Gospel Cliché Tracts

This is the second of four articles dealing with the issue of perverting “the gospel of Christ” by means of misleading and erroneous Gospel clichés. For a fuller examination of this matter, see the author’s booklet, The Gospel of God’s Grace: Make It Clear! Make It Plain! from which these articles are taken. For a proper introduction to these articles, see the previous issue of the Enjoy The Bible Quarterly.

Perverting The Gospel Of Christ by Telling Someone to “Turn From Your Sins And Receive Jesus Christ Into Your Life”

God's Requirement — Faith Alone

First of all, note God's clear declaration of the fact that faith, and faith alone, is His requirement for justification in His sight.

As these verses (along with upwards of 150 others) clearly state, God's requirement for justification unto eternal life; for salvation from the debt and penalty of one's sins; is the sole issue of placing one's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as one's all-sufficient Savior.

Faith by nature is non-meritorious and excludes the issue of one's works. Faith in someone is the issue of placing your trust, confidence, or reliance in that person and not in yourself. Believing in someone is the issue of being fully persuaded regarding the sufficiency of that person's merits and strength, and depending upon him and his merits instead of yourself and your own merits.

Therefore in believing in someone, you trust that person and depend upon him and his doings for what you need, and you don't offer any efforts of your own. Hence, having faith in someone by its very nature excludes one's own works in any manner or form. Faith places full confidence and dependence upon the works of another for you.

Wherefore, when God declares in the gospel of Christ that He is "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," this is what He is talking about. "Believing in Jesus" is the issue of placing one's complete trust, confidence, or dependence upon Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross for one's salvation, and not trusting in any works one can do. It is the issue of having "faith in his blood." That is, having complete confidence and dependence upon the merits of Christ's shed blood to provide for and effectually produce your salvation. It is the issue of being fully persuaded that when He died for you as your substitute Redeemer He did all the work necessary to accomplish your salvation. This is what "believing in Jesus" means. This is what faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as one's Savior means.

Unfortunately, though, this issue of faith in Jesus Christ as God's sole requirement for salvation all too often is not made plain and clear. Rather, it is muddled up by terminology and phraseology that not only does not accurately convey what faith in Christ is, but that actually perverts the issue and turns faith into works.

The following example falls into this category. By using such an expression God's requirement for salvation is misstated, and "another gospel" is preached instead of the gospel of justification by grace through faith without works.

The Cliché Examined

This is a very common distortion of God's requirement. Like so many other perversions of "the gospel of Christ," it takes an issue that God only urges upon ones whom He has already justified and sanctified, and makes it a requirement for becoming justified in His sight.

Turning from one's sins is something that God urges us as Christians to do. In Romans 6 God teaches us how that when He justified us He also sanctified us by baptizing us into Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. In so doing, He gave us a sanctified position "in Christ" whereby we are "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." As such we are no longer "servants of sin" with sin's mastership reigning over us. But "in Christ" we are "servants of righteousness" and have our "fruit unto holiness." Therefore, being so sanctified we are urged to turn from sin, and "not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, that we should obey it in the lusts thereof." We are urged to live consistent with who we are "in Christ" and to not "yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

It is, therefore, only a justified and sanctified Christian who can turn from sin, and even has any God-given capacity to do so. An unsaved man has no capacity to do this, no matter how strong his desire may be. It isn't until God justifies him and sanctifies him that he is "created in Christ Jesus unto good works" and puts off "the former conversation" of "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." It isn't until God justifies and sanctifies a person that he puts on "the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Foolishly, therefore, this Gospel cliché tells an unsaved person to do something that he has absolutely no capacity to do. And it tells him that he has to do it if he wants to be saved.

It is sometimes said in connection with exposing this misstatement of God's requirement that "Sin is the reason for why we need to be saved, and a person must face up to their sins and do something about them." It is perfectly true that sin is the reason for why people need to be saved. All men are sinners and unrighteous in God's sight. Also it is perfectly true that a person must face up to the issue of their sinfulness in God's sight. However, it is not true that a person must do something about their sins. Instead it is God Himself that has done something about a person's sins. That's what the good news of the gospel is all about.

As "the gospel of Christ" declares, God has set forth His Son Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins. God, therefore, declares the good news that He Himself has taken care of the sin issue through Christ's redemptive work. Hence the issue in the gospel isn't 'you do something about sinning and God will save you.' The issue is 'you're a sinner who can't stop sinning, or make up for your sins; but Christ has paid the debt and penalty for your sins Himself; and God will forgive you your sins and justify you in His sight, if you'll trust in Christ as your Savior.' The issue, therefore, isn't 'turn from your sins,' but rather the issue is that a person needs to recognize himself as hopelessly lost in his sins, that he can't turn from them at all, and that his only hope of salvation is in "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

What Does Repentance Mean?

