Tag Archives: the gospel

The Gospel According To Jesus

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The following is a very short summary, and my comments, of the book The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur, written in 1988.

I remember that the book made quite a stir. But MacArthur was absolutely correct in what he said. And it got a lot of people thinking—about how the gospel should be presented and about salvation.

For a long time, preachers and evangelists have had a wrong view of the gospel and how to present it. Some very well-known theologians (like Lewis Sperry Chafer and Charles C. Ryrie) were saying that we should not expect new converts to begin a life of obedience to Christ right away; that they at first should receive Him as Savior and then later, when they are more mature, receive Him as Lord. They were saying that to expect converts to be disciples of Christ right away was asking too much.

And there was also a theology (according to 1 Cor. 2:15-3:3, by Chafer) that there is two classes of Christians: carnal and Spiritual. But MacArthur strongly disagrees with that. He says that carnal always refers to a non-believer. I believe this is right (but I didn’t always believe this). I know that there are levels of maturity for a believer, but he can never be carnal—living in sin; that is what carnal means. A Christian is to be Spirit-filled and be obedient to Christ; and when he is not he can and will eventually (with the help of the Holy Spirit) repent and start over.

Now let me get right to it. When a person comes to Christ a miracle takes place. He is born again. He becomes a new person. At the moment of conversion, he receives Christ for all that He is: God, Sovereign, Savior, and Lord.  

Let me back up. At first, when a person is saved he sees that he is a sinner; and so, he comes under conviction of sin; and then he repents of that sin. And then at the same time He experiences Christ calling him to a life of faith and obedience. So, he receives Christ as his Savior from sin and as his Lord (because He is Lord). Hence, when someone is saved, he is giving up his old life of sin and is born again into a new life of obedience to Christ. This is the gospel according to Jesus.

What’s on my Mind? Biden, Jim Jordan, Faith …

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First and foremost, on my mind is suspicion of Biden. I don’t trust him. He seems to be playing both sides. He says he is for Israel, but at the same time he is aiding Hamas and delaying Israel’s war effort. I think he is just trying to get votes from both sides. It is all political.

Second on my mind is why Jim Jordan is being stopped from being Speaker. I think he would make a very good speaker—but liberals won’t allow it. Do they know what they are doing?

Thirdly, and more personal, is my thoughts on the subject of obedience and faith. I give the credit to John MacArthur in his book, The Gospel According to Jesus. He points out that some say that obedience and faith should be regarded as separate, that obedience is works and should come after faith—something like that. But MacArthur makes the point that the two should always be together—as James points out, faith without works is dead.

And what is really coming to light for me now is that when we are disobedient to God, we are in sin; and so, this tells us that when we sin we are lacking in faith—or we are not trusting God. I know that we—even good Christians—will never be perfect in obedience and faith; but this is something we have to be constantly working on. I mean, we cannot let up in our effort to be holy and godly. And on the brighter side, when we are more obedient, God makes us happy (or joyful). And when we are obedient we have more hope and steadfastness and resilience in evil times. In short, obedience to God is the key to the victorious Christian life—because in our obedience we are trusting in Him.

Fourthly, as I trust and obey Him, I plod along with everything else. I have two books that I am editing. I am nursing a thing in my mouth called lichen planus (sort of a disease which apparently has no cure; but I am using mouth washes, aloe Vera gel and clove to try to get rid of it, or at least sooth it).

I am also reading two books; the one I mentioned by MacArthur, and a book by Bill O’Reilly, Killing the Witches. This book falls in line with the one I just read, Mayflower. The Mayflower arrived in 1620 and the witches tragedy occurred later at about 1680. I say tragedy because they were killing girls that weren’t witches at all. They were just suspected of being witches. It was much like the Catholic inquisition—burning Christians alive. Terrible!

My blogging has slowed down, but now that I am not working much, I will try to pick it up again.

The Unresponsive Heart – Matthew 13:4, 19

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I sometimes wonder how some people can be so insensitive to sin, without a bit of guilt or remorse. I’m thinking about those who do sin for a living and think nothing of it. They seem to thrive in it, and the gospel has no effect on them.

I’ve been reading The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur. He has some very good incites on the parable of the soils from Matthew 13:3-9.

And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 “And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 “And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 “And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 “He who has ears, let him hear.”

First we need to explain that the seed represents the Word of God and the gospel; the sower is one who presents the gospel to the unbeliever; the soil is the human heart—or the people; and the birds that ate the seed is Satan.

