BORN OF THE GOSPEL (part 3)
What professing christendom has often failed to do over the centuries is to actually identify the Gospel, by defining and distinguishing the terms of God’s Gospel from all counterfeits. On the few occasions it has done so, it has presented a false gospel. Basically, ‘christian’ tradition has it that a man is saved if he believes in the existence of God and that His Son died on a cross for sins. This is NOT the Gospel. If it was then most people who profess to be Christians would be saved. The Gospel does not simply teach that Christ died for sins, but that He died for sins according to the Scriptures. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, for it is in the Scriptures, and only in the Scriptures, where one can learn what the Messiah would do in and by His death and who He would do it for. Many believe that they first get born again and gradually come to learn of God and what He has done for the sinner as revealed in the Gospel. During this period of ‘coming to the knowledge’, one is seemingly permitted to believe in various and conflicting views of what the Gospel is and what it is that Christ has done, but all are considered saved Christians, for ‘they all love God’. This judgement cannot be made in accordance with God’s Word (see 1 Sam. 16:7), but is a judgement which is according to the appearance, which is precisely that form of judgement Christ expressly forbids: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement" (Jn. 7:24). Christ said this, not only so that we would not judge a person lost based on their outward appearance and actions, but perhaps more importantly, that we would not judge ourselves or anyone else saved based on our/their outward appearance or reputation! That’s not how we are to recognize a Christian. It is of a certainty that a Christian will perform good works and be charitable and helpful and kind etc., but if this were the principal identifying characteristic of a Christian, then multitudes who do not even believe that Christ Jesus is God, would, based on their character and conduct, be wrongly identified as Christians. An upright life is one of the evidences that identifies a Christian, but it is not THE evidence which distinguishes a Christian from any other sincerely dedicated religious person. The Christian is recognized and identified by what he BELIEVES and not primarily by what he does (2 Thess. 2:13). Christ describes some in Matthew 7 who went about casting out devils and doing many wonderful works, as those who did iniquity. He says to them He does not know them and sends them into outer darkness. Outwardly these people did appear to be Christians. But if one were to judge them Christians based on their outward appearance and perhaps their reputation for doing good works and casting out demons and prophesying, as no doubt many did, they would have been completely wrong. They were not Christians. Yet they called Jesus ‘Lord’ and they went about doing things in His very name. How more Christian could you get? But according to Christ’s words, He did not know these people therefore they could not have known Him. What they believed about Jesus showed that it was not THE Jesus Whom they followed, but a counterfeit. Everything that they did outwardly looked good, but it was what they believed inwardly about the Messiah—Who He is and what He had done—which showed that they were not His. They had not been born of His Seed, but out of their own religious delusion.
Many hold to corrupt views as to what the Gospel is, but they do not judge themselves saved or lost mainly by what they believe but how they live. They still consider themselves safe and saved, regardless of how right or wrong their doctrines are, because they ‘believe in God’ and have undergone a moral revolution in their lives, or because of family tradition. Many will not change their beliefs about the Gospel because of a departed loved one who never heard, and therefore never believed, the Gospel unto salvation. Most who call themselves Christians are familiar with popular terms such as ‘grace’,‘saved by grace alone’, ‘saved by faith’, ‘faith in Christ alone’, ‘He’s done it all’ etc., but what do these phrases really mean? Some would be surprised to hear that the Roman Catholic Church often uses the term ‘grace’ and even ‘saved by grace’. But even after a brief comparison, it becomes obvious that their interpretation of what the word actually means is at odds with God’s definition. To be saved by grace does not mean we are saved by God freely enabling us to meet any conditions for salvation that Christ did not fully meet in His life and death, but it means that God has bestowed salvation upon His people purely by His unmerited favor, based on Christ having met all the conditions for our salvation and not on anything that the sinner does. One can see by this, that a proper biblical understanding of