What is the Gospel?
Originally published April 27, 2015
Is the gospel a declaration about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ? Are people saved because they believe those facts?
Granted, they have to believe those facts to be saved, but they must not only believe that Christ died for our sins and was resurrected three days later, they must also believe something else about those facts:
Salvation is a choice to follow Christ in that same death, burial, and resurrection. He accomplished such so that we can follow Him in it.
Salvation is an intellectual ascent AND a choice. The choice is also referred to as “repentance.” You are not only turning from an indifference to God’s truth, you are turning from who you are to whatever God wants to make you.
This is called the new birth, or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can do absolutely nothing to effect this new birth, you can only ask for it. It is the desire to turn from who you are to whatever God makes you. If you understand that, and want that, God has promised it to you if you ask for it.
Being saved encompasses the belief that you have passed from death to life. The Bible then commands us to proceed with life based on certain assumptions. First, we must know that we cannot be condemned for any sin. Secondly, we make it our goal to please God by putting off the former ways and learning the new ways of the Spirit. Spiritual growth is a true colaboring between ourselves and the Spirit. Our focus is putting off the old ways and putting on the new ways of the Spirit. This is the laser focus of discipleship.
A contrary focus on our supposed continued need for the same gospel that saved us, and a focus on how “sinful” we are is a denial that we have passed from death to life. Instead of our goal being love, our goal becomes a deeper and deeper appreciation of why Christ had to die for us. This is functioning on a completely different assumption:
It denies that we have passed from death to life, and makes our greatest sin that of not understanding how sinful we are resulting in a supposed lack of gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice. It assumes that the old us is still alive, and able to supply ample fodder for showing us why Christ had to die for us. Instead of the Bible showing us the new way of the Spirit, it supposedly shows us the old way of sin leading to a greater appreciation of the cross.
This is the theme we hear constantly in the institutional church, on Christian radio, and in contemporary praise music. And unfortunately, it tells us what we really believe about the gospel.
The new birth is redefined as a mere ability to see how sinful we are, and not an ability to be a transformed person—a true kingdom citizen—a true child of God. Transformation is redefined as an increased ability to see how sinful we are and plunge the depths of our total depravity. The idea that we can actually change and better learn Christ is declared to be arrogant, prideful, and… “having a righteousness of your own.”
This is a slick, deliberate play on words that subtly denies the new birth. It takes the reality that righteousness did not originate with us, and makes it tantamount to having NO righteousness that is a part of our true being. We remain unchanged except for an ability to SEE only, and the righteousness of God that comes part and parcel with being born of Him remains apart from us. We are merely vessels that “reflect” God’s righteousness, but it remains separate from our new identity.
In other words, we really don’t perform any love that pleases God, our only goal is to plunge the depths of our own sinfulness that results in God “reflecting” His love on us and others. This coincides with rhetoric we hear in the church constantly such as, “It wasn’t I who did it—it was the Spirit working through me.”
Passages like Galatians 2:20 are then twisted to make the case.
Consequently, instead of a proper dichotomy being drawn between GIFT and REWARD, salvation ends up as our reward for living a life of faith alone in… “what Jesus HAS done, not anything I do.”
Again, this not only denies the new birth, but makes “Christians” unwitting participants in a damning endeavor to keep ourselves saved by faith alone which is defined as a mere ability to see our need for a savior more and more. “Jumping directly from the commandment to obedience” is supposedly works salvation.
Jesus said, “You must be born again,” and this is exactly why He said it. Water baptism has nothing to do with a church membership found nowhere in the Bible, and it is not only about what Jesus did, it is a testimony that you have followed Christ in a literal death and resurrection.
Salvation is the abandonment of who you are, and trusting what God will do by recreating you into His own child. It is a matter of trust, because…
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
paul
Man’s Inner Court and The Protestant Total Depravity Lie
Protestantism is a unique religion in that nothing of it is true. It even lacks a body of facts used in the commission of lies. It has redefined every biblical definition regarding the meaning of words; more than likely, there is no other religion that possesses such plenary falsehood. Nothing exemplifies arrogant confusion more than a Protestant.
Moreover, its orthodoxy is the essence of sin because it seeks to control people through condemnation. That’s how sin is presented in the Bible. It is posed as a master that enslaves people through condemnation. In this process, Protestant scholars will spare no heartless lie that tramples the love of God underfoot in its lust to control others.
One such lie is limited atonement. Because Protestantism also distinguishes itself as God’s counselor, this doctrine reminds God that He wouldn’t be stupid enough to die for people that He hasn’t chosen. This vandalizes the beautiful picture of Christ’s lordship. He is the Lord that has purchased the servants of the Sin master with His own blood. They are now free to flee to a new Master whose yoke is light. Christ himself said that He didn’t come to condemn the world, but to save it.