It is also commonly said that God tells men to repent and believe the gospel. Repentance, it is said, means to turn from sin; to change the direction of your life from doing evil to doing good. Therefore, it is not only correct to tell a person to turn from his sin, it is necessary that he do so.

Now it is perfectly true that repentance is spoken of in the gospel. However, 'repent' does not mean to turn from sin, or to change the direction of one's life from doing evil things to doing good things. Such things as these can be the fruit of repentance in certain contexts, but to repent itself does not mean anything that has to do with a work, or a matter of one's conduct.

To repent simply means to change one's mind about something; to change one's thinking from one thing to another. God Himself is spoken of a number of times in the Scriptures as repenting. But God by no means turned from his sin. Such a definition of repentance certainly will not fit with God, yet He is spoken of as repenting. What this ought to indicate is that the definition is wrong, and to define repentance as turning from sin is both erroneous and will produce a misunderstanding of verses and passages in which it is used. And this is just what has happened when repentance is used in connection with the gospel.

As the context of every verse clearly shows in which the word "repent" or "repentance" occurs, the need to change one's thinking is in view. In some of the contexts the "fruits of repentance" are also spoken of. But the "fruits of repentance" and "repentance" itself are not the same thing. A change of mind about something can often lead to changes in things that one does. But the changes in activity are not repentance themselves. Instead, they are clearly described as the "fruits of repentance" in those contexts.

Now in the context of "the gospel of Christ," to repent means to change one's thinking about how one stands in God's sight, or how one thinks he can be saved. As Romans 1:18ff sets forth, by nature men entertain erroneous thoughts both about themselves and God. By nature men think that they are not that bad, or that God wants them to work for their salvation. By nature men think that Satan's "lie" regarding the acceptability of human righteousness is right. Repentance is therefore necessary in view of what the gospel says. The gospel declares that men are sinners and not righteous at all; not even possessing any commendable relative righteousness with others. When men hear this they need to change their minds about themselves and not think that they really aren't that bad off.

In like manner, the gospel declares that men's works are nothing but "dead works" in God's sight. They are nothing but "filthy rags" and "dung" to Him. When men hear this they need to change their minds about their works and realize that they are worthless things when it comes to salvation. As such, therefore, the gospel speaks of "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." The gospel tells men to change their minds in view of what God says about them, and not think that they aren't guilty and helpless sinners. Then in so doing the gospel tells men to place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for them to pay for everything that is wrong with them, and their only hope of salvation is in His redemptive work on the cross.

This, once again, is what repentance and the gospel is all about. Repentance works naturally with faith in Christ. For a person believing the gospel changes his mind about himself and any idea of being saved by his works in any manner or form, and he fully depends upon the redemptive work of Christ on the cross for his salvation. However, the false definition of turning from one's sins, or changing one's conduct from evil to good, makes the work of a changed behavior a requirement for salvation, and perverts "the gospel of Christ."

This is the third of four articles dealing with the issue of perverting “the gospel of Christ” by means of misleading and erroneous Gospel clichés. For a fuller examination of this matter, see the author’s booklet, The Gospel of God’s Grace: Make It Clear! Make It Plain! from which these articles are taken. For a proper introduction to these articles, see the First Quarter 2001 edition of the Enjoy The Bible Quarterly.

Perverting The Gospel of Christ by Telling Someone to “Make Jesus The Lord Of Your Life”

God's Requirement — Faith Alone

Faith by nature is non-meritorious and excludes the issue of one's works. Having faith in someone is the issue of placing your trust, confidence, or reliance in that person and not in yourself. Believing in someone is the issue of being fully persuaded regarding the sufficiency of that person's merits and strength, and depending upon him and his merits instead of yourself and your own merits. Therefore in believing in someone, you trust that person and depend upon him and his doings for what you need, and you don't offer any efforts of your own. For this reason, having faith in someone by its very nature excludes one's own works in any manner or form. Faith places full confidence and dependence upon the works of another for you.

Wherefore, when God declares in the gospel of Christ that He is "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," this is what He is talking about. "Believing in Jesus" is the issue of placing your complete trust, confidence, or dependence upon Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross for your salvation, and not trusting in any works you can do. It is the issue of having "faith in his blood." That is, having complete confidence and dependence upon the merits of Christ's shed blood to provide for and effect your salvation. It is the issue of being fully persuaded that when He died for you as your substitute Redeemer He did all the work necessary to accomplish your salvation. This is what "believing in Jesus" means. This is what faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as one's Savior means.