Gospel terms is absolutely vital if we are to rightly and savingly believe God’s Message. Paul states in Romans 10, in perfect agreement with the fact that one is born again only by the incorruptible Gospel of God, that "...faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). This verse of Scripture is immediately preceded by Paul’s mention of the Gospel being preached and obeyed. The faith which comes from God does not come after the hearing of a false gospel, but only comes after God’s Gospel is heard. Ephesians 1:13 says that we trust Christ only AFTER we have heard this Word of Truth which is the Gospel of our salvation. Those who think that exactly what Christ did on the Cross is just a theological sticking point among ‘fellow believers’, have got it drastically wrong. WHO one believes Christ died for, reveals exactly what that person believes Jesus did on the Cross. Far from being just a matter of high theology which can be debated amongst ‘brethren’, this is the heart of the Christian Gospel: Who is Christ and what did He do? It is an issue which is dealt with at the start of the believer’s life and not during it. Scripture refers to only two things as ‘the power of God’. It says that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16), and, what many are simply not aware of is that 1 Corinthians 1:18 states: "For THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved IT IS THE POWER OF GOD." Who Christ is and what Christ has done is revealed in the Gospel by who Jesus died for on the Cross. He is not the potential savior of every individual, He is THE Savior of all for whom He lived and died. He is the Savior that came to save His people from their sins by His atoning death, not a ‘wannabe’ savior who could only come and do his best to make salvation possible and then hope for the best. The name ‘JESUS’ says it all, for it describes Who He is and what He would do: "And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: FOR He SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS" (Matt. 1:21; see also Isaiah 53). Those who believe Christ came only to make salvation possible for all, not definite for anybody, need to change the name of their savior, for the name JESUS simply does not fit who their god is and what he has done.
If one believes that Christ has died for every individual, then one holds to a salvation conditioned on the sinner and his ultimate decision as to whether he accepts or rejects what has been done. He believes in another jesus and another gospel which cannot save. Such a perverted view of the Person and Work of Christ would mean that many for whom Christ died and went to the Cross on the behalf of, to pay the penalty for their sins, will nevertheless go to hell because THEY did not choose to accept what was done for them. For those who say that it is not important who one believes Christ has died for, whether it be every individual or exclusively for the elect, I would ask ‘would they call ‘Messiah’ that One Who died for the elect? Is He the Messiah or is the Messiah the one who died for every individual ever born?’ If there is anything that contributes to, and thereby makes the identification of a person significantly easier, it is what that person has done. If there were two jesuses on two separate crosses on Calvary’s Hill, one dying for every individual and the other dying for His elect, which one would they choose? Only one could be the real Savior, the other would be a counterfeit. It cannot be both, for then it must be said of the Messiah that He died on a cross not only for the elect but also for everyone ever born! This would mean that the Messiah not only secured salvation for His elect but simultaneously made salvation only possible for everyone else by the same work! This, needless to say, is a sheer and utter nonsense and shows conclusively that it is vital to know who the real Messiah died for, if one is to believe the True Gospel, for only then can one be said to trust in Him and what He has done. For a deeper study of this, please see this writer’s booklet ‘Atonement for Whom?’ Man in his natural fallen state simply cannot accept the fact that there is nothing that he can do, or that he is to contribute, in order to gain, or at the least maintain, favor with God. And so, it is according to man’s very nature to seek God and find acceptance with Him by doing some things and abstaining from others. Based on this flawed foundation, the lie has come about that Christ died for every individual, and that the ultimate decision of whether a man goes to heaven or hell is left to man himself. It is not Christ’s death that makes the difference but a man’s ‘free will’. In other words, they say it is not God Who makes the difference between saved and lost but the sinner himself. This runs contrary to such Scriptures as Exodus 11:7: "...the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel" (see also 1 Cor. 4:7). If I may use such coarse terminology, God has not prostituted Himself by making Himself available to anyone who will accept Him as long as they agree to His terms. God has PROMISED Himself, in covenant love, to all His elect, His inheritance. The false gospel teaches that salvation was not obtained or secured by Christ on the Cross for all for whom He died, but that He has only succeeded in making it possible for every individual to receive salvation by his own free-will decision. This changes the very heart of what Atonement is and finds no parallel in the Old Testament types and sacrifices, from which we learn the nature of God-appointed atonement. The lie of universal atonement in turn does away with the fact that the Bible teaches that man is dead in sin, and replaces it with the satanic lie that man is not dead in sin but merely sin-sick and can, of his own free will, at any time, choose God with a little assistance from God, which they call ‘grace’. The Scripture asks: "For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?..." (1 Cor. 4:7; see also Jn. 3:27). It is God alone that makes a saved man to differ from one who is lost. All that a saved man possesses has been given to him by a Sovereign God purely by grace and mercy. Even the faith by which a man believes is not of the man, but is of God: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9; see also Acts 15:11; Gal. 3:22). Man has done, and could do, nothing to recommend himself unto God and can contribute nothing in order to make himself differ from any other man (Rom. 3:20,23). Any good deed or offering a lost man makes to God is unacceptable because it is imperfect and unclean, stained with sin. As was stated earlier, such blasphemous teachings as Christ dying for every individual, thus making salvation only possible and not effectual by His own atoning work on the Cross, controverts all that is taught in Scripture about what atonement actually is, which is what Christ went to the Cross to accomplish for His people. The Bible knows nothing of an atonement made for sin which was dependant or conditioned on the sinner in any way, shape or form. And those who promote such an atonement have absolutely NO support for it in Scripture. "He who denies the penal and vicarious nature of Christ’s death, repudiates the clear testimony of the types; he who sets aside the efficacy of His Sacrifice by reducing it to a merely ‘making possible’ the salvation of men does likewise, FOR THE TYPES KNOW NOTHING OF AN INEFFECTUAL SACRIFICE." Atonement in the Bible was always made for God’s chosen people and not for any others. No one becomes a child of God by anything they do. It is all because of what God does. Election, satisfaction for sin, a perfect righteousness, repentance from dead works and idolatry and the certainty that all whom God has chosen shall come to Him and remain with Him eternally, has all been the work of a Sovereign God and either given to, or performed on behalf of, the justified sinner. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom HE did predestinate, them HE also called: and whom HE called, them HE also justified: and whom HE justified, them HE also glorified" (Rom. 8:29,30). God has done it all.
If one rightly holds to what the Bible teaches, that Christ died for His people, the elect of God, then one holds to the truth that what Christ did was actually obtain redemption for them by His death (Heb. 9:12). Whoever Christ died for He has obtained eternal redemption. This was dependant on Him and not in any way conditioned on the sinner, for all those who would receive what had been done on their behalf were chosen by God before the foundation of the world and given to the Son. God justifies the ungodly and not the godly (Rom. 4:5). Christ said He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Matt. 9:13). No matter how religious and moral a person is, no one is saved before they hear, understand and believe the Gospel of God. NO ONE IS BORN AGAIN UNLESS THEY ARE BORN OF THE GOSPEL! To believe that one was saved before hearing the Gospel, that is, when the Gospel was hidden from them, which is to say when they were ignorant of Who Christ is and what Christ has done, is to base one’s salvation on something other than God’s Testimony and other than the Person and Work of God’s only Son. The Truth that is God’s Gospel has yet to shine on them. Those who place their faith in anything other than the obedience and death of Jesus Christ ALONE, as meeting all the conditions for salvation from beginning to final glory, NOT MERELY DURING THEIR SO-CALLED SAVED STATE BUT RIGHT FROM ITS INCEPTION, have not God. These are creatures who walk according to their natural state and are born, not of incorruptible Seed, but of corruptible seed. They are not spiritual creatures, that is, of the Spirit, but are of the flesh and do walk after the flesh.
The Gospel, or doctrine, of Christ is fundamentally as follows: man is dead in sin (Eph. 2:1,5), without God and without hope in the world (Eph. 2:12). This means that there is nothing in man that can lead him to the true God: "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him..." and "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing..." and "...therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father" (Jn. 6:44,63,65). When asked who can be saved, the Lord Jesus replied "...with men this is IMPOSSIBLE; but with God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26). This is in accord with the teaching just mentioned, that a man without God, and without the Gospel of God, is without hope. Man, if left to himself, has no hope of eternal salvation, of everlasting life. He does not know the Gospel, he does not know God and he does not know the way to God. He is spiritually destitute! The Bible says that "...verily every man at his BEST state is altogether vanity" (Psa. 39:5). It is God Who makes alive, purely by His Sovereign Will and Grace. Paul, speaking to believers, wrote: "But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (Eph. 2:4,5; see also Col. 2:13,14). "...OF HIM are ye in Christ Jesus..." (1 Cor. 1:30; see also 1 Pet. 1:21). God has chosen people from among every nation to be His people, His very own elected children (Rev. 5:9). God did this according to His Own Counsel. He did not confer with man nor did He act based on their ‘good deeds’. God choosing those whom He would bless based on grace, is proof positive that man is dead in sin and cannot come to God by works or will. All these are saved, not by means of their own obedience, but by the obedience of ONE (Rom. 5:19): "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to OUR WORKS, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was GIVEN us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9), and not, as many so falsely teach, according to His foreknowledge of who would choose Him, for such an ‘election’ would be according to a man’s deeds and by reward, something which he has earned, rather than by God’s purpose and grace. The Scriptures speak plainly: "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt" (Rom. 4:4; see also Rom. 6:23). It is Christ who has saved us and "In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will"—not man’s will (Eph. 1:11). The Bible says of Christians that the reason why God loves us is not because we loved Him first, it is not we who have taken the initiative; it is not anything that we have done which has attracted God to us and prompted Him to love us and choose us, but "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 Jn. 4:19 & v.10; see also Rom. 5:6,8).
The Lord Jesus paid the penalty of all the sins of all the elect of God whom God had given Him (Isa. 53:4,5) and has given them His Righteousness: "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness WITHOUT WORKS" (Rom. 4:6; see also 4:8). The righteousness which is given a man is not a reward for anything the man has done, for then it could not be called a salvation purely of grace, but is freely imputed, or charged, by God’s grace based on the obedience of Another: Christ Jesus the Lord: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Rom. 11:6). God’s Justice is satisfied, for the penalty which the sins of God’s elect had earned has been met, and could only have been met, in full by Christ alone: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13). We shall be presented to God faultless, spotless and blameless (Jude 24 & Col. 1:22) for we are robed with Christ’s perfect Righteousness and not in the filthy rags of righteousnesses which are of our own making (Isa. 64:6): "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness..." (Isa. 61:10). Jesus Christ alone has also fully met the requirements of God’s Holy law, by His perfect obedience: "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so BY THE OBEDIENCE OF ONE shall many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). The elect referred to here as the many, will not be made righteous because of their own individual and imperfect adherence to God’s commands, but are made righteous by the obedience of One: Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory! All of God’s elect will hear the Gospel and will, at the appointed time, believe it for this has been predetermined by God’s immutable Counsel and Will (Acts 13:48; see also 2:47). And the Bible teaches that all for whom this has been done will never perish (Jn. 10:27:28; see also Jn. 6:37-40). They have been saved eternally and are preserved in Christ (Jude 1 & Psa. 37:28). The blood of Christ has not provided a temporary state of salvation for whom it was shed, but it has ETERNALLY saved all for whom it was shed. Their sins have been wiped out, their debt has been paid in full and a perfect Righteousness established and imputed unto them (see Rom. 4:6-8). The salvation that a Christian has is not one which is conditioned on his efforts at obedience, and therefore subject to change, for then no one could be saved, but is conditioned on Christ from beginning to end and is therefore eternal and wavers not. The saved man is not kept saved by his efforts but by the power of God through faith in Christ (1 Pet. 1:5; see also Jn. 17:11,12). To believe otherwise is to deny the efficaciousness of Christ’s atoning death and Christ’s finished work being sufficient, not only to save His people, but to ensure the eternal security of those people. To deny the Work of Christ is to deny the Person of Christ and to deny Him is to deny His Father’s Testimony of Who He is and what He has done, as revealed in the Gospel. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also" (1 Jn.2:23). Just as those who deny the Son do not have the Father, so, too, those who do not stand in Christ’s doctrine do not have either the Son or the Father (2 John 9).
