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What Is The True Gospel? What is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, who alone can save men and women from their sins? What is the message of the true Gospel? What is the mandate of the true Gospel?
The Authority Determines the True Gospel
In order to know what the Gospel actually is, we must first of all determine the authority that structures and determines what it is. This is necessary because the nature of the true Gospel is defined and established by its divine authority. In fact, the nature of every religion, gospel, and ideological system is defined and established by its recognized authority.
A Muslim, for example, may wish to know how to live as a good Muslim. So he carefully consults the Koran, a book in which Muslims believe God has spoken. The Koran, therefore, is the written authority that establishes the Islamic gospel, that is, the Muslim religion.
An orthodox Jew has a different authority. It includes what we call our Old Testament, along with the writings of the church fathers that are considered to be divinely inspired. That is the authority that establishes the nature and character of the Jewish religion.
On the other hand, a Mormon has as his divine authority the Bible, plus the Book of Mormon, which is believed to be divinely inspired. Because the Book of Mormon came later than the Bible, it has become a shadow that lies over the Bible. That is, someone who follows the Mormon gospel examines everything he reads in the Bible in the light of what is found in the Book of Mormon.
Similarly, the Roman Catholics follow still another gospel. The authority that structures and determines their gospel begins with the Bible, but the apocrypha books are also a part of that authority, as are the visions of Joan of Arc, the visions of Fatima, and the so-called infallible utterances of the Pope. All of these are looked upon as divine, and together they make up the authority that establishes the character of the Roman Catholic gospel.
Likewise, the charismatic gospel has its authority. It believes that the Bible is the Word of God, but it also believes in divine revelation through visions, voices, or tongues, which expands its authority beyond the Bible. Therefore, it has as its authority the Bible, plus the messages presumably received from God through dreams, visions, and tongues. This widened authority structures and determines the character of the charismatic gospel.
Bear in mind that every time we have a different authority, we also have a different gospel. One definition sometimes offered to describe the true Gospel is set forth in I John 4:2, "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." There we read that if we confess that Christ has come in the flesh, then we are of God. Yet as we read in Luke 4:33,34, "And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let [us] alone; what have we to do with thee, [thou] Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God," the demons also admit that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and they are still under Gods wrath. So that particular definition standing alone may not be adequate in every case. We must, therefore, discover the divine authority that structures and determines the character and nature of the true Gospel.
The Bible indicates that it alone and in its entirety is the authority that establishes the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 22:18-19 says it best:
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
By that statement God establishes the parameters of the true Gospel. It is circumscribed by the Bible alone.
If we follow an authority that is narrower or wider than the Bible alone and in its entirety, we are not following the Gospel of the Bible. Regardless of how holy it may appear to be, such a gospel will not lead to salvation.
The Central Message of the True Gospel
We can find summed up in John 3:16 the core meaning of the Gospel. This verse strips away everything else and gets right down to the essential message. There we read, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Ordinarily, teachers focus on the first part of the verse: "For God so loved the world . . . ." And that is a glorious phrase that introduces us to the amazing truth that God in His magnificent love has provided salvation to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the love of God and the salvation He has so generously provided cannot be fully understood unless we also understand the meaning of the word "perish" found later on in this verse.
When we search the Scriptures, we find that the word "perish," as it is used in John 3:16, does not mean "annihilation," of ceasing to exist. In the Bible the word "perish" has another definition. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. "For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23). The living death that God has in view is to exist throughout eternity in hell. That is the predicament of rebellious mankind. That is what it means to perish.
The terrible problem of mankind is that we are sinners. Remember Romans 3:10-11: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." The heart of man by nature is "desperately wicked," as we read in Jeremiah 17:9.
Because we sin - even a single sin - we will perish. Because we have been created in His image, God holds each one of us completely accountable to Himself for the conduct of our lives. God has appointed a day at the end of the world when we are to be judged. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Because all of us are sinners, without the Gospel we are all on our way to hell.
