A Study on the Gospel

Can we trust the Bible?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

From this verse we learn that all Scripture is inspired by God. This means that God inspired men to write down the Word of God. In this book we read of God's truths on many topics. We use the Scriptures in our teaching. We use the Scriptures when we want to prove what is right or wrong. We correct with the Word of God. We train in righteousness by using the Word of God. We are equipped for every good work by this great book called the Bible.

There are many who believe that the Word of God is not complete. Is this true? The apostle Peter proves that statement false.

2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Notice that it is by God's divine power that we are granted EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness. If we have everything what else do we need to be able to live a godly life? In the same way there are those who believe that all we have to do to be pleasing to God is believe. No works are needed to please God. Is this true? Well, lets let Jesus tell us Himself what He expects.

Luke 6:46-49 "And why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? "Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood rose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. "But the one who has heard, and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great."

Jesus said there are things we MUST DO! When we hear what His word says, we are to do it. Many will dispute this, but Jesus compared those of us who heard His word as either a wise or foolish man. If we do what Jesus said to do we are wise in His eyes, but if we don't do what Jesus said to do then we are foolish. If you want to be wise in the eyes of Jesus then you will do what God's word says. Let me give you an example. In Numbers 20 the nation of Israel was in their last year of wandering in the wilderness. Once again they were thirsty and Moses and Aaron spoke with God and God told them what to do.

Numbers 20:8-12 "Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink." So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

Notice that God told Moses to speak to the rock and instead Moses struck the rock twice. Did Moses do what God told him to do? We know that answer don't we. The answer is no. Moses was foolish before God. Now notice what God said about this to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

What did Moses do that caused God to say to him you have "not believed Me" and you have not "treated me as holy in the sight of" Israel? He changed the word of God. How many times have you found others hearing the word of God and yet not doing what it says? Our attitude should be one of, speak Lord and I'll obey. Is that your attitude toward God and His word? I pray it is. Let me ask a question here, how are you and the Lord doing? If the Lord were to come today do you know, without a doubt that you would go to heaven? Do you know that the Bible tells us that we can know of our salvation. Its not by how we feel. Its not by having some angel speaking to us as that is not their job it is ours. When we read our next verse we learn how we can know we are saved.

1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.

We can know that we have eternal life by the things written. Do you think that John understood what Jesus said to them in John 14-15-16? Here we find Jesus letting them know that He will send the Holy Spirit after He goes away. John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

So Paul writing what he did in 2 Timothy 3 and John writing what he did in 1 John 5 gives me the idea these words they wrote are truly the word of God. As a result of this understanding do you suppose we should take the word of God lightly? Not me. I am going to do my best to not be like Moses and just disregard what God has said. I started off my asking a question, Can we trust the Bible? I think from these few verses found in the Word of God that we can %100 trust the Bible. John wrote what I call a life or death verse.

John 8:24 "I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins."

If we don't believe in who Jesus is Jesus said we will die in our sins. This death is a spiritual death Jesus is speaking of. This spiritual death means a eternal separation from God. If we need to believe in Jesus to be saved for eternity then we need to know who Jesus is, don't we? Lets find out who Jesus is.
Who is this Jesus?

Matthew 16:13-17 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He said^ to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? This is one of the things we need to know about Jesus to be saved. When Jesus said that we will die in our sins unless we believe that He is, this is one of the things He was talking about. What else does the word of God teach us about who Jesus is?

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Greek Bible really brings out what John was trying to say. That last phrase says "and God was always the Word." When we read verse 14 it says, John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word is Jesus and so John is telling us that Jesus is God. He is not the Father He is the Son. Do you believe Jesus is God? When we hear Jesus being called the Son of God we are dealing with roll and function. But never the less this is one of the things we need to believe or we will die in our sins. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God and that He is God? This makes what He did mean so much more to us. Christ left heaven to come down here on the earth to save mankind.

Philippians 2:6-7 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Here we learn that Jesus emptied Himself when He left heaven and became man. This is when the eternal Word became flesh and when we beheld His glory of the only begotten Son from the Father. These are some of the things we need to believe to be able to have eternal life. Now lets look at what Jesus did and why He did it.

What Jesus did and why?

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Let me ask you a question here, what is a mediator? Why do we need a mediator? Our next verse will answer that question for us.