The life every true born of the Gospel believer now has is everlasting life, which means that, not only will they live forever, but they have, by the grace of God, been made alive unto Him eternally. THERE IS NO SIN THAT CAN UNDO THIS, FOR CHRIST HAS BLOTTED OUT THE BELIEVER’S SINS, HAVING NAILED THEM TO THE CROSS! (Col. 2:13-15). EVERY SIN OF EVERY BELIEVER HAS BEEN MET, DEALT WITH AND FORGIVEN, FOR CHRIST DIED FOR ALL THE SINS OF EVERY BELIEVER AND HAS CARRIED THEM AWAY. If every sin of every believer has been atoned for, would it not be right to conclude that the sin of unbelief, that sin which for so long kept the believer from God and in a dead spiritual state, has also been taken out of the way? And if not, then the sin of unbelief has not been done away with for the elect and there is no atonement for it. The penalty it has incurred has not been paid and therefore no one can possibly come to God, for the sin of unbelief reigns supreme, being untouched by the blood of Christ. How ludicrous all this is in light of what God says in His Holy Word. Has not Christ suffered the penalty of all the sins of the elect, including the sin of unbelief? If so, how could anyone for whom Christ has suffered, possibly die in unbelief and dead to God when the penalty for that very sin of unbelief has already been paid by the Lord Jesus?
God will never leave His chosen people nor forsake them (see Psa. 37:28 & Heb. 13:5) and because of this, they will never leave Him or forsake Him. The seed of man might give life but it is a temporal life and it is corruptible seed from which it is brought forth, which means that it will one day perish. However, all that spring from the Seed of God have a spiritual life which is eternal and will never perish, for that Seed which they have been born out of—the Gospel—is incorruptible. Christ said it this way: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Jn. 3:6). This means that that which is born of the flesh, that is, man’s natural sinful nature, cannot but be natural and sinful itself and will one day die. The Pharisee, Nicodemus, who had just asked if what Jesus meant by the phrase "...except a man be born again..." (Jn. 3:3,4) that a man must enter a second time into his mother’s womb did not understand what Christ had said. Even if a man could re-enter his mother’s womb "He would still be possessed by the same natural propensities and passions....(that which is of the flesh) (He) Partakes of the nature of the parent. As the parents are corrupt and sinful, so will be their descendants. And as the parents are wholly corrupt by nature, so their children will be the same. The word ‘flesh’ here is used to denote ‘corrupt, defiled, sinful.’" On the other hand, that which is born of the Spirit of God, or by the agency of the Holy Spirit through the means of the Gospel of God, is spirit as well. Only the born again man will see the Kingdom of Heaven. "Here we learn that all men are by nature sinful. That none are renewed but by the Spirit of God. If man did the work himself (or contributed in any way to any degree), it would be still flesh, and impure." Man must be born again; he must be born of that incorruptible Seed; he must be born of the Gospel if he is to see the Kingdom of God.
None of God’s children believe anything less, or more, than this simple Gospel as the only way to salvation. Christ said He is the Way to the Father: "...I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (Jn. 14:6; see also Heb. 7:25). Also, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The way to God is not a life of good works, for the Bible says that by works shall no flesh be justified (Gal. 2:16). Good works will be a fruit of salvation, but are not a contributing factor or the means to anyone’s justification (see 2 Tim. 1:9). A man is saved purely by God Himself choosing the man to be saved, by means of his hearing, understanding and believing His Gospel. All who abide in the doctrine of Christ are preserved in Christ (Jude 1) and their inheritance is reserved for them in heaven. According to the abundant mercy of God, and not our works, HE "...hath BEGOTTEN US AGAIN unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith UNTO salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:3-5). All who reject the doctrine of Christ have not God and shall be eternally damned if they remain in that state: "Whosoever transgresseth, and ABIDETH NOT IN THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, HATH NOT GOD. He that ABIDETH in the doctrine of Christ, he HATH both the Father and the Son. If there come ANY unto you and bring not THIS DOCTRINE, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (2 Jn. 9-11).
