The Essence of the Christian Message is…
True or False: The essence of the Christian message is that you are to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.
The answer is…
FALSE!
This is not the message of the gospel but the message of the Law! When Jesus was asked about the sum of the Law, what did he say?
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mat 22.37-40)
The gospel message is not a call for us to get busy doing the best we can to please God but rather a call to realize our sinfulness and to trust upon one who truly did please God. In other words, the essential message of Christianity is never about what you and I can do but about what God has done in Christ!
Sadly many professing Christians have unwittingly wandered to Sinai and tried to package it as good news. Do you not still see the bright lightening and the dreadful mountain wrapped in smoke? Do you not hear its trumpet blast, peals of thunder, and knocking of Moses’ knees? As God descends upon this Mountain to proclaim his inflexibly rigid standard of righteousness he is to be seen as holy, unapproachable, and worthy of awe.
This is devastating. If you ask Christians what we are all about many will give this summary of the Law. This should not be. After all, if it was all about what you do why would you need Jesus? A sinless substitute sounds kind of unnecessary if you have the ability to earn God’s favor. This is exactly what Paul wrote in Galatians:
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Gal 2.21)
It is frighteningly alarming that we can so easily and quickly forget about our need for Christ’s righteousness. How in the world can a humbled sinner stand for one second clinging to self-righteousness before God almighty?
Romans 3 shows that the proper working of the Law brings about a posture of silent humiliation before God’s Law (Rom. 3.19). This is our disposition. We are lacking righteousness, turning away from ourselves, and looking for help. And there stands the beloved Son of God. He is not lacking righteousness. He has ‘fulfilled all righteousness’ for the sinner. In his life he perfectly obeyed the law of God, always doing what is pleasing to his Father (Jn. 8.29). Then he gave up his life to pay the due penalty for sinners (Rom. 6.23; 2 Cor. 5.21).
Please understand that if you answered this ‘true’ I am not trying to embarrass, insult or berate you. Instead I am trying to show you that such subtle carelessness with regard to the gospel leads you to wander far from Golgotha, all the way to Sinai.
The essence of the Christian message is that you can’t but Jesus Christ did. You can’t earn God’s favor, but Christ did perfectly through his life of obedience culminating with his sin atoning, guilt removing, wrath satisfying, death defeating sacrifice on the cross. It is with this reality fixed that the Christian then lives their life to love and honor God supremely while loving their neighbor as themselves. Christians obey God not to earn God’s favor but because Christ has earned the favor and we are now living lives controlled by the Spirit, in obedience to the Word.
Never get careless and sloppy with the gospel. It is far too precious and the consequences are far too perilous. We dangerously turn the gospel into law. This is unacceptable.
(note: Michael Horton beats this drum pretty hard in his book Christless Christianity. In particular he lights up the legalism of Joel Olsteen)
Possibly Related posts:
- Should a Christian echo Tim Hardaway’s words towards gay people?
- If you don’t get questions about works and grace then are you preaching the gospel?
- How to live a miserable Christian life (part iii)
- Q&A Friday: Is it a sin for a Christian to get a tattoo?
- Book Review- The Bookends of the Christian Life
27 Responses to “The Essence of the Christian Message is…”
Leave a Reply
About
Subscribe to Updates
Twitter Updates
- @JustinBuzzard Hands down Pillar's Edwards & then Lane. Ferguson's lil book is good as are Keller's & MacArthur's sermons.
- With him there is plentiful redemption (Ps.130.7). This is good for one who's sin is plentiful!
- We are officially in the South- Fried Chicken & Pickles @ the gas station register.
Recent Comments
- Gordan on John Piper on Sermon Prep
- Tweets that mention John Piper on Sermon Prep -- Topsy.com on John Piper on Sermon Prep
- Erik on Running from God and To God
- donsands on Running from God and To God
- Tweets that mention Running from God and To God- Irish Calvinist -- Topsy.com on Running from God and To God
Galatians 2:20 makes for a decent summary of the Christian life… I died with Christ and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me… cos if that’s not my life then I’m doing the scary denials of Galatians 2:21 by living under law or sin. No wonder John Murray calls union with Christ the centre of Christian life.
I am confussed? So we are not to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbors as ourself? Can you have responded to the gospel and not do this? Are they really inseparable because you can’t do this without Christ being in you? Maybe not the essence of the gospel but reslt of God saving you through the gospel? Help me out here.
