The True Gospel

Child Family Professor of Engineering, University of California, Davis

Delivered October 3, 2004

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 underauthority. 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 other religious writings are 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.