The Gospel of God, Part 2

In my last post, I took a look at Paul's description of the gospel of God from Romans 1:1-4, showing that his gospel was rooted in the prior revelation of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Old Testament. In this post, I will focus on 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, and how that passage also informs Paul's (and the Church's) gospel presentation.

Paul begins chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians (although it was not actually his first letter to them, see 1 Corinthians 5:9) like this, "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures..."

I covered some of the Old Testament references for the gospel in my last post, so in this post, I will lay out the vital components of the gospel of God. In the first place, the gospel is the message whereby we are saved, as Paul says. In fact, it is the only message whereby people are delivered from an eternity of condemnation and judgment from a holy God. Elsewhere Paul calls the gospel the "gospel of your salvation" (Ephesians 1:13). In yet another place, Paul writes that those who preach a different gospel (whether they be apostles or angels) are under God's curse of anathema (Galatians 1:6-9). The reason why someone would be under God's curse for preaching a different gospel is because those who do so are misleading people into putting their trust in something and/or someone that cannot save!

Secondly, Paul places the gospel as something which is "of first importance." This cannot be overstated. The gospel of Christ is of first importance and supersedes all other considerations in living as Christians. Think of things in church life that are very important: a statement of faith, good music, preaching, small groups, children's and youth ministries, elders, prayer, biblical counseling, etc... Most would agree that these and other things carry massive importance in being followers of Jesus - both individually and together as a local body of believers. But as important as all those things are (and they are very important), the truth of the gospel message is infinitely more so. Because without a proper and firm grasp of the gospel, all the important things mentioned above will profit no one anything, and may even contribute to increasing judgment on us if they are not properly rooted in who Jesus is and what he has done. 

And what has Jesus done in the gospel? Well, in the first place, Paul tells us that Christ died for our sins. A gospel where Christ has not died (such as in Islam) is no gospel at all. But not only is the gospel that Jesus died, he died according to the Scriptures (i.e., the Old Testament). In other words, it is not only that Jesus died, but that he died a certain way which is laid out in the Old Testament. Jesus could not have fallen sick and died peacefully in his sleep for example. His death had to be public, by piercing and being witnessed by others (Psalm 22:7; Isaiah 53:5; Zechariah 12:10). More than this, though, Christ died "for our sins." This is why the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement is so necessary. Yes, it is true that Christ by his death disarmed Satan and his demons (Colossians 2:14-15). The doctrine of Christus Victor is certainly true. But by itself it is insufficient. Christ's death by crucifixion was only a victory over Satan because he took away one of Satan's most effective weapons, namely accusation (Revelation 12:10). 

Next, Paul writes that Christ was buried. I have written elsewhere on why it is so important that Christ was buried. To briefly reiterate, Christ's burial is vital to prove that he really was dead since only a dead person is buried (not even the Romans were so cruel as to bury someone alive). But more than this, it was necessary to prove that he really was resurrected since witnesses saw him being buried and subsequently saw him alive; as well as to show that his dead body was not eaten by carrion birds or otherwise disposed of.

Lastly, in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Paul reminds his readers and us that Christ was raised up and seen by many witnesses. The true, physical, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the capstone of the Christian faith. Without it, there can be no forgiveness of sins, the early church was full of liars, and the whole of the faith is reduced to nothing (1 Corinthians 15:14-19). This is why the Apostles especially were at pains to emphasize the resurrection and their personal experience of it. The Apostle John, for example, writes that he bears eyewitness testimony of the totality of Jesus' ministry, including his resurrection, "This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true" (John 21:24). Paul also relates his personal experience of the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 9:1).

The gospel is a trust that God himself has given the Church to declare throughout the whole world. It belongs to God, is rooted in the Old Testament, and concerns Jesus Christ - and him alone - as the crucified, buried, and risen one. It is the only message that when believed, leads to salvation. False gospels and false Christs do not save, but only lead to condemnation. I pray that those who read may be encouraged to believe and share this wonderful message of God's kindness, mercy, and grace given in Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Does Hebrews 6:4-6 Teach that Christians Can Forfeit Their Salvation?

