Kenneth Yates¹
Editor

I. INTRODUCTION

Bob (Wilkin) mentioned in the introduction that forgiveness of sins is a big issue. He also mentioned that not all the speakers agree on everything. That is certainly the case when it comes to the forgiveness of sins. This is true not only concerning what I am going to discuss.² In recent years, I have found, even when talking with Free Grace people, that we have not worked out the details of what we believe about this subject. We just assume certain things about the forgiveness of sins without realizing that we do not agree on all of these things.

The topic of forgiveness of sins is many-faceted. I will deal only with how it relates to the issue of evangelism. Is it sufficient to tell the unbeliever that he or she needs to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins? Is that enough information for a person to be eternally saved? Is it the same as believing in Jesus for eternal life?

Many people say that if a person believes in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, that is sufficient.³ You do not have to mention eternal life, and the unbeliever does not have to know he or she has eternal life as long as the person believes he or she has the forgiveness of sins.⁴

I am going to address this question: Is believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins a proper evangelistic message? Many would say “yes.”⁵ In fact, although this is an unscientific survey, I would say that most people would probably say that if you preach the gospel and say that Jesus will wash your sins away, this is an acceptable Biblical gospel presentation.⁶ They may use different words, such as, “Jesus will forgive your sins,” and that is considered acceptable as well. We hear such phrases in gospel presentations all the time.⁷

This is not true only in the United States. When I travel to Spanish-speaking countries, I hear the same thing in sermons.⁸ It is very common to hear the speaker declare the need to receive the forgiveness of sins. It is very, very rare to hear about eternal life, or that you will live forever, or that you will be in the kingdom of God forever. It is much more common to hear about the need to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and to hear people say, when speaking of their conversion, that their sins have been forgiven.

II. APPEALING TO SCRIPTURE

Perhaps the passage most often used to support this evangelistic message is 1 Cor 15:1-4. Many speakers say this is where Paul most clearly presents the gospel to unbelievers.

You probably know these verses. Paul says this is “the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”

And this is the gospel that Paul preached to them: “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

In this passage––in which Paul talks about the gospel that he preached––he talks about Christ dying for our sins. Do you notice that he does not mention eternal life? He makes no mention of living forever. Many will point out that in this passage, Paul says his gospel is that Christ died for our sins. He does not say anything in these verses about eternal life.⁹

According to this interpretation of the passage, somebody could believe that Christ died for their sins and thus have forgiveness of sins without believing in Him for the assurance of eternal life. This is considered an acceptable gospel—a saving message.

Many would even say this is the preferable way to present the gospel. Maybe that is why we hear it so often—not just in the United States, but in other countries as well. That is why we often hear that if a person believes that Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, his or her sins are forgiven. We are told that such a person is a child of God even if that person does not believe he or she has eternal life and even if that one believes he or she has to work to have eternal life. As long as the person believes his or her sins are forgiven now, he or she has believed the saving gospel.

On a side note, let me just say that in 1 Corinthians 15, the gospel, or “good news,” that Paul is talking about is the physical resurrection of Christ. Paul is talking about rewards, about being saved at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and about being healthy at that judgment. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is not talking about the evangelistic message that saves a person from the lake of fire.¹⁰ Paul is talking to believers, and some believers in the church at Corinth were saying that the physical body would not rise. That is the context of the whole chapter.¹¹ This strongly suggests that 1 Cor 15:1-4 is not a good place to go to find the message that saves a person from hell.

When people look at a passage like 1 Cor 15:1-4, it is no wonder that they are more likely to speak about the forgiveness of sins or the need for a person to have sins washed away than to speak about the need to believe in Jesus for eternal life.

This is what I have found in my survey of various gospel tracts, commentaries, and blogs. I would like to discuss four examples in which writers say you do not need to believe in Jesus for eternal life to be eternally saved. They say that the unbeliever need not even be aware of that concept, as long as he or she understands that his or her sins are forgiven.

