ROBERT N. WILKIN1
Executive Director
Grace Evangelical Society
I. INTRODUCTION
In the years 2000 and 2001, we published two articles by Zane Hodges on how to evangelize.2 In Free Grace circles, those messages caused much interest in the evangelistic ministry of Jesus.
Some Free Grace people feel that the evangelistic ministry that Jesus preached was intended to be effective only until He died and rose again. Then, according to this way of looking at evangelism, a dispensational change occurred.
Dispensationalism is the teaching that God has had different requirements during different ages as to what believers must do to please Him. It also includes the teaching that Israel is distinct, and always will be distinct, from the church.
Many people believe that each time God has given more revelation, the content of saving faith has changed. Thus, what Adam and Eve had to believe in order to be born again was far different from what people had to believe during Isaiah’s day. And what people had to believe to be saved during Jesus’ earthly ministry was far different from what people must believe today to be born again.3
It is my contention that the content of saving faith has never changed. There has been and always will be only one saving message. The message that the Lord Jesus preached during His earthly ministry is, I believe, the same message He preached to Adam and Eve in the Garden. It is the same message that He preached to Abraham and to Moses, as well.
No one has ever been born again by a generic faith in God, by faith in animal sacrifices, or by faith that Messiah is coming.4
My thesis is: The evangelistic message that the Lord Jesus preached is, indeed, a sufficient message for today. If you think that the message the Lord Jesus preached needs to be supplemented today by the teachings of Paul or one of the other apostles, then I would like to challenge you to reconsider.
Since Jesus’ evangelistic ministry is carefully laid out in the Fourth Gospel, that is where we will go to see the evangelistic message that He preached.
I will then compare that with some favorite, seemingly evangelistic passages found in Paul’s writing (e.g., Gal 1:11-12; 2:15-16; Eph 2:8-9; 1 Tim 1:16; 1 Cor 15:1-11). We will see that there is good reason to believe that the Apostle Paul (along with the other apostles) got his evangelistic message from Jesus and that Paul did not change or supplement Jesus’ evangelistic message.
A word is in order about the words evangelism and evangelistic. In this paper I am using them as synonyms for the saving message—the message that must be believed in order for a person to be regenerated. It is my opinion that in the NT the words actually have a broader meaning than that, referring, as well, to sharing the entire good news about Jesus. This would include both sanctification and justification truth—how to be born again plus how to follow Christ via baptism and discipleship. But for our purposes I will use the terms as they are commonly used in Evangelicalism to refer only to sharing the saving message.
Before we look at the evangelistic message of Jesus, I believe it is important to defend the idea that we should use sound methods of interpretation when studying the saving message.
II. WHY EXEGESIS IS NEEDED IN EVANGELISM
According to 2 Tim 3:16-17, all Scripture is profitable. Of course, Paul means that all Scripture is profitable if it is properly understood and applied.
That includes every verse of Scripture on every topic that Scripture addresses. It certainly includes passages of Scripture that present the saving message.
However, if any text is misinterpreted, then it is no longer profitable. God’s Word only profits the hearer when it is properly interpreted.
Evangelism is sharing the good news about Jesus Christ. Evangelism is good news if, and only if, it accurately reflects what the Lord Jesus actually said. Evangelism that misrepresents Him and His teachings is bad news, not good news.
Mormons practice what they call evangelism. But the message they share is not the message of the Lord Jesus. Instead, it is an exegetically flawed message contradicting Jesus’ message that all who simply believe in Him have everlasting life.
Evangelicals who exegete the Scriptures carefully and correctly in determining what they share when they evangelize are following the Berean principle of Acts 17:11. We are to search the Scriptures to see if the various evangelistic presentations being suggested to us are, indeed, exegetically sound.
Through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru), I came to faith in Christ when I was in college. For two years I shared my newfound faith, but I did so uncritically. My message did change over time due to objections people raised that I could not answer from the Bible. But I never did what should have been obvious. I didn’t seriously consider how the Bible tells us to evangelize.
I went on staff with Cru and worked in full-time college evangelism for four years. Again, the message I shared became exegetically more sound over time because of continued questions I received. But again, I failed to start from the beginning and ask what the Lord Jesus did when He told a person the saving message.
After four years on staff with Cru, I went to Dallas Theological Seminary, where I majored in NT in both my Th.M. and Ph.D. programs. There, for the first time, I exegetically studied the message of evangelism. As I studied what Jesus taught, I modified the way I evangelized to fit His message.
