gospel. This quote from Dr. Charles Ryrie’s classic, So Great Salvation, affirms this truth:
“Observe this random sampling of expressions of the Gospel taken from tracts, sermons, books, and radio and TV messages. I list them without documentation since the point is not who said these but to show what was said and to illustrate how varied and confusing these statements are. If we gave even half of them to an unsaved person, which and what would he be expected to believe?
“Here they are:
- Repent, believe, confess your sin to God, and confess Him before man and you will be saved.
- The clearest statement of the Gospel in the New Testament is found in Luke 9:23: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
- Perhaps the most comprehensive invitation to salvation in the Epistles comes in James 4:7–10: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you”
- May the Lord reveal to the sinners that the only way for them to be saved from their sins is to repent with a godly sorrow in their hearts to the Lord.
- Utter the prayer of the Prodigal Son—ask Jesus to be your Lord and Master.
- Come forward and follow Christ in baptism.
- Place your hand in the nail-scarred hands of Jesus.
- Find Christ by praying through to Him.
- Believe in Him, trust Him, accept Him, commit your life to Him.
- We have the warning of Christ that He will not receive us into His kingdom until we are ready to give up all, until we are ready to turn from all sin in our lives.
- God offers eternal life freely to sinners who will surrender to Him in humble, repentant faith.
- Do we literally have to give away everything we own to become Christians? No, but we do have to be willing to forsake all.
- Matthew 7:13–14 is pure Gospel: “Enter through the narrow gate.…”
- No one can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects Him as his Lord.
- Give your heart to Christ.
- Ask Jesus to come into your heart.
“Not all these statements are incorrect or equally good or bad. But they are not all saying the same thing. They are not expressing the same truth only in different words. The differences cannot be harmonized by saying, “It’s only a matter of semantics.” And yet they all purport to be explaining the way of salvation.”
In Almost Christian, Kenda Creasy Dean explained that extensive survey work among America’s church youth groups discovered that the “gospel” believed by an alarming majority of kids who have grown up in church amounts to “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” Dean lays the blame at the feet of the adults—the ministry leaders—who themselves are confused about the gospel:
“What if the blasé religiosity of most American teenagers is not the result of poor communication but the result of excellent communication of a watered-down gospel so devoid of God’s self-giving love in Jesus Christ, so immune to the sending love of the Holy Spirit that it might not be Christianity at all? What if the church models a way of life that asks, not passionate surrender but ho-hum assent? What if we are preaching moral affirmation, a feel-better faith, and a hands-off God instead of the decisively involved, impossibly loving, radically sending God of Abraham and Mary, who desired us enough to enter creation in Jesus Christ and whose Spirit is active in the church and in the world today? If this is the case—if theological malpractice explains teenagers’ half-hearted religious identities—then perhaps most young people practice Moralistic Therapeutic Deism not because they reject Christianity, but because this is the only ‘Christianity’ they know.”
There is a frightening lack of clarity about our message. Can God save anyone no matter how unclear the gospel presentation? Of course! But it only makes sense that we should be as clear as possible—as faithful as possible—to the God-given “good news” of Jesus Christ.
Looking for Clarity
One of the questions we must address is “where”—where in the Bible do we find the clearest explanation of the gospel? Most would agree that for us—Christians living in the post-cross, Church Age—our message is found in the New Testament. Agreed. But that is not specific enough. For example, read these words of Jesus from Mark 1:14-15:
“Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”
There it is, right? From the lips of Jesus Himself! But, Is this our gospel? Not exactly. Jesus had not yet died and risen from the dead. He was presenting Himself to Israel as their Messiah. This was only part of our gospel. In the progress of revelation, our gospel was defined and proclaimed after the death and resurrection of Christ. Remember that the word “gospel” is literally just “good news.” It became a technical term later for the “good news” of Jesus Christ, but when we see the word “gospel,” it is important to identify which “good news” the particular author of the Bible is writing about. It was indeed “good news” that the Messiah had come, but this was, again, just part of the “good news” that would be preached later by the first Christians.
Looking to the Apostles
In a previous post, we explored Acts 13:13-43, which showed us how Paul presented the gospel. Let’s back up in the Acts narrative and look at one of the most glorious presentations of the gospel of the first century. Arguably, the earlier messages of Peter (e.g., Acts 2), were more transitional in nature since he was proclaiming the gospel to an all-Jewish audience—the very Jews who had called for the crucifixion of Christ. Some elements of his gospel presentation may have been unique to the situation.
But Acts 10 is big, pivotal, precedent-setting, earth-shaking. In Acts 10, Peter was led by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the gospel to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius. This was a pivotal moment because God was leading the recognized leader of the Church—Peter—to take the gospel to a Gentile household in order to open up the way to Gentile missions (Chapter 13ff). This was a big deal.
Take a few minutes to read Acts 10, then go back and re-read Paul’s presentation of the gospel in Acts 13:13-43. Here is a link to a comparison chart of the two presentations, showing the parallels between the way Paul and Peter shared the gospel. It shows that this message is the message of the Apostles. But don’t get lost in the details—here is a brief summary of the “simple gospel” presented by Peter and Paul.
A Summary of the “Gospel” in Acts 10 and 13
Jesus fulfilled God’s Old Testament promises.
The gospel fulfills the Old Testament promises of God, especially the covenant God made with David. In addition, Jesus was affirmed by John the Baptist. The prophets Isaiah and Malachi predicted a forerunner to Messiah. John the Baptist’s ministry fulfilled these prophecies and pointed to Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Jesus died for our sins and rose again.
Jesus died as the Old Testament Scriptures predicted He would. He was buried to prove that He really died. Jesus also rose from the dead according to the Scriptures and appeared to eyewitnesses to prove He really did rise from the dead.
Jesus will provide forgiveness of sins and freedom from the Law to all who believe in Him.
This is the expected response—“believe.” Peter and Paul didn’t make it more complicated than that—we shouldn’t either. Faith is the sole condition for salvation. God has done everything necessary to make it possible for people to believe in Christ. Our responsibility is believe. When a person believes, she receives forgiveness of sins and freedom from the Law. Compare this to the entire Gospel of John where the gift of “eternal life” was available to all based on one condition: believe.
Clear and simple—focused on Jesus: His identity, death and resurrection. The “good news” is Jesus! Keep it simple and clear. Invite people to “believe.”