III. EVANGELISTIC TRACTS

One gospel tract I recently read presented the gospel in a way that calls for a sinner’s prayer: “Dear God, I am a sinner, and I need forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ shed His precious blood and died for my sins. I am willing to turn from sin. I now invite Christ to come into my heart.”¹²

Notice that works are involved here. The unbeliever must be willing to turn from his or her sin. Evidently, a sinner’s prayer is required as well, and there is a need to invite Christ into your heart. This is considered an acceptable gospel presentation.

Do you notice that the tract includes nothing about assurance of salvation? It does not mention eternal life. That is a common characteristic in these tracts.

Another tract concentrates on the cross of Christ. It says that in the cross of Jesus, God has already dealt with our sinful past. He freely offers us the forgiveness of sins.¹³

I am not sure, but I think the writer is implying that though you had a sinful past, Christ will clean up your life after you believe in Him.

Another tract says that all of us are sinners. God in His great mercy sent His only Son to save us from our sins. As the gospel says, His name is Jesus because He is the One who is able to save His people from their sins (Matt 1:21).¹⁴

This reference to Matt 1:21 is interesting. I wonder if the words here are not directed to the nation of Israel. To be honest, I do not wonder: I know that they are!

As the Christ, Jesus has the power to forgive sins. He says this to the Pharisees. As the Son of Man, He has the authority to forgive sins. In Mark 2, He tells the paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof that his sins are forgiven. (Just in passing, in the case of the paralyzed man, the issue is fellowship, not salvation from hell.)

Another tract says, “We need to be forgiven by God in order to be saved. Jesus’ blood is the only way for this to happen.” Again, we see that works are involved. “We must humble ourselves and forgive others in order to receive forgiveness.”¹⁵ You can guess where that idea came from: The Scriptures say that if you do not forgive others, neither will you be forgiven (Matt 6:14-15).

But if you have to be forgiven of your sins to make it into the kingdom of God, and if you cannot be forgiven unless you forgive others, then you will not be a part of the kingdom if you do not forgive others. It is easy to see that in this tract, works are necessary to make it into the kingdom. The specific work is that you must forgive others.

Most, if not all, of these gospel presentations that deal with the forgiveness of sins include the idea that you need to recognize you are a sinner. As the person presenting the gospel, I need to get you to understand that you are a sinner and that you need to be saved from your sins. You need to be forgiven of your sins. This message is a way to introduce something else a person needs to do in order to be saved, such as feeling sorry for and repenting of his or her sins.

Therefore, we must address what repentance of sins means. It is common to understand this as “turning from” your sins. When you hear gospel presentations, I encourage you to listen for these ideas and try to figure out what is being said.

It is important to note that evangelicals in general are not the only ones who believe that the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins is an acceptable gospel presentation. Even people in what some would call the wider Free Grace circles believe this. They teach that the unbeliever can receive eternal life by believing one or more of several different things.

For example, if the unbeliever is told to believe that he or she is redeemed, that he or she has been reconciled, or that he or she has the forgiveness of sins, these are all acceptable gospel presentations.

Even teachers who are more broadly Free Grace will say that we do not have to tell the unbeliever about eternal life. The unbeliever does not need to believe in eternal life as long as he or she believes in one of these other things, such as the forgiveness of sins.

I had a conversation with one such individual, who said that the unbeliever is saved as long as he believes he has received “something” from Jesus.

So, if I believe that Jesus forgives me of my sins, I believe that I am receiving something from Him. Even if works are involved to some degree—even if the unbeliever thinks, for example, that he or she must turn from sins in order to receive that forgiveness—then he or she is okay. To many, this would be an acceptable gospel presentation. The unbeliever who believes in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins––even if the person does not believe he or she has eternal life in Him––has that life because the person has believed in Him for forgiveness.

What are the problems with such an understanding of the saving message? There are many, but I will suggest only four.