The purpose of sowing the seed is to build the kingdom of God—to save souls for His kingdom. In the parable, Jesus describes four kinds of soils (or four kinds of people) that the seed falls on. The first three described (vs. 4-7) is soil that is not prepared correctly for the seed of the gospel to germinate. These people will not be saved. Only the fourth kind of soil—good, fertile soil—will respond to the gospel and be saved.   

In this blog we will focus on the first soil mentioned (v. 4). The sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some of the seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.

This first soil is soil that is hard-packed. It is soil that is on a path that has been packed down by people constantly walking on it. The seed that lands on this path, as you can imagine, has no chance of taking root. The hard-packed soil represents people with a hard heart. Like the hard-packed soil, their heart is hard. It has been hardened by repeated sin and abuse. The Old Testament called these people “stiff-necked.” Their repeated sins and rebellion against God has made them what they are: unresponsive to the gospel (and the Word of God), unconcerned, indifferent, even hostile to the gospel. These are definitely unsaved people; because a believer will commit sins and even be rebellious, but he will not stay that way. The Holy Spirit will cause him to repent and he will be delivered.

Hence, this parable is directed to unsaved people. They need a heart change. The soil of their heart needs conditioning. The hard-hearted person has no chance of being saved unless his heart is softened. How?

By prayer and by the Word of God and by love from a kind friend.

It is a sad thing to see this person; they have no understanding of the gospel and no sorrow over their sin, because the devil has plucked all the seeds of the gospel away. They seem to be so oblivious to sin, to living a sinful life. These are the ones who march for Pride month; these are the ones who fight for abortion rights; these are the ones who sell themselves to pornography and also the ones who love viewing it; these are the ones who have no understanding of the truth and the Word of God and will call Christians and conservatives extremists. They fight for global government and for the climate change movement. Most of them will not repent and be saved. Much prayer is needed for the few who will be saved.

Jesus Is Both Savior and Lord

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In the last one-hundred years there has been an effort to divide Christians into two groups: carnal and spiritual (Read 1 Cor. 2:14-3:3). And they have likewise said that many have received Christ as Savior, but not as Lord. They would be the carnal ones. They would be saved but not really committed to Christ.

And surprisingly, some have been okay with this, because they say that if they accept Him as Lord they would be guilty of human works.

But this is crazy, because that would be dividing Christ. For He is both Savior and Lord. And so, when we seek to be saved we must accept all of Him, in all that He is—Savior and Lord. He must be our Savior and our Lord. If He is not, we really haven’t accepted Him (the real Him) at all.

And, as far as being guilty of “human works,” Jesus tells us that true faith requires works (James 2:14-26); that without works faith is dead. And works is not something we do without His help. He is the worker in us. When we are saved He gives us a new life, a life that naturally does the work of God.

And by the way, if you are called a carnal Christian, you may not be a Christian at all. Because carnality is not of God. A carnal person is a person void of spirituality, or void of the Holy Spirit. So here it is: a carnal person is a pagan, not a Christian; and a Spiritual person is a Christian, because he walks by the Spirit and he does the works of God (Romans 8:9-11).

However, there will be periods in the Christian’s life when he takes the wrong road or gets off track. But that will be only temporary. God provides for him a way to get back on track—he will just need to repent of his sins and start again. And this will happen many times because we are still in our fleshly body. And God understands this—and so should we. But we endeavor to abide with Him from day to day failing along the way, but getting back up again and again. And thank God that He has provided for us constant forgiveness and cleansing (1 Jn 1:9).

We depend on His constant forgiveness and cleansing; yet we strive to abide with Him and trust Him more.

The Gospel According To Jesus

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This gospel demands our commitment, our obedience, our Lordship, and our turning from sin.

The title of this blog is the title of a book written by John MacArthur, Jr. in 1988. This book, I remember created quite a stir, and it is still having an impact. I have had it on my book shelf for a while and just now decided to read it again more seriously. This time I intend to blog through it.

The theme of the book is getting the true gospel clear—from Jesus’ teaching. It is also to refute the wrong, misguided way of salvation. MacArthur strongly refutes all those who bring “another gospel,” those who “distort the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:6-8).

In the first chapter MacArthur confronts all evangelists who have used gospel presentations such as …

  • “Accept Jesus as personal Savior”
  • “Ask Jesus into your heart”
  • “Invite Christ into your life”
  • “Make a decision for Christ”

MacArthur says that none of this terminology is biblical. And I have to admit that I have used all of it myself! It was how I was taught, how I heard it growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.

MacArthur rightly points out that “the gospel Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow Him in submissive obedience, not just a plea to make a decision or pray a prayer.” (p. 21)

Looking back at my own point of salvation, I am thankful that my counselor did it right. He pointed me to the Scriptures and also gave me the idea that conversion was the point where I was deciding to follow Jesus and to allow Him to be in the drivers’ seat.” That I was giving Him control of my life, that I was being submissive to Him, that I was beginning a new life of submission to His will.

