The Gospel is NOT about YOU!

Many times when Chiristians think about the Gospel they think about the good news about salvation from sin, death and hell. Thought this is certainly an important aspect of “the Gospel” it is not the primary aspect. The tendency for modern Christians is to make the Gospel about them and their salvation. But the biblical Gospel is first and foremost about Christ and His kingdom. To illustrate this tendency, let’s consider the following verses:

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Savior and believe in your heart that He died for your sins, you will be saved. 

– Romans 10:8-9? NKJV

These are very familiar verses. But did you catch the fact that verse 9 is misquoted? Here is the correct quotation:

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

– Romans 10:8-9 NKJV

Can you spot the difference? In the first quotation is talks of Jesus as Savior who died for our sins. But the verse actually talks of Jesus as Lord and points to the fact that God raised Him from the dead. This might seem like a small difference, but actually it completely changes the focus of the message. The misquoted version puts the emphasis on us and our salvation, but the biblical quotation puts the emphasis on Christ and His kingship as the risen Lord. Though it is certainly true that Christ is our Savior Who died for our sins, this is secondary to the fact that He is the risen Lord over God’s kingdom. 

If you take a few moments to read through the first public proclamation of the Gospel after the resurrection of Christ in Acts chapter 2 you will note something quite surprising; though Peter refers to the death of Jesus Christ, he never mentions that Jesus died for the sins of mankind. Instead, he mentions the death of Christ only in order to emphasize the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God. The conclusion of his Gospel presentation is found in the following verse:

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 

– Acts 2:36 NKJV

Peter’s emphasis is not on Jesus dying on the cross for our sins; he doesn’t even mention that fact! His message is focused on the fact that God has raised Jesus from the dead to be Lord of all. This is the same emphasis we read about in Romans 10:8-9. The Gospel is first and foremost about the risen Lord. I encourage you to skim through the book of Acts and note that in every public proclamation of the Gospel the apostles and evangelists never mention that Jesus died for the sins of mankind. This is not to say that Jesus did not die for our sins on the cross, it is only worth noting so that we see that though HIs death on the cross for our sins is an important aspect of the Gospel message, it is not the primary emphasis of the biblical Gospel. The primary and central emphasis of the Gospel message is that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord!

What difference does this make? I mean, if both His death for sin and His position as Savior as well as His resurrection from the dead and His position as Lord, are part of the Gospel message, why emphasize the latter above the former? If for no other reason, we should do so because the biblical writers emphazize the latter in their public proclamation of the Gospel. But also because what we emphasize in our Gospel proclamation will affect how people respond to the Gospel and how they walk out that response. 

If a sinner hears that the Gospel is that Jesus died for our sins so that we can be forgiven of our sins and go to heaven if we believe He is the Savior Who died for us, this will not necessarily lead to the repentance that leads to life. One could sincerely believe those facts and yet continue in rebellion to Christ without a second thought. On the other hand, if they hear from us that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father to be Lord of all, and they sincerely believe this message, they will immediately understand that they are required to submit their lives to His Lordship. We must present Jesus Christ as the risen Lord that has power to save because He died for our sins, and power to judge those who continue to live in rebellion to His lordship because He is Lord of all.

Though the Gospel certainly includes the fact that Jesus died for our sins so we could be forgiven of our sins and receive the gift of eternal life, this is not the primary emphasis of the Gospel, but a consequence of it. The primary emphasis of the Gospel is the lordship of the risen Christ. And from this risen King salvation flows to those who will submit to His lordship and trust in His gracious mercy. The Gospel is first and foremost about Christ and His kingdom; then, and only then, is it about us and our salvation.

A Brief Note:

Let me make a quick note for those who might be wondering why Acts does not emphasize the atoning death of Christ, but it seems to be mentioned everywhere in the epistles (i.e. the letters of the apostles). The difference is found in the audience. When preaching to the lost, the emphasis is on the lordship of the risen Christ. We point to Him so that people will submit to Him and find salvation in HIm. But when the apostles wrote to believers they answered the question as to why the risen Christ can save us, namely because He died for our sins and rose again to give us new life. Since the epistles were written to believers, the apostles explain in more depth how Christ saves us.

