There Is Only One Gospel

I preached yesterday out of Mark 1:1-9 as our church is beginning a lengthy study of the life and ministry of Jesus through the Gospel of Mark. In the opening sentence, Mark declares that this is “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. The gospel. One of my primary passions as a pastor is to help Christians understand the gospel more fully and to help them apply the truth of the gospel to every part their lives.

You can find a number of different versions of the gospel in the theological marketplace these days, but Mark indicates here that there is only one gospel, concerning the news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If a your gospel adds to or takes away from His gospel than it is a false gospel, a false teaching, a false doctrine.

The most dangerous false gospels are not those that exclude Jesus but those that include Jesus. Just because a teacher or preacher includes Jesus does not make it theologically sound or even distinctively Christian. The gospel is not merely inclusive of Jesus, rather it is exclusively about Jesus.

As Christians, we have to be clear about this. There is only one way to salvation and it is through Jesus Christ. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) I emphasize this because there is enormous pressure in our culture for Christians to be more open-minded and, yes, tolerant of other beliefs. “Tolerance” isn’t a biblical word but there are plenty who use it synonymously with grace. And the gospel is all about grace. The gospel is also all about the truth. We find in Jesus, who is said in John’s gospel to be full of grace and truth, that these two characteristics are not mutually exclusive. Jesus was not 50% gracious and 50% truthful. There was not a balance of these attributes in the character of Christ, he was both fully gracious and fully truthful. Grace and truth are not only compatible with each other, but you actually can’t have one without the other. 

Rightly Defining What's Been Re-defined

In his book called Biblical Eldership, Alexander Strauch rightly states that, “false teachers have had their greatest triumphs when they redefine biblical words in a way that is contrary to their original meaning.” And this is precisely what has happened in a very broad sense. Consequently, holding to the conviction that there is only one gospel, that Jesus is the only way to salvation, will make people, not only outside the church but often in the church, absolutely crazy. Nothing makes people today more angry than exclusive truth claims.

This kind of “intolerance” will get you branded a religious fanatic. It is the ultimate sin in a culture that doesn’t acknowledge sin. In fact it’s the unpardonable sin of our day because it’s blasphemy against the spirit of our age, the spirit of tolerance, which has come to mean that all truth claims and all belief systems are equally valid, which by the way, is far to easily overlooked as truth claim in itself, the only acceptable one in secular society.

Writing in 1908, G.K. Chesterton makes this observation which is eerily prophetic considering the times we live in:

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man he asserts is exactly the part he ought not to assert- himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not doubt - the Divine Reason. 

False teachers have hijacked our understanding of humility and conviction which are just other ways to talk about about grace and truth. As a result, humility is linked with tolerance which has to mean that we must be accepting of other people’s views as true or at least potentially true. But that’s not what tolerance means and humility doesn’t lead us there.

Tolerance is treating with integrity, humility and dignity someone whose opinions I believe to be untrue and completely invalid. Like grace and truth, you can’t have tolerance without conviction. You aren’t tolerant of anything until you are convicted about something.

Conviction Matters

As Christians, we have to be people of unwavering conviction. We must also be people of humility, tolerant of those who have not yet come to a knowledge of the truth. The only thing that has the power to produce both is a firm belief in the gospel, that is exclusively about Jesus Christ. If we really believe this gospel we will be the most humble people on the planet because we are saved only by grace and that same belief will fuel our zeal for mission and evangelism because of our conviction that there is no hope for anyone apart from Jesus and the gospel.