A New and Improved Gospel?

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

1 John 1:1-4

A New and Improved Gospel

I have been a minister of the gospel for over thirty years. What if I began to preach a new and improved gospel today after so many years of preaching the old-time gospel? I’m sure I could justify it, saying I want to take into account that people are always changing. They do not like hearing the same old thing all the time; rather, they prefer to hear things that are new and exciting. Everything else in the world is always changing. Don’t you think the gospel ought also to change?

Suppose I started preaching a different gospel than the one I have been preaching-a gospel that takes into account man’s natural distaste for divine revelation; a gospel that emphasizes human autonomy and self-salvation. What if I preached, beginning today, that Jesus Christ was not virgin-born; that he was not sinless; that Jesus Christ’s death has nothing to do with our salvation; that Jesus Christ did not perform any miracles; that Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead on the third day; that Jesus Christ is not the truth; that Jesus Christ certainly is not Lord of all; that Jesus Christ is not coming again to save or judge anyone; that there is no Father, Son, or Holy Spirit; that there is no heaven or hell and that the Ten Commandments are relative and changeable? I have a suspicion that if I did this, this congregation would become outraged and would attempt, not only to force me to stop preaching, but also to force me to get out of this church and this pulpit.

In this study I want to examine a new and improved gospel which appeared in the first century church. It was to refute this gospel that the apostle John, a disciple of the Lord and a presbyter, or elder, in the early church, wrote his epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John.

Background

The Johannine epistles were written to deal with certain leaders in the churches of Asia Minor who had stopped preaching orthodox doctrines and were proclaiming a new and improved gospel of denials. By the time John wrote his epistles, both Peter and Paul had long ago been martyred, and John was at the end of his long life. But even before the death of Paul, the church in Ephesus and churches nearby were having serious troubles with false teachers, which is why Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy.

Now, at the end of the first century, the apostle John was the leader of the church of Ephesus and the churches associated with it. He had moved from Jerusalem somewhere before A.D. 70, and finally arrived in Ephesus, where he ministered until probably the end of the century. He had the responsibility of overseeing a number of churches and preaching the old gospel that Paul and Peter had preached. He was also engaged in literary activity during these years, writing and publishing the gospel of John, and, I believe, these epistles, for the instruction of the people in the most holy faith.

But John had many opponents in these churches of Asia Minor, especially among certain intellectuals, who felt that they had moved beyond the elementary stages of orthodox theology to a new intellectual position which called the old affirmations into question. Relying on their belief that they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and claiming to have a direct knowledge of God, similar to “the Lord told me”-type of mysticism we see today, these people thought that they no longer needed Jesus and his teaching. They had come so far, they thought, in their intellectual achievement and sophistication by drinking deeply from the current springs of speculative philosophical thought. These people opposed John by arguing against a real incarnation of the Son of God.

These intellectuals adopted a view similar to that of Cerinthus, an Ephesian contemporary of John. We have some idea of what Cerinthus believed from the writings of Irenaeus of the second century. According to Irenaeus, Cerinthus was educated in the wisdom of Egypt. He taught that the world was not made by a primary God but by a certain power which was separated far from God, at a distance from that Principality who is supreme over the universe, and ignorant of Him who is above all. Cerinthus taught that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary course of human generation. Cerinthus did charitably say that Jesus, in his estimation, was more righteous, prudent, and wise than other men, but he was still only a man.

No doubt the godly John viewed Cerinthus as a threat to orthodox church doctrine. In fact, Irenaeus records a story that Polycarp used to tell about Cerinthus and the apostle John: “There are also those who heard from him,” Polycarp would say, referring to John, “that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bathhouse without bathing, exclaiming, ‘Let us fly, lest even the bathhouse fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is within.'”

It was under the influence of Cerinthianism-this pre-Gnostic, hollow, deceptive philosophy-that some of the leaders the Asian churches under John’s oversight abandoned the living bread of the orthodox gospel for the cow dung of speculative free thought. This was the reason John wrote his epistles to these churches.

