It’s such a profound subject that many sincere Christians who are brave enough to discuss it end up fighting over it, while others run for the door if the subject is brought up. The Bible teaches both. We mere mortals, whose wisdom is foolishness to God, tend to think about it in terms of God’s Sovereignty sort of ‘leaving stage left” and man’s responsibility ‘entering stage right’. Maybe that’s not the case at all. Perhaps in the mind of God they operate in complete harmony, but our simple minds can’t get there from here. Could it be that there is a finite point in time where our responsibility enters the scene (we are finite beings, after all), but God is totally and completely sovereign throughout?

We live in what is often called the age of post-modernism. Truth is relative, we are told. Cultures change, people change, and the old ways of thinking need to keep pace with the changes. If churches want to survive in this post­modern age, then they must adapt or die (that is ‘religious speak’ for, ‘Re­interpret the Bible to fit with the thinking and practices of the day – whatever they are’). Sadly, tragically, many churches have bought into this satanic strategy and manipulated the gospel to sit easily with the spiritual and moral aberrations that cover the face of our nation – and the whole world.

The churches in Galatia had become influenced and infected by false teaching. They were apparently buying into teaching that denied that we are justified before God by faith alone, in Christ alone. This, probably Judaistic, teaching was saying that faith in Christ was not enough to bring us into salvation. These false teachers were saying that in addition to faith in Christ you must also submit to the Jewish ‘boundary markers’ of circumcision and kosher food laws. Yes, faith in Christ, but not faith in Christ alone. How does Paul respond? Dramatically and decisively: ‘I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – not that there is another one . . . But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.’ Wow! And in case anyone thought he was being unnecessarily extreme, Paul repeats himself: ‘As we have said before, so now I say again (it is my considered judgment): If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.’ There is only one gospel; anything else is a satanic perversion and needs to be exposed as such.

James Denney (1856-1917,Scottish theologian and preacher)has made this point better than most;

If God has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the world depends, and if he has made it known, then it is a Christian duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies or explains it away. The man who perverts it is the worst enemy of God and men; and it is not bad temper or narrow-mindedness in St Paul which explains this vehement language, it is the jealousy of God which has kindled in a soul redeemed by the blood of Christ a corresponding jealousy for the Saviour.

Martin Luther was persuaded of this: ‘Would to God this terrible sentence of the Apostle might strike a fear into their hearts that seek to pervert the Gospel of Paul; of which sort at this day (the more it is to be lamented) the world is full.’ However, we live in an age of ecumenical dialogue and of doctrinal compromise. What appears to matter is that everyone’s viewpoint is appreciated and tolerated. How differently the apostle Paul viewed things. A few years ago, The Times religious correspondent Clifford Longley, wrote some perceptive words on this issue. He compared the ‘wetness’ of the churchmen of the present with the passion of the Reformers,

Evidently, there was something about this subject which caused hot tempers . . . salvation was perhaps more highly valued then, or damnation more feared; it mattered enormously which was the road to one, which to the other.

Here, surely, is the crux of the issue: Has our Lord Jesus done something by his sinless life, sin-bearing death, and resurrection that has secured God’s salvation for judgment-deserving sinners? If he has, then is it any wonder Paul writes as he does? Is it really any wonder that he calls down God’s curse, his eternal anathema, on those who seek to turn men and women away to a ‘different gospel’, that is no gospel at all? Paul is not being narrow-minded or unthinkingly intemperate in his choice of language. He is writing as a man who is passionate about the glory of his Saviour and about the eternal good of sinners.

Paul’s language is a reminder to us that we must ever be guarding the gospel. If someone had told me 20 years ago that some ‘evangelicals’ would soon be teaching that God does not know everything (Open Theism), that Scripture is not infallible (we must not deny Scripture’s humanness!), and that our justification before God rests, in some measure on our good works (the so-called New Perspective on Paul), I would hardly have believed it. But we live in spiritually and theologically confused times. It would only be too easy, for the sake of a peaceful life, just to go with the flow, to keep our heads down and reconfigure the gospel to suit the tastes of the world around us. To do this, however, would be to deny our Saviour, and to call down on our heads God’s holy anathema. This is not an appeal for us to be belligerent or offensive, or cantankerous. We are always ‘to speak the truth in love’. But love can, and needs at times to be, willing to risk the wrath of man to proclaim the truth of God.

There is only one gospel. It has been ‘once for all delivered to the saints.’ It is not susceptible to change. It must, of course, be preached and witnessed to relevantly and engagingly, not parroting the ways of past generations. But it must be proclaimed as God has revealed it in his infallible Word. The Bible has a word for this – it is called being ‘faithful’. May the Lord enable us to be faithful ‘in good times and in bad times’. The glory and honour of our Lord Jesus demands it; the eternal good of men and women requires it.

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Ian Hamilton is minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church, north of London.

The above articles was published by Banner of Truth Magazine.

“. . .as  it is written: ^ “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12 (ESV)

“The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” – Psalm 14:2-3 (ESV)

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. . . But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. . .For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:1, 4-5, 8-9 (ESV) 

“But GOD,”

If Lazarus, when he was raised from the dead, had been asked to sing about the experience, and had to choose one of the following, which song would he have sung?

a. “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”

b. “Amazing Grace”

Death is separation. A physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death, which is of greater significance, is the separation of the soul from God. In Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam that in the day he eats of the forbidden fruit he will “surely die.” Adam does fall, but his physical death does not occur immediately; God must have had another type of death in mind—spiritual death. This separation from God is exactly what we see in Genesis 3:8. When Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord, they “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God.” The fellowship had been broken. They were spiritually dead.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He paid the price for us by dying on our behalf. Even though He is God, He still had to suffer to agony of a temporary separation from the Father due to the sin of world He was carrying on the cross. After three hours of supernatural darkness, He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:33-34). This spiritual separation from the Father was the result of the Son’s taking our sins upon Himself. That’s the impact of sin. Sin is the exact opposite of God and God had to turn away from His own Son at that point in time.

A man without Christ is spiritually dead. Paul describes it as “being alienated from the life of God” in Ephesians 4:18. (To be separated from life is the same as being dead.) The natural man, like Adam hiding in the garden, is isolated from God. When we are born again, the spiritual death is reversed. Before salvation, we are dead (spiritually), but Jesus gives us life. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,” (Ephesians 2:1 NKJV). “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins” (Colossians 2:13).

To illustrate, think of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus in John 11. The physically dead Lazarus could do nothing for himself. He was unresponsive to all stimuli, oblivious to all life around him, beyond all help or hope—except for the help of Christ who is “the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25). At Christ’s call, Lazarus was filled with life, and he responded accordingly. In the same way, we were spiritually dead, unable to save ourselves, powerless to perceive the life of God—until Jesus called us to Himself. He “quickened” us; “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5).

The book of Revelation speaks of a “second death,” which is a final (and eternal) separation from God. Only those who have never experienced new life in Christ will partake of the second death (Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8).

Recommended Resource: What the Bible Says about Heaven & Eternity by Ice & Demy.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. – Ephesians 2:1

In those words, the Apostle Paul is speaking of a ‘former’ state of those believers, a state of being spiritually dead.  So we have to ask – former to what? Well, that is rather self-evident in the context and can only mean before they believed in Christ, since he is speaking to professing believers in Ephesus.

That begs the question:

‘Since they formerly were spiritually dead and therefore unable to deal with spiritual matters, and because believing in Christ is a spiritual matter, how did they come to believe in the first place?

Paul answers that question a little further along in the same passage of scripture:

“God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– Ephesians 2:4-5

We are always eager to give the ‘credit’ for the grace that saves us to God and God alone, and rightly so. On the other hand, we are not so quick to give God the credit for the faith we place in His Son. We read the following passage, giving God all the credit for the grace that saves us, but we take credit for placing ‘our’ faith in Christ.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8

Concerning faith, John Gill’s commentary explains:

“through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; salvation is through faith, not as a cause or condition of salvation, or as what adds anything to the blessing itself; but it is the way, or means, or instrument, which God has appointed, for the receiving and enjoying it, that so it might appear to be all of grace; and this faith is not the produce of man’s free will and power, but it is the free gift of God; and therefore salvation through it is consistent with salvation by grace; since that itself is of grace, lies entirely in receiving grace and gives all the glory to the grace of God: the sense of this last clause may be, that salvation is not of ourselves; it is not of our desiring nor of our deserving, nor of our performing, but is of the free grace of God: though faith is elsewhere represented as the gift of God, (John 6:65) and it is called the special gift of faith, “

Yes, faith is the means by which God saves a person, but it’s not the same human faith that we are born with and exercise in all things temporal. Since before God gives us life, we are spiritually dead and totally lacking the ‘spiritual’ faith necessary to exercise toward salvation.

Do we find that spelled out in our favorite passage in Ephesians (v 8)?  Not explicitly, but we are told that we have nothing about which to ‘boast’ in our salvation. If the faith that of which Paul speaks; faith that leads to true salvation, is the same human faith I was born with, and I somehow applied human logic to the issue of my eternal destiny, and ‘decided’ on my own that I would like to be saved from hell, I have reason to boast, even if it’s just a little bit and even if I did not actually boast about being smart enough to reason it all out. I would have a reason to boast if I chose to do so.