IV. FOUR PROBLEMS

I would like to address four problems with the view that the forgiveness of sins is an acceptable option as a gospel presentation: 1) The forgiveness of sins and receiving eternal life are not the same thing; 2) The Gospel of John disagrees with this kind of gospel presentation; 3) It involves some practical issues; 4) It presents the unbeliever with a confusing message.

A. Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life Are Not the Same Thing

When we turn to Acts 2:38, we see that there is a difference between the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. There is a great deal of information about Acts 2:38 on GES’s website, so it is a verse many of you probably know very well.

In Acts 2:38, Peter tells the listeners that they need to repent and that each of them is to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. They will then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter is offering them the forgiveness of sins if they will repent and be baptized.

As many readers probably realize, these people already had eternal life. In verse 37, we read that they had believed what Peter was preaching. They were already eternally saved; they already had eternal life.¹⁶ Now, Peter says that he is offering them the forgiveness of sins. It is clear that the forgiveness of sins and eternal life are not the same thing. They can receive forgiveness after they have eternal life.

In Acts 22:16, Paul describes how he became a believer and what happened to him. If I were to ask you when Paul received eternal life, I guess that all, or most, of you would say it happened on the road to Damascus. That would be correct. He received eternal life on that road.¹⁷ A few days later, Ananias came to Paul and asked why he was waiting. Ananias told him to arise and be baptized in order to wash away his sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.

Once again, we see that the washing away of sins—the forgiveness of sins—is not the same thing as receiving eternal life or being born from above. At least some people in Acts receive forgiveness of sins after they have eternal life.

A great deal of material from Free Grace writers points out that the first generation of Jews in the book of Acts, just like we do today, received eternal life at the point of faith. But before these Jews received the forgiveness of sins, God required something else from them.¹⁸ It is important to understand that forgiveness and eternal life are not the same thing.

In the case of believers today, we can look at 1 John 1:9, where John says that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John is talking to believers, and believers receive the forgiveness of sins when they confess their sins. The believers addressed in 1 John already have eternal life but, in some sense, need to be forgiven when they sin. Eternal life and forgiveness of sin are two separate issues.

The NT is full of this teaching. So, what is the difference between eternal life and the forgiveness of sins? I do not want to state the obvious, but eternal life is eternal life. Believers receive eternal life the very moment they believe in Jesus for it. It is theirs. It is something that cannot be lost. By definition, it is eternal—and if it is eternal, it cannot end. That is what eternal life is.

The forgiveness of sins is different. It allows the believer to have fellowship, or intimacy, with the Lord. That fellowship can be lost. This is why 1 John 1:9 says that we need to confess our sins in order to receive the forgiveness of sins. The Word of God reveals our sins to us, and we are called to confess those sins in order to receive forgiveness.¹⁹ Our fellowship with the Lord, as believers, is then restored.

So, eternal life is something that the believer has forever at the moment of faith, and that can never be lost. At the initial moment of faith, we receive forgiveness of sins that allows us to have fellowship with Christ. The forgiveness of sins in 1 John 1:9 is something believers need to experience continually in order to remain in fellowship with the Lord.

A believer––who, by definition, has eternal life––can need to be forgiven. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us a prayer in which we ask the Lord to forgive us as we forgive others. As a believer, I never need to receive eternal life again. That is not the case with forgiveness of sins. The believer needs to ask for forgiveness on occasion.

Today, when a person believes in Jesus Christ for eternal life, he also receives the forgiveness of sins. But forgiveness of sins is also something we need over and over. Eternal life and forgiveness of sins—which relates to fellowship with the Lord––are separate things. Eternal life cannot be lost. Fellowship can be lost, and forgiveness of sins is necessary for it to be restored.

B. The Gospel of John

The Gospel of John presents another problem with the position that offering forgiveness of sins is an acceptable gospel presentation. As many readers know, the Gospel of John is the only book written to unbelievers. It is the only book with the purpose of telling people how to be saved from the lake of fire.