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

It is very clear that a mediator is needed because we have been separated from God because of our sins. Romans 3:23 teaches us that all have sinned and fallen from the glory of God. God made us perfect and when we are born we are perfect as well. As we live long enough we will fall and sin. It is at this time that we are separated from our Father. One of the reasons Jesus came was to be mediator between His Father and man. You see, we have a sin problem. Jesus came to remove the sin problem. As we continue we learn what God uses to save mankind.

Romans 1:16 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.

What saved man in Bible times is still what saves us today. This covenant God made with us has not changed. God's power to save all mankind is the gospel. Notice it is to everyone who believes, first the Jews and then the Gentiles. I guess my question is, what is the gospel? If the gospel is God's power to save we need to know what the gospel is. As always, I'll let the Bible tell us what the gospel is.

1 Corinthians 15:1-7 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, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;

Paul is reminding these Christians at Corinth about the gospel he already preached to them. This gospel, he says, they received and stood in. The only way the gospel won't save you is if you believe in vain. This is a false or useless faith. It's not real. But those at Corinth did believe the gospel and he says he is preaching the very first thing you need to know about the gospel.

The first thing is that Christ died for our sins and He was buried and on the third day He arose from the grave and appeared to others in His resurrected body. The Gospel then is Christ' death, burial, resurrection and appearance to others. The gospel is God's power to save mankind. We also learn another thing Jesus did in our next verse.

Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,

We find redemption through His blood in the gospel. This is why Paul said the gospel saves you because we receive forgiveness of our trespasses in the gospel.

Jude 24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,

Another great thing that Jesus did is to be able to make us stand in the presence of God blameless. There is great joy in this understanding. Jesus is able to keep us from stumbling and make us without blame before God. What else has Jesus done for us?

2 Timothy 1:10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

Jesus abolished death and gave to us life and immortality. He brought it to light by the gospel. By Jesus' death, burial, resurrection and appearance to other in His resurrected body is how we can live eternally with out Father in heaven. Jesus did all these things because He loves us so very much. By His gospel He has given us an opportunity to live eternally in a place called heaven. If you died right now would you know for sure, without a doubt, that you would go to heaven? Remember Jesus said why do you call me Lord and don't do what I say? Lets look at what Jesus in His word has told us to do to be saved. How can I get in on this? John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

The majority of the people believe all we need to do to be saved is believe and they base it on this verse. They say, if I want eternal life and don't want to perish I need to only believe in Jesus. Is this all we need to do? Well, lets take this theory and see what the other Bible passages say. Remember we need to be consistent in dealing with the word of God. And lets not be like Moses and hear the word and change it to fit our wants and needs, but rather lets fit God's wants and needs in our life.

Luke 13:3 "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

If I take the understanding from John 3:16 and say all I need to do is believe then with this verse I can teach something entirely different. Jesus said if I don't want to perish then all I have to do is repent. To be consistent then I can say this. But we know we can't pit verse against verse. But now this goes against the faith only group. Jesus teaches from these two verses that we must believe and repent. What else does Jesus tell us to do to be saved?

Matthew 10:32-33 "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. "But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

Okay, now we have three things we must do to be saved. I could teach as those who pull John 3:16 , that all I need to do in order to have Jesus confess me in heaven before His Father. We know we can't do that, don't we. So now we lean that we need to believe in Jesus repent of our sin and confess Jesus as Lord of our lives in order to be saved. Is there anything else sinners are told to do to be saved? There is and I find it interesting that we don't disagree on what we have just learned. We have no problem teaching we must believe in Jesus. We have no problem teaching we must repent of our sins and change our lives to be the type of person Jesus wants us to be. We have no problem in teaching we must confess Jesus as Lord and Master of our lives.

Why do people object to our next verse that also was commanded by Jesus Himself?

Mark 16:15-16 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

We are to go and preach the gospel, that is Christ' death, burial, resurrection and appearance to all creation. Those who believe and are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit will be saved. Those who don't believe who Jesus is and what He did will be lost. In the Churches of Christ we connect baptism as the final act we must do in order to reach the blood of Jesus. You may wonder how? That is a good and fair question. What is the connection between the gospel and baptism? I'll answer that, but first I want to point out what the word of God says about those who don't obey the gospel.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,

This should forever more answer the question what happens to those who don't obey the gospel. Paul, by inspiration said that Jesus is going to take His vengeance out on two groups of people when Jesus is revealed from heaven. Number one are those who don't know God and number two are those who don't obey the gospel. Now, what is the connection between the gospel and baptism? Remember what Paul said the gospel is? Christ' death, burial, resurrection and appearance. Now notice our next set of verses.

