Sunday morning, October 3, 2004
The True Gospel
By Richard Spencer, Ph.D.
Child Family Professor of
Engineering,
University of California, Davis
But I am
afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may
somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if
someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or
if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different
gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. (2
Corinthians 11:3-4)
In this section of his second letter
to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul is writing to defend his ministry to the
Corinthian church. Certain false apostles, whom Paul refers to as
super-apostles, had infiltrated the church, teaching heresy and challenging
Paul’s authority and teachings. So he reminds the Corinthian believers, first,
of how easily people can be deceived and fall into sin, by speaking about Eve
and the Fall. He then says he does not want these Corinthian believers to be
led astray from their sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
First, then, we must consider that
there is a real gospel and there are false gospels. We need to be careful to lay
hold of the real and reject the false.
I.
There Is a Real Gospel and There Are False Gospels
Note that Paul told the Corinthians
that he did not want them to be led astray from their sincere and pure
devotion to Christ. Whenever we speak of something being pure, we know that it
is possible for it to be impure, corrupted or watered down. So it is with our
faith; even true Christians can have their faith watered down or corrupted by
the world, sin, and Satan. In fact, we can never do anything in this life that
is completely pure. It amazes me when I examine my own heart to see how even my
best deeds are polluted by sin.
The Old Testament is filled with
examples of people whose zeal for God waned or who assimilated different parts
of the cultures and religions around them or who, in one way or another, turned
away from God and from his truth. These examples are given to us so that we may
see the pain incurred by turning away from God and the blessings that are ours
when we are faithful to him, thus warning and encouraging us to keep our
devotion to Christ sincere and pure.
Note also that Paul said he was
afraid that the Corinthians’ minds might somehow be led astray. While
emotions are powerful things, ultimately our minds control who we are and what
we do. Thus, it is our thinking that the enemy is most concerned with
attacking. That is why we are told to take every thought captive to Christ and
why Paul writes in Romans that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our
minds. We must be careful how we think and what we think about.
To keep something pure, we must first
understand what the essence of that thing is—what it is made of—and what we are
trying to protect it from—the impurities that might come in. Paul speaks of
keeping our devotion to Christ pure. Therefore, we need to examine not only the
nature of the real gospel, but also the nature of these false gospels and the
false teachings of the world so that we can recognize and reject them.
II. The
Nature of False Gospels
Paul lists three areas that indicate
a false gospel: “If someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the
Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you
received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted. . .” So we can have
a false Jesus, a false spirit, or a false gospel.
Who is this “other Jesus” that Paul
is writing about? Just listen to what the people around you say about Jesus.
First, they will say that Jesus was a man who lived. Very few people deny that,
but very few will grant him anything more. Some will say that he was a good man
and a moral teacher. That is good, as far as it goes, but it is not all.
Muslims go even one more step, saying that Jesus was a prophet of God. But they
will not go any further than that.
What about religions that claim to be
Christian? The Jehovah’s Witnesses say that Jesus is a created being, not God.
The Mormons say that he is one god among many. The “Jesus Seminar,” a group of
scholars who tries to decide with the aid of human reason which of the words
recorded in the Bible were really said by Jesus, usually comes up with very few
words. Then there are people like David Koresh, who died in the Branch Davidian
fire in Waco, Texas, in 1993. He, as others throughout history have done,
claimed that he himself was Jesus Christ!
So there certainly is no lack of
“other Jesuses” by which one can be deceived. Knowing that it is in our minds
that we are led astray, we must combat these false ideas and replace them with
truth. We do so by knowing what the Scriptures say about Jesus and by being
convinced that the Scriptures truly are the inerrant word of God. Without this
firm foundation, you will be blown to and fro by the wind of every new teaching.
Second, Paul says that people can
have “a different spirit.” Again, we do not have to look too far to see what he
is speaking about. There are people who commit adultery, yet claim that the
“Spirit” tells them it is okay. There are people who say that the “Spirit” has
made it clear to them that it is all right to be practicing homosexuals. There
are people who believe that the same “Spirit” is in all people, whether they are
Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Hindus, Christians or whatever.