Unfortunately, though, this issue of faith in Jesus Christ as God's sole requirement for salvation all too often is not made plain and clear. Rather, it is muddled up by terminology and phraseology that not only does not accurately convey what faith in Christ is, but that actually perverts the issue and turns faith into works.

The following example falls into this category. By using such an expression God's requirement for salvation is misstated, and "another gospel" is preached instead of the gospel of justification by grace through faith without works.

The Cliché Examined

This misstatement of God's requirement for salvation is often used as the gospel appeal by ones who preach what is called Lordship salvation. Lordship salvation is the designation given to the preaching that says that Jesus Christ must be made the Lord of one's life, in every area of one's life, if a person is going to be saved. The teaching is that there is no salvation if Jesus Christ isn't the Lord of one's life, and has one's obedience and surrender of will in every area of life.

However this misstatement is guilty of the same mistake as other misstatements we have considered, which is to confuse an issue of Christian service to God with the issue of how a person gets saved and becomes a Christian in the first place.

It should be painfully obvious that making Jesus Christ Lord of one's life is an issue that God exhorts and urges Christians to do. That's what passages such as Romans 6-8; 12:1-2ff; Ephesians 4:17ff and many others exhort us to do as ones whom God has already justified and sanctified by His grace in response to faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. After trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and being justified by faith, God teaches us and exhorts us to make Jesus the Lord of our lives. He exhorts us to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him, which is our reasonable service." But a person can only present his body a "living sacrifice" if he has first been put to death in Christ, just as Romans 6 teaches. Therefore, making Jesus the Lord of one's life is an issue only for saved people. God never tells the unsaved to do it or try it. It is impossible for them to do it at all. This is because it can't be done if God Himself has not first justified, reconciled, and sanctified a person by His grace.

Again, making Jesus the Lord of one's life is a Christian service issue and not a salvation issue at all. Surrendering one's will to Jesus as Lord and allowing Him to control the details of one's life is what the life of good works that God created us unto in Christ Jesus is all about. A person has to be God's "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works" before he can make Jesus the Lord of his life. A person can only "serve the Lord Christ" when first he has been made a servant of Christ by the creative activity of God. This creative activity of God takes place when the Holy Spirit regenerates us and places us into Christ. Then, and only then, can a person make Jesus the Lord of his life. Making Him Lord, though, is not how God saves us at all. It isn't the issue of faith in Christ as Savior at all.

Confusing the issues of discipleship and service with the separate and preliminary issue of salvation is one of the most common ways in which the gospel of Christ is perverted and "another gospel" ends up being produced. Also it is so subtly deceiving because God's own word is used to produce the perversion. Verses and passages that are dealing with discipleship and service are taken out of their contexts, and they are used as if they were talking about how to be justified unto eternal life. Hence, God's word is made to sound as if it stipulated salvation on the basis of making Jesus the Lord of one's life, and the like. But in reality God is being misquoted and misrepresented, and He is being made to say something He never said. Through unscrupulous and deceitful Bible handling the gospel of God's grace is libeled, and the unsaved are deceived and blinded to the truth of the gospel. And it is all to the advancement of the policy of evil against the gospel.

Sometimes it is said in response to this that "If Jesus isn't Lord of all, then He isn't Lord at all." The implication in connection with this is that one cannot receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior without making Him the Lord of one's life. But this is a subterfuge of semantics and simply is not true. Jesus Christ is Lord, and Lord of all, whether anyone ever makes Him Lord of their lives or not. Jesus Christ is Lord by virtue of being God. His Lordship is part of His God-ness. In fact, as Philippians 2:9-11 declares, Jesus is going to be acknowledged and confessed to be Lord "to the glory of God the Father" even by ones who never get saved and end up being cast into the lake of fire for ever. They are going to be cast there because Jesus Christ is Lord, and as Lord He judges them worthy of everlasting punishment. However, why they end up there isn't because they didn't make Him the Lord of their lives. It is because they never responded to Him as their Savior in view of Him having died on the cross as their substitute Redeemer. They rejected His work on the cross for them and were enemies of the cross of Christ.

This is the fourth of four articles dealing with the issue of perverting “the gospel of Christ” by means of misleading and erroneous Gospel clichés. For a fuller examination of this matter, see the author’s booklet, The Gospel of God’s Grace: Make It Clear! Make It Plain! from which these articles are taken. For a proper introduction to these articles, see the First Quarter 2001 edition of the Enjoy The Bible Quarterly.