Is it possible for a Christian to lose or forfeit their salvation? Can a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ move from death to life and then back to death? This is no academic question, but one that holds tremendous practical importance for the everyday lives of believers. But let me also clarify something. The question is not about whether or not people people can outwardly profess faith in Christ and then later fall away. That is something Scripture is clear about and something which many reading this (and I include myself) can no doubt attest to. Indeed, I have known or heard of individuals who once claimed to believe in the Lord Jesus, but have since fallen away completely from the faith, or have embraced heretical or unorthodox theologies, thus revealing their true character. Sadly, I can think of at least one person who completely fell away from the faith to embrace heresy. It is a heartbreaking thing to witness.

But what should we make of such people? And is that fate something that we who still hold faithfully to the gospel need to fear? I hope to answer that question in this post. I cannot do a thorough study of the doctrine of perseverance, or preservation of the saints. But I want to explore what is probably the most frequently cited text by those who hold that true believers in Jesus can fall away from the faith and forfeit/lose their salvation (those in the Wesleyan/Methodist and Pentecostal/Holiness traditions are usually representative of this view). That passage is Hebrews 6:4-6. I hope to show that this Scripture does hold out the certainty of damnation for those who fall away from their profession of Christ, but that those who thus fall away were never truly born again. Moreover, the writer to the Hebrews knows that God will keep his readers (and us) from such a fate. Other passages from Scripture will be brought in for further support. In other words, I hope to demonstrate that while a Christian can theoretically lose their salvation, they won't lose it because God will keep them by his power until the end. I also hope to show that the archetypal apostate (that is, one who commits apostasy by leaving the faith he/she once confessed) is Judas Iscariot. He professed faith in Christ and even participated in the ministry, but was never truly converted to begin with. His apostasy was simply exposing him for what he was all along, a thief and a false professor.

Hebrews 6:4-6 says the following, For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (ESV)

On the surface, this appears pretty straightforward. These verses seem to be saying that someone who has experienced true conversion can fall away and be eternally condemned since they can never again be renewed to repentance. But I believe that paying close attention to the context and reading the entire passage leads to a different conclusion. Someone can fall away for sure. But such a person was never truly born again to begin with. 

Firstly, let us look at the preceding verses, Hebrews 5:12-6:3: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. (ESV)

The author is rebuking his readers because even though they have been in Christ for a good length of time and should be in positions of teaching others the basics of the faith, they are still stuck in spiritual immaturity! They are still in need of spiritual "milk" instead of "meat." The author goes on to write that they should leave behind elementary teaching and move on to more substantive doctrine and thinking about Christ and the Christian faith. In short, they needed to grow up! And it is in this context that the author warns them of the dangers of apostasy. Those who don't grow up and make progress in their faith will instead go backwards and usually end up leaving the faith altogether. 

That said, we still have not really answered the question. Does the author of Hebrews really believe that his readers (both then and now) are in actual danger of falling away? I don't think so. What the author will do next in vv. 7-9 is clarify his assertions in vv. 4-6 by using a farming metaphor, which echoes one of the most well-known parables of Jesus. But in doing so, he gives reasons to believe that what he describes is what happens to false professors; something that will not happen to true believers because God will keep them from it:

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. (ESV)

Part of the problem with the view that says that true believers can fall from grace and forfeit their salvation is that they do not read the entire passage! In other words, if they kept reading, they would see that the author of Hebrews is not describing true believers who fall away, but rather false professors who refuse to grow up. The author uses the metaphor of crops drinking in the rain, either bearing fruit or not. This is similar to the Parable of the Sower/Soils that Jesus tells (Mark 4:1-20). According to that parable, the seed sown falls on four types of soils: rocky, shallow, thorn ridden, and good soil. Only the last produced any grain. The others showed at best some kind of growth, but are never said to have produced any crop useful for harvesting. In other words, only the seed that fell upon the good soil bore any useful crop. Only this last soil describes a genuine believer. The others represent unregenerate people, including some who appeared outwardly to be part of the community of faith.

The same thing is happening here in Hebrews 6. There are those who are outwardly associated with the Christian community, even experiencing in some measure the power of the Holy Spirit upon and around them (but not necessarily in them). But they bear no fruit. Their end is to be burned. They experienced many of the blessings of the Kingdom of God by their proximity to believers, but because they never bore a crop useful to God, they showed their true nature as unregenerate people by falling away. If they had been true believers before, they would have born fruit and remained within the Church (1 John 2:18-19). The Lord is very clear that those who are truly in him do bear fruit and are sanctified further by the Father so that they may bear even more fruit (John 15:1-2). So, if we are talking about true believers who fall away and lose their salvation, then there has to be a category for those who bear fruit but then stop bearing fruit. But there is no such category in the New Testament. People either bear fruit and are among those who are saved, or they bear no fruit whatsoever, and are among those eternally condemned.

More than this, the key to interpreting this passage as I have is found in verse 9: Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things - things that belong to salvation. The writer is basically saying, "This falling away from Christ won't happen to you! It is unusual to have to speak this way, but as serious as falling away is, it won't be your fate!" 

Another key to this interpretation is found in the parallel passage in Hebrews 10. There, the writer, having spent time expounding on Jesus' New Covenant death and his eternal priesthood, again warns of the dangers of apostasy:

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:26–38)

But once again keep reading! In verse 39, immediately after the passage above, the writer again clarifies his statement, But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. The writer is again saying that this awful falling away from Christ, which would and does lead to eternal condemnation will not be the fate of his readers nor of us today! No, true believers will be preserved and persevere until the end. The Lord Jesus promises it (John 10:27-30), and the letters of the New Testament promise it (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Yes, if his readers fell away from Christ they would be condemned and forfeit salvation. But they won't fall away because God will keep them from it. It isn't so much that a true Christian can't lose their salvation. It is that a true Christian won't lose their salvation because of God's power working in them (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Those who profess faith in Christ, but then fall away and commit apostasy are the spiritual descendants of Judas Iscariot. Judas was not only a disciple of the Lord Jesus, he was one of the Twelve Apostles. He was one of the closest followers of Jesus. He professed faith in Jesus, heard Jesus teach, traveled with him, and even performed miracles of deliverance in his name (Luke 9:1-6)! There was every outward indication that he was a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus. But he was not. Even as he ate, drank, and walked with Jesus, even having charge of the financial assets of the Lord and his disciples, he was a thief, a liar, and ultimately a traitor. John records that Jesus knew all along that Judas was a fraud, Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. (John 6:70-71). Elsewhere, John records that Judas was a habitual thief, stealing from the common purse which was meant to support the ministry of the Lord and his disciples. Judas, in a fake show of piety, objected to the lavish expression of worship which Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, offered to the Lord Jesus in the form of pouring expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus, But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Judas was an apostate. He fell away from the faith. He betrayed Jesus in an act of treachery so serious, that Jesus said it would have been better for him to have never been born (Mark 14:21). But he was not someone who had genuine faith in Jesus, bore fruit as a believer, but then subsequently fell away and lost a salvation that he once truly possessed. No, he was always an unregenerate thief, who falsely professed faith in Jesus, using his position as a leader in the community of Christ's disciples to pilfer from the common money bag, and enrich himself. His act of treason against Christ only confirmed outwardly what was already true of him inwardly. The same is true of apostates today. Their eventual outward denial of Christ merely makes obvious what was already true of their hearts all along. They were never genuinely believers in Jesus, only fakers. 

Yes, it is true that to fall away from Christ leads to eternal condemnation in hell. In fact, it is even worse to fall away from a faith once professed than to have never professed it at all (2 Peter 2:20-22). But when the whole of the Bible's teaching is considered, even those passages which seem to indicate that a true believer can fall away and forfeit and lose the salvation they once possessed are correctly understood to be teaching that such were always false professors. They were never truly changed inwardly to begin with. God made a promise in the New Covenant that he would put the fear of him into the hearts of his people, precisely so that they would not fall away and be destroyed (Jeremiah 32:40). We can be sure that those who have truly undergone the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit will be preserved by God's power and will persevere in faith until the end, and receive eternal salvation. Amen. 

The Gospel of God, Part 1

What is the gospel? I cannot imagine a more important question than this. As Christians, we are convinced that the gospel is the good news of salvation from being rightly and justly condemned by God for our rebellion against him. It is the message of Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has accomplished. It is the foundational message of the Christian faith. Everything in the Bible either leads to it or flows from it. And so, I want to spend a little time expounding upon it and applying it. At its most basic, the gospel is the divinely sent message that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah - the Son of God and God the Son - who has accomplished salvation from sin through his death, burial, and resurrection. All of this was predicted and foreshadowed in the Old Testament, and accomplished, declared, and applied in the New Testament. 

There are many Scriptures that explain and apply the gospel, but in this post, I want to focus specifically on Romans 1:1-4. In a subsequent post, I will look briefly at 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 and what that passage tells us about the gospel. In this passage in Romans, what I have highlighted above will be made more clear. Romans 1:1-4[1] says this: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord...

Paul begins his letter to the Roman Christians by noting his own identity as an apostle. But he goes on to say that the substance of his apostolic ministry is to be "set apart for the gospel of God..." I like that last part, the "gospel of God." It is important to grasp that the gospel is God's gospel. That is what I meant above when I stated that the gospel is the "divinely sent message..." No human being came up with the gospel. It does not belong to any human being or any human organization. It was not copied from pre-existing legends, as some falsely claim. It originates with God. And it belongs to God and to God alone. God is the one who originated the gospel in his own eternal plan, and who has given it to the Church as a trust to spread it around the world. That is why keeping the message of the gospel pure is so important, and why those who tamper with it bring upon themselves eternal condemnation in hell (Galatians 1:8-9).

But Paul goes further. God did bestow the responsibility to spread the message of the gospel to Paul. But Paul was not the first to receive it. In fact, neither were those who were apostles of Jesus before Paul. According to Paul, the gospel was "promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures..." In this context, "the holy Scriptures" refers to what Christians call the Old Testament. The gospel is not just a New Testament phenomenon. It is all over the Old Testament! I will give just a sampling of passages below: 

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

Here, God promises that the offspring of the woman (literally, the "seed," and not that of the man; prefiguring the later revelation of the Virgin Birth) will deliver a fatal blow to the serpent (the Devil) while suffering what will not be an ultimately fatal blow from the serpent. 

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. (2 Samuel 7:12)

God promises to David that after his own death and burial, he will "raise up" his offspring after him (in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, completed approximately 200 years *BEFORE* Christ, this is the verb "to resurrect"). 

The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool"...The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." (Psalm 110:1.4)

In one of the most explicit passages in the Hebrew Bible, God himself says to David's "Lord" (someone of higher rank than David) that he should sit at his right hand, a place of equal power and prestige. This one who is greater than David is also designated a priest forever by God, but not after Aaron's priesthood, but after that of the enigmatic Melchizedek. The New Testament book of Hebrews goes into much more detail about this, but suffice it to say that the seeds of Messiah's reign in heaven at God's right hand and his priesthood are already being planted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace...when his soul makes on offering for guilt, [God] shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days... (Isaiah 53:5a, 10b).

Perhaps even more explicit than the Psalm passage above is Isaiah 52:13-53:12. This tells us of the suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of the Messiah in great specifics, and that nearly 700 years before the fact!

For Paul, this gospel about Jesus, the descendant of Israel's King David who was raised from the dead was something he was "set apart" for (Romans 1:1). His ministry, the Church's ministry, and my ministry within the Church is also to be set apart for this message, to preach it and to "bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations" (Romans 1:5).

This gospel also demands a response from those who hear it. Paul said to the Greek philosophers in Athens, "[God] commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30b-31). If you are reading this today and you do not know or follow Jesus, then I make this my plea to you. Turn from your own way and place your full faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was crucified, died, and was raised up to bring about salvation and a supernatural, eternal life and joy from the damnation brought about by our sins and offenses against God. Anything that gets in the way of this must be pushed aside and abandoned. If you are a believer and you are reading this, then I pray you would be encouraged by the reminder about what Christ has done and that you will be inspired to share it with others who do not yet know the Lord. Amen. 

[1] All Scripture Quotations are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.