Do we know the Gospel?
By Elmer G. Klassen
When God put Adam and Eve into the beautiful Garden of Eden He gave them their first commandment they were to obey. To obey or disobey this commandment would mean the difference between life or death for them and for the entire human race. Adam and Eve thought it would be smart to ignore God’s instructions and disobey Him. Their disobedience brought death into the world.
What can now give us eternal life? What makes salvation possible? Through the disobedience of one man sin entered the world. It is through the perfect obedience of the one God-sent Man sin salvation is made possible. This salvation is offered to the human race through faith in the God who was obedient. By repenting and obeying God we can have eternal life.
Is obedience a part of salvation? Our obedience is a witness to the world whose child we are. The world sees whom we obey and can therefore know whether life or death awaits us. Paul wrote to the Romans, “Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.”
Salvation depends on whom we are obeying. Through the Lord Jesus Christ the Apostles received grace to call people to obedience that comes from faith. They preached that redemption comes through faith and obedience.
We preach that redemption comes through the blood, through faith, through grace, by trusting Christ, by committing our lives to God. This is true. Can we preach that redemption comes through obedience as well? The Apostles did. The Apostles preached salvation through repentance and obedience. They taught that whoever did not obey the commandments of Jesus did not have the Spirit of God. The disobedience that came from man must be replaced by the obedience that comes from God. Faith is not faith until it is put to action. Faith in God results in obedience.
Our evangelistic messages are quite different than the messages we read from the Apostle Peter in the book of Acts or what the Apostles John and Paul wrote about in their letters. The evangelistic messages from the Apostles and from the evangelists in the first centuries differ considerably from the “Four Things God Wants You To Know To Obtain Eternal Security” we hear preached today.
According to the Bible and to what the apostles and bishops in the first centuries taught, many of the people attending our evangelical churches are not Christians at all. We are telling them they are Christians when in their hearts they know that they do not have the Spirit of God within them. The lack of interest in prayer meetings, the lack of faithfulness in church activities and the disrespect for God and for His Word in comparison to the early Christians tell us that there is a remarkable difference between us as to what we believe makes us Christian. Many attending our churches today would not be accepted as Christians in the first centuries of Christianity.
Who is to be considered a Christian? If our opinions differ so much from the early Christians can we say that we know the Scriptures better than the Christians who had known and talked with the Apostles? Are we better theologians than the students who knew the Apostles personally, who had talked with Jesus Christ Himself when He was on earth? Are we more filled with the Holy Spirit than the early Christians who were one in spirit with the Christians who were present on the day of Pentecost? Do we know our Bibles better than they? Then why is there such a difference between what they emphasized and expected from Christians and what we are emphasizing in our preaching and teaching today?
David Bercot, in his book, Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up, tells us that after reading the writings of some of the respected first and second century church leaders he stopped reading their writings for a time because they contradicted too much of his own theological views. These early writers frequently taught the opposite of what he had believed. They even labeled some of his beliefs as heretical. Later, after reading more of the writings of such men as Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin, Tertullian and others he began to question who were the heretical, we or they. Much of what they believed directly contradicts what we are being taught in our churches. After reading what our early church bishops and elders taught and practiced we can learn why there is so little difference in the life-style of Christians and non-Christians today and why sin is almost as present inside the church as outside the North American church.
The basic difference between us and what the early church fathers and church bishops preached and the basic reason for sin in our churches is our understanding of salvation. We talk about committing our lives to Jesus Christ and then dedicating our lives to Him. They taught salvation through repentance and obedience, using Scriptural terms.
It is time that we read some new books about salvation and meditate on the verses before and after the ones we memorized when we were a child. A. W. Tozer once wrote that too many sermons are not fresh and hot, but rather re-warmed leftovers from another generation.
How do we know that we are Christians? How do we know that we are filled with the Holy Spirit? Is it our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that make us Christians or prove that we are born-again and filled with the Holy Spirit? Non-Christians are often just as patient, kind, gentle and able to control their temper just as well as the people who attend our churches. How do we receive the Spirit of God and how do we know that we have the Holy Spirit?
The early Christians taught that people who did not obey Jesus Christ but claimed to be Christians were liars. They taught that we can know we are Christians by our obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. They taught people everywhere that obedience was a part of salvation. We receive the Holy Spirit, the Apostles taught, if we obey Jesus Christ and only when we obey Him will we remain in His love. They taught that we will be judged by whom we obey. For them there was no such thing as a disobedient Christian.
Andrew Murray writes in his book, Learning Obedience (The School of Obedience): “The Father in heaven asks, and requires, and actually expects, that every child of His yield Him wholehearted and entire obedience, day by day, and all the day… The very entrance into this life demands the vow of absolute obedience, or the surrender of the whole being, to be, think, speak, do, every moment, nothing but what is according to the will of God, and well pleasing to Him.”
The most joyous Christians are the obedient ones. They are promised hope and expectancy for a glorious future promised Christians who know salvation as the Scripture teaches.
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