The Gospel that has been presented to you in this booklet is the one that many claim to believe in. This writer has been privileged to preach this message and tell others about it on numerous occasions via letters, emails, booklets and both video and audio tapes of my own and of others. Yet most of those I know who have never heard this message in its entirety before, insist that though they believe this message now, they were nonetheless saved before they heard it. Saved in ignorance of the Gospel they now claim to believe! Such people clearly do not understand what they say they believe. They are blind to the fact that this Gospel shuts out all who do not believe it and who say they were saved before hearing it. Many say that this is the Gospel they have believed in for years, even decades, yet they become offended when it is defined for them in finer detail. They are familiar with Christian terminology, but not with the meaning. This reveals to me the sad and decaying state they are currently in. It shows that while they are certainly conversant with most terms intrinsic to the Gospel, they haven’t a clue as to their real meaning. The Gospel simply has not been revealed to them. When such terms are properly and biblically explained to them, they flee in terror uttering accusatory terms such as ‘cult!’, ‘extremist!’, evil teaching!’, ‘unloving!’ etc. This writer has had people ask for items promoting this Gospel, for a time, and even ordering multiple copies of my own tapes and booklets, and yet all of a sudden their communication comes to an abrupt halt after the penny finally drops and the realisation comes upon them like a blast from a fiery furnace that this Message pronounces them lost before they claim to have believed this Gospel, and, therefore, still in a lost state for they believe in a salvation without the Gospel. The True Gospel is something they cannot bear to contemplate and so they trample off into the sunset with a firm hold on their beliefs, all the while ignorant of or in denial of the fact that their feet tread the path described in Scripture as the broad way that only leads one away from God to destruction (Matt. 7:13).
One cannot make the message any clearer than is humanly possible. Only God can make a person see it in its fullness and receive it. But allow me to make the following statements so that none can confuse what I am saying, or accuse me of being vague or that my writings are obscure and that I do not make the message clear enough; that I do not make a distinct sound when I blow the warning trumpet:
NO MAN IS SAVED WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE THIS GOSPEL IN ITS ENTIRETY.
NO MAN IS SAVED WHO BELIEVES THAT ANYONE ELSE, REGARDLESS OF APPEARANCE OR REPUTATION, IS SAVED WHILST BELIEVING ANY OTHER GOSPEL.
NO MAN IS SAVED WHO BELIEVES THAT HE, OR ANYONE ELSE, WAS SAVED BEFORE THEY HEARD AND BELIEVED THIS GOSPEL.
No one ever arrived at their destination before they actually got there! So, too, no one was ever saved BEFORE they heard and believed THE Gospel of Jesus Christ: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, LET HIM BE ACCURSED" (Gal. 1:8). Paul here tells of the accursed state of any man who teaches, and therefore anyone who believes in, another gospel. Isaiah puts it this way: "To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, IT IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM" (Isa. 8:20). How can he be saved who has not placed his trust in the only One Who can save and Who has revealed Himself only in the Gospel? Every true child of God will believe all of the above, for this is the Gospel which God’s Gift of Faith causes every chosen person to believe from the moment of their spiritual birth. This is how we can recognize a true Christian from a false christian, for all true Christians believe the same Gospel; they have the same mind: the Mind of Christ (1 Jn. 4:6). Every false believer believes in anything but this Message, which is the only Message that truly gives ALL the glory to God and leaves no room for boasting in man. The false christian may well believe part of this message; he may even believe most of this Message, but if he does not believe ALL of this Message he remains dead in his sin and yet to be born of this Message: the Gospel.
Why? Why is it so important to believe all the doctrines which make up the terms of God’s Gospel Message? And for that matter, why is doctrine so important anyway? (See the book ‘God Loves Doctrine’) It is important, because if one does not hold to these teachings, which are nothing less than God’s very Testimony on the matter of salvation and on Who His Son is, what His Son has done and for whom He has done it, one must be holding to other teachings, somebody else’s word, about such issues as election, the total inability of man to come to God in and of himself, etc., and what Christ did in and through His Atoning death. This would mean that one held to a view of these life and death issues that was not conformed to God’s Word on the matter. One man who disagrees with this Gospel, has commented: "If I believed what you are saying then most of my friends would be lost." Since when has something like that become the standard whereby one could safely measure the Truth? Many talk of their religious experiences as ‘sure signs from God’ that they are saved. They say, "That had to be of God. I must have been saved back then before I heard the Gospel." How could this be my friend when what you say contradicts the Word of God which declares no man saved unless he believes the Gospel (Mk. 16:16). Again, none are saved who hold sincerely to beliefs which differ from what God has said and which stand in opposition to His Gospel. Many believe in God’s faithfulness to carry out His promise of salvation to those who believe, but few believe that God is just as faithful to carry out His threats of damnation to those who will not believe His Gospel. Just ask Adam and Eve whether or not God is faithful to carry out His threats to the letter (see Gen. 2:16,17; 3).