The Seduction of Heterodoxy

Those who would agree with Cerinthus look down upon those who preach the old-time gospel. Some time ago a person in our church told me that I had a problem: I was not reading enough books and not drinking from the stupefying Cabernet Sauvignon of modernism; thus, what I preached did not conform with modern thought. This person now attends a church of modern thought and is extremely happy, while I am still preaching the same old ideas of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The apostle John wrote his epistles to oppose this type of heterodoxy. Some intellectuals, who were leaders, caused a split in the Asian churches under John’s oversight, because they preferred heterodoxy to orthodoxy. John says of them in 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belonged to us,” and in 1 John 4:1, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

These leaders had probably organized their own community among themselves within the church and were trying to seduce the true believers in the true community of God to believe their different gospel. This type of opposition to the true gospel was nothing new. Early in his ministry, among the churches of Galatia, Paul had to face the heterodoxy of the Judaizers, who insisted that the Gentiles must first become Jews before they could be saved. They were promulgating a salvation which was not by grace alone but by human works. Paul refers to these false teachers in Galatians 1:6-9, saying, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” Paul was declaring that heterodoxy, in other words, is a perversion of the gospel of Christ. “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. As we already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to a you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”

Paul also addressed the heterodoxies that he encountered regarding the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. The entire fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is written to deal with such a perversion of the gospel. He also had to deal with hollow intellectualism and phony spirituality, as we read in Colossians 2: 8-10, where Paul warns the Colossian church, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” In verse 16 he continues, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink. . . : and in verse 18 he says, “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.”

Paul warns Timothy about heterodoxy in 2 Timothy 4:2-4, saying, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine,” which is orthodoxy. “Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

In Jude 3, Jude writes, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” Then Jude gave his reason: “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign Lord.”

This, then, is the background of the gospel of John. John was fighting against those whose sophistication, intellectualism, and desire to keep up with current and new ideas, were eviscerating the gospel by denying the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Heterodoxy

The second point we want to look at is what was the specific heterodoxy-the twisted, perverted doctrine-opposed by John in his epistles. This apostle John, who was a first cousin of Jesus Christ and the son of Zebedee and Salome, was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was the author of the gospel of John and the brother of the martyr James. From the cross Jesus entrusted him with the care of Mary the mother of Jesus. He was known as the “apostle of love,” but now, with apostolic zeal, he thunders against the opponents of the true gospel in his epistles.

John was not saying, as some modern preachers might say, “It is all right to have a variety of opinions in the church, even about such important doctrinal matters. God is love. Let’s have a diversity of opinion.” No. When we examine the language John used in reference to the opponents of the gospel, we notice it is serious language. What, then, were the terms John used to describe these false teachers?