While experience is no proof, I can testify that after I studied how the Lord shared the saving message with people and after I began sharing His words with people, I found my evangelistic endeavors became more natural, more enjoyable, more fulfilling, and more abundant. Whereas before I evangelized only strangers, now I evangelize friends and acquaintances and family and strangers. Essentially, talking about the everlasting life Jesus gives to anyone who believes in Him is just as easy for me as talking about the Cowboys and the fine season they are hopefully having.
I have found that exegetically-sound evangelism flows from us naturally, whereas evangelism that we have not studied for ourselves comes out as stilted and unnatural.
III. JESUS’ EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE
The first question is where to start.
The Synoptic Gospels. Many Evangelicals start with the Synoptic Gospels and Jesus’ calls to discipleship. For example, James Montgomery Boice wrote a book on evangelism titled, Christ’s Call to Discipleship.5 John MacArthur wrote a similar book called, The Gospel According to Jesus.6 Many such books exist.
Beginning with the Synoptics is an exegetically unsound idea. The Synoptics are not evangelistic presentations. They are written to believers to tell them how to follow Christ in discipleship.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Many other Evangelicals start with 1 Cor 15:1-11. They say Paul was teaching that if anyone believes that, “He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4), then that person is born again.
As I pointed out in a magazine article7 and blog,8 people rarely stick with just this passage when they use it in evangelism. They add things to it. And they leave out many things.
Paul is not reminding the Corinthians of the message he preached in order for them to be born again. He is reminding them of the message he preached in order for them to grow and be sanctified.
Even if you think this is the saving message Paul preached, where is faith included?
Where does Paul talk about everlasting life or justification?
Why is the salvation under discussion a present-tense salvation—“are [being] saved”—and not past-tense, as in Eph 2:8-9?
Why is Jesus’ name not even mentioned here?
Why are Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances so emphasized here, but not in other places where Paul recites the saving message (Acts 16:31; Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8-9; 1 Tim 1:16)?
Note well: If this is the saving message for today, then people can be born again by believing in a works-based salvation. If this is the saving message for today, then Jesus’ evangelistic message is, indeed, not a sufficient message for today.
Some attempt to find the concept of salvation from eternal condemnation in 1 Cor 15:1-2. They do so in Pauls’ words, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you 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.” For example, in a 1979 message entitled “Of First Importance,” Ray Stedman said,
Now he adds a condition here; we do not want to miss it. Notice how he puts it, “if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain.” I do not want to dwell long on this, but I want to point out that it is possible to believe in vain. Your faith in Christ can be of such a superficial nature that you accept all the words of the gospel as a kind of an insurance policy against going to hell, but you do not let it change anything in you. That is what Paul calls “believing in vain.” And it happens all around us (italics added).9
Appealing to 1 Cor 15:1-11 as an explanation of what one must believe in order to be born again is going against the obvious meaning of the text. Paul is not evangelizing his readers there. Nor is he saying that they were born again by believing those truths. In 1 Cor 15:2, Paul is speaking of a present-tense salvation. In light of 1 Cor 3:15 and 5:5, he is talking about being spiritually healthy. The readers in Corinth would remain spiritually healthy if they continued to hold fast to the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. There were some in the church at Corinth who were doubting the bodily resurrection of the dead and thus even Jesus’ bodily resurrection (1 Cor 15:17, 19). That is why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15, the great resurrection chapter.
In 1 Cor 15:2, to “believe in vain” would be to believe in a Jesus who died on the cross and who did not rise from the dead: “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Cor 15:17).10
The Fourth Gospel. The Gospel of John is an evangelistic presentation. John 20:30-31 says that John was writing directly to unbelievers in order to lead them to faith in Christ for everlasting life. While the Synoptics include some isolated comments by Jesus that relate to evangelism (e.g., Luke 8:12-13), those comments are not full presentations and must be considered in light of the Fourth Gospel in order to be properly understood.
In the fourth Gospel, it is relatively easy to exegete the evangelistic ministry of Jesus if we simply read and analyze the text.
Jesus repeatedly says that the one who believes in Him has everlasting life.
He uses various means to illustrate believing in Him:
- eating the bread of life (John 6:35)
- drinking the water of life (John 4:13-14; 6:35)
- receiving Him (John 1:12) coming to Him (John 6:35)
- believing the words that the Father gave Him to deliver (John 5:24).