There is an obvious problem with all
of these other “Spirits”: they contradict each other as well as God’s
inscripturated Word. But God does not change, nor does he lie. It is not
possible for the Holy Spirit to lead anyone to believe anything contrary to the
word of God.
So we are told in 1 John 4:1 to test
the spirits. But how are we to do that? John says, “Every spirit that
acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every
spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God” (vv. 2-3). Although
John only lists this one point—the humanity, and by implication, the divinity,
of Christ—it is clear that he means that a spirit from God will always be
completely in accord with God’s word. Thus, to test a spirit, we must turn to
the word of God.
Third, Paul says there are false
gospels that promise salvation. Such teachings play off of our sinful nature: we
either want to earn our way to heaven (salvation by works), or we want to be
free to sin. We like to be our own authority, not to be under
authority. These false gospels tell us that we can decide what is
right and wrong; we do not need to submit to the word of God or anything else.
We have the Spirit, so we can pray and decide for ourselves. Let the conscience
be our guide!
The problem with that approach is
clear, given what we just said about false spirits. We must test the
spirits. Additionally, our consciences can be wrong. In fact, the Bible speaks
of a conscience being seared, meaning it has become so defiled after committing
so many sins that it is useless for guiding us. The test for spirits as well as
for our consciences involves the word of God. The minute we abandon the
authority of the Bible, we have lost all hope of finding the right way. Proverbs
tells us that there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads
to death.
In addition to these false gospels,
there is another false notion very common today, especially on the university
campus. It is the idea that man does not need a gospel at all! It is based on
the idea that we are all just animals who have evolved over the millennia, and
the only thing that sets us apart from dogs, cats, or fruit flies is that we
have a somewhat more advanced brain and an opposing thumb.
According to this view of the world,
when we die, we are gone, and that is the end of it. There is no judgment, there
is nothing to be saved from, and, thus, there is no need for a gospel. According
to this worldview, there is not any eternal purpose or plan to the universe, and
religion is just something that primitive man made up to deal with his fears.
Admittedly, some people will acknowledge what they call a “spiritual realm,” but
it is extremely difficult to know what they mean, and it certainly has nothing
to do with sin, judgment, and salvation as taught in the Bible. In spite of the
use of the word “spiritual,” it is again, really, a naturalistic view of the
universe in which there are things that we call physical—things we can see and
touch—and there are things that we call spiritual—things we cannot see and
touch. But they are still all just a part of this universe, and we are all,
somehow, just a part of some all-embracing ethereal “spirit” or cosmic power.
However, when Christians speak of the
spiritual realm, they are speaking of an entirely separate realm of existence.
There is a similarity, of course, in the sense that the Bible teaches that man
is both body and spirit, but there is a huge difference in that God, who is
spirit, is completely transcendent. He is not a part of this world or universe;
he is entirely separate. In fact, it is he who created the universe, both the
physical and the spiritual realm.
So we see that there are a number of
different views of Jesus, a number of different spirits, and a number of
different gospels. These cannot all be correct because they contradict each
other in many ways. But in this politically correct day and age, and especially
on a university campus, one can never say that another person’s religion is
false; that would be “too judgmental.” Instead, the world gives us the very
pernicious false notion that somehow one can separate one’s religion from the
rest of life. In other words, there is a realm that includes logic, reason,
facts, science and so on, and then there is another realm that includes
feelings, faith, religion and spirituality. We may still be allowed, for at
least a while, to say that two plus two is four, not five, but woe to those who
say that the Bible is true and the Koran is not!
The well-known scientist and author
Steven Jay Gould liked to speak of two different, non-overlapping “magesteria”
of human endeavor. What this view really says is that faith has nothing to do
with what is real and that faith is entirely subjective, dealing only in
non-factual, emotional matters. If that is true, then we who call ourselves
Christians are to be pitied more than all other men.