1. Liars. The apostle John calls these people liars in 1 John 1:6, 1 John 2:4, and so on. Oh, modern evangelicals do not want to speak like that, do they? We want to be very charitable. Yes, we should be charitable, but I don’t want to be more charitable than the apostle John, or even the Lord Jesus Christ, was. So I must join with John and say that anyone who preaches a gospel different from the apostolic gospel is a liar. Jesus Christ himself told such people their father was the devil, who is a liar and the father of lies (John 8).
2. Deceivers. John calls these people deceivers. In 1 John 2:26 he says, “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.” The Greek word is planôntôn, a present participle, meaning “those who are engaging in deceiving.” These people were trying to deceive the church. Such people sometimes show up in this church, but they do not last long. Soon we recognize who they are and we encourage them to go somewhere else, which they do. Why do we do this? Because as elders of the church, we have a serious responsibility to ensure that the orthodox doctrine is preached and practiced in this church, and we cannot tolerate people who would spread false doctrine.
3. Antichrists. In 1 John 2 we find another non-charitable term-antichrists-used to describe these false teachers. We find it in 1 John 2:18 and 22, as well as in 1 John 4:3 and 2 John 7.
   Such people are antichrists because they are against Jesus Christ the Son of God, our only Savior and King. We preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, because he alone is the Savior and the King of kings and Lord of lords, and he alone can save and transform sinners. That is why we will not preach on health and wealth and every other nonsense and distraction. If someone does not like it, that is too bad, and you can keep on moving, just as the deceivers moved. We have no use for antichrists, and we will encourage them to go elsewhere.
4. Children of the devil. In 1 John 3:10 we find another term the apostle used to describe these heretics. He writes, “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are.” Oh, so many churches preach only positive and sweet things. I have heard of churches that will not ask what a person believes, but they will say, “Let us all pray.” But I am not going to pray with you until we find out to whom you are praying and on what basis you are praying. I am not here to pray or meditate or use some mantras. I pray only to the true and living God. So John uses another nice phrase to describe these people: children of the devil.
5. Murderers. John uses another word in 1 John 3:15 to describe the proponents of heterodoxy: murderers. John writes, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” These people were murderers because they hated the community of God’s people.
6. False prophets. In 1 John 4:1 we find another term: false prophets. Oh, such people claim to have a charismatic, mystical connection directly to God. They will say, “The Lord told me that you are healed,” or “The Lord told me to lift your money from your pocket and give it to me.” These are lies spoken by false prophets. Oh, they will claim to be anointed, and there is no question about it-they are anointed, but their anointing is from the devil.I was watching a television program in which the minister said, “When you call our ministry, if the line is busy, you must conclude God is really speaking to you.” He was suggesting that people must keep on dialing until they got through. He is interpreting that busy signal for us, in other words. Such people are mystics and false prophets. They will say they don’t need Jesus Christ or the gospel because they have a direct connection to God. Let me assure you, such people do have a direct connection, but it is through the anointing of the devil to the devil. It has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

   Who listens to such false prophets? Those who refuse to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who don’t want to conform to the biblical gospel. They are also called workers of evil and iniquity in these epistles. (PGM) Such people will listen to anyone who will stroke and massage them as long as they are not confronted with their wickedness. But God will never save a person unless he or she repents and confesses sin and faith in Jesus Christ.

John applied all of these terms to those who preach and teach heterodoxy. They were not nice terms. Why was John so adamantly opposed to such teachers? Because at the heart of heterodoxy, at the heart of such perversions of the gospel, is the denial that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that Jesus Christ is God/man.

The Teachings of the Heretics

What were the teachings of these heretics? First, they denied several doctrines which are essential to true Christian faith:

1. They denied Jesus was the Christ, as we read in 1 John 2:22 and 1 John 5:1, 5.
2. They denied Jesus was the preexistent second person of the Trinity who took upon himself human nature, as we read in 1 John 4:2.
3. They denied the authority of the commands of Jesus Christ, as we read in 1 John 2:4. We see this so often today. There are “nice” Christians who don’t want to have any authority of Jesus Christ in their lives. These are autonomous people. If you are one of these, then you share with the heterodox people of John’s time.
4. They denied their own sinfulness, as we read in 1 John 1:8 and 10. In fact, these people claimed they were without sin and that they never sinned. Now, do you think modern man accepts the idea of the universality of sin? Of course not! The Reformers spoke about the pervasiveness of sin. The apostle Paul spoke about it in Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But modern people do not like the idea. Sophisticates and modernists hate the idea of sin, in fact, say they are good. “We have no sin. We never sin,” such people assert.
5. They denied salvation through the work of Christ. Not only did they deny Christology, but they also denied soteriology-salvation through the work of Christ, as we read in 1 John 2:2.
6. They denied God’s ethical demand that we love one another. They denied that righteous conduct is the requirement of fellowship with God. They were going about, claiming, “We have fellowship with God. We know God. We are in the light,” without any kind of righteousness, holiness, or purity of life. They denied the responsibility of every Christian to live as Jesus lived.Theology is the basis of ethics. When we don’t have right theology, then we have all sorts of problems with personal conduct. Heterodoxy produces heteropraxy.
7. They denied apostolic authority, and therefore, the authority of Scripture. Their motto was, “I want to do what I want to do when I want to do how I want to do it. Who are you to tell me what to do? I am free, autonomous, and perfect and sinless.”

