Accepting The Call Of The Gospel - Part One

Following Jesus Without Denominationalism

Accepting The Call Of The Gospel - Part One

In the last lesson I proposed the following as the way out of religious division. First, follow the example of Jesus and maintain a "non-sectarian"relationship with God. Living under the Old Covenant, He was simply an Israelite, as the Law intended. Living under the New Covenant, His disciples were simply called "Christians", and so should we! - Ac 11:26; 1 Pe 4:16. Second, to ensure that we are truly members of Christ's body, the church (i.e., His "called-out" ones), let us be sure that we have answered the call of the gospel, by which He adds us to His Church (and not some denomination begun by man) - 2 Th 2:14; Ac 2:41,47. Let us follow the example of the early church, who "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine" - Ac 2:42

An important key, then, is that we properly answer the call of the gospel. For through the gospel Christ is calling us into His church. When we accept the gospel call, by God's grace we receive salvation and the Lord adds us to His church. Unfortunately, there have always been those who have "perverted" certain elements of the gospel. In the first century, Paul wrote of those who had perverted the gospel by trying to add elements of the Old Law to it - Ga 1:8-9 "I pray that God will punish anyone who preaches anything different from our message to you! It doesn't matter if that person is one of us or an angel from heaven. I have said it before, and I will say it again. I hope God will punish anyone who preaches anything different from what you have already believed."; Ac 15:1 "Some people came from Judea and started teaching the Lord's followers that they could not be saved, unless they were circumcised as Moses had taught.", 6 "The apostles and church leaders met to discuss this problem about Gentiles." Later, others attempted to change the basis of salvation by teaching a salvation of works, rather than by grace through faith. Even today, many pervert the gospel by the manner they call upon people to respond to the gospel, leaving out the proper response as taught by Christ and His apostles. -- For this reason, it is important that we understand the gospel of Christ, and how to properly accept the call of the gospel!

There are several good ways to summarize the gospel that makes it easy to remember, and one was that suggested by Walter Scott. Not Sir Walter Scott, the British author who wrote "Ivanhoe", but a kinsman born in Scotland (1796), who came to America and proclaimed the gospel throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky. In his study of the gospel, Walter Scott summarized it as containing:

1) Facts to be believed

2) Commands to be obeyed

3) Promises to be received

Indeed, accepting the call of the gospel involves a person accepting the "facts," "commands," and "promises" contained in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

To elaborate, let's consider first of all that to accept the call of the gospel one must believe the facts of the Gospel. Fact, Jesus was crucified for our sins. The death of Jesus for our sins is a fundamental part of the gospel - 1 Co 15:1-3 "My friends, I want you to remember the message that I preached and that you believed and trusted. You will be saved by this message, if you hold firmly to it. But if you don't, your faith was all for nothing. I told you the most important part of the message exactly as it was told to me. That part is: Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures say." It was foretold by Isaiah - Isa 53:4-6 "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." (ASV). It's necessity is seen in that all are sinners, and the wages of sin is death - Ro 3:23 "All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory."; 6:23 "s28 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." But in love, God sent His son to be a propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins - 1 Jn 4:9-10 "God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. Real love isn't our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven."

Fact, Jesus was raised from the dead. Together with His death and burial, the resurrection of Christ is fundamental to the gospel - 1 Co 15:4 "He was buried, and three days later he was raised to life, as the Scriptures say." In the first gospel sermon recorded, Peter centered his message around proving that God raised Jesus from the dead - Ac 2:22-32. Without the resurrection of Christ, the gospel is meaningless - 1 Co 15:14-19 "And if Christ wasn't raised to life, our message is worthless, and so is your faith. If the dead won't be raised to life, we have told lies about God by saying that he raised Christ to life, when he really did not. So if the dead won't be raised to life, Christ wasn't raised to life. Unless Christ was raised to life, your faith is useless, and you are still living in your sins. And those people who died after putting their faith in him are completely lost. If our hope in Christ is good only for this life, we are worse off than anyone else."

Fact, Jesus is exalted as King and Savior. Peter proclaimed at the climax of his first gospel sermon - Ac 2:33-36 "Jesus was taken up to sit at the right side of God, and he was given the Holy Spirit, just as the Father had promised. Jesus is also the one who has given the Spirit to us, and that is what you are now seeing and hearing. David didn't go up to heaven. So he wasn't talking about himself when he said, "The Lord told my Lord to sit at his right side, until he made my Lord's enemies into a footstool for him." Everyone in Israel should then know for certain that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ, even though you put him to death on a cross." All has been put under His feet, and made subject to Him - Ep 1:19-22 "I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for us followers. It is the same wonderful power he used when he raised Christ from death and let him sit at his right side in heaven. There Christ rules over all forces, authorities, powers, and rulers. He rules over all beings in this world and will rule in the future world as well. God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church he has made him the head of everything."; 1 Pe 3:22 "Christ is now in heaven, where he sits at the right side of God. All angels, authorities, and powers are under his control." Therefore He is truly "the ruler over the kings of the earth"! - Re 1:5