Wow, wow. This is something I’ve been pondering. I just asked my husband a few days ago, “What did Christ mean when He said he didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it?” Did he mean that He fulfilled it so that the old covenant of the Law is complete, and then ushered in a new covenant? Does He mean He fulfilled it on our behalf, so as in Him we are seen as having fulfilled it? Does He just mean He’s set the example? Perhaps you could give us some direction in this.
BTW, this is my first time commenting here. I’ve only recently discovered your site.
If I am reading and understanding your post correctly you are trying to make sure that people are not caught up in a works righteousness understanding of the gospel, which would not be the gospel at all. I am concerned though that in your effort to emphasize this that you may be sending people a message that loving God and loving our neighbor has nothing to do with being Christian. I don’t think that is your intent. Is it?
I think what you are trying to express is that our salvation, our ability to stand before God as righteous is only secured in Christ. If I am misunderstanding that please clarify. That is the essence of our salvation, but it is not the totality of the Christian message or the Christian life.
In a variety of places within the New Testament, it is fairly clear that following Christ is essential to being a disciple and that abiding in him means loving one another. I doubt you would disagree that this is part of what God intends for us to communicate to one another.
Perhaps, all of this is a matter of being more clear with language. You seem to use good news, gospel, and the Christian message interchangeable. Good news and gospel are the same thing and to the best of my understanding they are what you have said. The message we are called as Christian to offer is both the good news and a call to discipleship. I think of Christ response to the adulterous woman whom was nearly stoned. “I do not condemn you, either, Go. From now on sin no more.” (John 8:11, NASB) It was a response of grace and law.
What is commonly referred to as the great commission offers us some guidance as to what message Christians ought to bear, “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.” Matt. 28:19-20. Part of what he commanded the disciples to do was to love one another.
So all of that said, I 100% agree that the essence of the gospel is our salvation in Christ, but the Christian message that we are to share is both the good news of our salvation by God in Christ and a call of discipleship which involves a call to love God and our neighbor. We must always keep in mind though that this discipleship response is pure thanks for what has already been accomplished. If we lift up the good news of grace divorced from the call of discipleship, we fail to fully heed Christ’s call and we lead people to understand Christ as Savior but not Lord. On the opposite hand discipleship without understanding our need for Christ is pure legal moralism.
I hope that you understand that I am not attacking what you have said about Christ sacrifice. I am in agreement. I am hoping that my comments will help folks like Ken who might be hearing that loving God and our neighbors is not something we should do, because I really don’t think that was your point.
Christ’s blessing on your ministry. I am new to your site and really appreciate it.
I feel silly responding. This is a great post and nothing more needs to be said!
Ken and John A.,
“This is not the message of the gospel but the message of the Law! ”
Erik makes it clear he is talking about the evangelical message of Christians to the world. We certainly don’t want to combine the law with the gospel as a means of salvation. When love the Lord your God with all your heart sums up the law I take it to mean all the Old Testament Law. That isn’t what we call people to.
Dave,
Great comment.
Laurie,
We are unified with Christ or “in Christ” as believers. He has accomplished the whole law as summed up in loving God and neighbor for us. He perfectly fulfills all the OT law, establishing it as a standard that has been met. And we, as being one with him, fulfill it as well.
Now, faith without works is dead, but those works aren’t the essence of the Christian message. Christ and the cross is the gospel.
Toby
I would be curious to hear your view of working out your own salvation.
Toby:
I wasn’t trying to combine the law with the gospel as a means of salvation. I tried to make clear in several places in my comment that our salvation is in Christ and not in discipleship. I guess I didn’t state it as clearly as I thought. I regret that because I think we are far more on the same page than it may seem. I may be wrong though.
Help me out by clarifying your position. Do you think we shouldn’t teach people to love God and love their neighbor? Do you think that we shouldn’t teach them to observe all that Christ commanded? If you think that as Christians we are to teach people to strive to follow Christ, but that their salvation is not dependent upon that in anyway, then we are in agreement. If you think that we should in no way teach people to be disciples, then we really are in different places and I don’t know how you reconcile your position with scripture.
In closing let me summarize, Our salvation is in Christ and in Christ alone. Following Christ is a good thing for us to do. Biblically, we are called to do so, but that discipleship in no way secures our salvation.
