There are two opposite mistakes that are commonly made concerning the gospel message:
(a) Many assume that it is the same message they have heard all their lives in church and revivals. Almost everybody believes it and nobody except atheists or Communists seriously opposes it. Ho-hum. A renewed interest in the gospel message is like re-inventing the wheel. Why the excitement?
(b) The opposite error is to assume that because the gospel is different, it must be a difficult, complex theological puzzle that few can unravel.
Both ideas are wrong. A little thought can readily show why.
(a) Revelation pictures "the everlasting gospel" going "to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people . . . with a loud voice," and triumphing in a final movement that has "great authority" and illuminates "the earth" with "glory" (Revelation 14:6-12; 18:1-4). Of the five billion people on the planet, 3.5 billion are not Christians at all, and of those who claim to be, only a small percentage seem to demonstrate the fruit of the gospel—changed lives. Many who profess to be Christians assume that their righteousness by faith "doctrine" is the same as that taught in the Bible. But Revelation also reveals Christ as telling His church in our day that they are "poor" when they imagine themselves to be "rich." (Revelation 3:14-17)
If we were indeed "rich" in our understanding of the gospel, wouldn't the world have heard its message by now? Paul says that "the gospel... is the power of God to salvation." It once turned the "world upside down" when it was proclaimed in its purity. (Romans 1:16; Acts 17:6)
This chapter is to demonstrate also that (b) cannot be true. The message is simple; even a child can understand it. The only difficulty is that our deep human pride must be laid aside. Genuine righteousness by faith always lays the glory of man in the dust, including the glory that teachers and preachers find so tempting.
The history of God's dealings with His people proves that He "has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.... And the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)
A child can see and understand the clear difference between genuine righteousness by faith and its clever counterfeits; the wise in their own eyes cannot. It is only those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness [by faith]" that can be filled. (Matthew 5:6)
The Basic Difference Is Motivation
There are three motives that are generally employed to lead people to become Christians:
(a) The desire to secure a reward in heaven. All of us naturally want a place there. This motive is not evil, but neither is it effective, because it is not lasting. Satan can find a way to make us forget that ambition. If hope of reward is the reason why we are serving Christ, the deceiver will invent a temptation that eventually over-rides that desire. He knows that we have a price and he will keep bidding until he gets us to cave in. We will sell out for some self-centered motivation, perhaps terror-inspired, preferring a bird in the hand of supposed carnal security to two in the bush of God's promises.
(b) The fear of being lost in hell. This is the other side of the same coin. It is natural also for us to feel this. "Through fear of death" we are "all [our] lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15). This motive is also not evil, but neither can it produce a truly unselfish character. It too will fail under strong, alluring temptation. Knowing that we have an ultimate "price," Satan can present a temptation so rooted in a more immediate fear that it will cancel out the future fear of being lost.
This will at last be the terrible "mark of the beast" test. (See Revelation 13:11-18; 14:9,10). There is a danger that multitudes of superficial Christians will succumb unless they get spiritual help. This is the reason for the special message of the "third angel" of Revelation 14.
(c) The desire for personal benefits here and now. This also is natural and understandable. And if the presentation is skillful, "selling God" like clever salesmen who supply the customers' needs can produce evangelistic results that appear good for here and now. But again, this motivation can produce nothing more in devotion than we see in contemporary popular religion. Even if we baptize a billion more people with this motivation, we will not hasten the coming of the Lord because it cannot prepare a people for His return.
The Source of Lukewarm Devotion
It is these motives that produce for now a "Laodicean" lukewarmness of devotion, and in the end will motivate us to sell out to our very clever enemy when he invents his final temptation. This final judgment will be severe, when multitudes who have heretofore appeared to be genuine grain prove to be chaff blown away by the wind. (Cf. Jeremiah 23:28; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15)
Evangelists can be salespersons whose technique is borrowed from popular business methods: develop in your prospect a sense of need and then convince him that he must buy your product in order to satisfy that need; show him how your product will satisfy his self-centered concern. In defense of this motivation, it can be said that it has often been employed in the past, even in Bible times. But that does not mean that it will prepare a people for Christ's return.