What, then, did the heretics teach? They taught that salvation was by gnosis, a Greek word that means knowledge, from which we get our English word “know.” Now, they were not speaking about salvation based on knowledge of the person and work of Christ. No, they were saying that man should be liberated from ignorance, and that would result in salvation.

These people taught that man should know himself. Have you heard that phrase, “Know thyself”? They taught that man’s true self is a divine spark, a divine seed, trapped in his material body, which is all evil. Enlightenment is the realization of this, and salvation comes by liberation from this evil body.

These heretics taught that all matter is evil and only spirit is good. According to them, the material universe was not created by the absolute God, but by a being far removed from God, the God of the Old Testament. We were originally spiritual beings dwelling in a higher world, but because of circumstances beyond our control, we fell into this world of sinful ignorance and materialism. Salvation is achieved by recognition of who we really are-enlightenment-and by liberation from this evil body.

We may ask such people, “Why don’t we all just kill ourselves then?” and that is a logical question. In fact, some modern sophisticated philosophers have finally come to this conclusion: Committing suicide is liberation, they say. This, of course, is not God’s way of salvation.

Believing that matter is evil, these people asserted that Christ the Son of God never united vitally to Jesus the sinful man. They said either Jesus Christ appeared to have a body-Docetism-or Christ the Son of God, in the form of a dove, came upon Jesus at baptism, but he went away before Jesus was crucified. Whichever way you want to look at it, this assertion was a denial of the humanity of Jesus Christ.

Additionally, because matter and the body are evil, these people said that the death of Jesus Christ has no atoning significance. They said there is no resurrection of the body, that Jesus was not virgin-born, and that he was sinful. They said Jesus was not the Son of God, not the Savior, not the Lord, and, therefore, his commandments have no authority.

What did they say about themselves? They asserted that people with the secret knowledge of self were not sinners, but the pneumatikoi-the spiritual ones-and therefore they were the dikaioi-the righteous ones. No wonder they said “We have no sin and we have never sinned.” They thought they were above the law. They could practice, if they wanted, extreme asceticism or extreme libertinism, whichever they wanted to choose.

“We have no need for Jesus Christ or Scriptures or historic redemptive events,” these people would say. “We are directly in touch with God.” That is why the apostle John tells us they made certain claims: that they had fellowship with God; that they were without sin; that they never sinned; that they knew God; and that they were in the light. In my pastoral life I have heard many people making such phony claims. You try to tell them the truth of the Scriptures, but they do not want to listen. They would rather believe a lie than repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of this heterodoxy, this evil twisted doctrine, these heretics practiced evil. They became proud, they walked in darkness, they loved the world, they hated the brothers, and they practiced iniquity without any sense of guilt.

Orthodoxy Affirmed and Demanded

Not only did the apostle John expose heterodoxy and oppose it, but he also affirmed orthodoxy and demanded it. The third point we want to examine, then, is what is orthodoxy, and John gives us some objective tests to see whether we are orthodox people or not. We need to apply these objective tests and see whether we are in the faith.

First John gives certain theological tests, and the first tests are Christological. What do you think about Jesus Christ? Do you believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that is, that Jesus Christ is both God and man, one person with two natures, as our creeds affirm? First John 2:22 and 1 John 4:2-3 tells us to apply that test and see whether we believe that Jesus Christ is both God and man. If not, we are false and teaching perverted doctrine.

Do you affirm that Jesus is the Son of God? John addresses this in 1 John 5:5, 10 and 13.

Do you believe this command of Jesus Christ, “to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” as found in 1 John 3:23? Would you submit to that command of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Then there is the test of soteriology. Do you believe that Jesus Christ died in our place, that he is our atonement, that forgiveness of sin is received because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ? We find this test throughout the epistle, including 1 John 1:7,9; 1 John 2:2; and 1 John 4:10.

These theological tests, therefore, concern first the person of Jesus Christ and, second, the work of Jesus Christ in our behalf in history on the cross. We must understand these and believe them.