In the Gospel of John, the forgiveness of sins is never used in presenting the gospel. The forgiveness of sins is never mentioned when an unbeliever is told how to be saved from the lake of fire. That tells me a lot right there. If the one book in the NT that tells us how to be spiritually saved does not use the phrase forgiveness of sins, why should I?

The forgiveness of sins is mentioned only once in the Gospel of John––John 20:23. There, Jesus is talking to the disciples. He says that if they forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If they retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Here, the forgiveness of sins means forgiveness within the church.²⁰ It deals with forgiveness among believers. This makes sense if we see the forgiveness of sins as a fellowship issue, rather than as something that is believed in order to receive eternal life.

In summary, the Gospel of John does not tell the unbelievers that they need to believe that their sins are forgiven. This is true of every one of the Lord’s gospel presentations in the Gospel of John. When the Lord speaks to Nicodemus and the woman at the well, when He speaks to unbelievers in John 5 and John 6, and when He tells Martha in John 11 what a person needs to believe in order to be saved, He does not tell them to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins.

In the Gospel of John, the reason for this is clear. John understands that what the unbeliever needs to believe in Jesus for is eternal life.

I find it strange to hear gospel presentations like those in the tracts mentioned previously. Some say that believing in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and believing in Him for eternal life is the same thing. They say that if you believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins, then having eternal life is automatic.

Here is a challenge for all of you: When you hear such a gospel presentation, listen for how many times you hear about believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and how many times you hear about believing in Him for eternal life. The truth is that in that brand of gospel presentation, eternal life is practically never mentioned. They do not even use similar concepts, such as that if you believe in Him you will live with Him forever in His kingdom or that you will be with Him forever.

In other words, these gospel presentations do not follow Jesus’ example in the Gospel of John. In John, Jesus does not mention the forgiveness of sins, but these presentations emphasize it. In John, Jesus repeatedly offers the unbeliever eternal life. These presentations do not mention it. When we present the gospel by telling the unbeliever to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, there should be a loud warning siren.

C. Practical Concerns

My third problem with presenting the gospel by telling the unbeliever to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins is a practical one. I understand that practical issues do not determine our doctrine. But there are some practical concerns in saying that believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins saves somebody from the lake of fire.

First, if that is a message that saves, we do not need to evangelize anybody, because many millions of people in the United States already believe that is the gospel. I would also say that in other countries we already have an exceedingly large number of evangelists preaching the forgiveness of sins.

I was a military chaplain. One of my bosses was a Christian Scientist. I had a problem with him because we were slated to preach together in a military chapel. He was my boss, and my career was in his hands, but I did not want to preach with him.

I decided I would not preach with him because he was a Christian Scientist. I had done a little reading and discovered that they believed some really weird things. So, I told him that I did not want to preach in a pulpit with him. That would have involved doing things like making the announcements when he preached and passing out the elements of the Lord’s Supper when we had communion. I went to his office and told him of my decision.

He asked me why I would not share a pulpit with him, and I told him that he and I did not believe in the same things. He responded that he believed the same things I did. He said that he was a Christian, just as I was. I asked him what he believed. He informed me that he believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins. He said that he believed Jesus had died on the cross for his sins and, as a result, his sins were forgiven in Christ.

That was not the only time I ran into such a situation. A friend I worked with was a Mormon chaplain. We had a conversation over lunch one day. In the military, Mormons are considered Protestant chaplains, and I asked my friend if he felt strange preaching at a Protestant chapel. I pointed out that his beliefs were heretical to most of the people in the chapel.

His response was interesting. He claimed that he was not heretical at all. I asked him what he meant, and he read 1 Cor 15:1-4 to me. He said that he believed every single word of those verses. He said that he was not a heretic because Paul gives the gospel by which we are saved and that he believed the same thing that I, and the other Protestant chaplains, did. He specifically said that he believed that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead and that he had the forgiveness of sins in Christ.

If believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins is sufficient in order to be saved, then what the Christian Scientist and Mormon chaplains told me meant that they were spiritually saved. In the same way, the Catholic Church believes that its members have the forgiveness of sins through Christ. I worked with many Catholic chaplains through the years, and they all told me that they had forgiveness of sins through Christ.

A few years ago, I attended a Bible conference at which the people identified themselves as Free Grace believers. The leader of one session discussed the gospel the Catholic Church preaches and whether it is a saving message. He said that he had worked with Catholics for forty years and did not believe the Catholic gospel was a saving one. However, most of the people in that room said it was. It was pointed out that the Catholic Church proclaims that its members have the forgiveness of sins through Christ.

I once taught at a Bible college in Ukraine. I found it strange that, though it was a Baptist Bible college, none of the students believed in eternal security, likely because of their Mennonite background. The students were very upfront about the fact that a Christian could not have assurance of eternal life. They strongly believed that they could lose their eternal salvation. I asked the class what message they preached when they evangelized. They said that they preach the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ and specifically appealed to 1 Cor 15:1-4.

My point here is that if the forgiveness of sins is an acceptable gospel presentation, then pretty much everybody is preaching a sufficient message. Our work is practically done. That message is being preached everywhere, even in Christian cults. Free Grace people have little or nothing to add when it comes to evangelism.

My daughter Kathryn and I go to Zambia and Kenya every year to teach. In those countries, I have spoken in various churches. In those churches, as a general rule, preachers say you can lose your salvation for almost any reason. At the same time, they claim that their sins have been forgiven in Christ. You hear such a message all the time.

D. It Is Confusing

The fourth problem I have with saying that the forgiveness of sins is an acceptable saving message is that it is very confusing. We get a hint of this confusion when we remember the gospel tracts I mentioned earlier. In them, the forgiveness of sins is often predicated upon things such as humbling yourself and/or forgiving others. The unbeliever needs to do those things in order to receive the forgiveness of sins. But what do these things mean? What does it mean to humble yourself? What does it mean to forgive others? Those tracts made such steps necessary for receiving the forgiveness of sins.

At a more basic level, what does the forgiveness of sins itself mean? What did my Mormon chaplain friend and Christian Scientist boss mean when they said they had the forgiveness of sins in Christ? Such a statement can mean many different things, and the unbeliever does not have a clue what a particular evangelist means.

I can give you my experience regarding what various people mean when they evangelize by offering the forgiveness of sins. The Catholic Church preaches it, as do the Mormons and Christian Scientists. Arminians, such as the students in Ukraine who believed you can lose your salvation, do as well.

What they all have in common is that the forgiveness of sins means the new “believer” starts with a clean state. He is on a kind of probation. When you believe you have the forgiveness of sins you have a conditional kind of salvation.

Do you remember the movie Animal House? The dean of the college in the movie tells the stars of the show that they are on “double secret probation” because of their antics. It is kind of like that with many people who preach the forgiveness of sins. The new believer often thinks that if he now lives a holy life, he might make it into the kingdom of God.

When I was in the Army, I wanted to go to a school called Jump Master School. I wanted to go because I was a young man with a lot of testosterone. The jump master is the soldier who leads everybody in jumping out of an airplane and parachuting to the ground. I thought it would be very exciting to be that guy. It was a challenge placed before me.

The problem was that the school was difficult. You had to meet certain standards in order to graduate. We could not bend these standards. Each student could be tested up to four times. He had to pass the test. He had to inspect three jumpers who were wearing all their equipment. Each mock jumper had mistakes purposely built into his parachute and uniform. The student had to follow a certain pattern of inspection and find the errors. He had to do so in five minutes.

Approximately eighty-five percent of students failed on their first attempt. I was among them. After I failed, the sergeant who was teaching the course took me aside and told me to “shake it off.” He told me I was forgiven for not catching the errors.

Clearly, he did not mean that I was now a jumpmaster. He meant that I should forget that I had failed the exam. I should look at it as having a clean slate. I had three more attempts to get it right, but I still had to meet the standards on one of those exams.