Can we not see what happens? The center of concern always remains self, that troublesome ego. Subsequent appeals to look from self to Jesus become vain words. "Looking to Jesus" always remains tied to this radius of ego-concern and insecurity. Thus the deep root of fear is not cast out; it is only buried deeper.
In contrast, the motive to which the New Testament gospel appeals is a cross-inspired faith. It is a "more excellent way." Paul tells the Galatians that in his preaching "Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified." Their response was phenomenal. As they listened, their ears were turned into eyes and they appreciated the significance of the Son of God dying for them. This was "the hearing of faith" (1 Corinthians 2:1-4; Galatians 3:1-5). Paul had learned a bitter lesson in his near-failure ministry in Athens. When he came to Corinth, he "determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
The apostles began with a presentation of God's deed in the sacrifice of the cross, and not with man's need of personal security. Thus they could by-pass the usual ego-centered motivations of the human heart and appeal directly to the latent sense of wonder and awe and heart-appreciation that God's fantastic love can arouse in human hearts. A capacity for responding is built into every one of us, for "God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." (Romans 12:3)
That "measure" (metron, Greek) may be illustrated by my Honda. I bought a plain-Jane model and installed the radio myself. Although the radio was not standard equipment, I was pleased to find that the Honda people had built into the car a metron or capability for receiving the radio. There was an aperture provided for its installation, even holes prepared for the speakers, with wires included. No human being is born with divine love already built in—it must be imported and "installed." But God has built into us the capacity for our learning to appreciate it, so we can receive it.
The sowing of such "hearing-of-faith" seed produced early Christians who were not lukewarm. Many sacrificed their all for Him who sacrificed His all for them, singing hymns as they went to martyrdom in the arenas. The true gospel message recovers that Christ-centered motivation. It clearly differentiates between being "under the law" and "under grace." (Romans 6:14,15)
"Under the Law" Vs. "Under Grace"
The usual understanding of "under the law" is "under the condemnation of the law." Although this is true, it is only partly so. When Christ died, He "tasted death for every man," paying the penalty of every man's sin. (Hebrews 2:9). In a legal sense therefore He has already taken the condemnation of the law that was due to us. Thus this popular view of "under the law" is reduced to a meaningless phrase. To understand the meaning of being "under the law" we must discover the meaning of its opposite—being "under grace."
If someone risked his life to save you from death, and you understood how horrible that would have been and how much he risked for you, you would ever afterward feel under obligation to him, a gratitude that would motivate you to do anything you could for him. You would not think of asking him for a reward; you would want to give him one.
To be "under grace" is to be under a new motivation imposed by a "thank You" appreciation of Christ's love for us. "Henceforth" we cannot stop to count the cost of sacrificing for Him, nor can we ask questions about how much or how little He expects of us, or what's the least we can sacrifice in order to get our reward.
Our childish questions whether this or that is a "sin that will keep us out of heaven" shrivel up into the pettiness that they are. We forget our striving for reward, for "stars in my crown," and our concern is to help crown Him "King of kings and Lord of lords."
Such was the motivation that appealed to the early Christians. "Did the Son of God give Himself for me, dying like a criminal on a Roman cross, tasting my second death of forsakenness by God? Oh, I must henceforth live for Him!" The result: a beautiful, unmeasured devotion completely devoid of egocentric legalism. (Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14,15; 11:23-30)
To be "under the law" is the simple opposite: to be under a sense of I-ought-to-do-this, or I-should-be-more-faithful, or I-should-sacrifice-more, or I-should-stop-this-bad-habit, or I-should-read-my-Bible-more-and- pray-more, or I-should-wit-ness-more, etc. The rock-bottom motivation is always a fear of being lost or a hope of reward in heaven, or a search for greater security here and now.
