Transcript

ANNOUNCER: What is the content of faith? What do we need to know about Jesus to be eternally saved? What is the bullseye of the saving message? Thank you, friend, for joining us today here on Grace In Focus. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org, and we want you to know about our magazine, Grace In Focus, published bi-monthly, and which has a free subscription. All you have to do is sign up for it. It’s free all except postage, which you will need to pay if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States. Find the information on our website. Also, there is information under events for our national annual conference being held in 2026, May 18th through the 21st. All the information at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: Bob, we’ve got a question from Eric. He asks, I wonder if a person only had a limited information about Jesus but believed this very limited information that would God withhold salvation from such a person? So essentially what he’s asking is if someone only knows a very limited amount information about Jesus, is that person—I guess he’s saying one, assuming they never come to believe in Jesus for everlasting life, can they be held accountable? And then two, how can that person come to believe in Jesus for everlasting life if they only ever know bits and pieces? 

BOB: Yeah, you know, that’s a good question. This led to a whole controversy called the “crossless gospel”. And all of that started because some talks that Zane Hodges gave in our annual conference, I believe it was in 2000. And he gave two talks about how to lead a person to Christ. And what he said in these two talks was that he was concerned that he was hearing people from within GES circles who were telling people that in order to be born again, they had to believe that Jesus died for their sins and rose again. And they said nothing about that he guarantees them everlasting life, and they will never perish, just believe that Jesus died and rose again and you can believe in work salvation, lordship salvation, any other kind of salvation. 

So in this way of thinking, pretty much everybody in Christianity would be born again because Roman Catholics believe Jesus died for their sins and rose again. Eastern Orthodox believe that, almost every Protestant believes that, even the cults believe that, although some people would argue that doesn’t count for them because they have a bad view of who Jesus is. They don’t believe in His full deity. 

But Hodges gave an illustration and this is what drove people nuts. He said, imagine a portion of Scripture washed up on a beach in a bottle and there was a man on this deserted island who got it, opened it up and it was a fragment from John’s Gospel. And it said, “Jesus said”, and then you couldn’t read the intervening words and then you could read verse 47, “he who believes in Me has everlasting life”. And he said something along the lines of, look, I realize people aren’t going to come to faith just from this. But what if they did? He said, if they did, they’d be born again with no knowledge of who this Jesus is, just believing His promise that he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

However, he went on in the talk to say, I consider it essential to preach the cross of Christ because that’s how people come to believe in the promise that He makes: “He who believes in Me has everlasting life.” What he was not trying to say is don’t preach the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. What he was trying to say is make the bullseye, “He who believes in me has everlasting life”. Don’t make the bullseye, “Jesus died for your sins and rose again” because if you do that, you’re leaving the works-salvation person believing in works salvation. You’re leaving the lordship salvation believing that it’s their commitment and their perseverance and their obedience and their turning from sins that’s going to get a them into the kingdom, not their faith in Christ or that’s how they define faith in Christ.

And so that was Hodges’ point and it led to this whole brouhaha over the so-called “crossless gospel”. Well, part of what people meant was by “gospel” is saving message. Well, Hodges certainly didn’t have a crossless saving message. He had a crossless bullseye. He was saying the bullseye is “He who believes in Me has everlasting life”. 

In fact, it’s interesting if you read John’s gospel, you find over and over again that Jesus doesn’t talk about His death and resurrection. One of the few places He does is in John 3 with Nicodemus and He says, “As a serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him has everlasting life,” and then we get John 3:16. Well, Him talking about Himself being lifted up is an allusion to his coming death on the cross. But Nicodemus didn’t understand it that way. The apostles didn’t understand it that way. And we know that because when Jesus later told the apostles that He was going to be killed, Peter says, “God forbid it, Lord, this will never happen to you,” in Matthew 16 around verse 23, 22-23. 

So the point I’m trying to make here is in order to be born again, a person must believe in the Jesus of Scripture for everlasting life. 

SAM: Yeah, John 20:31 is, “But these things are written that or so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name.” 

BOB: Now, where is the cross of Christ mentioned there? 

SAM: It’s not mentioned by name in that verse, but all the things in this book were written and then I think it’s the same in John chapter three. 