Perverting The Gospel of Christ by Telling Someone to “Invite Jesus Into Your Heart”

God's Requirement — Faith Alone

First of all, note God's clear declaration of the fact that faith, and faith alone, is His requirement for justification in His sight.

As these verses (along with upwards of 150 others) clearly state, God's requirement for justification unto eternal life; for salvation from the debt and penalty of one's sins; is the sole issue of placing one's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as one's all-sufficient Savior.

Faith by nature is non-meritorious and excludes the issue of one's works. Faith in someone is the issue of placing your trust, confidence, or reliance in that person and not in yourself. Believing in someone is the issue of being fully persuaded regarding the sufficiency of that person's merits and strength, and depending upon him and his merits instead of yourself and your own merits.

Therefore in believing in someone, you trust that person and depend upon him and his doings for what you need, and you don't offer any efforts of your own. Hence, having faith in someone by its very nature excludes one's own works in any manner or form. Faith places full confidence and dependence upon the works of another for you.

Wherefore, when God declares in the gospel of Christ that He is "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," this is what He is talking about. "Believing in Jesus" is the issue of placing your complete trust, confidence, or dependence upon Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross for your salvation, and not trusting in any works you can do. It is the issue of having "faith in his blood." That is, having complete confidence and dependence upon the merits of Christ's shed blood to provide for and effect your salvation. It is the issue of being fully persuaded that when He died for you as your substitute Redeemer He did all the work necessary to accomplish your salvation. This is what "believing in Jesus" means. This is what faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as one's Savior means.

Unfortunately, though, this issue of faith in Jesus Christ as God's sole requirement for salvation all too often is not made plain and clear. Rather, it is muddled up by terminology and phraseology that not only does not accurately convey what faith in Christ is, but that actually perverts the issue and turns faith into works.

The following example falls into this category. By using such an expression God's requirement for salvation is misstated, and "another gospel" is preached instead of the gospel of justification by grace through faith without works.

The Cliché Examined

This particular expression, though very popular and also employed in songs that urge people to come to Christ, still does not spell out clear and plain the fact that faith in Christ as one's Redeemer is the issue. In fact, it doesn't describe what faith in Christ is at all. Faith in Christ as Savior is not inviting Him to do anything. It isn't asking Him to do anything. Rather, it is the issue of trusting in Him for what He has already done to provide for salvation.

This expression, however, is all too often linked together with the issue of turning from sin, cleaning up one's life, and making Jesus the Lord of one's life. The unsaved is given the idea that salvation is contingent upon a change of lifestyle and who controls his heart. Up until now he has been living away from the Lord and has had a self-centered self-indulgent heart. He is told that he needs to change this in order to be saved. He needs Jesus to sit on the throne of his heart. Yet, he is told, Jesus won't come into his heart and save him until he determines to change his life and to let Jesus be the Lord of his life. He is then told that he is supposed to signify his determination to the Lord by inviting Jesus into his heart to be the Lord of his life.

Once again, though, this is not the issue in salvation. This is another confusion of the issue of the Christian walk with how one becomes a Christian.

Besides all of this, it is God who is making the invitation to salvation. He's not waiting for an invitation from men at all. Rather, He is the one who is calling by the gospel. The inviting is on God's part, not the other way around. This expression even distorts that concept.

The Misuse of Revelation 3:20

Support for this idea of inviting Jesus into one's heart is often made by appealing to Revelation 3:20 where the Lord says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Along with this, pictures portray the Lord standing at the door of a person's heart and knocking, waiting for the invitation to come in by the person opening the door of his heart to the Lord.

But a brief thoughtful consideration of the context of that verse will show that it is not talking about how to be saved at all. The context shows that the door is not the door of a person's heart.

Also the context shows that the verse is not even talking about an action of the Lord in this present dispensation of His grace. The book of the Revelation is dealing with the resumption of God's program and dealings with Israel. It is about the things that will be transpiring in the "day of the Lord." It isn't talking about what God is doing today in this 'mystery dispensation.'

Moreover, the letters to the seven churches are letters to the assemblies of the remnant of Israel in that day. Consequently, the issues that the Lord deals with (especially in the letter to the church of the Laodiceans) are issues of doctrinal correction and reproof to those that are already His own. Therefore in these letters the Lord isn't talking to ones who are not justified and need to be saved.

In addition, the portrayal of the Lord as standing at the door and knocking is a declaration of the time that has arrived in Israel's "last days." It isn't a representation of the door of a sinner's heart at all.

Hence, the use of this verse to support the idea that God's requirement for salvation is the issue of inviting Jesus into one's heart is a clear misuse of Scripture. But that is just how most of the misstatements of God's requirement come into existence