Following Judah's Lion

There is Only One Gospel

There is only one gospel, the good news that Jesus the Christ has died for the world’s sins, that He resurrected from the dead bodily, and that by faith in this gospel any sinner can be born into God’s kingdom and receive eternal life. Just recently a prominent pastor, John Hagee of San Antonio, Texas, has written a book that delineates what he has espoused for years. This theology is called “dualism” and it teaches that Jews do not need Jesus to be saved, they can be saved just as the Old Testament saints were. This is dangerous and false.

You would assume that after two thousand years had passed that the one thing that would have been settled is that there is only one true gospel for the entire world but, sadly, it isn’t settled. Paul admonishes us that anyone who comes with another gospel is “anathema” which in that context means cursed by God and an object that is set apart for His wrath. You see, we can disagree about a lot of things but never about the gospel which is the only way for a sinner to receive salvation. But today we have seen cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Scientologists, Christian Scientists, and many others change the grace of God through the shed blood of Christ into another gospel.

Some have added good works, some have added ceremonial works, and some have added church membership, while others have subtracted elements of the everlasting gospel to make a man made concoction that is poison, not salvation, to the soul. I want to address an excess that has now led to a false gospel and heresy. I believe that God will somehow, in His own timing and method, deal generously with Israel sometime in the future by presenting them with the gospel with Jesus as their Messiah and seeing Israel turn in repentance and faith to their Lord and Savior. What a glorious day that will be!

But let us be clear, until that day there is no Jew or Gentile in Christ and all sinners outside of Christ are lost, completely. For “all have sinned” includes Jews and Gentiles as well as all other ethnic groups, all of them dead in trespasses and sins. Now I also believe we should pray for Israel and support them mildly, but never get caught up in any political support of Israel, just pray for the peace of Jerusalem. In the past decade I have watched as certain ministries have gone overboard in their support of the Jewish people and Israel, even going so far as to allow unsaved Jews to speak from church pulpits. That is an abomination and it shows a lack of knowledge and a zeal without knowledge concerning the makeup of the church and the spiritual condition of everyone outside of Christ.


Now there is something known as dualism which teaches that Jews who believe in Jehovah are saved without Jesus. Obviously Paul never heard of this teaching since he wished himself cursed for his brethren’s sake. And by inference then Jews have two avenues of salvation, one by continuing in a “faith structure” as John Hagee puts it (that being the law), and one by believing on Jesus now. But Paul continually admonishes the church to reject the Jews who are enemies of the cross of Christ and have spurned their Messiah. Paul says concerning the Jews:


Rom.10:3 - For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.


And what righteousness is Paul referring to when he says the “righteousness of God”? Look no further than the next verse:


Rom.10:4 - For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
To teach that Christ did not die for Jew and Gentile alike is blasphemy and it is the result of an obsession about our Jewish roots which blinds us to the universality of the everlasting gospel. Why where the 3000 saved on the day of Pentecost Jews? And Peter openly declares on that same day that “God has made that same Jesus, who you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” There is no difference, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and the Old Testament law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. What could be more clear? Much of Paul’s ministry decries any attempt to go back to the law or even mix law and grace because he knew Christ is all in all. There are only two kinds of people in the redemptive economy of God, saved and lost.

The glorious end of human history seems to include a place for Israel, the people. But the Scriptures indicate that God’s grace will cover Israel because they turn in faith to the Messiah, not just a act of God without corresponding faith. It is another act of sovereign grace by our Lord that resembles the conversion of the Apostle Paul. A mighty demonstration by God that elicits faith in Christ. But Jesus Himself claimed that no one came to the Father but by Him, it could not be any clearer. So any attempt to present the Jewish people as something other than lost sinners is not only misguided, it is a heretical and gives them false hope. They, as we, must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

There is only one everlasting gospel and it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God.