But it is obviously not true. Whether
or not God exists is clearly a question of fact, not opinion. Whether or not
Jesus Christ was truly God is a matter of fact, not opinion. Whether or not
there is a heaven and a hell is a matter of fact, not opinion. Whether or not
the Bible is God’s word is a matter of fact, not opinion. So while we as
Christians believe in tolerance, what we mean is that we should treat our
non-Christian neighbors with love and respect and, as far as it depends on us,
live at peace with them. But it does not mean that we can pretend that
all views are equally valid. To do that would be to give up on truth. It would
be to pretend that our faith has nothing to do with life, or with reality. As
Christians, we must speak the truth.
If you are a Christian, you must
reject all of these false gospels and the false notion that they can all,
somehow, be equally valid. If you are not a Christian, you must still reject
this notion that all these different ideas are equally valid, and you should
commit yourself to finding out what is true. That brings us to my third point:
the nature of the real gospel.
III. The
Nature of the Real Gospel
What is the real gospel? The word
gospel means “good news.” A short statement of it is found in the response Paul
and Silas gave to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16 when he asked, “What must I
do to be saved?” They answered: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be
saved.” But this simple answer belies a wealth of information.
First, it presupposes that one has
seen one’s need for a Savior and has repented of one’s sins. Paul and Silas did
not need to say that to the Philippian jailer because it was so evident from his
actions and his words that he already knew he was a sinner who needed a Savior.
Jesus himself was clear about the
connection between repentance and the good news of the gospel. In Mark 1 we are
told that “After John [the Baptist] was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee,
proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of
God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
Before we can receive the good news,
we must receive some bad news. Unless someone intervenes, all of us are destined
for hell. Why? Because we have rejected God and disobeyed his commandments.
This is the bad news. But, praise God that we do not have to stop with the bad
news. We can repent of our sins and believe the good news, which is the gospel
of Christ.
What is this good news? Romans 5:8
tells us, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.” Why did Christ die for us? To pay the penalty
for our sins. God is just and righteous; therefore, he must punish sin. But, as
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Christ took our sin
upon himself and paid our penalty in full, bearing in his body on the cross the
wrath of the Father. And what do we get in exchange for our sins? His perfect
righteousness. This is what the Reformed theologians call the double imputation:
God takes our sins and imputes them to Christ; then he imputes Christ’s
righteousness to us. What a glorious transaction! He supplies what we cannot
supply ourselves: the righteousness that is absolutely essential to being in
the presence of a holy God.
But there is more to this gospel
message. We must understand how it is possible for Christ to pay the penalty for
our sins and how it is that he possesses this perfect righteousness that is
credited to us. (PGM) The answer, of course, is that Christ is not just a man;
he is fully man and fully God. All men are sinners, and no man can save
himself, let alone anyone else. So the Savior had to be God. But, at the same
time, it is man who sinned, and so it is man who must pay for his sin. So the
Savior had to be a man too.
Now this sounds impossible to us, and
it certainly is a great mystery. But Christ, who is God, the eternal second
Person of the Holy Trinity, humbled himself and became a man, as we read in
Philippians 2:5-8:
Your attitude should be the
same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the
very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in
appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death
on a cross!
Christ was just like us in every way
except that he was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He was born of the Virgin
Mary and the Holy Spirit.
So we see that the simple gospel,
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,” requires repentance and
faith that Christ is God and that he died for our sins. But that is not all. It
also requires that we know he was raised from the dead. For what good would his
death be if he stayed dead? Dead would have then defeated him. Death would be
victorious. But, since Jesus was completely righteous, death had no power over
him, and God the Father raised Christ from the dead as the firstfruits of his
new creation.
The simple gospel we have been
considering requires that we know and believe all of this. But we still have to
be careful: We can believe all of this to be true, and yet not put our trust in
Jesus Christ as our only hope, our only Savior, our only
Lord. According to James, even the demons believe all of these things, and
they shudder in fear because they are not saved. When Paul and Silas told
the jailer to believe in Christ, they didn’t just mean to have mental assent to
the facts of the gospel message. They meant for the jailer to abandon all trust
in himself and to place his faith entirely in Jesus Christ for his salvation.