The Lord Jesus also uses a number of ways to illustrate what we believe Him for—what we believe He guarantees to the believer:
- shall never hunger (John 6:35)
- shall never thirst (John 4:13-14; 6:35)
- has been born of God (John 1:13; 3:3, 5)
- shall never perish (John 3:16)
- has everlasting life (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; etc.)
- shall not come into judgment (John 5:24)
- has passed from death into life (John 5:24)
- shall never die (John 11:26).
Three sample passages demonstrate that Jesus’ evangelistic message had three elements: 1) belief, 2) in Him, 3) for everlasting life.
John 3:16-18. In one of the most famous verses of Scripture, John 3:16, Jesus guarantees that all who believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Then in the next verse He clarifies: The reason the Father sent Jesus was not to condemn the world (thus, perish in v 16 is equal to being eternally condemned in v 17), but that the world through faith in Him might be saved (thus everlasting life in v 16 is equal to being saved in v 17). He adds in verse 18 that the one who believes in Him is not condemned; that is, he is in a state of non-condemnation. But the one who does not believe in Him is in a state of condemnation right now (“is condemned already”).
Clearly the issue here is life and death. Note that the Lord does not discuss sin here. As the late Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer was famous for saying, “In light of Calvary, the issue is no longer a sin issue. The issue is now a Son issue.”
Dead people need life. They get it by believing in Jesus. And once they get it, they have everlasting life; they will never perish, and they are saved once and for all.
John 6:35. After feeding 5,000 men—plus likely another 15,000 women and children—from one boy’s lunch, Jesus is confronted with a crowd that wants Him to keep the free food coming. They remind Him of the provision of bread that God gave the nation during the wilderness wanderings.
Jesus then launches into a sermon based on His being the Bread of Life. “I am the bread of life.” He clearly means that He is the Source of everlasting life. One must partake of Him in order to have life that can never be lost.
“He who comes to Me [for the bread of life] will never hunger.” This is a statement of eternal security. Never hunger means never hunger. If anyone who partook of the bread of life ever needed to partake of the bread of life again in order to keep everlasting life, then this promise by the Lord Jesus would be a lie.
“He who believes in Me [= drinks the living water], shall never thirst.” Here, the Lord connects this discourse with what He told the woman at the well, as recorded in John 4:10-14. Once again, the promise that the believer will never thirst is a statement of eternal security. If the Lord is telling the truth, then once a person simply believes in Him, he has life that can never be lost.
If we follow the context, verses 36-40 emphatically repeat the promise of life that can never be lost for the one who believes in Jesus. So does verse 47.
Note that again we have no discussion of a sin problem. Unlike modern evangelistic presentations that confront the unbeliever with his sin, Jesus confronts the unbeliever with his need for everlasting life.
Unlike modern presentations that make the conditions of eternal life a turning from sins, a commitment of life, and obedience, the Lord Jesus makes belief in Him the sole condition.
John 11:25-27. A comparison of these verses with the purpose statement in John 20:30-31 shows that this is a key passage in John’s Gospel.
Here Jesus makes not one, but two, “I am” statements.
First, He says, “I am the resurrection.” This He explains in verse 25: “He who believes in Me, though he may die [physically], he shall live [physically].” Jesus is not promising spiritual life here, as most wrongly presuppose. Jesus is promising future resurrection life in the kingdom of God for the one who believes in Him.
Second, He says, “I am the life.” This He explains in verse 26: “He who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Here we have two present articular participles: “the one who lives” and “the one who believes in Me.” The meaning of “he who lives” influences our understanding of “and believes in Me.” Unlike modern presentations, Jesus does not condition eternal life on persevering faith. He conditions eternal life on one act of believing in Him. The moment one believes, he falls into the category of a believer, even if his faith later fails.
If we find someone who believes in Jesus, we have found someone who “will never die.” Since He is discussing everlasting life here (“I am the life”), this is a strong statement of eternal security. Whereas Jesus often emphasizes the present possession of everlasting life, here He does that by denying the opposite.
Note that if anyone who believed in Jesus ever later died spiritually, then Jesus lied here.
This sort of evangelistic presentation is radically different from the way most evangelize today.