2 Great Errors About Salvation

Intellectual

1. Salvation comes through believing certain facts ABOUT Christ instead of ENTRUSTING OURSELVES TO Christ

Many believe they are saved because they believed certain facts about the atonement. But doctrines cannot save us. We must entrust ourselves to the One Who is risen to save! Don’t trust doctrines ABOUT Christ; TRUST CHRIST!

Hebrews 7:25

Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, because He at all times lives to make intercession for them.

Transactional

2. Salvation comes through a PAST TRANSACTION with God instead of an ONGOING  RELATIONSHIP with God through Christ based on a faith that works through love

Many believe they have eternal life because they made a transaction with God in the past. Salvation is NOT yesterday; salvation is TODAY! It is not found in a transaction, but in a risen Savior! Trust in Christ! Trust Him TODAY, not yesterday!

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 

Working together with Him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive God’s grace in vain.” For He says:

I heard you in an acceptable time, and I helped you in the day of salvation. Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.

Keys to Understanding Romans 9 : 22-24 – Vessels of Mercy: Jews & Gentiles?

In this series, we are not going through Romans chapter 9 in depth. My goal is merely to give us some key cross-reference passages to help us come to a clear understanding of what Paul is communicating in Romans 9.

Let’s take a look at 9:22-24:

22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

In Romans 9:21 Paul refers to the nation of Israel as a lump of clay. He derives this analogy from Jeremiah 18:1-11. He tells us that God is able to use this lump of clay (i.e. Israel) in whatever way He so desires. And He has chosen to bring forth from this one lump of clay both vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. Then in 9:22-24 Paul lets us know who these vessels are.

Keys to Understanding Romans 9 : 19-21 – Who is Arguing with the Potter?

In this series, we are not going through Romans chapter 9 in depth. My goal is merely to give us some key cross-reference passages to help us come to a clear understanding of what Paul is communicating in Romans 9.

Let’s take a look at verses 19-21:

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

Romans 9:19-21

Here we have God represented as the Potter Who has sovereign authority over the clay. But those represented by the clay take issue with how God has dealt with them. Who are these people? In what way do they feel they have been misused by God? These questions are not difficult when we follow Paul’s argument from 9:1 up to 18.

Paul started off by telling his readers that Israel had been prepared for the promises of the New Covenant. But in their rebellion they rejected the Messiah and chose to boast in their ancestry and their devotion to the Law of Moses, instead of embracing the promises of God that are “Yes and Amen” in Jesus Christ. Their pride caused them to stumble over the stumbling block, and God in turn judged them by hardening them in their unbelief. They had sinned, and God justly judged them for their sin. But not only did He judge them, but He used their sin to further His purposes and bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. In this way, their sin did not hurt God’s glory in the slightest but actually magnified His grace to the nations. This is exactly what He had done with Pharaoh, which is why Paul used Pharaoh to represent the unbelieving nation of Israel in verse 17: “For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’“

Keys to Understanding Romans 9 : 14-16 – Hardened Pharaoh = Hardened Israel

In this series, we are not going through Romans chapter 9 in depth. My goal is merely to give us some key cross-reference passages to help us come to a clear understanding of what Paul is communicating in Romans 9.

Let’s pick up in verse 14:

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

Rom 9:14-16

In verse 14 Paul refers back to his argument so far in Romans 9:6-13. His argument has been that God has the right to choose His people based on whatever conditions He so chooses. The unbelieving Jews of Paul’s day imagined that they were God’s chosen people Israel because they were naturally descended from Abraham. But Paul points out that it was not all of Abraham’s descendants that received the promise. He argues that God limited the heirs by rejecting Ishmael and Esau.

Keys to Understanding Romans 9 : 6-13 – God’s Sovereign Prerogative

In this series, we are not going through Romans chapter 9 in depth. My goal is merely to give us some key cross-reference passages to help us come to a clear understanding of what Paul is communicating in Romans 9.

Up to this point (Romans 9:1-13), Paul has been trying to illustrate that God does not reckon His people according to lineage or according to obedience to the Law of Moses. He has done this by appealing to the history of the Hebrew patriarchs in verses 6-13. We have noted that Paul is having a hypothetical debate with his unbelieving countrymen. He has been defending God’s sovereign right to limit citizenship in Israel on whatever condition He so chooses. So let’s follow his argument all the way through verses 7 to 13.