So, in all of their scholarly splendor, Protestants claim that John 3:16 refers to “all kinds of men” rather than the whole world. Therefore, John 3:17 must refer to God sending His Son “into” (for crying out loud, it’s a preposition) all kinds of men rather than the material world through the virgin birth. Really? Brilliant. If you are sent into a place to save a place that must include everyone in the place. Obviously. But you know, you must believe these demonic shills because they wear round wire rim glasses and bowties with tweed jackets.
Oh, and by the way, they also remind God that He is sovereign in all things because, well, they say so. Hence, God is reminded that His gospel is a “gospel of sovereignty.” Don’t you know, the announcement that you might be chosen is good news…for you, if you are chosen. And if you think you are, that’s nice, but the “good news” gets even better; you have no way of knowing whether God has chosen you to persevere till the end. Happy yet?
Reality and the nature of man must be redefined lest salvation be found at the gates of any other religion or heaven itself. When one decides to write a post about Protestant lies, you pick a book off the orthodoxy shelf and turn to any page first, and then examine any sentence comprised of redefined words. Limited atonement (by the way, atonement isn’t salvation to begin with) lacks interest for me this morning, and apparently, we have stumbled upon perseverance as well, but let’s talk about total depravity instead.
Total depravity, also known as total inability, posits the idea that nothing within man enables him to choose God. According to authentic Protestant orthodoxy, it also posits the idea that no person, lost or saved, can do a good work that merits any favor with God. The fact that Protestant orthodoxy states this unequivocally is irrefutable.
Though a cursory observation of the Bible contradicts this view on many points, it may be noted that every person born into the world has the “works of the law” (God’s law) written on their hearts. Furthermore, every person born into the world has an inner judge that either “excuses” or “accuses” the individual based on that law. In history, we see tyrants brought to justice according to a standard that is common and self-evident to mankind in general apart from any universal written law. The Nuremberg tribunal is a good example of this. This fact is difficult to reconcile with total depravity.
Secondly, John 16:8 states that the Holy Spirit, “when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.” Again, defining “world” as a place Christ was sent to for a purpose, and a place that the Spirit comes to, as opposed to a group of people, we find that the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to “convict the world.” What we are talking about here is the use of a collective noun. In some cases you can claim a sweeping generalization in regard to a collective noun like, “All Americans are idiots,” but when a collective noun is used in regard to a purpose, it is not a generalization. If God’s stated purpose was to destroy the world that would certainly include everyone in the world. Likewise, if the Spirit’s stated purpose is to convict the world that includes everyone in the world, and it means all people are cable of being convicted which means they aren’t totally depraved.
It also means that humanity is convicted inwardly by God’s law and the inward judge, and the Holy Spirit, and hopefully Christians evangelizing with the word of God which is sharper than a two-edged sword. So, we are asked to believe that this threefold front is a purposeless endeavor unless individuals are preselected. It also requests that we believe the following: the purpose of the Holy Spirit to convict everyone will only be effective for those preselected by God. Now, it’s one thing to say that we don’t know who is elected, but to include the Holy Spirit in that is, well, a little unreasonable. Again, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is not a sweeping generation, but an endeavor that includes everyone described by the collective noun. The Spirit, it would seem, would not try to convict those who can’t be convicted.
Like trying to avoid Protestant error in the same way you try to avoid horse patties in a confined horse stable, we accidently step in the error of “irresistible grace.” Supposedly, regardless of the conviction experienced from God’s threefold purpose, man is unable to choose God unless smitten with “irresistible grace.” This excludes conviction as an act of grace. You have the Holy Spirit flying around convicting everyone while not being privy to who the elect are, but God forbid that Christ would die for those convicted of sin who do not seek God for relief from condemnation and fear of judgement to come.
But to be fair, the Reformed do have an answer for this. God is glorified equally by those who deny Him. The eternal damnation of those who reject God is a “sweet savor” to Him rising up from hell for all eternity. This is the double joy of those God elects for salvation and damnation. In fact, Jonathan Edwards wrote that we will rejoice with God for eternity while watching family members suffer in hell.
Do you feel the love yet?
Lastly, regarding total depravity and the idea that man can earn no merit with God whether lost or saved, the Bible is pretty clear that there are degrees of punishment in hell. Clearly, this means God deems some people deserving of more punishment than others. This necessarily requires merit though in a negative context. But it also means God deems some people better than others according to their deeds.
Funny, the go-to argument by the Reformed against man’s ability to choose follows: “If you chose God and the other guy didn’t, that makes you better than him.” But according to lesser or more punishment, isn’t that a reality recognized by God?
But hold on, are we now talking about election or total depravity? I seem to be lost in the Protestant maze of error.
paul
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