I am convinced that this is the way most unbelievers understand it when they hear that they will receive the forgiveness of sin if they believe in Jesus. They have a clean slate. If they don’t smoke, drink, or go to bars anymore, they have a chance to make it into heaven. Hopefully, Peter will tell them that they are good to go when they get to the pearly gates. The unbeliever will be very confused about what it means that his sins are forgiven. The vast majority will believe they are on some kind of probation. They do not believe that they have eternal life that cannot be lost.

Imagine the confusion such people will experience if they hear 1 John 1:9. Let’s say they believe that their sins are forgiven and that they are now on probation. They just need to do certain things, which means they need to live a good life. Then they read a verse like 1 John 1:9, which says that if we confess our sins, the Lord is just to forgive us of our sins. These people will think they must keep confessing their sins in order to make it into the kingdom.

Others will think they need to do other things to make it through their probationary period. In Kenya, for example, preachers preach that Jesus gives people forgiveness of sins. Now that they have that forgiveness, they need to beware of demons. They may need to have a demon cast out of them in order to finally make it into heaven. Others will think they need to endure in good works until the end of their lives. Some, such as Roman Catholics, believe that they must keep the sacraments of the church.

Such an understanding does not equate the forgiveness of sins with the reception of eternal life. People can believe they have the forgiveness of sins and, if they are fortunate, can get eternal life later. They do not believe they have eternal life now.

We also see the confusing nature of offering the gospel as the forgiveness of sins in the various ways it is presented. Some say the unbeliever needs to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and get baptized. Others use 1 Cor 15:1-4 and say the unbeliever must believe in the forgiveness of sins and then hold fast. That was the position of my students in Ukraine.

Once I was listening to a sermon on a podcast. The preacher started by saying that the listener needs to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. If he or she did, the person would be saved. Surprisingly, the preacher then added that if someone did that, the person could not lose his or her salvation. When I heard that I silently said, “Hallelujah.” I was surprised, though, because I knew that the preacher was Arminian and believed a Christian could lose his or her salvation.

I wondered what he meant. I was confused. I wished he had stopped right there. He was basically saying that the listener who believed in Jesus would be saved forever and could never lose that salvation. But the speaker did not stop there.

The preacher said something good. I wished he had stopped when he said that if the listener believed in Jesus, he or she would receive a forever salvation that could never be lost. But then the preacher said something terrible. After saying that faith would bring the forgiveness of sins and a salvation that could not be lost, he said that if you believe that, you must be careful. If you keep sinning, your sins will harden your heart. A hardened heart can lead you into serious sin. You cannot lose your salvation, but if you have a hard heart, you can give it back to God and wind up in hell.

I must admit that I was very confused by this message. I didn’t know what he meant. He preached the forgiveness of sins, but clearly this was not a permanent thing. He was proclaiming a gospel of good works. Obviously, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life were not the same thing to this preacher. Many believe that their sins are forgiven, but they do not believe they have eternal life. Anybody listening to that sermon would conclude that. They would believe, perhaps, that they temporarily had eternal life. The preacher was saying that the listener who had believed had been forgiven, and now he needed to get to work.

V. CONCLUSION

When we hear gospel presentations that offer the forgiveness of sins if the unbeliever believes in Jesus for such forgiveness, there is a great deal of confusion. It is an extremely popular way to present the gospel, and different preachers and evangelists mean different things by those terms.

To show the popularity of this gospel, we only need to look at the largest Evangelical denomination in the United States. The Southern Baptist statement of faith has a heavy emphasis on sin and the need for forgiveness when it explains the gospel. It refers to the unbeliever as a “sinner” who needs the “conviction of sin.” He needs a “genuine turning from sin” and a “full acquittal.” This will bring the new believer into a relationship of “favor with God.” There is no mention of the offer of eternal life.²¹

While some Baptists might believe this message includes the offer of eternal life that cannot be lost, even if it is not mentioned, most proclaimers of this gospel do not. We see this in the examples of the Mormons, Christian Scientists, Catholics, and Arminian evangelists. We can rest assured that the unbeliever will be confused about what it all means, often believing that with the forgiveness of sins he or she has a clean slate and now has a fighting chance to make it into the kingdom if he or she lives correctly from now on. He or she is forgiven, in a probational way.