And We should note the ending of the Lord’s words to Martha: “Do you believe this?” He does not ask her to pray a prayer or commit herself to follow Him. He simply asks if she believes this. In John’s Gospel “to believe in” (pisteuō eis) is the same as “to believe that” (pisteuō hoti) He is the Christ, as Martha’s response in verse 27 shows. She states that she does believe Him, and she says why––because she believes that He is the Christ, the Son of God.” In Johannine thought, for Jesus to be the Christ is for Him to be the Guarantor of everlasting life to all who simply believe in Him.
IV. HIS EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE IS SUFFICIENT TODAY
The evangelistic message of the Lord is always sufficient:
- It was sufficient when He gave it.
- It was sufficient when His apostles gave that same message.
- It is sufficient today.
- It will be sufficient in the Tribulation.
- It will be sufficient in the Millennium, too.
There should be no need to defend this proposition. It should be so obvious as not to need any explanation. However, tradition is powerful, and most traditions today do not believe that Jesus’ evangelistic message is still effective today.
There are seven proofs that Jesus’ evangelistic message is still effective today.
First, Christianity is Jesus’ message, first to last. Every doctrine we teach—eschatology, angelology, anthropology, soteriology—is based on what Jesus Himself taught.11
Second, the apostles did not change His message. The apostles taught and wrote what Jesus taught.
Third, it makes no sense that Jesus was presenting a new saving message that would be valid for only three years. He was giving the message that would be true forever.
Fourth, Jesus was well-aware that the Holy Spirit would use His Words in order to give His followers additional special revelation (John 14:26). He certainly knew that the Fourth Gospel would lay out His evangelistic message.
Fifth, to suggest that at His Bema, Jesus will rebuke people who share His very words with others is so bizarre as to be unbelievable.
Sixth, John never once said that the message Jesus preached has changed. John 20:30-31 clearly shows that the message Jesus preached is still a sufficient message today.
Seventh, if we say that Jesus’ evangelistic message is no longer sufficient, then we have no way of knowing what the sufficient message for today is, since there is no other book in the NT designed to give us that new message.
I have asked numerous people who believe that Jesus’ message is no longer effective, “Is there any passage in the NT that tells us everything we must believe in order to be born again?”
Their answer has been “no.” People have told me that God expects us to believe the whole counsel of God’s Word regarding the saving message. In their view, we must piece together the saving message from multiple texts throughout the NT.
Most evangelistic tracts reflect this sort of thinking. Verses are cited from many different NT texts in order to create a saving mosaic. Of course, different tracts have different verses and different saving messages. Most say you must believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again. But they do not stop there. They variously add the need to turn from our sins, commit our lives to Christ, receive Christ, invite Him into our lives, and, sometimes, submit to Christian baptism. Very few say that we must believe in Him for the gift of God, which is everlasting life.
That is the problem that arises when someone decides that the evangelistic ministry of Jesus is no longer in effect today.
V. DID PAUL CHANGE OR SUPPLEMENT JESUS’ MESSAGE?
In this section, I will briefly examine some Pauline passages to see how they compare with Jesus’ evangelistic message.
I have chosen a number of passage types. Some of these, I believe, are clearly just another way of saying what Jesus said.
Some of these are not the message Paul used to lead unbelievers to faith in Christ and hence are not a fair comparison. They are different from Jesus’ evangelistic message. But they are also different from Paul’s!
Galatians 1:11-12. Same message. This one passage alone is a showstopper for the idea that Paul changed Jesus’ evangelistic message. Paul got his message directly from Jesus, and Paul did not change it one bit.
Galatians 2:15-16. Same message. If the term justify is understood as a virtual synonym for eternal life, then this message is the same message of John 3:16; 4:10-14; 5:24; 6:47, etc.
Ephesians 2:8-9. Same message. While there are some things missing here––since Paul is writing to believers and is not trying to evangelize them—we do see eternal life here. To be saved, in this context, is to be made alive, as verse 5 clearly shows. And that life is everlasting life. The verb referring to salvation is in the perfect tense: a completed past action with an abiding result.
This passage, if unpacked properly, is identical to John 3:16, etc.
1 Timothy 1:16. Same message. Again, much is missing here. But clearly, this text—like Eph 2:5-9—shows that Paul preached everlasting life. It also shows that what we are believing in Jesus for is everlasting life. We cannot be born again by believing in Him for temporary life. We cannot be born again by believing in Him for life that can be lost or revoked. We cannot be born again by believing in Him for anything other than everlasting life or the equivalent (eternity with Him in His kingdom, being once for all declared righteous, etc.).