So I ask again, how dead is DEAD?

“God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.” [Romans 9:18]

“The doctrine of the sovereignty of God will guard those who seek salvation from two opposite extremes-presumption and discouragement.”

Do not presume upon the mercy of God, and so encourage yourself in sin. Many hear that God’s mercy is infinite, and therefore think, that if they delay seeking salvation for the present, and seek it later in life, that God will bestow His grace upon them. But consider, that though God’s grace is sufficient, yet He is sovereign, and will use His own pleasure to determine whether He will save you or not. If you put off salvation till the end of your life, salvation will not be in your power. It will be as a sovereign God pleases, whether you shall obtain it or not. Therefore, seeing that in this matter you are so absolutely dependent on God, it is best to follow His direction in seeking it, which is to listen to His voice, which says, “Today, if you hear My voice, do not harden your hearts” [Psalm 95:7-8].

Beware also of discouragement. Take heed of despairing thoughts, because you are a great sinner, because you have persevered so long in sin, have backslidden, and resisted the Holy Spirit. Remember that, no matter what your case may be, no matter how great a sinner you are, God can bestow mercy upon you without the least prejudice to the honor of His holiness, which you have offended, or to the honor of His majesty, which you have insulted, or of His justice, which you have made your enemy, or of His truth, or of any of His attributes. Let you be what sinner you may, God can, if He pleases, greatly glorify Himself in your salvation. Amen.

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The above quote from Jonathan Edwards is part of a larger manuscript that can be found and read here.

A pastor friend in Hawaii recently posted on Facebook this emphatic statement:  “Make no bones about, the purpose of the church is EVANGELISM.” (Emphasis his.)

When I read that, various ‘purpose’ and ‘vision’ statements that I’ve found in the pages of church web pages came to mind. It is with a certain sadness that I confess that most were not nearly as Gospel centric as Pastor Derrick’s Facebook statement, however they did reflect a certain level of marketing savvy, with their slick visual presentations, catchy slogans, and often omitted actual scripture passages, that after all might turn off seekers.

So that I don’t appear judgmental (too late?), let me say that it was the contrast between the clear statement of my pastor friend and the content of church web pages that came to mind, not a desire to intentionally find fault with either the pastor’s statement or the content of church web pages. That contrast begs the question: “What should be the ‘vision’ of the church? Is there a single vision that evangelical churches, without exception, should share?

Perhaps there is:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” – Revelation 7:9-10

In my former career as a combat soldier, we might have called that passage of Scripture ‘the commander’s intent’ – the overarching goal of our mission on the ground. I don’t remember exactly when ‘The Commander’s Intent’ became a mandatory articulated statement in combat orders, but it’s inclusion in those orders helped us maintain our mission focus. We could always turn to it when the situation of the ground might have caused us to wander off on in a direction that, while doing the enemy harm, would have detracted from our primary purpose.

Our passage from Revelation reflects the Commander of the Universe’s intent – to have a people for Himself – rescued out of the mass of fallen humanity, so that one day they would gather around His throne, giving Him the honor due His Name!

And for a reason only God knows, He has chosen flawed, imperfect humans as the primary means of spreading the perfect Gospel message. This is indeed the greatest privilege ever bestowed on mankind and yes – the purpose of the church!

Thanks for the reminder, Pastor Derrick!

“Essentially there are only two religions in the whole world. One of them is “I”…I live a good life, I keep the commandments, I pray, I go to church, I follow the Golden Rule, I love my neighbor, I do the best I can, I don’t do this bad thing, I don’t do the other. That’s called autosoterism, or self-salvation where I become my own savior, glory be to me. I’m in competition with Jesus Christ who claims to be the Savior of the world. The only other religion is the cross, symbolized and standing right behind me. All…there are over 30,000 religions in the world but when you take off the ribbon and the wrapping and open the box, you’ll either find the “I” or the cross essentially. And everyone is going to either be saving himself and be his own savior, or he’s going to trust in Christ and in Christ alone. And I would say to anyone that wants to know the free salvation of God to get out of the savior business, declare spiritual bankruptcy, turn to Christ and trust in Him alone for your salvation and He will freely give you the gift of everlasting life. He will come into your heart and enable you to trust Him and to repent of your sins and change your life and give you new meaning and new direction and new power to live a godly life. And He will take you to be with Him in paradise forever and ever.” – D. james Kennedy