The Biblical Gospel

The Biblical Gospel

By Jay Wegter I. Know the gospel essentials that are missing today.

The gospel must include both the character of God and the character of the sinner.

1. Whom has the sinner offended?
2. How has the sinner offended God?
3. What are the consequences of offending God?
4. What are sinners to be saved from?
5. What has God done about the sinner’s dilemma?
6. How are sinners to be saved from ruin?

A. Whom has the sinner offended?

1. Our gospel message must have at its core the glory and majesty and exaltation of God. He is the offended power. Without the knowledge of the God whom he has offended, the sinner will not see himself in opposition to God.ⁱ Why does sin separate the unbeliever from God making him an enemy of God? Romans 5:10, Colossians 1:21, and 1 John 3:4.
2. The gospel is about God’s moral majesty and righteous justice. God cannot be made to fit the sinner’s instincts and carnal ideas of deity. All conviction of sin and remorse for sin begins with the character of God as He is revealed in Scripture. Read 1 Samuel 2:2-3. What does it mean in v. 3, “And with Him, actions are weighed?” God, in His omniscience, sees into our hearts, He knows the motives and the reasons behind our behavior.

3. Begin with God as Creator—who God is in relation to all else—His absolute claims upon His creatures. Don’t assume the culture has an accurate view of God. False evangelism tries to attract by focusing solely on divine love while excluding God’s holiness, sovereignty, and righteous justice (Rev 15:4).

B. How has the sinner offended God?

1. Man must experience a degree of devastation about personal sin. There must be an awakening in the individual as to the fact that all sin is against God and His holy character. There is no repentance until the sinner says the same thing about his sin that God does: sin opposes who God is; sin makes one an enemy of God and His glory; and the sinner deserves divine judgment (Rom 3:23; 5:10).
2. Jesus took the rich young ruler back to the Law of God (Lu 18:18-23). The sinner must be shown how he has specifically offended God. You can’t make the cross personal without making the sinner’s depravity personal. The transgressor must be shown that who he is in God’s sight, and what he has done in his person has offended God. The preaching of the law is the tool for identifying sin (Rom 3:20; 5:20).

3. People tend to hear the gospel through a therapeutic ‘self-help’ grid. They assume that the gospel is about them, about their self-therapy, about the possibility of gaining a better life through personal improvement, not about God who is glorified in judging sin at the cross (Jn 17:1-2). When Christ Jesus laid His life down at Calvary, He did so as an act of obedience. Christ’s willing humiliation in His suffering is the cause of His exaltation, for His death magnified God’s justice and mercy (Rom 3:24-26). As the resurrected ‘God-man’ Christ is Lord of all and is given a Name above every name (Phil 2:9-11).

C. What are the consequences of offending God?

1. God’s law stops every mouth that all may become guilty before God (Rom 3:19). Apart from the Bible, man cannot be trusted to assess the seriousness of sin and its verdict of death and separation from God. Only by proclaiming the character of God and the immutability of His law will sinners conclude that they are lawbreakers in God’s sight who deserve eternal condemnation (1 Jn 3:4).
2. The law is the identifier of sin—without the law, how does a person know what to repent of? Apart from the law of God, the gospel is emptied of the essentials of sin, hell, conviction, and repentance.

3. God has born witness to man’s moral and spiritual condition. God is just and fair to shut impenitent sinners out of the enjoyment of His glory forever (Mt 10:28). Sinners who spurn God’s mercy, who reject God’s authority, who do not fear God or believe God are liable to death and judgment (Mt 12:36). They will experience God’s just verdict, separation from God forever in eternal punishment (Rom 6:23).

D. What are sinners to be saved from?

1. Sinners must be told they need to be saved not only from the consequences of sin, separation from God in hell, but also from the power and rule of sin itself. This is vital. Deliverance from the reign of sin is a truth inherent in true repentance (Lu 13:5; 24:47).
2. The fact that God will lay bare every heart is stated in a gospel context (Rom 2:16). Jesus felt a love for the rich young ruler; then told him that he must be saved from his covetousness (Lu 18:22ff.).

3. Sinners must be told that they must be saved from the wrath of God. For, the wrath God will justly come upon all who do not believe the gospel and repent of sin (Rom 2:1-10).

E. What has God done about the sinner’s dilemma?

1. Without a knowledge of God whom the sinner has offended, and without a knowledge of God’s law, which the sinner has trampled—there will be no grasp of what God has done to save. Grace only makes sense to those who see themselves as condemned lawbreakers. In Christ’s parable in Luke 18:9-14, the outwardly religious man prayed a ‘sincere prayer’, but was not justified. Yet the despised tax collector who acknowledged his ruinous sin left the temple justified. Why such a difference?

2. The good news of the gospel is that the Son of God has taken on flesh and dwelled with mankind. Christ the God-man died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:1-4). His substitutionary death fulfilled the long-awaited promise of perfect redemption (Heb 10:10, 14). He established the new covenant in His blood (Mt 26:28; 1 Cor 11:25).
3. The atonement Christ has made exalts divine justice. Because of the cross, God is glorified in extending forgiveness full and free to believing sinners (Rom 3:23-26). For Jesus’ resurrection from the dead conquered sin, Satan, and death (Col 2:11-15). His rising from the dead is proof that the Father has accepted the Son’s sacrifice on behalf of all who believe. God is ready to receive even the worst sinner who believes and repents, because Christ has provided the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin (Heb 9:14).

F. How are sinners to be saved from ruin?

1. The promise of eternal life is offered to all who believe and repent. “Turn from your sins and follow Christ—take hold of eternal life!” (Rom 1:16-17). The good news is that man may have certainty about forgiveness of personal sin and about eternal life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (Jn 3:36; 5:24, 25; Jn 10:27-29).
2. God desires you to be saved; He even commands you to come to Him and be forgiven; be reconciled to Him based on what He has done in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:19-21). There is no need to remain an enemy estranged from Him—He has promised to receive all those who come to Him by faith in His Son (Jn 1:12, 13; Acts 17:30-31).

3. Christ is calling sinners to repentance and faith. The twin graces of faith and repentance are present in the regenerate person; they enable the sinner to flee to Christ, taking hold of Him as Savior (Phil 1:29; Eph 2:8-10).

II. Learn to use God’s moral law in evangelism.

Modern evangelism offers a false diagnosis of the sinner’s dilemma. Without a correct diagnosis, men will resent and resist the gospel. Apart from the Spirit’s use of the Law, people hide from the exposure and judgment of their sin (Jn 3:19-21). By God’s Law sinners come to understand that God is Moral Governor of the universe.

A. Can man understand the gospel without grasping the economy of Law?

1. The Law now has both a precept role, the commandments of God, and an evangelical role. Its gospel role is to make sin exceedingly sinful (Rom 5:20; 7:7). We are to therefore preach the law “killingly” to the end that the sinner loses all hope of contributing to his own salvation. There is the danger of “short-cutting” the gospel by offering free grace, before the conscience was afflicted by the Law.ⁱⁱ

2. The moral law is an unchanging expression of the holy majesty of God’s Person. Since God’s moral government is founded upon His Law, the principle of moral cause and effect reveals God’s righteous character. The moral Law, which is ‘God’s character in a moral code’ is built into the very fabric of the universe and creation.ⁱⁱⁱ
3. Under the new covenant, the evangelical role of the Law in eliminating self-righteousness is summarized in Galatians chapters two and three. The moral law can be likened to a “bulldozer” that removes human merit from the earth. Thus, the Law prepares the sinner for the gospel (Rom 10:4). The Galatians passages systematically refute self-righteousness and human merit: (Gal 2:15-21; 3:10-14; 3:23-29; 4:8-10; 5:1-9).

B. What is the use of the Law in apologetics and evangelism?

1. There are four aspects related to God’s Moral Majesty which must be grasped before the gospel can be understood: a.) the existence of God’s Law, b.) man’s sin against God’s Law, c.) the guilt of sin incurred by breaking God’s Law, d.) the eternal wrath of God poured out in judgment against sin.ⁱᵛ
2. The Holy Spirit utilizes the preaching of the Law to produce a state of conviction of sin (Jn 16:8-11). Under conviction the awakened sinner recognizes the guilt of his sin and the authority of the moral government of God—he comes to understand the hopelessness of reforming himself in order to work his way out of condemnation.ᵛ Read John 16:8-11.

