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Crucial to a Gospel Presentation: Explain Belief (part six)
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five
When someone gets toward the end of preaching the gospel, he explains belief. God saves those who believe in Jesus Christ. All over the internet and then on paper churches do not say, believe in Jesus Christ, something that simple. No, they say, “Ask Jesus into your heart,” “Pray and ask Jesus to save you,” “Accept Jesus as Savior,” “Trust in Jesus Christ,” and other statements. I’m fine with “believe in Jesus Christ” or “receive Jesus Christ,” and then explaining that.
As a part of the explanation of “believe in Jesus Christ” is Jesus Christ Himself. Who is He? For someone to believe in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ must be Jesus Christ. He must be the actual one. First, Jesus Christ is God. Second, and in no given order, although I could argue for one, He is Lord. People have complicated this over the last fifty plus years as much or more than anything in explaining who Jesus is.
Ask yourself why people will leave the Lordship of Christ out. Why has Lordship become such a controversy? It’s easy to understand how someone would not want Lordship. Lordship clashes with the will of the person to whom you’re preaching.
Jesus Is Lord
Not Synonymous with God
In the Lordship controversy, I’ve noticed that preachers or theologians will try to move Lordship into the category of Deity. They make God and Lord mean the same thing, so that believing Jesus Christ is God covers for believing He is Lord. The two have definite overlap like all of these necessary attributes of Who Jesus is. In a story from a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to Thomas, John 20:27-29 say:
John 20:27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Verse 28 is key, when Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus doesn’t refute that or alter it. He says, “Thou hast believed.” Thomas wasn’t saying, “My God and my God.” The two qualities of His nature are different and distinct and necessary.
A Requirement
Romans 10:9-10 shows this as a requirement:
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Non-Lordship advocates like to use Romans 10:9-10 for a gospel presentation and then leave out Lordship. What does it say? “Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.” A few verses later, Paul writes in verse 13, a commonly used evangelism verse: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Again, an evangelist might say “Lord,” and then eliminate it from the explanation of salvation.
Usage of the Lord in the Gospels
In the English (King James Version), the two words, “the Lord,” are used 6,918 times. You see an early New Testament reference in an introduction of John the Baptist in Matthew 3:3: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Concerning Himself in the temptation in the wilderness to Satan in Matthew 4:7, Jesus says, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” And three verses later, He says to Satan, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
The angels at Christ’s birth proclaimed in Luke 2:11, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Just as an example of one of the ways the gospels refer to Jesus as the Lord in several instances, John 11:2 says, “It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.” Mary anointed “the Lord.” After His resurrection, John (20:18) writes of Mary Magdalene that “she had seen the Lord.” When John and Peter saw Jesus from their boat, John said to Peter, “It is the Lord” (21:7).
Usages of the Lord in Acts
Lordship of Christ is all over the gospel preaching of Acts. Five times in his sermon in Acts 2, Peter refers to Jesus as “the Lord.” In Acts 3:19 in that preaching of Peter, he says,
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
When Saul went out persecuting Christians, they are called, “the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). Soon after, Paul’s conversion profession is the simple question, “Who art thou, Lord?” “And the Lord said, I am Jesus” (Acts 9:5). I’m not going to keep going because Lordship is so patently obvious.
Usages of the Lord in the Epistles
The New Testament includes Lordship in the requirement and it dovetails with repentance. This is something to which Paul refers in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
“Ye are not your own” and “ye are bought with a price.” Jesus bought these saints. They are not their own any more, so they do not do what they want, but what He wants. People have such a hard time with Lordship, because of the nature of lust. They want what they want and this clashes with the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That’s also why so-called evangelists might leave it out. Believing in Jesus Christ means being owned and an outcome of obedience. You do not obey to be saved, but you believe you have a future of obedience to the Lord Jesus.
2 Peter centers on the Lordship of Jesus with its emphasis on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The apostates turn away from Jesus to walk after their own lust. In doing so, they deny the Second Coming of Jesus Christ because they don’t want the judgment of the Lord that comes with it. Most don’t mind salvation, but since they don’t like Lordship, they reject it or turn away from it. Leaving Lordship out is creating a future of rampant apostasy, really buying into the apostates’ demands.
Explaining Jesus Is Lord
When I explain that Jesus is Lord in believing in Jesus Christ, I will say, “When you believe in Jesus Christ, you believe that He is Lord.” That means believing that He is on the throne and you are not. You relinquish the throne of your life. This is what Jesus said, Losing your life for His sake (Matthew 10:39, 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, 17:33, John 12:25). This is attached to losing your own soul, which is speaking of damnation. Believing Jesus is Lord is in effect giving up your life to Him. Then He can and will cleanse your soul.