He points out that though Abraham had two sons, the promise he received from God was only inherited by Isaac. What is interesting about this is that Isaac was not the firstborn son, and so, according to custom, it should have been Ishmael that received the promise. Paul’s countrymen would have quickly acknowledged that this decision was God’s prerogative.

Paul goes on in verses 10-13 and reminds his hypothetical debate partners that God did the same things with Isaac’s sons. Esau was Isaac’s firstborn, but God sovereignly chose to give the promise to the second-born son, Jacob. He made this decision before the twins were even born. Again, the Jews of Paul’s day would have had no objection to this arrangement but would have acknowledged that God was just in His choice. This would be acceptable to them, not only because God is sovereign, but also because Jacob was their ancestor, and so God’s choice happened to benefit them.

Keys to Understanding Romans 9 : 10-13 – Who Is Jacob? Who Is Esau?

In this series we are not going through Romans chapter 9 in depth. My goal is merely to give us some key cross-reference passages to help us come to a clear understanding of what Paul is communication in Romans 9. Most of these passages come from Paul in the book of Romans, Galatians or Ephesians. But we will also look to some of Old Testament passages he cites, as well as other related passages. 

In the last post we saw that Paul, in Romans 9:6-9, uses Isaac, the child of promise, to represent the Church of Jesus Christ made up of Jewish and Gentile believers. And he points his finger at his unbelieving countrymen and suggests that they are like Ishmael, the son of a slave women. This was clarified by referring to Galatians 4:21-31 and Romans 4:13-16. Now we want to turn to the next section in his argument found in 9:10-13.

10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” 

Rom 9:10-13 NKJV

Keys to Understanding Romans 9 : 6-9 – Who Are The “Children of Promise”?

In this series, we are not going through Romans chapter 9 in depth. My goal is merely to give us some key cross-reference passages to help us come to a clear understanding of what Paul is communicating in Romans 9. Most of these passages come from Paul in the book of Romans, Galatians, or Ephesians. But we will also look at some of the Old Testament passages he cites, as well as other related passages. 

6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” 

Rom 9:6-9 NKJV

In the last post, we looked at Romans 9:1-6 and noted what issue Paul intends to discuss in the chapter. He is asking and answering two primary questions. He is pointing out to the reader that Israel was promised the New Covenant, and yet they have for the most part rejected it. Firstly, he wants to answer why it is that Israel has rejected Christ and the New Covenant in Him. And secondly, he wants to let us know with confidence that this has not hindered God’s promise and plan. In 9:6 he told us that the unbelief of Israel did not thwart God’s promise to Israel because Israel is not reckoned according to natural descent. In 9:7-9 he is going to expand on this idea and present evidence for his assertion. 

Keys to Understanding Romans 9 : 1-6 – Who Is Israel?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Romans 1:16

Romans 9 is often used as a proof-text for determinism. It is as though Paul is presenting the Gospel for Jew and Gentile from Romans chapter 1 to chapter 8, and then becomes a fatalistic philosopher all of a sudden in chapter 9. This would really be a strange detour for the apostle to take. But, there is no detour. Paul continues to preach the universal message of salvation in Romans chapter 9. This chapter will become clear to us if we let Scripture interpret Scripture. So in the next several posts, we will look for a few key passages from Scripture, primarily from Paul’s epistles, in order to understand what Paul is arguing in Romans 9.

I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,…

Romans 9:1-6

Is Calvinism the Standard of Historic Christianity?

Calvinism is often portrayed as the standard of historic Christianity, but is this true?

If we imagine that Christianity started in the 16th century we might be able to make that claim. This is when its doctrines were widely embraced, and some of them were created. But of course, the Church of Jesus Christ began in the 1st century.

Calvinism’s distinct doctrines consist of the TULIP acronym, namely Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. 3 of these doctrines were created by Augustine in the 5th century. Before that, Christian writers did not teach these doctrines. These 3 doctrines were Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, and Irresistible Grace. Though Augustine invented them in the 5th century, they were not embraced by many until the Reformation. Luther and Calvin accepted and promoted these doctrines. But until then, most Christians had rejected them.

The other 2 doctrines, namely Limited Atonement and Perseverance of the Saints were not heard of until Calvin’s day. And in fact, it is debatable whether or not Calvin himself held to the doctrine of Limited Atonment. Some argue that it was created later by his disciples.

So Calvinism is only historic and orthodox if we change the definitions of the terms orthodox and historic.

This is discussed more in this video: