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Repentance is not a condition for eternal life

By Jeremy Myers
94 Comments

Repentance is not a condition for eternal life

What the Bible says about repentance is quite controversial.

Repent and Believe to Receive Eternal Life?

repentanceIn some circles, repentance is a necessary first step to conversion, usually preceding faith. Those who hold this view often say things like โ€œRepent and believe.โ€ The idea, of course, is that in order to receive eternal life, people must first repent of their sin, and then secondly, believe in Jesus. Passages such as Mark 1:15 where John the Baptist calls on people to โ€œrepent and believe the gospelโ€ seem to support such a view.

Is Repentance a Synonym for Believing?

However, since turning from sin as a precondition for faith is a form of good works, many Christians are uncomfortable with defining repentance this way, and so think of it instead as a synonym for faith. They note that the Greek word for repentance (metanoia) literally means โ€œto change the mindโ€ and so those who hold this view argue that repentance is simply the process of changing the mind about the source of oneโ€™s eternal life.

While previously we might have thought that we could gain or earn eternal life through our own merit and good works, once we recognize that we are sinners in need of Godโ€™s grace, we change our mind about how to receive eternal life (that is, we repent), and believe in Jesus for eternal life instead. In this way, repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.

What Repentance is and Is Not

I am convinced that both views are partially right and partially wrong. While it is true that repentance literally means โ€œto change the mind,โ€ the term is almost always used in reference to sin and so it is accurate to think about repentance as a turning away from sin and back toward God.

When we repent, we change our mind about our behavior, and in so doing, actually change our behavior as well. Yet despite the fact that repentance refers to a turning from sin and turning toward obedience, this does not in any way mean that repentance helps us earn or merit eternal life.

Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Turning from sin is not required.

It is probably best to think of repentance as an aspect of discipleship. Both believers and unbelievers can understand Godโ€™s instructions in Scripture, see the devastating consequences of sin in their own lives, and as a result, repent of their sin and seek to follow God instead.

If unbelievers do this, such repentance may help bring them to the place where they believe in Jesus for eternal life, but if this happens, such repentance does not in any way contribute to their eternal life.

Of course, once a person believes in Jesus for eternal life, they can still (and should) repent of sin that they commit so that their lives can be transformed more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

So what is repentance?

Repentance is a turning from sin and returning to the life God wants for us.

repentance

This turning from sin does not help us earn or keep eternal life, but does help us follow Jesus on the path of discipleship. Repentance helps us gain freedom from the damaging and addicting power of sin in our lives.

Remembering this will help clarify the scores of passages in the New Testament which talk about repentance. These passages on repentance are not calling people to make changes to their behavior so that they can receive eternal life. No, passages on repentance are calling all people to change their lives so that they can avoid the negative and physical consequences of sin and live the life of joy and freedom that God wants.

Repentance is vitally important for living life with God and with each other the way life was meant to be lived, but repentance is not one of the conditions for receiving eternal life from God. Thankfully, eternal life is a free gift of God to anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus for it.

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, repentance, salvation, Theology of Salvation

Two Kinds of Forgiveness – One is free, one is conditional

By Jeremy Myers
46 Comments

Two Kinds of Forgiveness – One is free, one is conditional

forgiven forgivenessWhen seeking to understand the biblical definition of forgiveness, it must first be understood that there are two main Greek words for forgiveness, both of which refer to a different kind of forgiveness.

Charizomai Forgiveness

The first type of forgiveness is charizomai forgiveness, by which God has graciously forgiven us of all our sinsโ€”past, present, and future โ€” whether we confess and repent of these sins or not.

All people have this gracious forgiveness (charizomai) from God, whether they are a Christian or not.

As far as God is concerned, your guilt has been removed from you. Your sin is no longer an issue with God.

Aphฤ“sis Forgiveness

However, we all still struggle with the consequences of sin in our lives and in our relationships. The biblical answer to this problem is to first of all recognize that we have the gracious and loving forgiveness of God, but then to admit to God that we have actually messed up our lives by failing to live according to His instructions, and then seeking to take steps and make changes which allow us to live according to Godโ€™s will.

The biblical words for what I have just described are confession (admit, agree) and repent (turn from sin and turn toward obedience). When we do this, we receive release (aphฤ“sis) from the captivating power of sin in our lives.

When understood this way, we see that aphฤ“sis forgiveness has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven when they die. Aphฤ“sis forgiveness is about whether or not we live in bondage and enslavement to sin here and now in this life.

forgiveness aphesis release

This sort of forgiveness is not about whether or not God โ€œforgivesโ€ us. He does and He has! No, seeking to gain release (aphesis) from our sins through confession and repentance is about whether or not we gain freedom from the destructive power of sin in our lives which seeks to wreak havoc in our lives, our health, our marriages, our family, our finances, our jobs, and pretty much everything else.

God has forgiven so that we might gain forgiveness

So when we read the Bible and encounter the words โ€œforgiveโ€ or โ€œforgiveness,โ€ how should we understand these words? One thing to do would be to get an interlinear Bible so that you can see when the text is talking about aphฤ“sis forgiveness and when it has charizomai in view.

But if you donโ€™t have an interlinear Bible, you can simply look in the context of the verse which talks about forgiveness, and if there are conditions involved to receive this forgiveness (such as repenting, confessing, or forgiving others), you can be almost certain that the forgiveness in question is aphฤ“sis. If, however, the forgiveness is being offered freely by God to all without condition, then you can be confident that the forgiveness in question is charizomai.

Faith Alone in Christ Alone and Forgiveness

Faith alone in Jesus Christ grants us eternal life. But all Christians still struggle with sin. Many still sin just as much as they did before they were Christians. Though they have believed in Jesus for eternal life, there is still a pattern of sin in their lives from which they just cannot break free.

As a result of this ongoing power of sin in their lives, some of them begin to wonder if they are truly Christians. Sadly, many books, pastors, and Christian leaders only reinforce this idea. They teach that if you have patterns of habitual sin in your life, you have good reason to question whether or not you actually have eternal life.

But instead of this damaging line of thought, it is much better to realize that the way to gain release from the power of sin in our lives is not by wondering whether or not God has truly forgiven us and accepted us into His family (He has!), but by accepting by faith that God loves us completely, and wants us to break free from sin even more than we do.

This process of release (aphฤ“sis forgiveness) begins by agreeing with Him that we have sinned (confession), and then making the changes necessary in our lives (repentance) to get back onto the path of righteousness.

So do not let anyone ever tell you that you have committed a sin which God cannot forgive. No matter what sin you have committed, God has already forgiven you for it in Jesus Christ. This forgiveness is free and unconditional, and has already been extended to you whether you know it or not.

But God does want you to confess and repent of your sin, not in order to gain forgiveness, but because you have been forgiven. This confession and repentance is for your own good, so that you can gain freedom and deliverance from the enslaving power of sin in your life.

If this idea is helpful or challenging to you, share it with others using the buttons below to get their input as well!

God is Redeeming Books, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: aphesis, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, confession, eternal life, forgiveness, repentance, Theology of Salvation

How Jesus would join those who condemn “Homosexual Sin”

By Jeremy Myers
179 Comments

How Jesus would join those who condemn “Homosexual Sin”

Ever wonder if Jesus would be out there holding a sign with those “Christians” who condemn homosexuals to hell?

I think He would be … only here is the sign He would be holding:

homosexual sin

Love it? Hate it? Let others react to it by sharing it with the buttons below…

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, homosexual, humor, Jesus

Salvation Confusion

By Jeremy Myers
34 Comments

Salvation Confusion

If there is one word which causes the most confusion in Christianity today about the nature and conditions of our eternal life, it is this word โ€œsaved.โ€

Once Saved, Always Saved

once saved always savedTake for example, the debate over โ€œOnce Saved, Always Saved.โ€ Those who teach this view have some verses which seem to indicate โ€œsalvationโ€ lasts forever, but those who are opposed to “Once Saved, Always Saved” point out numerous verses which say that โ€œsalvationโ€ depends on continued obedience, faithfulness, and good works.

The debate over “Once Saved, Saved Saved” is easily solved, however, when we realize that almost none of those verses which talk about โ€œsalvationโ€ are actually talking about eternal life. We can hold to eternal security while still affirming that most verses that talk about “salvation” affirm a conditional deliverance from some sort of temporal and physical calamity.

James 2 – Faith Alone Does Not Save

Then there is the whole debate which rages over the statement in James 2 that faith alone does not save. What a confusing text! But it is not nearly as confusing once we realize that to be โ€œsavedโ€ in James 2 has nothing whatsoever to do with gaining eternal life and going to heaven when we die.

Women Will Be Saved Through Childbearing

saved through childbearingAnd we must not forget the statement by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:15 that women will be saved through childbearing. Due to a misunderstanding of the word โ€œsavedโ€ this verse has been tragically used by some misogynistic authoritarian male religious leaders to require women to remain barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, because otherwise, they cannot be โ€œsaved.โ€

Key Calvinist Texts Misunderstand the word “Saved”

As we study Calvinism, we will see that a large number of the texts used to defend Calvinism depend on a faulty understanding of the word โ€œsaved.โ€

Due to the fact that it is understood to be referring to eternal life and going to heaven when we die, numerous texts are misinterpreted and misapplied so that what should be understood as a passage that encourages and instructs us on how to live our lives so that we can experience Godโ€™s life now becomes a passage on how to live our lives so that we can prove that we will have eternal life in the future. We will see this as we go through the various texts in future posts.

What does it mean to be saved?

What then is the definition of โ€œsaveโ€ or โ€œsalvationโ€? It means โ€œdeliverance.โ€ Most of the time, this deliverance has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when we die, but instead, refers to some sort of temporal deliverance from calamity.

saved from myself

This deliverance might be physical, psychological, emotional, relational, spiritual, or financial. There are, of course, eternal consequences which we can be delivered from as well, such as a loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ, but we will reserve this discussion for a later post.

Have these three posts on the words saved and salvation helped you understand what the Bible means by these terms? Are there any texts which mention “salvation” that you have questions about? Let me know in the comments below and maybe I can write a post on these passages later.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal security, James 2, Once Saved Always Saved, salvation, saved, Theology of Salvation

I hope I get saved in this post (and you get saved too)

By Jeremy Myers
3 Comments

I hope I get saved in this post (and you get saved too)

saved me

When I was a pastor, Dr. Earl Radmacher once came and spoke in my church. I introduced him as the author of numerous Christian books, the editor of the best-selling NKJV Nelson Study Bible, and the president emeritus of Western Seminary. At that time, one of his most recent books had been Salvation, which is part of the Chuck Swindoll Leadership library, and is a book I highly recommend.

After this introduction he got up to teach and began with a word of prayer. He said this:

Father, I thank you for bringing me to speak to these men and women today, and I pray that as I speak to them, many of them would be saved this hour, and I pray also, that you would save me this hour as well. Amen.

I knew this was coming because this is something Dr. Radmacher often did when he spoke in churches, but it was still enjoyable to glance around at the people in the church and watch them open their eyes and blink in confusion at each other. You could almost hear their thoughts: โ€œDid I just hear what I thought I heard? Did this author, preacher, seminary president, and Bible scholar just ask to get saved? Did our pastor invite one of those unsaved liberal Bible scholars weโ€™ve heard rumors about into our pulpit today?โ€

Dr. Radmacher went on to explain that his prayer was not only genuinely spoken, but was also an opening illustration for what he wanted to teach.

He truly did want to get saved that hour as he spokeโ€”saved from preaching or teaching anything that might be in error. He also wanted his hearers to get savedโ€”saved from believing some wrong things about the word โ€œsalvation.โ€

He went on to show what the words โ€œsaveโ€ and โ€œsalvationโ€ mean in Scripture, and how many tricky and confusing passages can be immediately cleared up simply by recognizing that when the text talks about โ€œbeing savedโ€ it is not talking about gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die, but has some sort of other deliverance in view.

We looked at this idea yesterday, and I have one more post about it tomorrow, but having read this post today, can you say that this post saved you from believing something wrong about the word saved?

As for myself, I hope I was saved in this post from including any typos… There always seems to be one or two in every one of my posts… ๐Ÿ™

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, gospel, salvation, saved, Theology of Salvation

It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

By Jeremy Myers
14 Comments

It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

Like the word โ€œgospel,โ€ the word โ€œsalvationโ€ means much more and much less than usually assumed.

Just like the word โ€œgospel,โ€ the way the word “salvation” is often used today is very different from the way the word is used in Scripture.

salvation and saved

When people talk about โ€œsalvationโ€ today or โ€œbeing saved,โ€ what they most often have in mind is the idea of receiving the forgiveness of sins so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die.

But in biblical usage, the noun โ€œsalvationโ€ (Gk., sลteria) and the verb โ€œsaveโ€ (Gk., sลzล) very rarely have anything to do with receiving eternal life or going to heaven when we die. Instead, the words are most often used in connection with some sort of temporal or physical deliverance. We can be saved from enemies, saved from sickness, saved from drowning, saved from suffering, or even saved from a premature physical death. While โ€œsalvationโ€ is sometimes used in connection with sin, this is only because sin often has devastating physical and temporal consequences in our life. To be saved from sin means to be delivered from the destruction and damage of sin in our lives.

One resource that shows this quite clearly is Vineโ€™s Complete Expository Dictionary. Under the entry for โ€œSave, Saving,โ€ the dictionary includes the following options:

(a)ย ย ย  Of material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, etc., e.g., Matt 8:25; Mark 13:20; Luke 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jude 5; from sickness, Matt 9:22; so Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Jas 5:15

(b)ย ย  Of the spiritual and eternal salvation granted immediately by God to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, e.g., Acts 2:47, 16:31; Rom 8:24; Eph 2:5, 8; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 3:5; of human agency in this, Rom 11:4; 1 Cor 7:16; 9:22

(c)ย ย ย  Of the present experiences of Godโ€™s power to deliver from the bondage of sin, e.g., Matt 1:21; Rom 5:10; 1 Cor 15:2; Heb 7:25; Jas 1:21; 1 Pet 3:21; of human agency in this, 1 Tim 4:16

(d)ย ย  Of the future deliverance of believers at the second coming of Christ for his saints, being deliverance from the wrath of God to be executed upon the ungodly at the close of this age and from eternal doom, e.g., Rom 5:9

(e)ย ย ย  Of the deliverance of the nation of Israel at the second advent of Christ, e.g., Rom 11:26

(f)ย ย ย  Inclusively for all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ, e.g., Luke 19:10; John 10:9; 1 Cor 10:33; 1 Tim 1:15

(g)ย ย ย  Of those who endure to the end of the time of the Great Tribulation, Matt 10:22; Mark 13:13

(h)ย ย  Of the individual believer, who, though losing reward at the judgment seat of Christ hereafter, will not lose his salvation, 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5

(i)ย ย ย ย  Of the deliverance of the nations at the Millennium, Rev 21:24

Though I would not state this list of various definitions quite this same way, and would put many of the references from definition (b) into other categories, it nevertheless shows that the words โ€œsaveโ€ and โ€œsalvationโ€ in the Bible have a wide variety of meanings.

save a lifeTo help the reader of Scripture know what sort of โ€œsalvationโ€ is in view when they are studying it, I recommend that whenever you comes across the words โ€œsaveโ€ or โ€œsalvationโ€ in Scripture, you stop, replace it mentally with the word โ€œdeliverโ€ or โ€œdeliveranceโ€ and then ask yourself, โ€œDeliverance from what?โ€ย If you look in the surrounding context, you will quickly discover that the deliverance in view has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die.

Doing this will drastically help your understanding of numerous difficult passages in the Bible that many have thought of as referring to receiving eternal life, but refer instead to some sort of temporal deliverance.

It is possible, as the title of this post says, to believe in Jesus for eternal life (and of course, receive eternal life as a result), but still not be “saved” from many of the temporal and physical consequences of sin, or from sickness, or from enemies, or from many of the other negative things that can happen in life.

Have you ever heard this taught before? Has it helped your understanding of some of the tough texts in the Bible?

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: believe, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, faith, gospel, salvation, save, Theology of Salvation

It’s impossible to believe the entire gospel

By Jeremy Myers
16 Comments

It’s impossible to believe the entire gospel

what is the gospel

I began these three posts on the gospel by saying that โ€œYou don’t have to believe the entire gospel to receive eternal life.โ€

Hopefully after reading the previous two posts (Gospel 1 and Gospel 2), you can see why my statement is true.

If the gospel is Jesus Christ and all truth is related to Him, then it is impossible to believe the entire gospel. The most we can do is believe certain truths of the gospel. When we say we โ€œbelieve the gospelโ€ or โ€œbelieve in Jesusโ€ this is a shorthand way of saying that we believe certain truths of the gospel. Since each person is at a different place in their theological development and their walk with God, it is likely that each person believes a different set of gospel truths.

In fact, it is quite likely that there are billions of people on earth today who believe certain truths of the gospel, and yet have not received eternal life.

Why not?

Because they havenโ€™t yet believed the part of the gospel which pertains to eternal life, namely, that eternal life is given to those who believe in Jesus for it (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

One gospel truth is that we are sinners. And most people believe this truth. But nowhere does Scripture say that believing we are sinners results in receiving eternal life.

So also with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Countless millions of people believe that about 2000 years ago, there was a man named Jesus who lived in Israel, preached sermons, performed miracles, was crucified on a cross, was buried, and rose again three days later from the dead. But โ€” are you ready for this? โ€” although these truths are extremely central to the gospel, nowhere does Scripture say that those who believe these things have received eternal life.

believe in Jesus

Many of those who believe these wonderful truths about the gospel, have not yet believed in Jesus for eternal life, but are instead, believing in themselves, their good works, their โ€œbeing a good personโ€, their religious activity in a particular church, or a whole variety of others human ideas about how to receive eternal life.

It is one of the greatest tragedies of church history that millions of people can believe hundreds and maybe even thousands of gospel truths, but not believe the one truth which is found at the very heart of the gospel, which is that God gives eternal life to anybody and everybody who simply and only believes in Jesus Christ for it.

Though one does not need to believe the entire gospel to receive eternal life (and nobody can believe all of it anyway), one of the central truths at the heart of the gospel which must be believed is the truth about Godโ€™s absolutely free offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: belief, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, faith, gospel, Theology of Salvation

Jesus is the Gospel; Calvinism is not

By Jeremy Myers
50 Comments

Jesus is the Gospel; Calvinism is not

In a previous post I wrote about the popular misunderstanding of the word “gospel,” that it refers only to receiving eternal life and going to heaven when you die.I then argued that the gospel isย everythingย related to Jesus Christ.

Based on this understanding of the word โ€œgospelโ€ it is not wrong to say that the biblical gospel is Jesus Christ, including everything about Him and related to Him.

The gospel is centered on Jesus Christ, and everything that emanates from Jesus is โ€œgospel truth.โ€ And what is it that emanates from Jesus Christ? Everything! From the creation of the universe to the future of the universe, all is dependent upon Jesus Christ. The truths about reconciliation, redemption, and resurrection all require Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Gospel

Without Jesus, there is no such thing as forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope, or healing.

Why did God create mankind? Because of Jesus.

Why did God, out of all the people of the world, choose Abram and the nation that would come from Him? Because of Jesus.

Why was God patient with the Israelites in the wilderness? Because of Jesus.

Why did God raise up Judges, Priests, Kings, and Prophets? Because of Jesus.

Moving into the New Testament, why did God send the Spirit to birth the church at Pentecost? Because of Jesus.

Why did God send the church out into the world to proclaim a message of Godโ€™s love? Because of Jesus.

Why is God going to restore the world and remake heaven and earth so that we can dwell with Him for all eternity? Because of Jesus!

Itโ€™s all because of Jesus. Jesus is the gospel and the gospel is Jesus.ย 

Calvinism is not the Gospel; Jesus is!

This is why, in my opinion, it is the height of idolatry to say, as some Calvinists do, that โ€œCalvinism is the gospel, and the gospel is Calvinism.โ€ (see Custance, 302; Engelsma, 18; Spurgeon, 129).

I love C.H. Spurgeon, but he was wrong about Calvinism…

Spurgeon Calvinism Gospel

I deny Calvinism but I uphold the gospel because Calvinism is not the gospel.

That honor belongs to Jesus Christ alone. Even if Calvinism were true, the most that could be said of it is that Calvinism is one small aspect of the gospel. But to equate Calvinism with the entirety of gospel is to replace the infinite glory of Jesus Christ with a small, manmade system of theology. Such an idea is completely contrary to the Reformation principles of Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria.

But here is the point: If the gospel is Jesus Christ and all the truth that emanates from Him, then this means that it is completely impossible for any finite human being to ever believe the gospel. Why? Because just as Jesus and the truth about Him is infinite, so also, the gospel is infinite. It is impossible to ever believe everything there is to know about Jesus, who He is, and what He has done.

Yet if the biblical gospel is infinite then it would be impossible to ever โ€œpreach the gospelโ€ (Luke 4:18; Acts 16:10; Rom 1:15; etc.) or โ€œbelieve in the gospelโ€ (Mark 1:15). However, Jesus and the apostles seem to have done so quite well.

Nevertheless, when these various gospel-preaching events are compared, one discovers that there is no set list of ten gospel truths, or four laws, or six principles that are always presented in every situation. Sometimes the one proclaiming the gospel talks about sin; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the Kingdom of God; sometimes not; Sometimes they talk about grace, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus; sometimes not.

How to Share the Gospel

The point is that all of these truths which get shared at one time or another in the New Testament as part of the โ€œgospelโ€ are simply examples of some of the truth that emanates from the person and work of Jesus Christ, who IS the gospel.

When a person is presenting โ€œthe gospelโ€ they obviously cannot share everything, and so they do their best (along with the help of the Holy Spirit) to pick and choose which truths of the gospel should be shared in that particular context to those particular people.

Just as the same person in a different context would share different gospel truths, so also would a different person in that same context. This is one of the beautiful things of the gospel. Because there is so much truth to the gospel, there is no such thing as one set of truths that must always be shared. Since different people are in different places with their walk with God, and each of us have different personalities and different levels of knowledge, God allows each of us to share whatever we know with the people in front of us in whatever way we think best.

Thatโ€™s liberating, isnโ€™t it?

There are no four laws, five points, or six steps to the gospel. There is only Jesus.

If we simply share Jesus with people, we are sharing the gospel, whether it is by word or action, in a few seconds or over the course of many years, or to a large crowd or to only one person.

The goal of sharing the gospel, of course, is to draw a person closer to Jesus, whether they are already a โ€œChristianโ€ or not, for Christians need to hear gospel truths just as much as so-called โ€œnon-Christians.โ€

We will conclude with one final post on the gospel tomorrow, but until then, what do you think of this idea that Jesus is the Gospel? What do you think of the claim by some Calvinists that Calvinism is the gospel?

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, gospel, Spurgeon, Theology of Salvation

My wife couldn’t stop laughing as she read this…

By Jeremy Myers
8 Comments

My wife couldn’t stop laughing as she read this…

When I showed this image to my wife, she laughed.

She laughed a little too much… It was hard for her to stop laughing…

Hmmm…

marriage operating system

Consider sharing it with others below:

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, humor, husbands, laugh, marriage, relationships

What is the Gospel?

By Jeremy Myers
29 Comments

What is the Gospel?

You don’t have to believe the entire gospel to receive eternal life. And even if you believed in the gospel, you might not be saved.ย 

Do such statements shock you?

They shouldโ€”especially if you hold to one of the traditional (yet not so biblical) definitions for the words โ€œgospelโ€ and โ€œsaved.โ€

When most people today hear the sentence โ€œYou must believe the gospel to be savedโ€ what actually goes through their mind is this: โ€œHere are the things you must believe in order to go to heaven when you dieโ€ (And of course, everyone has a different idea about what we must believe).

So people are often shocked to learn that the biblical word โ€œgospelโ€ (Gk., euangelion) means way more than what a person need to believe to receive eternal life. Similarly, the biblical word for โ€œsalvationโ€ (Gk., sลteria) has very little to do with going to heaven when you die.

To see what each word means, we will look at the word โ€œgospelโ€ in the next couple posts,ย and the word โ€œsalvationโ€ in a few posts after that.

what is the gospel

The Definition of “Gospel”

The word โ€œgospelโ€ means โ€œgood news.โ€

And although “gospel” almost universally today refers to good news about forgiveness of sin and the offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ, the word itself carries no such connotations.

In ancient and biblical times, the word is often used regarding things like children who recovered from sickness, a battle which was won, or a successful trading voyage (See my article on the gospel where I document this in more detail).

Just as the words โ€œgood newsโ€ can refer to almost any sort of happy event or positive outcome today, so also, the wordsย “good news” or “gospel” could refer to almost anything good in biblical times as well.

In the New Testament itself, though, the phrase “good news” or “gospel” has a more focused meaning.

gospel is good newsThough it can sometimes refer simply to an encouraging message (1 Thess 3:6), and Jesus often used the term to describe the coming of the Kingdom of God (cf. Matt 4:23; 9:35), Paul is the one who used the word in his writings, and he uses the word most often in reference to describe the complete chain of events regarding what God has done for sinful humanity through Jesus Christ to provide eternal life for them.

And when I write โ€œthe complete chain of eventsโ€ I mean the complete chain, beginning with God eternal love for humanity, including the creation of mankind and their subsequent fall, and going through Godโ€™s calling of Israel, His work through them during their checkered history, the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and looking forward to the return of Jesus and the new heavens, the new earth, and our eternal existence with God. The biblical โ€œgospelโ€ includes all of this. Every bit.

While the term gospel is a non-technical term for any good news, the NT usage seems to define it as good news for everybody, whether Jew or Gentile, believer or unbeliever, regarding the benefits and blessings which come to us from the person and work of Jesus Christ. It includes everything from โ€œthe eschatological expectation, the proclamation of the [kingdom of God] … the introduction of the Gentiles into salvation history, [and] the rejection of the ordinary religion of cult and Law.โ€ This gospel contains everything related to the person and work of Jesus Christ, including all of the events leading up to His birth, and all the ramifications from Christโ€™s life, death, and resurrection for unbelievers and believers. (see p. 50 of my article on the gospel).

So what is the gospel? It is everything about Jesus.

So do you see why you don’t have to believe “the gospel” to receive eternal life? The reason is because you cannot believe everything about Jesus. It’s impossible to know everything about Jesus, let alone believe everything (we will talk about Mark 1:15 in a later post). To receive eternal life, you simply believe in Jesus for it (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47, etc.). This is a truth within the gospel, but is not itself “the gospel.”

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, gospel, Theology of Salvation

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