Hope this helps clarify what I was intending to communicate. Blessing to you.
John
This post does not negate the responsibility of believers to bear fruit (ie loving God and neighbor), it is just not the focus of it. The post deals with what the essence of the Christian message is. Is it living the Jesus life or trusting in the Jesus life? There is a marked difference. Jesus is our example but he is more. Through his obedience he is our wrath bearing, sin atoning, peace earning, righteousness.
John A.: “I am concerned though that in your effort to emphasize this that you may be sending people a message that loving God and loving our neighbor has nothing to do with being Christian.”
I did not say that. In fact I said:
“The essence of the Christian message is that you can’t but Jesus Christ did. You can’t earn God’s favor, but Christ did perfectly through his life of obedience culminating with his sin atoning, guilt removing, wrath satisfying, death defeating sacrifice on the cross. It is with this reality fixed that the Christian then lives their life to love and honor God supremely while loving their neighbor as themselves. Christians obey God not to earn God’s favor but because Christ has earned the favor and we are now living lives controlled by the Spirit, in obedience to the Word.”
The message of good news is not you need to love God and others and act like a Christian. It is that Christ has done these things (Jn. 8.29) for us. And now, we may, by grace, do these things because we are united to him through faith and walking in newness of life (Rom. 6; Col. 3).
You said, “That is the essence of our salvation, but it is not the totality of the Christian message or the Christian life. ”
I am only talking about the essence of the message of Christianity. There is no need to caveat, expand, or qualify this essential message. The work of God in Christ to secure our pardon and righteousness is fine to stand alone as the good news. I understand what your are saying but I just want to push back a bit to that which truly defines the essence of the Christian message. It is not what you have done, are doing, or will do…but it is what Christ has done.
Grace Always: I don’t think that working out your salvation (Phil 2.12) is the essence of the Christian message. It is a command for Christians to do as a result of what Christ has done (cf. Phil. 2.5-11) and because God is actively at work in us (Phil. 2.13)
Erik,
I agree with you that the Gospel is not about what you have done but what has been done on your behalf by Christ. Be careful though! All throughout the book of 1 John, John makes the connection that ‘loving God and loving your brothers and sisters’ is a mark of the true believer. (1 John 2:9-11; 3:10, etc.)
I know what you are saying and agree with it. I do believe that people confuse the Gospel message with implications/commandments that come from the Gospel (like loving your neighbor, etc.). Just be careful not to draw such a strong contrast. Loving God and loving your brother or sister is an essential characteristic of one who has been saved by the Gospel.
Hayden, Thanks for the comment. I couldn’t agree more that the gospel has implications/commandments…but this is not the gospel. Our message is not do, do, do but Christ has done. The implications come after. Please keep this post in the context of how I set it.
Does the book of James agree with this? The evidence of having been born again is what comes out of our lives – Loving God, neighbor and all the other commands of the Word of God. If you do not see the evidence then the Gospel has not born fruit in my life. Can you seperate them? Maybe the old adage two sides of the same coin would fit here. Just thinking out loud.
Thanks for the post. To think about the Gospel and how it applies is always a good thing. Ejoyed the comments and your responses.
I wonder if a false dichotomy has been set up with the answer to the question you began your post with. I think you set things up in such a provocative way as to initiate the debate here which I don’t think you intended. I would venture to say that there are a number of ways to state the “Christian message” (a broad designation? Could we say the Christian message is the whole Bible?) that demonstrate compatibility. If the WCF says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever that is not too far from saying the chief end of man is to love God with his whole being. Could we not legitimately say that that is the “Christian message”? The question then becomes, how does one do that? We certainly have no natural resources to do that because of our corruption. We needs the saving work of Christ to enable us to do what we otherwise could not. 1 John indicates that it is impossible to love God apart from having been first loved by Him. God’s love (read empowering saving grace) toward the elect enables them to love God and one another which I believe is the essence of the Christian life (at least as far as 1 John indicates). Thus, there is more to the issue than just stating the greatest command. The command is impossible apart from saving grace and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and union with Christ, etc… I think the point of your post was to say that salvation comes by grace through faith not by works which reflects what Eph. 2:8-9 says. However, the provocative nature of the initial question I think stuck some here as denying that verse 10 goes together with verses 8 and 9. Clearly you did not intend that, but as I read the post I was thinking the same thing knowing this is not what you intended. Clarity is always a hard thing when the Christian message is truly so rich and multi-faceted.
