CHAPTER 2 What Is the Gospel Message?

Ask the typical Christian today to summarize the gospel, and you will invariably hear phrases like, “accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior”; “ask Jesus into your heart”; “invite Christ into your life”; or “make a decision for Christ.” Christians have become so accustomed to using those expressions that it might surprise you to learn none of them are based on biblical terminology. They are products of a diluted gospel.

Jesus taught that the cost of following Him is high, that the way is narrow and few find it (Matt. 7:13-14). He said many who call Him Lord will be forbidden from entering the kingdom of heaven.

He gave this sobering warning: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:21-23).

He was not speaking about an isolated group of fringe followers. There will be “many” on that day who will stand before Him, stunned to learn they are not included in the kingdom.

Countless churchgoers today believe that because they recited a prayer, signed on a dotted line, walked an aisle, or had some other experience, they are saved and should never question their salvation. But Scripture encourages us to examine ourselves to determine if we are in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). Peter wrote, “Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you” (2 Peter 1:10). It is right to examine our lives and evaluate the fruit we bear, for “each tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke 6:44).

The Bible teaches clearly that the evidence of God’s work in a life is the inevitable fruit of transformed behavior (1 John 3:10). Faith that does not result in righteous living is dead and cannot save (James 2:14-17). Professing Christians utterly lacking the fruit of true righteousness will find no biblical basis for assurance of salvation (1 John 2:4).

Real salvation is not only justification. It cannot be isolated from regeneration, sanctification, and ultimately glorification. Salvation is the work of God through which we are “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). Genuine assurance comes from seeing the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in one’s life, not from clinging to the memory of some experience.

Savior and Lord

Much confusion about the gospel nowadays stems from the tendency to separate the fact that Jesus is sovereign Lord from the truth that he is a merciful Savior. Those are not contradictions to be pitted against one another. Jesus is both Savior and Lord (Luke 2:11), and no true believer would ever dispute that. “Savior” and “Lord” are separate offices, but we must be careful not to partition them in such a way that we divide Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 1:13).

The two clearest statements on the way of salvation in all of Scripture both emphasize Jesus’ lordship: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31); and “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Peter’s sermon at Pentecost concluded with this declaration: “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). No promise of salvation is ever extended to those who refuse to accede to Christ’s lordship.

True faith is not lip service. Our Lord Himself pronounced condemnation on those who worshiped Him with their lips but not with their lives (Matt. 15:7-9). He does not become anyone’s Savior until that person receives Him for who He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36). To spurn his lordship while claiming to trust Him as Savior is to live a lie.

By Grace through Faith

Salvation is solely by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8). That is the heart and soul of the gospel message. But it means nothing if we begin with a misunderstanding of grace or a faulty definition of faith.

God’s grace is not a static attribute whereby He passively accepts hardened, unrepentant sinners. Grace does not change a person’s standing before God yet leave his character untouched. Real grace is not license to do whatever we choose. True grace, according to Scripture, teaches us “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12). Grace is the power of God to fulfill our new covenant duties, however inconsistently we obey at times. Clearly, grace does not grant permission to live in the flesh; it supplies power to live in the Spirit.

Faith, like grace, is not static. Saving faith is inseparable from repentance, surrender, and a supernatural longing to obey. None of those responses can be classified exclusively as a human work, any more than believing itself is solely a human effort.

Repentance is always at the core of genuine saving faith. Repentance involves a recognition of one’s utter sinfulness and a turning from self and sin to God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9). Repentance is not a human work; it is the inevitable result of God’s work in a human heart.

The result, of course, is radical change of direction-a true spiritual conversion. Both the defiant sinner’s rebellion and the careless sinner’s indifference are overcome by the work of God’s grace (Titus 2:11-12).

God’s grace eliminates boasting (Rom. 3:27) and self-righteousness (Phil. 3:9), but it does not eliminate works per se. It does away with works that are the result of human effort alone (Eph. 2:8). It abolishes any attempt to merit God’s favor by our works (v. 9). But it does not deter God’s foreordained purpose that our walk should be characterized by good works. Works are the fruit, not the root, of a sinner’s salvation.

We must remember above all that salvation is a sovereign work of God. Biblically it is defined by what it produces, not by what one does to get it. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). As a part of His saving work, God will produce repentance, faith, sanctification, yieldedness, obedience, and ultimately glorification. Since He is not dependent on human effort in producing those elements, an experience that lacks any of them cannot be the saving work of God.

Those who are truly born of God have a faith that cannot fail to overcome the world (1 John 5:4). We may sin (1 John 2:1)—we will sin-but the process of sanctification can never stall completely. God is at work in us (Phil. 2:13), and He will continue to perfect us until the day of Christ (Phil. 1:6; 1 Thess. 5:23-24).