But MacArthur points out that many evangelists of today, when they present the gospel, give no invitation to making spiritual commitments whatsoever, or to turn from sin. They insist that this would amount to human works and have nothing to do with faith (p. 22).

So apparently, some say that conversion is just a prayer said, just making a decision for Christ, and then letting Jesus bring that Lordship issue along later. Yes, I remember this being said. But it is wrong. Jesus demands Lordship and commitment from the start. He demands a life of obedience from the start. He says, follow Me!

We must believe that genuine assurance of salvation will come from seeing the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in the life—seeing the fruit. Hence, real salvation cannot be isolated from His work in us. There must be not only justification, but also regeneration and sanctification. Yes, there must be evidence of a holy life.

Hence, we must not dismiss holiness in the life. And we should not only point to a person’s salvation experience. We should not encourage a person to base his salvation assurance on the memory of a prayer, or walking an aisle, or speaking in tongues, or some other experience.

Faith that does not result in a righteous life is dead faith. A real and growing faith must have fruit—the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. A true Christian must be able to look back and see that he has put aside his old life and is growing to be more like Christ, that he is growing to hate the world and to love God and His word. A true Christian loves to go to church and hear the word of God preached, and to sing songs of praise to God with others. A true Christian longs for heaven and to see Jesus; and he hates sin, sin in the world and sin in himself.

What Do Ye More than Others? – Matthew 5:47

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And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same (Matt. 5:47)?

Jesus, in this verse, in the context of verses 44 through 48, is saying to us that we are to be different. The Christian is to be different than the non-Christian. We are to love our enemies (v. 44), not just our friends. And here in verses 46 and 47, He says that if we love and greet our brethren only, what good is that? Everyone does that. Rather, we are to be perfect, just as our Father in heaven is perfect (v. 48). And we can do that because we are His children (v. 45).

I have been blogging from the book, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Today I will relay briefly what he says on this text. Lloyd-Jones starts out by bringing to us Christ’s command that we are to be perfect, even as our Father is perfect.  And we may discern that this command seems impossible; but yet, at the same time, by the very fact that we are commanded to be such, implies that it is possible. It is impossible to the natural man, but very possible for the Christian man, the spiritual man.

Why is that so? What makes the Christian so different? So unique? So powerful? It has to be because we are the children of our Father in heaven, and because we have in us the characteristics of God Himself. We have in our new nature things that are never found in the non-Christian.

Here, from Lloyd-Jones’ book, are nine unique qualities that the true Christian has in contrast to the non-Christian.

1. In His attitude toward the law. The natural man may observe the law and be moral in his behavior, but he never goes beyond it. The Christian is more concerned with the spirit than with mere obedience. And he always delights in the law of God in his inner self.

2. His attitude toward morality. The natural man’s attitude about morality is generally negative in that he is focused on not doing certain things. In contrast, the Christian’s attitude is more positive; he hungers and thirsts to be righteous like God.

3. His attitude toward sin. The natural man thinks of sin in terms of things that are done or not done. The Christian is more interested in his heart—whether he is right with God or not.

4. His attitude toward himself. The natural man admits his sin, but he will never morn over it. Yet the Christian is always sorry for his sin.

5. His attitude toward other sinners. The natural man may regard others with tolerance and pity. But the Christian goes beyond that and sees them as victims of sin and held captive by Satan.

6. His view of God. The natural man may see God as someone to be obeyed and feared. But the Christian loves God because he has come to know Him.

7. His motive for a living. The natural man may desire to do good, but generally like to keep a record of it. The true Christian gives without counting the cost and does it sacrificially.

8. How he faces trials. The natural man may face trials without complaining, and powers through them with an iron will. But the Christian deep down knows that all things work together for good to them that love God. And he even rejoices in trials.

9. His attitude toward his enemies. The natural man may know how to resist striking or expressing anger toward his enemies, but he cannot love them. The Christian, however, by the Spirit of God, can indeed love his enemies genuinely, and even pray for them.

So, we see that the Christian is unique and different than the natural man. He is different because of what God has done in his heart and life. He has made him a new person with a new nature. He indeed has been changed by the work of the gospel; and he understands the gospel: that he is utterly sinful, but that God sent His only Son to die for our sins, and thus bring His forgiveness to us, and a new life. And we live now with hope for a bright future. And His Spirit lives in us, filling us, teaching us His will, even guiding us along the way. And He, from day to day empowers us to love all the people we meet and have dealings with, even our enemies.