Thus the "under-the-law" motive for healthful living degenerates to a search for longer, happier life for our pleasure here and now rather than to have clearer minds and more healthful bodies with which to serve the One who died for us.
Suppose I meet an alluring temptation to commit adultery. If I say no because of fear of herpes or AIDS, or fear lest the pastor or church board or my friends hear of it, or that my wife will learn of it—I have done the right deed for the wrong reason. This would be an "under-the-law" motivation.
But if I say no as Joseph did in Egypt—"How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"—because I can't stand the idea of bringing shame and disgrace on Christ, to add to His pain, I am constrained by a new motivation; I am "under grace."
The Simplicity of Justification by Faith
Is justification by faith only a legal pronouncement that God makes, millions of light years away from us? Does it have no relation to our human hearts? When we make the decision to "accept Christ," do we start the heavenly machinery rolling? Is it then that our name is entered in God's heavenly computer and our eternal social security benefits credited to our account? If so, it would follow that it is our decision which has initiated this process of legal acquittal. An element of pride can enter here; we initiated the process which made our salvation effective! When we get to heaven we can boast that we are there because we made the "decision for Christ."
And this is the last bastion of legalism that seems so difficult for conscientious Christians to recognize. In contrast, the New Testament teaches that the saints are saved because of Christ's decision to save them. They simply chose not to resist Him!
There can be no pride or "boasting" in true faith. Paul understood how we all share the guilt of "all the world," how "all have sinned," how all of us are involved in the sin of Adam. "All alike have sinned" (Romans 3:19, 23, NEB; 5:12). "Death spread to all men, because all sinned." No one of us is innately better than anyone else. As all lions are by nature man-eaters, so all humans are by nature at "enmity with God," and since "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" automatically, we are all "alike" by nature guilty of the crucifixion of the Son of God (Romans 8:7; 1 John 3:15). So says Paul. A modern English writer expresses this truth in a penetrating way:
Fundamentally there is only one sin—rebellion of the human will against the will of God. Insofar as my own will is rebellious, it is in tune with every act of murder, rape, or oppression committed this day in the world. My private acts of selfishness committed today, trivial though they may seem to me, nevertheless range me on the side of those whose more sensational deeds of cruelty or lust publicly advertise the rebellion of the human will. They bring me into a deep, sympathetic alliance with the murderer, the swindler, and the debauchee. I too like them am in rebellion. I too like them am serving the self; a little more cautiously and subtly perhaps; being rather more sensitive than they to the earthly cost of extravagance in such matters—but what heed does God pay to that added touch of worldly caution and subtlety? He looks down today upon a human race engaged in obedience or disobedience. There is no third alternative, no discreet maintainings of silence between the praising or blaspheming throngs. In every act we praise or we blaspheme.
But there is also good news in what Paul says that at first thought looks depressing. Just as all have sinned, he continues, so all are "being justified freely by His grace." The heavenly machinery is already working, long before you make your "decision" to serve the Lord! Since the justification is "free," it must be that everyone has to be included; otherwise it could not be free.
God Himself has taken the initiative—"God set forth [Christ] to be a propitiation by His blood,... to demonstrate ... His righteousness" (Romans 3:25). And note that it is the "blood" which accomplishes the propitiation.
A propitiation is an offering that changes someone's enmity or alienation to friendship. It doesn't make sense to say that the sacrifice of Christ propitiates the Father, because He already loved us so much that He gave Christ for us. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." It was He who "set forth" Christ on His cross, so that when He is "lifted up ... [He] will draw all men" unto Himself by the sight of that blood. (John 3:16; 12:32)
Nor does it make sense to say that the blood propitiates the devil, or buys him off. He is still our enemy. Who then is propitiated by that blood? Some say that there is a cold legalistic maneuver accomplished—the law was satisfied or that justice was propitiated. But however true this legalistic concept is, the Good News tells of something warm and heart-moving. Law or justice are abstract entities that don't have hearts that can feel. We are the ones who have hearts that can feel and need to be reconciled. We are propitiated, moved by the sight of that "blood."