Instead, we should present the gospel the same way it is presented in the Gospel of John. We are to tell the unbelievers that Jesus offers them eternal life that can never be lost if they believe in Him for it.

In presenting that message, we should say that Christ died for our sins to take away the barrier of sins. Because of that death, and the payment for our sins, Christ can, and does, give eternal life to all who believe in Him for it.

It is possible, of course, that unbelievers can believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and conclude that they will live with the Lord in His kingdom forever and have assurance of that fact. That would be a rarity. Even in this situation, however, the unbeliever is saved because he or she believes he or she has eternal life in Christ, not because he or she believes his or her sins are forgiven.²²

A person who believes that he or she is forgiven but must work to make it into heaven does not understand the message of eternal life. If that is all the person has ever believed, he or she does not have eternal life. There is a difference between the forgiveness of sins and receiving eternal life.

When we speak to unbelievers, let’s remove any confusion. Let’s make it crystal clear. Jesus will give you eternal life if you believe in Him for it. At the moment of faith, you know you have it and it can never be lost. That is what the word “eternal” means. That is what the Gospel of John says. We should say the same.

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¹ This article is the transcript of Ken Yates’ oral presentation. Certain small changes were made, such as the tense of some verbs and aside comments made during the presentation. Footnotes were added later for support.

² The presentation is accessible at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEaoEHeRohA&list=PL Y9IcmV16LTTs31iiOrR_7vT5cSPDRRc2&index=2&t=747s.

³ Stanley D. Toussaint, “Acts,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 381.

⁴ John B. Polhill, Acts, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 116. Polhill states that the forgiveness of sins is one of the “normative ingredients” of spiritual conversion.

⁵ Kenneth O. Gangel, Acts, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 30. Gangel discusses Acts 2:38 in this regard.

⁶ Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 447.

⁷ Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 343.

⁸ www.casadeoracionmexico.com is a case in point. This Spanish-speaking church has satellite churches in many places around the world. Its videos involve many different speakers. By far, the most common way of presenting the gospel is the offer of the forgiveness of sins.

⁹ David K. Lowery, “1 Corinthians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 542.

¹⁰ Dwight L. Hunt, “The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 757.

¹¹ Ibid., 762.

¹² New Life Baptist Church, “God’s Plan of Salvation,” https://www.newlifegreencastle.com/ know-jesus. Accessed Feb 8, 2024.

¹³ Moments with the Book, “How to Be Saved,” https://mwtb.org/collections/whats-hot-thismonth/products/how-to-be-saved?variant=2201051329. Accessed Feb 8, 2024.

¹⁴ Moments with the Book, “Call His Name Jesus, https://mwtb.org/products/call-his-namejesus?variant=12848859938919. Accessed Feb 8, 2024.

¹⁵ Gospel Tract and Bible Society, “Forgiveness,” https://www.gospeltractandbible.org/tract/ forgiveness#:~:text=As%20we%20humble%20ourselves%20and,(John%208%3A32). Accessed Feb 8, 2024.

¹⁶ Alberto S. Valdés, “The Acts of the Apostles,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 493.

¹⁷ Stanley D. Toussaint, “Acts,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 418.

¹⁸ Zane C. Hodges, A Free Grace Primer (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2011), 299-300.

¹⁹ Zane C. Hodges, The Epistles of John: Walking in the Light of God’s Love (Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 1999), 64-65.

²⁰ Robert N. Wilkin, “The Gospel According to John,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 475.

²¹ https://www.sbts.edu. This is the website for Southern Seminary, the flagship educational institution of the Southern Baptist denomination. It directs the visitor to “The Baptist Faith and Message.”

²² Wilkin, “John,” 476.