One of the men that made a deep impact on my life when I was in college was Richard Rupp. I had the privilege of getting to know him because of his work with and my involvement in the ministerial class at Bob Jones University. On one occasion, sitting in his office talking over the issue of separation, he told a group of us that the real issue in separation is the gospel. We are to practice separation for the sake of the gospel. I believe that conversation happened during my senior year of college (1982-83). It made sense then and I think it makes sense now. Our practice of separation should be focused on gospel issues. Building on yesterday’s post, I’d like expand on what I believe the gospel entails and why is it so important to hold firmly to it. I am again rooting my thoughts in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, but appealing to other texts as needed.
The Gospel is a Message with Essential Content, “the gospel which I preached” (v. 2; cf. v. 11)
There is a very definite and deliberate shift away from propositional truth that poses a serious threat to the health of the church and the souls of lost people. Sadly, this attack is often disguised as a call to a more pure love for and trust in Jesus Christ. Listen to Robert Webber:
The primary problem we evangelicals have inherited from the Enlightenment is its emphasis on the foundational nature of Scripture. The church has from its beginning confessed that Jesus Christ is the foundation of faith…. This foundation of Christianity is the incarnation of God into our humanity to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves: Defeat the powers of evil and restore the creation in the new heavens and the new earth.
It was during the Enlightenment that the foundation of the Christian faith shifted from the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ to the centrality of the Bible. Theology shifted from the God who acts to the God who spoke. In the worst scenario faith shifted from trust in Christ to trust in the Book. Therefore, the first question we must address as evangelicals in a postmodern world is this: Do we believe in a book or a person? (Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999], p. 45.)
Webber creates an artificial and false dichotomy between Jesus Christ and the Scriptures—he tries to make us choose between two options, but no choice really needs to be made. We believe in a Person who has been revealed to us through a book! Paul says plainly here that there was a gospel which was preached by him and was received by the Corinthians. It is within this gospel message that the Corinthians stand, if they stand at all. There is a definite “word” which Paul preached to them.
The Character of the Gospel is that it is Apostolic and Biblical, “we preached…according to the Scriptures”
The apostolic witness in the Scriptures is a foundational truth that we must guard. It is “the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15). Any explanation of the gospel must be apostolic and biblical or it is not God’s gospel.
Paul is unmistakably clear about this in Galatians 1:6-9. The way in which Paul describes the true gospel is a key to guarding ourselves against false teaching. He says it was what “he preached” and what “you received.” The language here is the language of apostolic truth and discipleship. The apostles “received” the message from Jesus Christ and then proclaimed it to others who also “received” it. By using this language, Paul is establishing a test for the truth that must be accepted and what must be rejected: Is it the doctrine received from Christ and transmitted to us through the apostles? In other words, it is the principle of Sola Scriptura that must be the testing mechanism.
The Context of the Gospel is Man’s Alienation from the True and Living God, our Creator, “died for our sins” (cf. Acts 14:15; 17:23, 30-31; 1 Ths 1:10).
You cannot understand the biblical gospel outside of its theistic framework—God, the source, support, and end of all things, created man; man sinned against God; God’s wrath is kindled against man because of his sin. This is why the gospel preaching of Acts begins with God, cf. Acts 14:15 “we preach the gospel to you so that you should turn from these vain things to a living God” and Acts 17:23 “this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it.” When Paul preached in the synagogue, he confronted the Jews with the God of the covenant. When he preached to Gentiles, he confronted them with the God of creation. His point of contact with them was their awareness of God, and he proclaimed to them the true and living God who had provided salvation through His Son, Jesus (1 Ths 1:9-10).
This is where the book of Romans starts the gospel message—the wrath of God revealed against all unrighteousness. Why? Because when they knew God they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful (1:21). Without this aspect of the message, there is no need for the good news. This means that the message of the gospel is more than simply information to be known. It confronts us with our rebellion and demands our repentance. I have seen some argue that repentance and faith are not part of the gospel, but I would contend that this is a reductionist view of the gospel—Paul could say that his life’s mission was to “testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” and within three verses also say that he had been “solemnly testifying…of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:24, 21).
It may seem unnecessary to some to address what seem to be such straightforward truths, but we live in a day where some are arguing that God the Father and Jesus Christ of the Scriptures are the same as the god and Jesus of the Koran. This is a serious error that undercuts the biblical witness about God, Christ, sin, and salvation. In other words, it is an attack on the gospel. The biblical gospel must be understood within the context and framework that the Bible itself establishes. The biblical gospel also includes the message of why God’s grace is needed and how it is received.