In 1 John 1:1-4 we find a profound affirmation that the preexistent Word appeared in history. We are told by this eyewitness apostle, “[that] which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, which our hands have touched. . . .” John was telling of the importance of the Son of God who appeared in history and took upon himself human nature. “We heard him, we saw him, we looked at him, we touched him,” John was saying. We had convincing proof, empirical evidence.

Then John tells us that we can have eternal life by believing in this one, Jesus Christ, who is eternal life. By believing in him, we can have fellowship with the Father and the Son and the church of Jesus Christ. Why should we have fellowship with the Father and the Son? That our joy may be full. The happiness of man comes by linking ourselves with God the Father and God the Son, and linking ourselves with his people. That is what happiness and joy is all about.

So first there is Jesus Christ, Iêsous Christos; second, the euangelion, the gospel; third, koinônia, fellowship; and, fourth, chara, joy.

Second, there is the moral test. I just want to make this simple: If we have correct theology, we will have correct morality. If we are Christians, we must walk in the light as Jesus Christ walked. In other words, we simply cannot believe in orthodox doctrine and live like a devil. It is an absolute impossibility. We will submit to the commandments of God and seek to please God.

Third, there is a social test. Our fellowship will be exclusive. We will not fellowship with everyone, but only with people who are born of God, who confess the faith correctly, who are committed to obedience. If we say we are Christians, then we must demonstrate it by loving one another. This was an absolute essential factor of Christianity which the Gnostics rejected. They hated the brothers.

Fourth, there is a political test, which is a test in reference to authority. We will accept the apostolic authority and the authority of the Holy Scriptures to govern our lives. We will accept the authority of the ministers of the gospel.

Assurance of Salvation

Finally, John grants his readers assurance of salvation. You see, the Gnostic teachers were going around and putting condemnation on ordinary believers who believed in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. They tried to seduce them, saying, “You see, you are not really Christians. You are not really saved. You don’t have eternal life. How do we know? Because we alone have eternal life. We have come a long way. We used to believe like you do, but now we have been liberated by our own intellectual acumen. Now we know that we are the really saved people, because we are the ones who reject Jesus Christ in toto.” The orthodox Christians in the churches under John began to be confused by such sayings.

Additionally, these heretics were very certain about their salvation. I have seen such people. They have nothing to do with Jesus Christ, but they are very certain, very glib, about their salvation, while others are always concerned and worried about whether they are saved.

So the apostle gives assurance of salvation, not to the heretics, but to God’s people, writing in 1 John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” In other words, John was telling his people, “I have written this so that you may have certainty that you are saved. Those who believe in the Son of God have eternal life. These others are not in fellowship with the Father and the Son, but you are. They are not the same as you. They have no eternal life, but you have eternal life.

What About You?

Praise God for the orthodox gospel! We believe in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who appeared in history and took upon himself human nature, yet without sin. He fulfilled God’s law perfectly, and in his love for us he died on the cross for every elect of God. And we do confess that he is God, that he is man, that he is Lord, that he is Savior, and that his blood gives us forgiveness. As we trust in his blood, he forgives our sins once and for all.

I have seen people who truly believe in these truths, yet they go about saying, “I don’t know whether I am a true Christian or not.” The apostle says you are. That is why he said, “I write these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” You are linked to the Father, linked to the Son, and linked to the Holy Ghost. God is with you, God is in you, and you are in God. And nothing in all creation shall separate you from the love of God.

But I also have a word for you intellectual sophisticates who do not believe in Jesus Christ: I hope you will put away your foolishness, your arrogance, your modernism, and your intellectual sophistication, and bow down before Jesus Christ and confess the right confession, that Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, and the only Savior. Bow down to him, submit to him, acknowledge him, kiss his feet, and you shall be saved. You shall be liberated from all fears, for he who believes in Jesus Christ shall never die.

May God have mercy on us and deliver us from itching ears and from seeking a new and improved gospel! May we delight in the old gospel, the true gospel, the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ-the only gospel that is by revelation from God himself, the only gospel that proclaims salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing. May we believe it, rejoice in it, obey it, and proclaim it with all passion and commitment! Amen.