RICHARD FOSTER
The gospel! The word literally means “good news”. Specifically, the gospel is the good news of salvation for sinners. Paul in Romans tells us that the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.
“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” (Romans 1:16).
Just how important is it to never be ashamed of the gospel? Well as the Apostle noted, the gospel is the power of God to salvation. The Bible also tells us that there’s no other name given among men whereby we must be saved, other than Jesus Christ.
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
In Galatians the Apostle Paul identifies maintaining the gospel in purity as so important, that he says if anyone preaches another gospel—even an angel from heaven—let them be accursed (Galatians 1:8). This is so serious that he repeats it in verse 9. He also tells us in verse 7 that another gospel is really no gospel at all! In other words there is only one saving gospel. The only way anyone is ever getting saved from their sins is through that one saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Outside of the one saving gospel, there is absolutely no salvation, none at all, but simply eternal death in sin.
Not one person will ever be saved through a religion that doesn’t teach the true biblical gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let us think about this solemnly and seriously. Not one person will ever be saved through a religion that doesn’t teach the true biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter how nice the practitioners of that religion are. It doesn’t matter how good the moral teaching of that religion is. It doesn’t matter how large that religion is. It doesn’t matter how old that religion is. The fact of the matter is, all people of the human race are either in their sins, or they are in Christ. And a religion that doesn’t have the true Christ and the true gospel simply cannot take people from being in their sins to being in Christ. It doesn’t matter how good that religion is when considered from a human perspective.
Now immediately the temptation for some will be to think I am just being narrow, harsh, exclusive, bigoted, and so forth. Who do I think I am, to speak so negatively of other people’s beliefs?
Well, the truth is, I don’t believe I am anybody concerning this matter. I have zero authority and zero right to decide what is true and what is false, what can save and what cannot. But while I have no authority and right to decide in these matters, our Creator God most certainly does! In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). We don’t exist for a single second apart from His good pleasure in sustaining us, moment by moment. Certainly God Almighty has a right to decide everything just as it pleases Him, and not a single human being has any right to answer back to God (Romans 9:20).
We have no leg to stand on if we tell our Creator and Sustainer He is not fair, or He is too narrow, or we don’t like that He does this thing that way, and that thing this way. Simply put, God is God and we are not!
…it doesn’t matter if we like it or not; Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.
When God decrees that the sky should be blue, it doesn’t matter if we like blue or not; the sky is going to be blue. Likewise when God decreed that His Son Jesus Christ would be the only means whereby He would offer salvation to sinners, it doesn’t matter if we like it or not; Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.
You make take Christ as your Savior and be saved, or you may reject Him and remain dead in trespasses and sins. But you may not say you don’t like it, and that you think you will create a third option. See, while I or other gospel believers may not have any right or authority to mandate that Christ and His gospel is the only way to salvation, neither does anyone else have any right to declare there are ways of salvation other than Jesus Christ. The decision that Christ is the only way is God’s.
The Bible Declares The Truth
People may think I am being narrow, exclusive, or bigoted. But if I have any understanding of the Bible at all, I cannot but believe several things as fact and reality:
- All human beings have sinned; there’s not one who does good, no not one (Romans 3:12).
- The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
- Sinners are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), and under condemnation, UNLESS they are in Christ (Romans 8:1).
- Christ is the only way of salvation. All others are thieves and robbers, just as Christ Himself said (John 10:7, 8).
- Those who believe in Christ are not condemned, but those who don’t believe are condemned already (John 3:18).
Honestly read the Bible and see if you can conclude anything other than what I have just said in these five points. Is there any way these things cannot be true, Biblically speaking? Is there any way that these things aren’t clear enough from Scripture, and that perhaps they have been misunderstood?
I do not see how. If you can be a full Bible believer that sees every word of the 66 books of Holy Scripture as proceeding from the mouth of God and still deny that all people are lost in sin, if you can deny that there’s only one saving gospel which, unless they believe they will eternally perish, then I do not know what more to say. But as far as what Holy Scripture says, as far as what historic Christianity has always maintained, there’s only one way of salvation, and that is through faith in the one gospel of our one Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, this gospel definition is narrow, but Jesus Himself said narrow is the way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13, 14).
For these reasons it is critical that the gospel must never be compromised in the least, but must always be maintained, held, and believed in purity, just as it was taught from Jesus and His Apostles. Yes, this gospel definition is narrow, but Jesus Himself said narrow is the way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13, 14). Yes, from just the standpoint of my human reasoning, I am tempted to view it as harsh. We have our own presuppositions of what is nice, what is kind, what is loving. But we must always remember that we are sinners with imperfect reasoning, and imperfect emotions.