This, then, is saving faith. There
are three elements: the content—the facts that we have been talking about; our
giving mental assent to the truth of those facts; and then, finally, our full
trusting in Jesus Christ.
If you do not know this Christ as
Lord and Savior, you are, no doubt, thinking that I’m out of my mind for saying
that I believe this all to be true. The Bible says that the gospel is
foolishness to the world. But look into your own heart. Do you not see deceit,
hatred, jealousy, envy, lust, and many other things you would not want anyone
else to see? And do you not know in your heart of hearts that those things are
wrong, and that someday you will be punished for them? How can you stand
before an all-righteous God? The answer is, you cannot, if you are standing on
your own. Unless you put your trust in his only Son, Jesus Christ, it is
hopeless. But if you see your hopeless estate, I urge you to let go of
trusting in yourself and lay hold of God’s promises given to us in his word.
Then you will be saved, and God’s Holy Spirit will come in and dwell with you
and will testify with your spirit that you are in fact a child of God.
Now, I am not saying that you will
never have any doubts, but I am saying that God will provide you with the means
to make your calling and election sure, just as the apostle Peter tells us in 2
Peter 1. In addition, Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is being sure of what we
hope for and certain of what we do not see.” So it is possible to be
sure. I implore you, therefore, to take the time to find out about this Jesus.
Ask someone here, and if either he or she cannot help you now, they can point
you to someone who can. Take the time! Do not let another day go by without
resolving to find out the truth about this Christ.
And what if you do know Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior? Well, first of all, you should give glory and praise to God
for saving you. But then what should you do about this gospel? Can you just go
on about your life, not worrying about it? Or must your life be different?
The Bible is quite clear in answer to
these questions. The old Reformation formula is still true: we are saved by
faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. So this brings us to my fourth
point: How are we to live as Christians in this secular age? And, more
particularly for us here today, how are we to live as Christians on this secular
campus and in this secular university town?
IV. How to
Live as a Christian
First of all, we must believe the
Bible is the very word of God and the only rule for faith and life. We know this
is true because the Bible itself speaks of its divine inspiration: “All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for
every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Additionally, we can be convinced of
the veracity of the Bible because of its internal consistency, its historical
accuracy, the prophecies that have come true, and many more evidences that it
is, in fact, the word of God. But, ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who
testifies with our spirit that it is the word of God. For this is not just a
book; it is the living word. It speaks to us daily and teaches us the way we
should go. It is a light for our path.
Second, we must make God our number
one priority. That doesn’t mean that we spend the majority of our time in
church, or in church activities, or in praying or reading the Bible. But it does
mean that we should spend a significant time each day studying the Bible and in
prayer; and that we should set the Sabbath day aside and keep it holy for God
and that we should attend church and have fellowship with the people of God. It
means that we should live our lives coram Deo—before the face of God. We
should live with an understanding of the mystical union that we have with
Christ: we were crucified with him, buried with him, raised with him, and are
seated with him in the heavenly realms (Romans 6 and Ephesians 2). In Christ we
are victorious over sin and death. We have been given a new nature that has the
ability to say “No” to sin and to live for God’s glory. And we are to do
everything that we do for the glory of God. If we live this way daily, we will
be fruitful ambassadors for Christ and will enjoy many blessings from him. I am
not saying our lives will not have troubles; in fact, Jesus Christ himself said
that we will have troubles in this life. But I am saying that even in the midst
of troubles, we can have the peace of God that transcends all human
understanding in our hearts. We can be at peace with God and filled with joy
unspeakable and full of glory.
What must we do on a daily basis to
enjoy this kind of relationship with Christ? I’ve already told you, but let us
go over it again. We must pray and read the Bible daily. We must attend church
and have fellowship with other Christians. We must study the Bible and live in
obedience to God’s commands. God wants us to be successful in this life, so
being obedient to his commands means that we study hard, work hard, and give
glory to God when we are successful, and even when we are not. We are told to
pray at all times, so I would suggest starting your day with prayer, even before
your normal quiet time. When you get up and your feet hit the floor, you should
pray. And close every day with prayer, when you lie down in bed. Learn how to
pray at all times, as the Bible tells us, in all things, thanking God for
everything. Yes, there will be times when that is not easy. Not everything
will strike us as good. But Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together
for the good of those who believe.
