© Copyright October 21, 2002 by Bernie L. Gillespie All Rights Reserved.

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 Part Three

Obeying the Gospel 

        Which is right? Is faith obedience to what God commands or is it believing trust in what God has promised? Where does the idea “obey the gospel” come from in the first place? 

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17 KJV) 

        This is the verse frequently quoted by those in the UPCI who teach that faith is obedience. The phrase "obey the gospel," as used by Bernard and others, is taken from this verse. They say we must “obey the gospel” and they are correct if this phrase is properly interpreted. Unfortunately, I don’t believe they correctly understand it. These questions arise: “Does 1 Peter 4:17 teach that obeying the gospel is obeying Acts 2:38?” Along with that, “Does it even teach that we obey the gospel in the sense of following certain commands in order to ‘apply’ salvation?” I believe the answer to both of these questions is “No!” 

        The word "obey" in English derives from a root word which means "to listen" or "to hear.”¹ Obey in the old English meant to hear something and accept it as true. But, the usage of obey in the UPCI interpretation renders “obey” arbitrarily in only one narrow sense. They use it to mean to comply with a set of commands through a set of physical/spiritual acts. That is not what is intended by the Greek word translated “obey not.” Nor is it the general sense intended by the context where it is found in Scripture. The word behind the English words translated “obey not” is the Greek word apeitheÇ. Some of the most respected Greek dictionaries give these meanings of the word apeitheÇ: 

avpeiqe,w 1aor. hvpei,qhsa (1) of relation to God disobey, be disobedient (RO 11.30); (2) of the most severe form of disobedience, in relation to the Gospel message disbelieve, refuse to believe, be an unbeliever (AC 14.2).² 

avpeiqe,w disobey; be an unbeliever.³  

avpeiqe,w  (a) disobey 36.23 (b) reject belief 31.107; 31.107  avpeiqe,w ; avpei,qeia, aj f: to refuse to believe the Christian message - 'to refuse to be a believer, to reject the Christian message, to refuse to believe.' avpeiqe,w: oi` de. avpeiqh,santej VIoudai/oi evph,geiran 'but the Jews who would not believe stirred up (the Gentiles)' Acts 14.2. avpei,qeia: tou/ pneu,matoj tou/ nu/n evnergou/ntoj evn toi/j ui`oi/j th/j avpeiqei,aj 'the spirit that works in those who refuse to believe' Eph 2.2. It is also possible to interpret avpei,qeia in Eph 2.2 as overt disobedience to God (see 36.23).⁴ 

        Notice how these definitions focus on the idea of refusing to believe. Further support for defining apeitheÇ as disbelief can be seen in various places in Scripture where it is translated “believe:” 

        The phrase “obey the gospel” is rare in the English Bible. The UPCI interpretation takes this unique phrase and hangs its whole doctrine of salvation by obedience on it. But, upon closer study, we see that even this verse fails to support the rigid translation of the UPCI. The intent of Peter is that there is no hope for those who do not believe the gospel. There is no possible way to show that he intends by this verse to undo all the rest of the teaching of the New Testament and advocate that salvation comes by obeying specific steps (such as Acts 2:38). Such an interpretation would not come from the text, but would have to be read into it. Peter intends that one maintains hope by not falling from belief in the Gospel. 

        Another verse that is used often in the UPCI to equate faith with obedience is Acts 5:32: 

And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. (Acts 5:32 KJV) 

        The UPCI teaches that God gives the Holy Spirit, which they equate with Spirit-baptism, to those who “obey God.” They use this verse to buttress their teaching of “obeying” their version of Acts 2:38. Those who obey Acts 2:38, as they teach it, and meet their conditions for seeking the Spirit, are those deserving of the gift of the Spirit. Or, at least they can be assured of receiving it on the basis of such obedience: 

It is faith in the Word of God, upon hearing the Good News of repentance and forgiveness, that starts a man on his road towards God and away from his heavy burdens. It is faith that keeps us on the road, as we experience water baptism for the remission of sins, the infilling of the Holy Ghost, and an ever-growing relationship with Christ.⁵ 

Without repentance it is impossible for a sinner to believe, and also without obedience it is impossible for a man to believe. Repentance, obedience, and saving faith go hand in hand. They cannot be separated if the sinner is going to receive justification.⁶ 

        This interpretation is another case of taking a passage out of context. This verse has nothing to do with meeting the conditions for Spirit-baptism. It is directly related to Peter’s statement in verse 29, “We must obey God rather than men.” Peter and other disciples were commanded to cease preaching Jesus Christ. Peter said they could not because preaching the Gospel was the command of God. They chose rather to give witness to Jesus as Savior and Messiah, as the Spirit aided, than to obey the rulers’ command. As they obeyed God in preaching the Gospel, God equipped them to preach by the empowering of the Spirit. If any kind of formulae could be made of verse 32 it would not be obedience to Acts 2:38, nor obedience to the conditions for receiving the Spirit. It would be that God empowers with His Spirit those who obey His command to preach the Gospel. 

        In essence, we can say that to disbelieve the gospel is just the same as disobeying God, because God calls everyone to believe the good news (Isaiah 53). If we do not believe the good news, we are disobeying God. It is only a vivid imagination that can stretch the above verses to mean all must obey the UPCI interpretation of Acts 2:38 in order to be saved. 