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is just that: It is HIS Gospel, HIS Good News. It is about HIM and the glorious love, grace and mercy He has shown to His people. It is not about what man has to do to ‘get saved’; it is about what Christ has done TO SAVE!!
"Are you willing to put your whole life, your efforts, beliefs, experiences, thoughts, your ties to friends and family on the line by exposing them to the Light of God’s Gospel? If not, you are not really seeking God nor His way of eternal life in Christ. You are seeking confirmation of what you already believe. But when God sends His Spirit to enlighten your minds and convince us of what HE knows to be true, our whole life up to that point must be re-evaluated in light of Christ and His Righteousness. Then you will say: ‘But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world’ (Gal. 6:14)."
Paul the apostle had more religion than any one of us before he believed THE Gospel, yet he did not stubbornly cling to and hope in anything he was, or did, or abstained from doing, prior to his being born of the Gospel and being brought to a saving knowledge of Christ: "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the Righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:7-9). In his sinful nature and self-righteous condition, Paul believed that his religion was bringing him closer to God, making him more and more acceptable to God, when in fact his ‘good works’ were leading him further and further away from God, for in doing them he was trying to establish a righteousness of his own, sure and conclusive evidence that he was ignorant of and not submitted to the only Righteousness that can make a man just before God—the Righteousness of Christ! Paul was comforted during his ignorant Christless religious life by his efforts at obeying God’s commands and producing what he thought were good works. These so-called good works, which Paul counted as nothing but dung after he heard the Gospel, the True Way to salvation, were nothing but a false refuge which gave Paul a false sense of peace and security when it came to the matter of his eternal destiny. Where is that Message of the Righteousness of Christ, which most professing Christians are ignorant of, revealed? Nowhere else but in the Gospel of God, His Incorruptible Seed. Paul never found, or had, salvation before he heard and believed in the Gospel of God. With all his religion and all his Jewish ancestry, Paul was as lost as the heathen for he knew not Christ and abided not in His doctrine. And, please, do not for one moment think that Paul, or should I say Saul, back in his lost days was different to those who claim to be saved today because he did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, as all who would claim to be Christian today do. Though Paul did not believe Jesus was the Messiah, he did believe in a counterfeit Messiah. He believed in another messiah whom he thought was the real Messiah and who he believed was still to come. Paul believed in another jesus (messiah) and another gospel just as much as those today who hold to a false gospel that promotes a counterfeit christ.
"DO YOU HAVE A RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT ANSWERS THE DEMANDS OF GOD’S HOLY LAW AND JUSTICE? It is impossible for any sinner to have it based on character and conduct. If anyone has it, it is only by imputation, God freely giving it. We then receive it by faith."
The Scriptures speak plainly for all to understand: "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, HATH NOT GOD. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, HE HATH BOTH THE FATHER AND THE SON" (2 Jn. 9). The Scriptures speak equally as clear in 1 Peter when they state that to be born again one must be born of incorruptible Seed: the Gospel of God. To those who do not receive the True Christ of God’s ONLY Gospel, the One Who has already come and Who will come again, Jesus Christ says: "And ye have not this Word abiding in you: for Whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not....ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in My Father’s name and ye receive Me not..." (Jn. 5:38, 42,43). "If any man love not THE Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema (accursed)" (1 Cor. 16:22). If any do not believe and obey the Gospel they are lost. If any are not born again they are lost. And if any are not born of the Word of Truth, that Mighty Gospel Seed of God, they are lost! Christ Jesus says: "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and BELIEVE THE GOSPEL" (Mk. 1:15).
"If there come ANY unto you, and bring not THIS DOCTRINE, receiveth him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds" ( 2 Jn.10, 11).