BOB: But if you read the preceding verse, it’s talking about signs that Jesus did. Many other signs Jesus did and those who are written in this book, but these are written, these signs are written that you may believe. It’s seven signs leading up to the greatest sign, which is Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

So yes, we don’t deny the necessity of telling people who Jesus is. When this controversy broke out, people were saying that Hodges was saying you could believe in a frog named Jesus and have eternal life or you could believe your gardener, Jesus, gave you eternal life or something like that. That’s ridiculous. It has to be the Jesus of Scripture. It has to be the Person who made this statement and Hodges wasn’t trying to deny that with his deserted island illustration. 

ANNOUNCER: We will rejoin in just a moment. But years ago, Zane Hodges wrote the Gospel Under Siege. Sadly, this is still true. And GES president Bob Wilkin has recently written its sequel. Bob’s new book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, is a book about theological clarity on the Biblical teaching about eternal salvation. It is available now. Secure yours today at the Grace Evangelical Society’s bookstore. Find it at faithalone.org/store. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s content.

BOB: In John 20:31, what the bullseye is, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, right? And then by believing that you’ll have life in His name. Well, he explains that in John 11:25-27. So why don’t we look there? This is Jesus talking to Martha, and it’s one of the great “I am” statements. 

SAM: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection of the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 

BOB: And then her answer? 

SAM:”Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world. 

BOB: Okay, did he say anything about himself being the Christ, the Son of God, who was coming to the world? 

SAM: He did not. 

BOB: And what did he ask her? 

SAM: He asked her, do you believe this? 

BOB: And what’s the “this”? 

SAM: That I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever believes in me shall never die. 

BOB: And I’ve asked people at churches all over the country, what kind of living is he talking about there? He who believes in me, though he may die physically yet, he shall live physically because Jesus is going to raise him from the dead. This is the promise of glorification. And then he says, as the life, verse 26A, “He who lives and believes in Me, shall never die.” Because Jesus is everlasting life, the life He gives to people will never die. They’re secure forever. And when He asks her, do you believe this? He isn’t asking her, do you believe I’m going to die on the cross for your sins? Do you believe I’m God in the flesh? Do you believe I’m going to rise from the dead on the third day? He’s not asking her any of that. He’s asking, do you believe that I guarantee resurrection and everlasting life to those who believe in me? It’s really quite simple. 

And so in answer to Eric’s question about how much does a person need to understand about Jesus in order to be born again? Well, they need to believe what Jesus told the woman at the well. You need to know the gifts of God, which he explains in verse 14 of John 4 is everlasting life. And you need to know who it is who says to you, give me a drink, and He will give you that living water. And He goes on to explain in verses 25 and 26 that He is the Messiah. She says, we know Messiah is coming, He will reveal all things to us and He said, I speak to you am He. So we need to believe in the Johannine sense that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the one who guarantees everlasting life to the believer.

SAM: But in the short time I’ve been working at GES, I’ve noticed that’s a very common point of contention for people with GES, the crossless gospel and accusations like that. But the reason we’re so particular on it is not because we want to evangelize without mentioning the cross or the tomb or the resurrection or the rest of Scripture, it’s because other people are evangelizing without mentioning eternal life or belief in the Messiah. They are saying, there’s this cross and some guy died on it, and as long as you know, he died on it, then your sins are forgiven. And I would say, what does that cross mean? Who is that guy? And what does having your sins forgiven do to a dead person? 

So what we’re saying is you use the term bullseye, let’s hone in on the bullseye, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the target, I guess in that illustration would be it’s still all on target. But the bullseye is, here’s the moment someone, you know, there’s a lot of lead up when you’re evangelizing and then boom in a second, they receive everlasting life because they’ve been convinced, they believe. And then after that, it’s their walk with the Lord, hopefully walking in the light. But that’s why it’s so important to hone in on this, but not because we’re trying to exclude the gospel in the wide sense, but we need to hone in on the important part. 

BOB: Yeah, is it possible for a person to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for everlasting life and yet not have a doctorate in New Testament studies? 

SAM: I really hope so. 

BOB: I hope so. Or there wouldn’t be many people because most of the people who have doctorates in New Testament studies either never or no longer believe that simply by faith in Jesus they have everlasting life because that’s not what’s taught in most Bible colleges and seminaries that offer doctorates. A child can believe in Jesus. We really get off into the weeds if we start trying to tell people you need to believe these seven facts about Jesus before you can believe John 3:16. Nowhere did He say you need to believe all these facts about Me. The facts you need to believe are He guarantees everlasting life to those who believe in Him. That’s it. It’s simple. And in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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