When the sinner stops resisting and lets his proud human heart be melted by that cross, he is reconciled to God and that means he is changed. Now justification by faith takes place. This is the process that makes him fully obedient to the law of God. In the past, he was disobedient, and he was selfish. He still has a sinful nature, but now faith works, and he does not fulfill those selfish impulses. He crucifies them. He is no longer selfish. There is no thought of reward for himself. Formerly a slave to selfish fear and sin, now he is a slave to Christ's love, and he joins Paul in saying, "The love of Christ constrains us." This is what it means to be "under grace." He overcomes "even as" Christ overcame.
The Work That Justification by Faith Accomplishes
(a) It makes the believer to become obedient to the law of God, not by eradicating his sinful nature but by enabling him to triumph over it.
The Bible says that God justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5). It does not mean that He glosses over the sinner's faults, so that he is counted righteous while he is really wicked; but it means that he makes that man a "doer of the law" (Romans 2:23; James 4:11). When God declares an ungodly person righteous, that person becomes obedient. Not merely in an outward way so that his behavior conforms while the inner heart remains wicked. The heart is reconciled to God! This is why there can be no higher state than that of justification. It does everything that God can do for a man short of making him immortal, which is done only at the resurrection. Of course, faith and submission to God are exercised continually in order to retain righteousness—in order to remain obedient.
The word of God which speaks righteousness produces righteousness. When the sinner believes and receives that word into his heart by faith, the righteousness of God begins to bear fruit in his life. And since out of the heart are the issues of life, it follows that a new life is thus begun in him; and that life is a life of obedience to the commandments of God. Sanctification is a lifelong process of spiritual growth and maturity, but it never becomes one's "title" to heaven. That "title" remains justification by faith; the "fitness" is sanctification.
(b) Saving faith is powerful.
The usual definition of faith is "trust," a self-centered exercise of the will to take hold of an assurance of security. We trust the police because we are afraid to walk the streets without them; we trust the bank because we are afraid to hide our money; we trust the insurance company because we are afraid our house may burn down or our car get wrecked. In each instance, trust rests on an inner fear of personal loss. Is faith in Christ likewise self-centered?
Not New Testament faith. When the apostles wanted to talk about trust, they had Greek words ready to express the idea: peitho or elpizo. But they never confused faith with self-centered trust. To them faith was a human heart-appreciation of the magnificent love revealed at the cross of Christ (John 3:16; Galatians 5:6, etc). Of course, faith includes an element of trust, but it is only a piece of the pie, not the whole. There is nothing selfish about true faith!
(c) Genuine justification by faith is meaningless apart from appreciating how close Christ has come to us.
The early apostles clearly understood how Christ has taken our nature. But in the centuries that have followed, some who opposed the Good News have sought to banish Him far away from us, cutting off His genetic inheritance of our nature. The Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception seeks to remove Him from us by declaring that His mother, the Virgin Mary, was "desoli-darized" from the human race. (This will be discussed more fully in chapter 10).
Poor fallen human beings have no strength resting in their flesh to enable them to keep the law of God. And so God imputes to believers the righteousness of Christ, who was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh" so that "the righteousness of the law" might be fulfilled in their lives (Romans 8:3,4). Christ took on himself man's nature, and will impute and impart of His own righteousness to those who believe, that is, who appreciate His sacrifice. "Union with Christ" thus becomes more than a mere theological formula.
New Testament justification by faith gives hope to the hopeless, strength to the weak, life to those who are dead in sin. But does this truth inadvertently fall into the error of the Roman Catholic view which says that justification is meritorious, "making righteous"? The two views are as different as night and day. (A discussion of the contrasts will be found in the Appendix).
The everlasting gospel of Revelation 14 breaks through centuries of Catholic and Protestant fog into a clearer view of the sunlit New Testament truth.