Our natural reason and emotions in our fallen state is not informed by perfect holiness and righteousness, but is tainted with sin. Only in the state of glory will we be completely free from this influence of sin in our thoughts and emotions. Right now we aren’t glorified because we are in the midst of what the Bible describes as a battle between the flesh and the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-24). But let us walk in the Spirit if we would not submit to the flesh. And let us remember that the same Spirit of God that resides in us as believers, is the Spirit that inspired every word of Holy Scripture.
With these thoughts in mind, let us take care that when we think we are being kind, nice, or loving, that we are not actually inadvertently compromising the gospel. We do not use the labels of cult or false religion because we want to be mean-spirited, or because we want to belittle people’s sincerely held beliefs. Not at all! We use these terms to warn people of impending danger!
The Gospel Rescued Me
As one who wholeheartedly embraced the Adventist theological system for 13 years, I understand just how much our identity and emotions can be wrapped up in it. As one who got caught up in Adventism as a teenager, I ended up finding purpose in it, where previously I didn’t think my life meant anything. Having this background I was not just a superficial believer in Adventism. It was my life for those years! In fact, I was so committed to Adventism that when I thought my Adventist pastor was going soft on Adventism, I had a mind to write him a letter explaining how everything else but Adventism wasn’t worth having.
What brought me into Adventism was an excitement over prophecies, the appeal of Adventists’ claiming they knew the future, that the commandment obviously said THE SEVENTH DAY (how could anyone miss that?), and the pleasing idea that if I or others did end up lost in the end, we would just be annihilated. These are the the things that brought me into Adventism. But what brought me out was THE GOSPEL!
The simple good news gospel of salvation for sinners in Jesus Christ alone rescued me! The good news revealed that it wasn’t about how good I could be in keeping the law and the Sabbath (I knew in my heart of hearts I was nowhere near good enough), but about how Jesus Christ fulfilled the entire law perfectly on my behalf, so that all of what He earned and merited as a perfect Savior could be mine as a free gift by faith alone. No wonder the Apostle Paul says we are complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10)!
See, I thought everything else but Adventism wasn’t worth having. But when I learned the real Biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, when it truly clicked in my heart and mind, soul and body, such a light went on for me, such a warmth grew in my heart and soul, that all of a sudden Adventism paled in comparison! Now Adventism became part of the “everything else” not worth having. Truly the Adventist theological system became to me like a burned out lightbulb when compared to the massive floodlight of the gospel glowing in all its glory!
Do You Know the Gospel?
I ask you dear reader: have you experienced the amazing grace of God in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Have you felt his marvelous light flood the depths of your soul? If you have, you know that our Lord Jesus is a perfect and complete Savior. You know that He has provided all for your salvation, and that you have provided nothing (indeed you know you cannot provide anything). He suffered hell on that cross for our sins, unspeakable anguish in both soul and body, so that we would never have to. We who are guilty through and through have a great Savior who has completely atoned for our guilt in full already on His cross, through the shedding of His precious blood. “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). And just the realization of this is enough to fill our entire being with awe, wonder, gratitude, and amazement.
If you haven’t experienced such amazing grace yet, you can right away.
If you haven’t experienced such amazing grace yet, you can right away. Though you are a sinner, dead to rights and guilty as all get out, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. He came not only to save sinners, but He is able to save them to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25)!
Right before Jesus died on that cross He proclaimed, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). In the Greek it is one word, Tetelesatai. Though only one word, perhaps no other word in all of Scripture is so loaded with significance and meaning. To quote from a book called Greek Word Study: “Tetelesatai means ‘it is completed, it is accomplished, it is fulfilled, it is brought to an end.’ It carries the idea that a final step has been taken. Therefore, tetelesatai was often used on receipts in times of antiquity. It would literally mean ‘this is paid, ‘the final payment was given,’ or ‘the billing has ended.’”
In other words, the atonement for sin is complete and accomplished; all required is fulfilled and bought to an end. The payment for all sin has been made in full, and there’s no more debt, ever! The out-of-this-world good news is that all that has to happen for tetelesatai to be a reality in our lives personally, is that we simply trust in Jesus alone, in what He has done.
As the Apostle Paul said:
“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
Because the saving gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, it must never be compromised! It can be very difficult to walk away from Adventism for any number of reasons. But when we understand what the gospel is, and when we understand how Adventism has twisted it via doctrines such as the investigative judgement and the Sabbath as the seal of God, the only sober choice is to stand for Christ and His gospel alone. It is so important, that we simply cannot abide any system that compromises the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For this reason we have had to leave Adventism. And for this reason we must continue to preach the gospel to our Adventist friends and loved ones, calling them out of the darkness of another gospel and into Christ’s marvelous light. †
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