Romans 6:3-7 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Once again I must point out that Paul is inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the truth. He is reminding Christians of how they were saved. He says, do you not know? This is another way of saying, have you forgotten? Paul writing to the Church at Rom was not telling them what to do TO BE SAVED, but rather how they got saved. All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. Remember what is involved in the gospel? The death of Jesus.

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. In the gospel Paul says there is a burial as well. Notice that baptism involves a death, burial, resurrection and appearance in our resurrection body as a new creature in Christ. The gospel is Christ' death, burial, resurrection and appearance to others.

This is why Jesus said in Mark 16:15-16 to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."

The gospel involves baptism. We all know that our sins are forgiven only by the blood of Jesus. What has baptism got to do with the blood of Jesus? That is a great question and one that is addressed in the Word of God.

John 19:32-34 The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other man who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.

This was when Jesus was on the cross. Notice the soldier pierced Jesus' side with a spear. What happened then? The text says when that happened "immediately there came out blood and water." Is it fair to say that Jesus shed His blood in His death? I have always said that we must go to where Jesus shed His blood. And so the question is, how can I go to His death and come into contact with His blood? This is where baptism enters the picture. After you hear the word of God and you believe what you hear that Jesus is God and He is our mediator. That He shed His blood so we might have a hope to enter heaven. And we realize that we are sinners and because of that we have been seperated from God. We confess Jesus as Lord and Master of our lives and we are going to change to be the type of person God wants us to be. Then we are immersed into Jesus death coming into contact with the blood of Jesus forgiving us of all of our sins. What a great way to be saved. Simple trust in the word of God. In this word we have many warnings given to us.

Galatians 1:6-9 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.

Paul, once again says, that we can't teach any other gospel. If any change this gospel then the holiness of God will make Him to curse you to an eternal separation away from the presence of God. With this verse in mind and also reminding you of Moses and Aaron simply changing Gods word from speak to the rock to strick the rock, lets look at more verses that include baptism as a part of our salvation.

Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.

Acts 8:35-39 And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing.

Acts 16:14-15 And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.

1 Peter 3:20-21 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you-- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience-- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

These verses should for evermore solve the question of baptism is something we need to do to be saved. Without baptism we can not obey the gospel. Peter came right out and told us baptism saves us. There are those who will do just like Moses and change this, but I for one will never change the word to suit myself nor ignore plain Bible teaching. We went over the verses that explained to us how to obey the gospel. What happens after that? What must I do to remain saved? Does this cost anything?

What will this cost?

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

Paul was writing to the church at Corinth. These were Christians he was writing to. At this time he was reminding them of who will not go to heaven. In one word it is the unrighteous. Who are the unrighteous that will not go to heaven. I am going to let you know about the changes you must make in your life if you want to go to heaven. You are deceiving yourself if you live your life as any of these, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers. When we heard Jesus in Luke 13 give the command to repent, these are some of the things He had in mind. To repent means to change from these things.

Notice they were guilty of these things, but they were washed, they were sanctified, they were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. This washing they had took place in baptism. Acts 22:16 is very clear as to when our sins are washed away. Now after we learn that we must live our lives for Jesus and we have to change when we are living wrong, we still are expected to grow as a child of God. Notice these other verses.

Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

It is true that I can't show you in the Bible the words you must go to church. That is because as a Christian we are the church. The Church is the body of Christ according to Colossians 1:18. So the writer of the book of Hebrews is commanding Christians to assemble together. In the Greek we can see that this is in the imperative and that means it is a command. Here the writer is commanding the church to assemble together and encourage each other to do the same. This day must be the day the church assembled together for the purpose of worship. As a Christian we are expected to let Jesus led our lives even at the expense of losing our physical family.

Luke 14:26-28 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

2 Peter 2:20-21 For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.

This is a warning to Christians that once we start our walk with Jesus that we can't stop. It will be worse for us then not having believed from the very beginning. I now ask you a question that Ananias asked Saul. In Acts 22:10 Jesus said to Saul "Arise and go on into Damascus; and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do." I wish people would believe this. Saul was not told what to do while on the road to Damascus. Jesus told him that he would be told when he got there. What was he told?

Acts 22:16 'And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.'

I now ask you the very same question. If you haven't obeyed the gospel the Lords way why not do it now? Find a Church of Christ in your area and ask them to baptize you for the remission of your sins. Please email me and let me know if you have any question or if you went on and obeyed the gospel by repenting of your sins and being immersed into the death of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.

May His grace be upon you

Roger Gean