C. A suggested procedure for using the Law in evangelism.

1. Establish the very concept of moral law. Our culture separates the Person of God from moral law. But, when ethics are “orphaned” from the Person of God, they are easily debauched.ᵛⁱ We see vices legislated as if they are virtues: homosexual partnerships become accepted as marriage, abortion is accepted as reproductive care, and transgenderism as personal expression (see Isaiah 5:20, calling good ‘evil’ and evil ‘good’).
2. Establish that God’s moral law is a direct reflection of God’s unchanging moral character. It is impossible to love God without submitting to, and valuing His commands as the expression of His righteousness (Deut 30:19-20). Only the man or woman who “imitates God” in righteousness will enter the Kingdom of heaven (Eph 5:1-6). God’s standard never evolves because the Lawgiver never changes.ᵛⁱⁱ

3. Establish the existence of God’s moral government. Moral cause and effect are administrated by God (Deut 10, 11, 13, 27, 28). By obedience to God’s commands believers manifest that they are God’s possession and are willingly subject to His moral government. Paul preached the gospel against the backdrop of the coming universal judgment by God’s moral government (Acts 17:30, 31; 24:15, 16; Rom 2:16).

D. Questions promoting the recognition of God’s moral government.

1. Upon what basis can we know right from wrong? By cultural norms and standards, or by God’s laws? 2. Is right from wrong based upon the constant standard which flows from the holy character of the one, true, and righteous God? 3. Has God revealed His standard of right and wrong in the Ten Commandments found in the Holy Bible? Is God’s standard absolute, universal, and unchanging? 4. Does God rule over His moral creatures by means of his righteous laws found in the Ten Commandments? 5. Does God’s righteous character require that He thoroughly punish all evil? Will God someday judge every person by this righteous standard of His commandments? Does He have a record of people’s sins?

E. The Word states that the human condition is made known by God’s Law.

1. Romans 1:18-32 is God’s indictment upon man as a creature in sin. Paul is describing God’s attitude toward His creatures that find themselves in sin and outside of Christ. Creation by God’s hand demands conformity to God’s law. The sins listed in Romans one are violations of the Ten Commandments.ᵛⁱⁱⁱ
2. Man is responsible to God for his conduct and is held to a standard of conduct even if he has never read or heard of the Bible. God’s testimony in creation and conscience means that man has an innate knowledge of God’s attributes (Rom 1:20), an innate knowledge of God’s Person (Rom 1:21), an innate knowledge of God’s law (Rom 1:32; 2:14-15), and an innate knowledge of God’s judgment (Rom 1:32).ⁱˣ

F. The conscience of man must be reached before the sinner is ready to abandon his cherished intellectual fallacies and his false hope.

1. Arguments against Biblical theism come from the unbeliever’s fallen intellect. The ungodly mind is like a brick wall. It has been built to keep God out.ˣ It is at enmity against Him (Col 1:21). It refuses to bow to the Law of God, “because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7).
2. The unregenerate human mind spins off arguments and attacks against God. The carnal mind is the place of battles against God; it is a place of great opposition against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:5). The wall of antagonism is hard and immovable, so make it a habit of going around it. Learn to speak directly to the conscience.ˣⁱ

3. The conscience is the part of human nature that isn’t an enemy of God. The conscience is God’s ally and speaks for the law of God. It bears witness (Rom 2:15). As God’s witness it points out the guilty party in the courtroom. Bring out our star witness of conscience and give it a voice. The law stops the mouth of the criminal (Rom 3:19; 1 Tim 1:7-11). It condemns the guilty and drives him to give up his defense, so that he will be forced to look solely to the Judge for mercy.ˣⁱⁱ

III. Preaching the Law of God and preaching repentance toward God is joined to the Holy Spirit’s preparation of the sinner.

A. Only the person prepared by the Spirit goes to war against his own sin.

1. The sinner prepared by the Holy Spirit takes God’s side against himself. To be brought to repentance, a man must be taken beyond the fear of punishment to hatred of sin and love of Christ. Repentance begins with sobering thoughts of eternity then proceeds to conscience-crushing contemplation of personal sin laid bare in the sight of God.ˣⁱⁱⁱ
2. The sinner will come willingly if the Spirit of God has prepared him by crushing his conscience over sin and by bringing him to the end of self. Unbelievers stop short of saving faith and repentance when they place their trust in their efforts of personal reformation and improvement. Therefore, it is the Spirit’s convicting role to bring the sinner to utter bankruptcy of soul—despairing of all self-help.

