The Independent Gospel

"What is this chlorophyll in my milkshake, Mom?"

This is exactly (or approximately, at least) what a child would say if he or she were handed a chocolate milkshake into which a floret of broccoli had been blended.  It would not go unnoticed and it would not be appreciated.  This, however, is how many churches and individuals treat the gospel.  To such as these, the gospel may not be pleasant, but it is good for a person - much like a plate of lima beans.  It needs some sugar to sweeten its allure.  And so these peddlers of false hope couch the precious gospel of Christ amidst enticements calculated to bedazzle even the most worldly of sinners.

To pronounce this tragedy as devastating is understating the case.  The gospel is looked upon almost as a necessary evil, or else it is dispensed with altogether.  Such treatment for the dearest treasure to ever grace our sin-worn world!  How do we treat this gospel, the only avenue to eternal life we will ever see?  It is enough to make a grown man weep, to consider how pastors or music groups or fellow believers tiptoe around the gospel and mention it so guardedly that it becomes almost the Christian version of an inside joke - without the humor. 

May these words of Paul, long esteemed by the church he helped to found, serve either to encourage or to convict us in this matter:  "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Rom. 1:16) These words resonate with a tireless and burning spiritual potency, and they should clamorously issue from our own hearts with an unrivalled earnestness and faithfulness such that we daily thrust our very lives into the hands of our sovereign Lord, to use always and only as He sees fit!  No matter how beleaguered we may grow, these words hold faithful and true in all things.  If nothing else, be encouraged in reading this.

A few brief considerations on this verse:

1.  The gospel is God's power unto salvation, not ours.  This is not a scepter we can pry from His omnipotent fingers.  The Lord calls us to give His gospel to an unbelieving world, and as we do so, we can and should command all the tact, wisdom, gentleness, and love which we can muster, but this never extends to altering the gospel itself to force a result within someone.  We proclaim it in fullness and God in turn unleashes the power of salvation according to His own inscrutable will.  We must know both our place and His in this work.

2.  It is the power of God unto salvation only for those who believe.  Here is how God has determined where the power of salvation will go.  Belief (also translated as "faith" in the Greek) itself is a heavenly gift, imparted by God alone so that any boasting on our parts is an utter lie (Eph. 2:8-9 - what believer does not know these verses?).  Without this gift of belief, the gospel will not come in power, and would not be received, even if it were. 

There are no handholds, loopholes, or back doors that allow for human interference here.  God grants belief.  He opens the heart of the sinner to feel the offense of sin before God, and then convinces this sinner of the reality of Christ's saving work until the sinner can do nothing but cry out for salvation.  God then sends the power of His salvation.  These acts cannot be duplicated by mere humans - can we enliven a dead heart to turn inexplicably toward the God it has always despised (Rom. 3:10-12)?  Can we explain things to a heart that only the Spirit of God can disclose (1 Cor. 2:10-14)?  So it is less than worthless - it is downright dangerous - to expect people to be saved by a weak or false gospel, and it is fully blasphemous to suppose that God might honor belief in such an abomination. 

3.  There need be no shame in the gospel.  It is a simple thing to regard the rich and full gospel as something that can only bring confusion and rejection to an unbeliever, and ridicule upon the believer.  This is how we allow ourselves to be ashamed of the gospel.  Paul Himself wrote that "the word of the cross is foolishenss to those who are perishing" (1 Cor. 1:18), but this fact did not compel him toward shame, exactly because this gospel which the world regards as foolish is God's unfailing power unto salvation!  It does its work precisely as God intends it to - for those whom He enlivens, it turns from complete foolishness to precious, live-giving, unfailing hope!  What shame could there be in so perfect a work from so perfect a God?  Far from prompting a debilitating, dishonoring shame, the reality of God's gospel should spur us toward greater service of Him in seeking the spread of His kingdom of glory!


There is no place for a weak, vague gospel in which God's avowed power is replaced for a wholly inadequate, ineffectual human substitute.  This is, to be honest, the best possible news for His children, as we do not have to bear the burden of being the unbeliever's only hope.  We passionately proclaim the message in love and faithfulness, and our God works through that as He desires.  We have our simple, happy, loving work, and God has His glorious, effectual, sovereign work. 

Christ Upholds the Reality of Human Responsibility

"What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy."
                                                      - Romans 9:14-16

We believe these words, and many others like them, because they are contained in God's book.  The dispensation of mercy comes from God's hands in accordance with His own sovereign choices, not in accordance with our actions.  This axiomatic - mercy, by definition, is not earned.  However, this truth has been met with more than its fair share of criticism, of course, as it asserts that the choice of salvation resides with God, not with the person. 

The natural conclusion of this is the question of how then God can condemn people to hell, if their salvation is His choice?  Paul addresses this in Romans 9:20-21:  "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?' On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it?"  In other words, we are to acknowledge, without fully understanding, that God can choose to graciously save, and then condemn those whom He has passed over in the same moment, and there is surely no injustice in His so doing. 

We can accept this, but if we are honest with ourselves, it seems at times difficult to content ourselves with a concept so removed from our understanding.  We cannot help but wonder how this idea can stand up.  Fortunately, we may look to the words of Christ for two points of real and true comfort:

1.  Legitimacy.  "When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.'" (Luke 19:41-42) Here our Savior weeps and laments for the unsaved in Jerusalem.  If we sometimes struggle with feeling as though human responsibility in salvation is a merely ornamental element, we are comforted that the omniscient Christ never for a moment succumbed to this sentiment.  This was not forced emotion or sentiment for the sake of those around Him - there is no duplicity in the countenance of the Savior.

How precious and true are the tears of the Lord Jesus!  Do we give the due consequence to the lamentations of One who is beyond any form of dissembly, who understands as none of us can the utter sovereignty which is in His own very hands?  His tears fall neither lightly or inappropriately; rather, they come laden with a full understanding both of human nature and of divine nature.  If indeed the Lord Jesus can shed tears over the unfaithfulness of the unsaved, then we may rest assured that He at least considers their disbelieving choices to be of a very real substance.  Note that this lamentation is made even while sovereignly declaring that these unbelievers will not be allowed to see "the things which make for peace."

2.  Rationale.  "Then He said again to them, 'I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.'" (John 8:21) A glimmer of understanding lies within these words.  Jesus declares that the unbelieving Pharisees will die in their sins; that is, that their sins will remain upon their own heads when they die.  And so it would be for all of us, were it not for God's intervening grace.  We are each of us born in under the dark pall of sin; in condemning us, our divine Judge merely dispenses exactly what is deserved.  If He chooses to save us, He gives us what we do not deserve, but this does not affect the deservedness and personal culpability of those whom He passes over.  Human nature condemns, while divine grace saves.  Thus God is glorified for saving His people, while at the same time showing Himself to be utterly just in His righteous condemnation.  This raises other questions that are difficult, but at the least, it serves to give us a glimpse of God's justice in terms that we may appreciate.