Let me give you an example this idea
of seeing that God is good, even at a time when it is not so obvious to us. We
are in the midst of painting the inside of our house. We have a very high,
vaulted ceiling in our entryway, with a large glass chandelier hanging from the
ceiling. I usually get up on a tall ladder about once a year and take all the
glass pieces off of the chandelier to clean them. But this week we had
scaffolding in the entry so that I could paint the ceiling, and we had taken the
glass off the chandelier while we were painting. When I was done painting, I was
putting the glass pieces back and all of sudden the chandelier fell apart. The
bottom part was hanging by the wires and ready to crash to the ground.
Now, my first inclination was not to
praise God for this unexpected trouble. In fact, it took me two hours to get the
chandelier down, take it apart, and rebuild it. But later it dawned on me what a
fool I was to not praise God even in this situation. You see, as I worked on it,
I realized that the chandelier had been assembled incorrectly in the first place
and was inevitably going to come apart some day. But this was the only time I
have ever had scaffolding set up and the only time when I could have dealt with
it in this way. Had the chandelier come apart while I was on top of a tall
ladder, it would have been a real mess. In fact, I would probably still be on
top of the ladder, screaming for someone to come and find a way to help me.
So we need to learn to give God
praise in every circumstance. This is something that we can practice. We can
look over our lives and see how God is working day by day, even in the things
that don’t seem to be a blessing at first.
We also live coram Deo by not
giving in to the lies Satan brings to us. He will bring them to our minds from
the books we read, from the movies we see, and even from the professors in the
classroom. Satan may say, “It is okay to skip church and prayer and reading for
a few days. God knows you have that midterm and paper due.” But how much better
it would be if you got up a bit earlier when you do have a lot of work to do, so
that you could pray and then get the work done! Or Satan may say, “It’s okay to
party with your pagan friends. After all, aren’t you supposed to be salt and
light in the world and to tell people about Christ? How can you do that if you
don’t have a good relationship with them?” But how much better it would be if
you told your pagan friends up front, “I cannot do those things with you because
I am a Christian. God has told me not to do certain things, and I must honor
that.” Or Satan may say that believing in the Bible is old-fashioned, that
science has proven the Bible to be wrong, and that the Bible is full of
inconsistencies, so that you can pick and choose which parts to believe, but you
do not have to take the whole thing seriously. How much better it would be if
you studied the Bible and learned the doctrines of the church so that you could
defend them against such lies! How much better it would be if you could stand
for truth, and then tell your friends why you are standing! You would be amazed
at the results. Remember, all of us were unbelievers at one time. I once sat
in these very pews with smoke coming out of my ears because a man dared to tell
me the truth! So we have to believe the word of God has the power to save, and
we need to tell people about it.
In conclusion, let me take a moment
to address the students here today, although what I have to say certainly
applies to all of us in our various walks of life. As students at a major
university, you have a great opportunity and, simultaneously, a great
responsibility. You are to stand for Christ against all opposition. You are to
keep your Christian faith and life intact and, in fact, you are to grow in your
knowledge and love for God. In these years, you will set a pattern for
the rest of your life: either one of compromising your faith and trying to live
with one foot in the world and the other in Christianity, which is ultimately
impossible; or of walking in obedience, growing in faith, and being used by God
as a light shining in a dark place.
Think about your calling seriously.
Meditate on the fact that outside of Christ, you were a sinner bound for hell;
that Christ died for your sins; and that your life is bound with in his. You are
not your own; you were bought at a price, the very blood of Christ. Every breath
you take is a gift from God, and you owe him everything you have, including the
opportunity to be here at this university. So redeem the time by living for
Christ while you are here.
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