This terrible truth cannot be seen with our physical eyes because we cannot look into the future. But what we see with our physical eyes is not the whole story. For example, we may have had a friend who died. We have seen him as a man who lived out his life well regarded by his fellowman. Then he died. He was eulogized at his funeral as one of the greatest, and then we all went about our business and forgot about Brother Jones. But if Brother Jones died without the Gospel, that is, without being saved, the next thing he will be aware of is that he is standing before the Judgment Throne of God, where he must answer for every sin he ever committed; and these will be multitudinous. Any one of these sins could condemn him to eternal damnation. There is no escape; there is no reprieve, no parole. There is no way out.
Every day approximately 150,000 people die all over this earth. When we realize that most of these 150,000 people die unsaved and that the next conscious thing they will know is that they are standing before the Judgment Throne of God, subject to eternal damnation, we become aware of a horror story of magnificent proportions.
The horrors of mans inhumanity to man, the horrors of famine, of war, or of whatever the trauma, result only in physical death, but physical death in itself is not the horror story. The horror story is that after death there is the judgment. Gods perfect justice demands eternal damnation as payment for sins. Jesus says things like "there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:42), and "their worm dieth not" (Mark 9:44), and He speaks of eternal damnation in Matthew 25:46, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." The only reason why we do not often read those passages is because they are so frightening. We had better be frightened if we are not saved, because hell is real.
Wonderfully, the truth that hell is waiting for the human race is not the whole story. If God had written the Bible simply to tell us that we are going to hell, we could still praise God that at least He warned us. That knowledge would not do us much good, because we are all sinners, and we would still end up in hell. But woven into the fabric of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, like a golden thread running through the entire Bible, is the message of hope. This is the message: That we can know the love of God by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. That is the other side of the Gospel coin, the central part of the Gospel presentation: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Why is it that if we believe on Him we will not go to hell? The Bible tells us that it is because Christ became sin for us! We read in II Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Or, as Isaiah 53:6 puts it, "the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (that is, all who will hang their lives on Him).
That is the central message of the Gospel. There is no other news that can compare to this. It begins with the terrible truth that mankind is sinful and heading for hell, but additionally it is the wonderful news that all of us who cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy and hang our lives on Him can know freedom from hell because He became sin for us. Laden with our sins, as our substitute, He stood before the Judgment Throne of God when He stood before Pontius Pilate. He was found guilty for our sins, and God poured out His condemnation upon Him to the degree that it was the equivalent of every one of us who would believe on Him spending eternity in hell. In this way He paid for all of our sins. He satisfied Gods perfect justice that demands eternal damnation as punishment for sin. Since our sins have been paid for, hell no longer threatens us. We are no longer under the law that decrees that we are to go to hell. We are now under grace. By Gods grace we have become children of God. We have left the dominion of Satan (which we were in before we were saved), and we have become citizens of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What Does Mankind Want from the Gospel?
If someone does not want to face the central message of the Bible because he does not want to talk about hell, then what is he going to do with the Gospel? Unfortunately, we find that people begin to change the message of the Gospel to satisfy their own desires. They begin to make the Gospel political. They say, for example, "Christianity has to do with being free from political oppression." Or, they begin to teach an economic gospel by saying that Christianity has to do with having enough food to eat and having economic security. Or, they make it a physical well-being gospel by saying that the goal of the gospel is good health and happy lives here on this earth. The fact is that none of these aspirations has any direct relationship to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, to the true, spiritual Gospel.
The fact is that the Gospel is unconcerned with the kind of rulers that a nation has. It is unconcerned with the political system under which a people lives. It does declare, however, that it is God who puts up and puts down rulers. It does warn that the citizens of any country are expected to be obedient in all things lawful to those who rule over them. It does not indicate that one kind of government is to be obeyed more than another.