More to Come
Crucial to a Gospel Presentation: Explain Belief (part five)
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four
Explaining Belief
In my experience, which includes a very large sample size over several decades now, people can understand a biblical explanation of belief. I say to a person, “Jesus did everything that needed to be done for you to be saved, but how do you receive the benefits of what He did? Scripture shows only one way and that is, you must believe in Jesus Christ.”
Many will and do say that they believe in Jesus Christ. A majority of Americans will say they believe in Jesus Christ, when asked. Yet, “What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ?” First though, it is true that you must believe in Jesus Christ. Scripture teaches this requirement, “believe in Jesus Christ,” and I could go for thirty plus minutes showing verses that teach that.
What It’s Not
Before I explain what it means to believe in Jesus Christ, I make this point: “It is by belief in Jesus Christ, and not by works.” To understand belief in Jesus Christ, the evangelist must contrast belief from works, which scripture does all over the place. Belief and works are mutually exclusive. You are either saved by believing or by working, not both. If it’s works, then someone must live a perfect life, which he can’t. Someone will not understand belief in Jesus Christ unless he understands the relationship of works to belief.
Once I eliminate works as an option, I will ask again, “What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ?” Not only is belief not works, but it is also not mere intellectual assent to facts, like putting a check in a box. This means that neither is it mindless repetition of words with or after someone, simply saying, “I believe in Jesus Christ.”
Aspects of Belief
When I explain belief in Jesus Christ, I don’t go into a long doctrinal dissertation, proving that belief is both intellectual, emotional, and volitional. It is those three, and you can prove that with various passages for each of those aspects. This is also the history of Christian doctrine of salvation. It is said, belief is, the Latin, notitia, assensus, and fiducia. Notitia is the knowledge, assensus is the volition or commitment, and fiducia is the trust or reliance. All three go hand in hand, not to be separated from one another, like truth and love go together.
As you read this, you might think, “You’re making this too hard. What about ‘God’s simple plan of salvation?'” Scripture doesn’t say salvation is simple. I’m not saying it isn’t. I think it is, but it isn’t less than what scripture says that it is. The evangelist should not leave out something indispensable to a scriptural understanding.
Scriptural Requirement for True Belief
The Bible does say that there is a belief that does not save. This is quite common that someone falls short of a scriptural requirement for true belief in Jesus Christ. I say that men purposefully leave out the hard part, the least popular aspects that are the biggest reason for not getting a desired response.
Imagine this: “They’re not going to like this about Jesus Christ, so I’m not going to say it.” What’s not to like about Jesus Christ? People are not saved by believing in a Jesus that’s just acceptable to them. He’s got to be who He is. Another aspect to the object of faith is the Deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God.
Deity of Christ
Usually when I explain the Deity of Christ, I do it at the point that I say, “Jesus died for you” or “Jesus paid the penalty for your sins.” I say, “Let’s say that I wanted to die for you, and I think I would, but my death wouldn’t do anything for you — it couldn’t save you. Why? Because I’m a sinner. I deserve the penalty for sin myself. I can’t pay for yours, because I deserve my own.”
Well, who could pay the penalty for sin? A perfect person. A sinless person. Who could do that? What man could do that? Only Jesus Christ, because He is God. He is sinless, because He is God.
I briefly explain the Trinity at this point in the conversation and quote or go to verses on Jesus’ Deity. If someone does not believe that Jesus is God, then He does not believe in Jesus Christ. I include with that modalists, like the apostolics. They have not the doctrine of Christ, so they have not God (2 John 1:9). An evangelist must go much deeper and further on this subject if he is talking to a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon, people like that.
Even if you are talking to a Hindu, you’ve got to differentiate a true belief in Jesus as God and the Hindu version that puts Jesus on the shelf with other gods. The true identity of Jesus Christ is that He is God. Again, saving belief must have the proper object and part of that is that Jesus is God.
More to Come
Baptismal Regeneration: Acts 22:16
Requiring Baptism for Salvation
Definition and Denominations
“Baptismal Regeneration” in its definition at Wikipedia says:
Baptismal regeneration is the name given to doctrines held by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican churches, and other Protestant denominations which maintain that salvation is intimately linked to the act of baptism, without necessarily holding that salvation is impossible apart from it. Etymologically, the term means “being born again” (regeneration, or rebirth) “through baptism” (baptismal).
It’s more than that. You will find the Church of Christ, the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, LDS, and Charismatics such as Apostolics who also require water baptism for salvation. Where I live, the biggest denomination is the “Christian Church,” which believe this.
