Page 56 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

do so for all eternity. According to John 8:24, Jesus said, “Therefore I said to you that you will
die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am (Lord), you will die in your sins." What this verse
means is until you are willing to honor Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, you will
pay the penalty for your own sins. Either He pays the penalty, or you do. You
can’t have it both ways!

What is the Gospel?
The word gospel means “good news.” It is best described in:

I Corinthians 15:3-4 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third
day according to the Scriptures,

The gospel message is that Christ died and arose to take our punishment for sin and give us eternal life.

The key word in the New Testament describing what one must do to have eternal life is “believe (to
exercise faith).” The term “believe” means more than believing a fact. It means “trusting in” or
“depending on” a fact. You can say a chair will hold you up if you sit in it, but true faith is demonstrated
by sitting down in the chair. That’s what “believing in Christ for eternal life” means. In the Bible, “faith”
in Christ means the same thing. It’s the noun form of the verb “believe.” The best verse in the Bible to
help us truly understand what a person must do is found in John.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.

Other descriptions for “eternal life” you will find in these passages are “salvation, saved, justification,
justified.” The word “grace” describes the whole process of God giving eternal life as a free gift – apart
from works – to those who believe.

What the gospel is not

Adding to the gospel (belief or faith) is a false gospel. It is corrupting the gospel to add
any requirement beyond faith (Galatians 1:6-9).

Adding Works to salvation.
Some false teachers will say, “Trust in Christ and do good works.” If you must do
anything personally to achieve salvation, then that salvation is a result of your works.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and that not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

This verse clearly states that you are saved through faith and not by any personal works.

Some who hold a strong election view over mans’ free will often use this verse to “prove” that even
man’s faith is from God. They say that a man cannot exercise faith on his own; it must come totally from
God as a gift. They say that man is so spiritually dead, that he cannot possibly receive the gift of
salvation by choice. Dead men cannot choose.

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