The Bible is not concerned about the economic situation of those who hear the Gospel. In the day that Jesus ministered, and as the disciples went out, did mans inhumanity to man exist? Indeed, it did. There were slaves who were piteously beaten and mistreated. Was there economic uncertainty? Indeed, there was. It was a day when there were no mercy ships. Certainly there were people dying of starvation. Were there people who desperately needed a healing who did not receive it? Indeed, there were.
Some people misunderstood Jesus mission when He healed the sick. Christ did not come with a gospel that promises good health. He simply did those miracles of healing as proofs that He was God and in order to give us historical parables through which we can see the spiritual nature of the Gospel. They were earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. Once Christ went to the cross and the apostles died, we do not find any further statements in the Bible regarding physical healing. The Gospel is concerned with spiritual healing. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray;" (I Peter 2:24-25). The Gospel has to do with the healing of our sin-sick souls. The message of the Gospel is that mankind is on its way to hell, but that anyone can know Gods love by trusting in Christ as Savior.
The true Gospel looks far beyond the political activity, economic desires, and desires for good health. When we have the true Gospel, whether we live in Russia, China, Germany, Mexico, Peru, the United States, or any other country, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. It is a spiritual unity. It is a faith wherein we understand that our sins are washed away. Spiritually we have become right with God. Spiritually we know that we are not sentenced to hell and that we have eternal life. Spiritually we have become one body, even though politically or economically or culturally we have no relationship at all to each other.
In the Bible we do not find any references teaching political freedom, economic security, or good health. The whole essence of the Gospel is spiritual freedom in Christ. Freedom from what? It is freedom from the wrath of God! It has nothing to do with the politics of this world! Simply stated, we have been translated out of the dominion of Satan. The law no longer can send us to hell. We are free in Christ. We have eternal life. That is the nature of the Gospel. That is the only message that we are to proclaim.
We read in John 5:24 that those who believe on Him do not come into judgment, but have passed from death unto life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." In our love for others, that is the good we should earnestly desire for them. That is the message God has mandated us to faithfully bring to the whole world.
The Mandate of the Gospel
Now we have come to the third point that needs to be examined. We have already looked at the authority that structures and determines the Gospel, and we have looked at the message of the Gospel. Now we should examine the mandate of the Gospel.
In the most lucid fashion, God has decreed that we are mandated to bring the Gospel message to all the world: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). Jesus commanded this; it is not an option. It is not something we can do if it is convenient or if we feel like doing it. It is an imperative command of the Bible that we are to go out into the world and preach the Gospel. We are Christs ambassadors to this sin-sick world - Christ, as it were, makes His appeal through us.
The true ambassadors for Christ are the born-again believers, who understand the real nature of the Gospel. They have come face-to-face with the reality of hell because they have learned to trust the Bible implicitly. They have been given the marvelous task (which is a mandate as well as a fantastic privilege), to send the Gospel into the world. There are no alibis. We must do it by whatever means the Lord has made available to us.
Let us be very certain that we are bringing the Gospel of the Bible and not the gospel of Europe, or the gospel of the United States, or the gospel of Mexico, or any other perverted gospel. As long as we focus on the basic fundamentals, the true Gospel is absolutely common to every nation. It makes no difference what nation we are in. We all have the exact same spiritual need for the exact same spiritual antidote. We need to be set free from sin through the blood of Christ. Once we are free from sin, knowing that Christ has endured hell for us, then, even if we must live out the rest of our lives in a concentration camp, dying of beatings and starvation, we still have everything. Whether we are to merely exist like a beggar with only the dogs to lick our sores, or whether we live in a palace with all the blessings of this world, makes no difference. If we are saved, we know that we have the greatest good that we could ever have.
The Gospel Only Is Needed
In John 13:34 Jesus says, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." That establishes the nature of the love we are to have for others. We are to love our fellowman as Christ has loved us.
What was the nature of Christs love for you and me? Did He come to bring us economic security or political freedom or good health? The answer is no. Absolutely not. In His love for us, He laid down His life. He endured the wrath of God, the equivalent of spending an eternity in hell, in order that we might have eternal life and not go to hell ourselves.