Thanks so much for this post!. Exactly what I need to be reminded of! I love it in Galatians where it says that “you have been severed from Christ you who are seeking to be justified by the law”! wow!
For me the message is a two sided coin. I became God’s child because of what Christ accomplished on the cross for me. I live as His child because of what Christ of the cross is working out in me.
The “essence” of the Christian message is ……? It is usually easier to tell what something is not because an infinite number of answers exist. The difficult task is to tell exactly what it is. Essence is a strong word. It is defined as the “most important feature”, “the perfect or idealized form of something”, or the “identifying nature”. The Church has never ceased to proclaim the essence of the Christian message. The “essence” is embodiment of the word essence. The “essence” is the embodiment of the Word of God, of truth, wisdom, life, and love. The “essence” of the Christian message is Jesus Christ. The Christian message is good news. It is THE good news. The essence of the Good News, which we Christians refer to as the Gospel message is in fact the one and only God Man Jesus Christ, the LOGOS, the WORD made flesh, the Person, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, who descended into hell, on the third day rose again, who ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, who lives and reigns today in the same body that walked and ate 2000 years ago on the earth, and who will come again in the flesh to judge the living and the dead.
If you asked “what is the essence of a proper response to the Gospel, one’s response to Jesus?” then the answers would be as many as exist individuals responding. If you asked, “What is essential to all?”, then we would have to say “love”, love of God and love of others, for without love our response is nothing. In fact, if we responded to the Good News with so much faith to move mountains, but did not have love, it would be NOTHING. Needless to say, without Christ, without the Good News, no one could respond in love.
If someone asks why He came, why did He die, why did he rise again, part of the answer is to set us free to love. Those who love Christ keep his commands, and the greatest command is to love God and love others.
“Sadly many professing Christians have unwittingly wandered to Sinai and tried to package it as good news.”
AWESOME!
erik, I have read Michael Horton ‘s book and it is a good book.
on a side note:
erik, have you seen this clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWMrKcFKqzk
cause it is a clip, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
BTW, erik:
you got the song bang on the drum all day now stuck in my head again.
cause you said:
Michael Horton beats this drum pretty hard in his book Christless Christianity.
that is a great song to have stuck in your head BTW.
Erik,
just to clarify things up, you still have Zane Hodge’s autographed photo up in your office don’t you?
Erik,
Thanks for the thoughtful response. Look forward to future posts and getting to know your site better.
Christ’s Peace to You,
John A.
SS: you must have me confused with someone else; I didn’t go to DTS…
Good one. Fortunately, good old Zane had been gone for years before I arrived on the scene. Unfortunately, there were a few guys waiting in the wings to embrace even crazier theology.
Oh, if I would have just gotten some foundational classes from Grace before I went to DTS, think where I would be …….
I like this! But I also agree with some of the comments, that to displace the common understanding of “love God/love others” from “The Essence of the Christian Message” without relocating it to its proper place is somewhat confusing. Kind of comes of like a baby/bathwater thing – only the call to love that follows salvation (by “The Essence of the Christian Message”) can hardly be called bathwater!
This is a great post on the gospel! But perhaps not so helpful as it would be with a follow-up post called “The Essence of Christian Living” – which is a call to holiness born out of love.
John A.,
Sorry. Long weekend.
“Do you think we shouldn’t teach people to love God and love their neighbor?”
The world? No.
I would not encourage those incapable of fuflilling these commands except to point them to Christ. They can’t do it.
And let’s not forget what happens when we break these commands down for them. This is the summary of the (Old Testament) Law. Are you really going to go back to the Law in the books of Moses and preach they need to do all those things. (I too like the Sinai quote.)
Toby
Thanks for the comments on this. It has prompted a follow up post, hopefully tomorrow. I really didn’t expect much in the way of comments because it seems pretty cut and dry. I still don’t understand why there is such a tendency to qualify the simple statement that encapsulates the Christian message as the gospel (what Christ did).
All I have to say about what you wrote is AMEN! You hit the nail on the head! Too often I have heard confusion about the gopsel message, but you worded your thoughts well, and more importantly than then just being your thoughts, they are supported/backed by the Gospel itself! thank you for writing what God has shown you and for sharing it with us!