How Good News Permeates the Message
A so-called "gospel" without Good News is a counterfeit. The burden of the apostles' message is "glad tidings" (See Acts 13:32-34). This gave people no false assurance of trusting to their personal experience. The burden of their message was how faithful God is, trusting Him. (See Romans 8:26-39, for example)
Our problem is our alienation from God due to our guilt and distorted view of His character. Troubles and disappointments arouse bad feelings. Why doesn't He do more to help us? Paul pleaded, "Be reconciled to God," believe the truth about His character, let the blood of Christ wash you clean, and let your enmity be healed and your guilt taken away (2 Corinthians 5:20). Then faith can go to work, producing mighty works of righteousness in the life.
Now it is time to "come boldly to the throne of grace," where we are sure to find grace to help in time of need, because that need is felt by our Saviour in the very time of need (See Hebrews 4:14-16). The same temptation that presses you touches Him. His wounds are ever fresh, and He ever lives to make intercession for you.
No matter how much Satan may war against us, assaulting us where the flesh is weakest, we may abide under the shadow of the Almighty, and be filled with the fullness of God's strength.
Why is it that the sun does not slip out of his place? The powerful word of the Saviour holds the sun there, and causes it to go on in its course. And that same power is to hold up the believer in Jesus.
Thus the gospel emphasis is not on what we must do in order to be saved, but on what we must believe. And what must we believe? Always, Good News.
There is special power included in forgiveness. We gain very little self-respect in being merely pardoned. If all God does for us is to pardon or excuse our sins, we still must carry the pollution deep within our souls.
But the "blood of the new covenant... is shed for many for the remission of sins." They are to be "blotted out." True forgiveness will do more than pardon us. It will "cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (Matthew 26:28; Acts 2:38; 3:19;1 John 1:9; 2:1,2). God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin.
Most people who have read the following passage have read it backwards, thereby turning the Good News into bad news:
The flesh lusts [strives] against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not [cannot, KJV] do the things that you wish. (Galatians 5:17)
It is commonly assumed that Paul says you can never really do the good things you wish you could do, even with the help of the Spirit. But note that in proper context Paul's meaning is that His power is so much stronger than that of the flesh that you cannot do the evil things that your sinful nature prompts you to do.
The previous verse makes the connection clear and teaches fantastic Good News: "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." And the following verse further emphasizes the Good News: "Moreover [Greek, de, furthermore] if you are led of the Spirit, you are not under the law."
Still Better News: A People Prepare for Christ's Coming
There is a true aspect of the gospel which has been widely opposed in recent years. The very possibility of a people overcoming all sin so that they might be ready for Christ's coming has been muted and even denied and ridiculed. It has often been denounced as the heresy of "perfectionism."
But the Bible is clear:
The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say *No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Revelation complements this "blessed hope" by describing a people who "follow the Lamb wherever He goes .... They are blameless." (Titus 2:11-14; Revelation 14:4,5, NIV)
Scripture teaches that those who look "for that blessed hope" will truly, not supposedly, "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12). This glorious result will be accomplished through righteousness by faith, not through an ego-centered works program.
Tucked away in an obscure text of the Bible is a Good News promise that cannot fail to be fulfilled: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" (Daniel 8:14, KJV). Amplified and complemented by the message of Hebrews in the New Testament, this prophecy describes the special work of the heavenly High Priest on this cosmic Day of Atonement "in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound" (Revelation 10:7, KJV; see Hebrews 8,9,10). This cleansing of the sanctuary is the work which began in 1844, at the end of that prophetic period of years.
Popular "righteousness by faith" knows nothing of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, nothing of an antitypical Day of Atonement. The idea of a special heart-preparation for the return of Christ is dimly, if at all, comprehended.
The New Testament gospel message sees a successful resolving of the great struggle of the ages between Christ and Satan. The Lord finds a people willing to cooperate fully with Him in these last days. The Good News is that Christ as heavenly High Priest cleanses His sanctuary. If s not our job to do it. Our part is to cooperate with Him, to let Him do it, and stop hindering His Holy Spirit who works continually to lead us away from selfishness and sin and to prepare a people for His soon return.