Redefining the Gospel 

        In order to link this demand for “obedience” to Acts 2:38 the UPCI tries first to establish that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus must be reenacted.⁷ They say that one must actively identify with Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection through the enactment of repentance (death), water baptism (burial) and receiving the Holy Spirit (resurrection). The idea that Acts 2:38 is our death, burial and resurrection, implies that the plan of salvation consists of some form of our reenacting the work of Christ, rather than our unvarnished trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, which is distinct from all active identification. It is said that one “obeys the Gospel” by obeying Acts 2:38 because one repeats in one’s own life the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus through repentance, water baptism and Spirit baptism:  

Obedience to the gospel is absolutely essential to salvation. It is impossible for a man to be saved unless he obeys the truth. . . . Just as disobedience ends with judgment and death, so obedience to the gospel results in eternal life. . . . It is impossible to be in Christ unless we are willing to be obedient to the gospel. There is only one gospel which will save a soul. There is only one way which was provided at Calvary. There is the clear choice of either accepting and obeying this one message of truth, or continuing on down the broad road to a lost eternity. There is no neutral ground. There is no way to have peace with God except by surrendering, and submitting our wills to His and obeying.⁸ 

        Here faith is redefined as obedience, and in particular, obedience to Acts 2:38. Certainly, I do not assert that the UPCI teaches that Jesus dies, is buried, and is resurrected every time Acts 2:38 is followed. That would be foolish. They would say that Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection are finished and past events. However, the UPCI does not believe that it is sufficient to merely trust in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection for one’s acceptance before God. They say that, although Jesus made salvation available, we must still appropriate or apply (these words are red flags) it through obedience to Acts 2:38. This makes what a person does in following Acts 2:38 just as necessary for salvation as what Jesus did. 

        This teaching is defined by Scripture and historically as legalism. C. J. Mahaney cogently states: “Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God.”⁹ The fundamental problem with the UPCI teaching of salvation-by-obedience-to-Acts 2:38 is that it is based on a flawed view of God’s grace. It does not properly define grace as the work of salvation performed in and by Jesus Christ on our behalf. Rather, for the UPCI, it is the grace accessed or obtained by Christ on the Cross, which then must be applied to us and in us with our cooperative obedience.¹⁰

        They also do not  discern the Scriptural distinction between justifying grace and sanctifying grace.¹¹ The former is God’s unmerited favor in providing for our saving, right-standing before God through the work of Jesus. The latter is not for our salvation, but for our further growth and service in the likeness of Christ. The great temptation of legalism is to slip (consciously or unconsciously) sanctification into justification. This is the Roman Catholic error, and it is the error of the legalist: 

Our greatest temptation and mistake is to try to smuggle character into God’s work of grace.¹² 

        What is the danger of this legalism? It leads to a distorted and failed view of salvation. People are led to trust to a greater or lesser degree in their own obedience right along with the obedience of Christ. This is a very serious error and it is a corruption of the Gospel. But, a greater danger than this is that legalism leads people to give some glory to themselves, when all glory should go to God alone: 

. . . legalism has its origin in self-worship. If people are justified through their obedience to the law, then they merit praise, honor, and glory. Legalism, in other words, means the glory goes to people rather than God.¹³ 

         We are not saved by obeying a message about Christ, or about what we must do. The Gospel – which is good news – is that we are saved by Christ – period! All of us by all of Christ. Nothing that we do can enter into His perfect and final work. The doctrine of “faith alone” does not allow our obedience into the sufficiency of Christ. Christ is the only one necessary and sufficient for our salvation. This is the focus of true faith. 

        However, obedience to the UPCI reading of Acts 2:38 is a reenactment of Christ’s work because the steps of Acts 2:38 are considered part of the saving work of Jesus in us.¹⁴ Is this biblically sound? Many, including this writer, would say not: 

The church in every age is in danger of confusing the ‘gospel’ of reenactment with the gospel of rehearsal.¹⁵ 

        Reenactment¹⁶ is impossible because Jesus died once to sin. He rose only once. He is the ultimate, complete and final act of God’s salvation: 

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:26-28 KJV) 

        We do not repeat or reenact Jesus’ death, burial or resurrection. We do identify with the death, burial and resurrection. We do that by faith alone. That faith is not mixed with our obedience. It is also not pointed to Acts 2:38. It is pointed at the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We rehearse the Gospel, but not to obtain salvation. It is because we believe we already have salvation through Jesus death, burial and resurrection. We, on an individual level, simply confess and rehearse the work of Christ. We rehearse it in water baptism. We rehearse it in the Lord’s Supper. We rehearse it in the preaching of the Gospel every week. We rehearse it in worship by exalting the work of Christ rather than focusing on our own actions or experiences. We rehearse it in living lives dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ. In repentance we turn from what we could not do, to accept and claim what God has done for us. Water baptism is not an application of the death of Jesus in order to obtain salvation. It is a recital which shows forth the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord as the only thing effective for our salvation. It was done for us two thousand years ago. We cannot distort or pervert holy baptism by making it a way of qualifying people for salvation. Water baptism is the telling of the Gospel of Jesus in visual language, not the means of obtaining salvation. Our salvation was already obtained by Jesus on the Cross long ago. This same Jesus shall return for those “that look for him . . .”, and for Him alone.