Jesus exhorts, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." (John 13:34). If Christ has desired eternal life for me to the extent that He went to the cross and endured the wrath of God that I might be saved, if that desire was the focal point of His love, then that desire must be the focal point of my love for others as well.
Jesus also says, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew. 22:39). How do I love myself? What is the highest good that I could possibly desire for myself? Is it that I might have more physical prosperity? Is that the highest good for me? Not in any sense at all. In fact, it may even tempt me away from serving the Lord the way I ought. Well then, is it to be famous? Is it to have a name? Is it any of the things to which the world aspires? The answer is no. None of those things are the highest good. When we look at the world, the one thing we should see, the one terrible specter that should grip our souls, is hell grasping out for the lives of the unsaved of the world. Because most people die unsaved, at a rate of about 150,000 a day, hell is getting its due. That is the truth that we should see. That is the truth that Christ saw when He went to the cross.
In our love for our fellowman, we want to warn them: "Don't you see it? Because of your sins, hell is coming and hell is real, but there is a wonderful way of escape through the Lord Jesus Christ. In my love for you, I want the very best for you. Sure, I could spend some money to help you in many ways, but if you die unsaved, even though your life may have been extended because you were given some antibiotics, what difference does it make? You are still going to die, and after death comes the judgment. Cant you see it? If you will only become a believer in Christ, then your physical situation, your political situation, your health situation, is altogether unimportant. You can still have the very highest good. You, too, can have salvation." To desire this for others is true love.
My first and all-important concern must be that I am absolutely certain that I am a child of God, that I am saved. All other things are unimportant. It really makes no difference how many clothes I have, in what kind of house I live, whether I even have a house to live in, or what kind of situation I live in. These things have no lasting value.
As we live our lives as believers, faithfully obeying the command to bring the Gospel to the world, the Bible insists that we are to walk very humbly. Our example is the Lord Jesus Christ; we read of Him that He was meek and lowly. So it is that we should be ready to be reviled without reviling back again, be ready to patiently take whatever is brought against us, and be ready to give credit to anybody who wants it. Let someone else have the worldly honor. The child of God, who has become a citizen of Christs Kingdom, is to walk humbly.
Why are we to walk humbly? Because God has so commanded. Jesus, our example and our King, was meek and lowly. He emptied Himself of all His heavenly glory and took on the form of man - sinful, rebellious man. Then He became laden with our sins. Besides that, we are to walk very humbly because we cannot take any credit for our salvation. It is nothing we can boast about. We cannot say, "Well, you know, the real story is that God saw me and saw that I was a little bit better than somebody else, and therefore, He decided to save me." No way! As Ephesians 2:1-2 indicates, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:" We were followers of Satan and after the lusts of the flesh like the rest of mankind. It is only by Gods mercy, it is only by Gods grace that He saved us. Ephesians 2:7,8, " That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:" So we live out our Christian lives saying, "Oh, my, how is it possible that I can be a child of God, that I can have eternal life, so that I fear no man? No matter what happens to me, I know that the moment I die, I am going into the heavenly palaces, into glory with the Lord Jesus Christ, and I have got everything going for me. All I want to do is live out my life in service to Him. I want to sacrifice my life, to lay it down on the altar of sacrifice. I am consumed with passion that others might hear the Gospel so that they, too, can know the wonderful salvation which God has so richly provided."
Dont we have a wonderful Savior? Don't we have a wonderful Gospel, when we see what the Gospel really is? We can just stand amazed before the glory of God as He glorifies Himself through His Gospel. Lets be sure that we keep the Gospel message in the forefront of our thinking and in our hearts. If we find that at any time the gospel we bring begins to differ from the true Gospel, let us cry out to God, "O, God, forgive me that I might have had something else in my head when I was trying to bring the Gospel, that I was trying to tailor it to my own lustful desires." The true Gospel is this: I want this wonderful salvation for everybody else, and because I know I have become saved, there is nothing else in this world I need for myself.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6
May God give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
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