Fact, Jesus is coming back again as prophesied in the Book of Revelation - Re 1:7 "Look! He is coming with the clouds. Everyone will see him, even the ones who stuck a sword through him. All people on earth will weep because of him. Yes, it will happen! Amen." As proclaimed by the "two men in white apparel" when Jesus ascended to heaven - Ac 1:9-11 "After Jesus had said this and while they were watching, he was taken up into a cloud. They could not see him, but as he went up, they kept looking up into the sky. Suddenly two men dressed in white clothes were standing there beside them. They said, "Why are you men from Galilee standing here and looking up into the sky? Jesus has been taken to heaven. But he will come back in the same way that you have seen him go."’ The purpose of His coming? To execute judgment and be glorified! - 2 Th 1:6-10 " It is only right for God to punish everyone who is causing you trouble, but he will give you relief from your troubles. He will do the same for us, when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with his powerful angels and with a flaming fire. Our Lord Jesus will punish anyone who doesn't know God and won't obey his message. Their punishment will be eternal destruction, and they will be kept far from the presence of our Lord and his glorious strength. This will happen on that day when the Lord returns to be praised and honored by all who have faith in him and belong to him. This includes you, because you believed what we said. God chose you, and we keep praying that God will make you worthy of being his people. We pray for God's power to help you do all the good things that you hope to do and that your faith makes you want to do."

Certainly there are other elements of the gospel necessary for us to believe (such as the virgin birth of Christ, His deity, etc.), but in the preaching of the gospel as recording in the book of Acts, the facts which I have described were emphasized time and again. Do you believe the "facts" of the gospel? If so, that is wonderful, for when you have such faith you will be prompted to accept the call of the gospel and to obey the "commands" of the gospel.

Command, we are to believe the gospel message concerning Jesus Christ. Yes, this sounds redundant, but it is important to stress two things:

That there are indeed "commands" one must obey to be saved,

And that the first command is to "believe"!

Unless one believes the gospel, there is no hope - Mk 16:15-16 "Then he told them: Go and preach the good news to everyone in the world. Anyone who believes me and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe me will be condemned." The gospel is God's power unto salvation, but only to those who believe - Ro 1:16 "I am proud of the good news! It is God's powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles." Faith (along with confession) is a necessary step leading to salvation - Ro 10:9-10 "So you will be saved, if you honestly say, "Jesus is Lord," and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others." Without faith it is impossible to please God - He 11:6 "But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for him." Without faith, one will not act upon the other conditions of the gospel (such as confession, repentance, etc.). Do you lack faith? Then I direct you to the four gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke, John). For they were written to produce faith - Jn 20:30-31 "Jesus worked many other miracles for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book. But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in him, you will have true life." For faith comes from hearing the Word of God - Ro 10:17 "No one can have faith without hearing the message about Christ."

In addition to the command to believe, there is the command to confess Jesus as Lord - Ro 10:9-10 "So you will be saved, if you honestly say, "Jesus is Lord," and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others." This means to acknowledge that you believe Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God, who is "King of kings, and Lord of lords". An example of such a confession is found in Ac 8:37 "And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." (KJV) Without confessing Jesus before men, we have no hope that He will confess us before His Father in heaven - Mt 10:32-33 "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Are you willing to confess that you believe Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God?

We have the command to repent. To "repent" means to have "a change of mind", in which case you make the decision to turn from your sins and turn toward living for God. It is brought about by a "godly sorrow" for your sins - 2 Co 7:10 "When God makes you feel sorry enough to turn to him and be saved, you don't have anything to feel bad about. But when this world makes you feel sorry, it can cause your death." And it will produce a visible change in one's life - 2 Co 7:11 "Just look what God has done by making you feel sorry! You sincerely want to prove that you are innocent. You are angry. You are shocked. You are eager to see that justice is done. You have proved that you were completely right in this matter." Jesus said that "repentance" should be preached in His name among the nations - Lk 24:46-48 "He told them: The Scriptures say that the Messiah must suffer, then three days later he will rise from death. They also say that all people of every nation must be told in my name to turn to God, in order to be forgiven. So beginning in Jerusalem, you must tell everything that has happened." Indeed, the apostles Peter and Paul both stressed repentance in their gospel preaching - Ac 2:37-38 "When the people neheard this, they were very upset. They asked Peter and the other apostles, "Friends, what shall we do?" Peter said, "Turn back to God! Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven. Then you will be given the Holy Spirit."; 3:19 "So turn to God! Give up your sins, and you will be forgiven."; 17:30-31 "In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. He has set a day when he will judge the world's people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death."


God Bless,
Jim Newsted
Shamrock, Tx
The town that turns green for a week every year

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Even though you can't see the air, It doesn't stop you from breathing
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