The Romans Road? Not Evangelistic! One of the messages I like to give has the title “The Romans Road Ends in a Cul-de-Sac.” Free Grace people sometimes use a version of the Romans Road. But they typically do not give it the Lordship slant that many give it. However, Romans 10:9-10 is not saying that one must confess Jesus in order to be justified/born again. Neither is Rom 10:13.
In Romans, Paul never uses the words save or salvation to refer to being justified or born again. When he wishes to speak of justification, he uses that word or the word righteousness.
The Book of Romans is not an evangelistic book, and anyone who snips verses here and there from Romans is likely to end up confusing the listener rather than leading him to faith in Christ.
VI. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PRACTICAL PROBLEMS THAT ARISE?
There really are no practical problems in sharing Jesus’ evangelistic message if we are seeking to please the Lord Jesus Christ and do what He told us to do.
Look at the following seemingly practical problems and see if you can see why they really are not problems at all.
“But that isn’t the way we’ve always done it.” So?
“But that isn’t the historic teaching of the church.” So?
“But that would mean a person could be born again by faith in Jesus and yet not have a completely orthodox view of the Trinity, the virgin birth, or the hypostatic union.” So?
“But that would mean that someone might be born again without committing himself to follow Christ for the rest of his life.” So?
“But I don’t like that message.” So?
“But I think that is an offensive message to people who believe that salvation can be lost by falling away.” So?
“But that isn’t the message the Lord used to lead me to faith in Christ.” So?
“But if that’s true, then my testimony is wrong.” So? If that is the case, then change your testimony to conform to Scripture, rather than twisting Scripture to conform to your testimony!
VII. JESUS IS LORD OF THE SAVING MESSAGE
James 3:1 should be a warning to us all on the need to be exegetically sound. James says that those who teach God’s Word will be judged more harshly at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We need to take care in the message we proclaim, including the message of how to be born again.
So should 1 Cor 3:10-15.
All believers will appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and our works will be evaluated. This includes all the things we have taught evangelistically and all the things we have taught in terms of discipleship. This is a sobering thought.
Teach what Jesus taught, and you will not be rebuked by Him at the Bema for those teachings. Teach contrary to what He taught, and rebuke is sure to come.
We should proclaim what the Lord Jesus proclaimed: that the one who simply believes in Jesus Christ for eternal life that can never be lost has that life. If we do, then we can anticipate one day hearing, “Well done, good servant.”
____________________
1 This article was originally a message given at the 2007 GES Annual Conference. It has been slightly edited, and footnotes have been added.
2 Zane C. Hodges, “How to Lead People to Christ, Part 1: The Content of Our Message,” JOTGES (Autumn 2000): 3-12 and “How to Lead People to Christ, Part 2: Our Invitation to Respond,” JOTGES (Spring 2001): 9-18. Both articles may be found online at faithalone.org/ges-journal/.
3 See, for example, Gregory P. Sapaugh, “A Response to Hodges: How to Lead a Person to Christ, Parts 1 and 2,” JOTGES (Autumn 2001): 21-29.
4 Believing in the coming Messiah for everlasting life is far different from simply believing that the Messiah is coming. The Jews of Jesus’ day all believed that the Messiah was coming. But they did not believe that Jesus was that promised Messiah or that the Messiah guarantees everlasting life to all who believe in Him.
5 James Montgomery Boice, Christ’s Call to Discipleship (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986).
6 John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988, 1993, 2008).
7 Bob Wilkin, “Another Look at 1 Corinthians 15:3-11” at https://faithalone.org/grace-infocus-articles/another-look-at-1-corinthians/. Last accessed Dec 13, 2021.
8 Bob Wilkin, “Does 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Contradict John 3:16?” at https://faithalone.org/blog/does-1-corinthians-151-11-contradict-john-316/. Last accessed Dec 13, 2021.
9 See https://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/1-corinthians/of-first-imprtance. Last accessed Dec 13, 2021.
10 See Bob Wilkin, “Unless You Believed in Vain (1 Corinthians 15:2),” at https://faithalone.org/blog/unless-you-believed-in-vain-1-corinthians-152/. Last accessed Dec 13, 2021.
11 See, for example, Zane C. Hodges, Jesus, God’s Prophet (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2018).