3. True turning from sin has a desperateness about it. The prepared sinner longs for forgiveness and deliverance from sin. The cost of discipleship lived out under the lordship of Christ appeals only to the person desperate to be delivered from sin. The prepared person will pay any cost and part with anything in order to have Christ and deliverance.ˣⁱᵛ
4. The man or woman who is genuinely converted never outgrows amazement at divine forgiveness. The mind and affections are now a servant and instrument of God’s Word and grace. He continues to glorify God for His grace as considers what he deserves outside of Christ (Eph 2:1-16). This is why we preach the Law; it is the beginning of understanding our legal guilt before God, it prepares the sinner to appeal to the throne of grace for mercy.

B. God’s law is His means of “X-raying” the human heart.

C. The gospel produces conviction of sin, the condition for the new birth.

1. Without exposing the human condition so that conscience is afflicted, people have little idea what they are to be saved from. The modern gospel tends to emphasize the benefits of salvation rather than the character of God and the sinner’s condition.ˣᵛ
2. When Christ preached the gospel, He removed all middle ground. He eliminated all gray areas. He emphatically stated that there is no territory between truth and lies, between heaven and hell. Christ’s words made a clear division between men. If a person is not following Christ with all his heart, seeking to build His Kingdom, and gathering souls, then according to Christ, that person is scattering, and is “against Me” (Luke 11:23).

3. Christ and the Apostles preached the Law of God, original sin, the need of repentance, and the need for a new nature. When the gospel is preached biblically, the soil of the heart will be “plowed up” prepared to receive the good seed (Matt 13:1-23).

Questions for review:

1. What does God say about the consequences of sin? (sect. one, part C, 3). God is just and fair to shut impenitent sinners out of the enjoyment of His glory (Mt 10:28). Sinners who reject God’s authority, who do not fear God or believe God are liable to death and judgment (Mt 12:36). They will experience God’s just verdict, the separation of their souls from God forever in eternal punishment (Rom 6:23).

2. What is the sinner to be saved from? (sect. one, part D, 1-3). Sinners need to be saved not only from the consequences of sin (death and separation from God in hell); but also from the power of sin itself (turning from sin is true repentance) (Lu 13:5; 24:47). The wrath God comes justly upon all who do not believe the gospel and repent of sin (Rom 2:1-10).
3. What is the value of preaching the law of God ‘killingly’? (sect. two, part. A, 1). The law’s gospel role is to make sin exceedingly sinful (Rom 5:20; 7:7). We are to therefore preach the law “killingly” to the end that the sinner loses all hope of contributing to his own salvation. Without the law ‘killing’ one’s hopes of personal merit, the sinner will retain his imagined self-righteousness.

4. What does it mean that the Spirit produces ‘conscience-crushing’ conviction over personal sin? (See sect 3, part. A, 1-2). The sinner prepared by the Spirit takes God’s side against himself. To be brought to true repentance, he must be taken beyond the fear of punishment to hatred of sin and love of Christ. Repentance begins with sobering thoughts of eternity then proceeds to conscience-crushing contemplation of personal sin. The sinner will come willingly if the Spirit of God has prepared him by crushing his conscience over sin. The Spirit brings the sinner to bankruptcy of soul and despair of all self-help.

End Notes:

i Joseph Lo Sardo, “Errors in Modern Evangelism,” www.sermonaudio.com, 5/7/06
ii Robert Bolton, Afflicted Consciences, p. 175
iii C. H. Dodd, Gospel and Law, pp. 70, 71, 79
iv Ernest Kevan, The Grace of Law, pp. 91, 92
v Ibid.
vi John O. Anderson, Cry of the Innocents, p. 135
vii Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., “Do Laws and Standards Evolve?” Impact #303, Institute for Creation
Research, 1998
viii Richard C. Barcellos, The Ten Commandments, p. 19
ix Ibid.
x Ray Comfort, Avoiding the Wall of Antagonism
xi Ibid.
xii Ray Comfort, Conversions True and False
xiii John MacArthur, Exposition of Luke 3:1-18
xiv Ibid.
xv Jim Elliff, The New Gospel: Appealing but not Revealing, p. 3