Faith Essential Pt 6

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Part Six

Acts 2:38 Is Not the Gospel

Acts 2:38 is not the Gospel.¹ It is the Word of God. It is true. It holds both the promise and an apostolic call to respond to and affirm the Gospel. But it is not the Gospel itself. And neither, logically, is it the “full Gospel”. There are not two Gospels. There is only one:

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8 KJV)

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9 KJV)

The Gospel or Good News is solely the report of the historic doing and dying of Jesus. What Jesus did for our redemption was factual. They were events. They took place before we were born. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” They happened outside of our existence. “Jesus died for our sins” - that is a historical reality which took place in a specific time and place in history. “He was buried” - occurred in a literal place, in a specific tomb. “He rose again the third day” - a fact of history, taking place on a specific day: “the first day of the week.” It happened. There were many witnesses. The Good News is that these events took place. Because what Jesus did in these events and how God looks at these events, determines the reality of our salvation.

The Christian faith consist of trusting in what Jesus did – outside of us – and not trusting in what is going on inside of us. Not only is it wrong to trust in our acts of obedience for salvation; it is wrong to trust in our experience for salvation and its assurance. Our faith consists of looking away from ourselves to the old rugged Cross of Jesus. As Luther was famous for saying, “The Gospel is entirely outside of you.” This is clearly stated by C. J. Mahaney:

The Gospel is objective. The purpose of the proclamation of the Gospel is to proclaim saving events, not to prescribe a pattern of conduct. The Gospel is a saving event. Here’s Paul summation of that saving event: “Christ died for our sins.” That’s the Gospel. It is a saving event. It is a decisive event. It is an historic event.²

The rest of this chapter can be purchased in the book Faith is the Essential Response to Acts 2:38