Hermeneutic
A certain wrong hermeneutic undergirds or produces baptismal regeneration, using a few proof texts. Instead of looking at all of the New Testament and understanding each verse within the whole, it conforms the whole to a few select verses. I will examine those verses. Those few verses don’t overturn what the New Testament teaches about salvation. They don’t include baptism as a requirement for justification. I will analyze what they do say, since men use them to buttress their false doctrine of baptismal regeneration.
Versus Belief Alone by Grace Alone
Many times the Bible says something like John the Baptist said in John 3:36.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
You don’t read any baptism in there. Forty times the Bible says, “believeth/believed in/on him/Jesus/the Son/me/thee,” as the sole condition for salvation.
Scripture expresses many other faith alone statements. The Ethiopian in Acts 8:37 said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Mark 1:15 says, “believe the gospel.” John 20:31 says, “Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing ye might have life through His name.” John 13:19 says, “ye may believe that I am he.” This is what the Bible teaches for salvation. Those verses mirror Ephesians 2:8-9:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
As much as verses teach faith alone for salvation, there are also many many that teach salvation not by works.
Adding a Work or Works
Baptism is not an incidental, non-affecting addition to grace or faith. It is akin to the addition of the one work or ritual of circumcision, which Paul addresses in Galatians 5. By adding this single work or ritual, “Christ shall profit you nothing” (v. 2). You become “a debtor to do the whole law” (v. 3). And, “Christ is become of no effect unto you” (v. 4). Those adding baptism almost always add other works and then depend on their works to stay saved. This is perverting the gospel.
Proof Texts
What I’m saying again here is that baptismal regeneration does not depend on what the New Testament teaches about salvation, but on proof texts that adherents use to force this doctrine on the Bible. I will deal with five verses, not necessarily in any order: Acts 22:16, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38,1 Peter 3:21, and John 3:5. In the end, I will give more evidence against baptismal regeneration [Read the book by Thomas Ross against baptismal regeneration, see his debate on the subject at these links]. My prime goal here was to examine these proof texts.
Acts 22:16
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Post Conversion Baptism
At face value alone, it seems possible that Acts 22:16 says baptism washes away sins or at least precedes the washing away of sins. The verse itself rests within the conversion testimony of Paul to a hostile audience in Jerusalem, many years after his salvation. In the first telling of Paul’s salvation, his conversion and then reception of the Holy Spirit far preceded the command and occurrence of baptism (Acts 9:1-17). Every time he recounts his conversion, Paul places his baptism as a later result of his conversion, not a cause (Acts 9, 22, 26).
Grammar and Syntax of Acts 22:16
The grammar and syntax of Acts 22:16 does not teach baptism preceding salvation or washing away sins. Luther B. McIntyre, Jr. explains well in his article, “Baptism and Forgiveness” (Bib Sac, Jan-March, 1996, pp. 61-62):
The Greek sentence has two participles and two imperatives: “Arising, be baptized and wash away your sins, calling upon his name.” Many English translations include two conjunctive “ands,” but the Greek text has only one kai (“and”). The construction is participle-verb-kai-verb-participle.
William MacDonald in his Bible Believer’s Commentary (NT, p. 469) suggests that best approach to this verse is to associate each participle with its nearest verb. This is entirely consistent with what A. T. Robertson (Greek Grammar, p. 1109) calls the adverbial use of the participle.
Based on the Greek construction, the washing away of sins is connected with ‘calling upon his name,’ not with being baptized. That agrees with Peter’s own appeal to the prophet Joel in Acts 2:21 that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” As Polhill says in his Acts commentary (p. 461), “The overarching term, however, is “calling upon the name of the Lord,” the profession of faith in Christ that is the basis for the act of baptism.
Some might not like the use of grammar and syntax getting in the way of their proof text. However, the grammar and syntax also agree with the vast and overall scriptural teaching of faith alone for salvation.
Context
In Acts 9:13, Ananias referred to Paul (then Saul) as “this man,” yet later, he calls Paul his “brother.” Paul was already converted before his baptism in verse 18. Brother was a term adopted by the early disciples. They used the term to express their familial love for each other in Christ. The shift from man to brother in the words of Ananias indicate Paul’s conversion preceded baptism.
[I suggest everyone to read, again, Thomas Ross’s book, Heaven Only For the Baptized? This book does a far more thorough job than above in debunking Acts 22:16 as a baptismal regeneration proof text.]
More to Come
John 3:36, the Second “Believeth” (Apeitheo), and English Translation of the Bible
The King James Version (KJV) of John 3:36 reads:
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
(1) in 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.
not to allow oneself to be persuaded; not to comply with; a. to refuse or withhold belief
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