“Have You Obeyed the Gospel?”

Sunday, October 22, 2023

In last week’s article, we considered an absurd doctrine popularly known as, “once saved, always saved.”  There are passages in the Bible that are sometimes interpreted to mean that there is no responsibility “to keep oneself unstained from the world” (Ja 1.27), if one has already been saved.  But in order to believe that, you have to ignore what the rest of the book says.

It’s a curious fact, then, that some of this false teaching’s harshest critics hold to an unspoken and barely disguised version of the very same doctrine!

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?

(Romans 2.1-3)

Later in the same chapter, Paul comes back to this point, and gives a few illustrations, including this one, in verse 22: “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?”  In the other examples, the prohibition and practice line up perfectly, one to one.  This, however, is different.  When the person who preaches against idolatry nevertheless himself “rob[s] temples”—whether Paul means this literally or figuratively—he commits an offense that looks different on the outside, but amounts to the very same sin. 

This disguised false teaching is wrapped up in the oft-repeated question, “have you obeyed the gospel?”  What does the question mean?  Is it found in the Scriptures?  There are three passages that discuss obeying the gospel; let’s look at them.

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

(1 Peter 4.17)

What tense is the verb obey in that sentence?  Whereas we earlier asked, “have you obeyed the gospel?” the Apostle says punishment is on its way for those who do not obey it.  We were inclined to put it in the present perfect tense, but in the Scripture it stands in the simple present—an ongoing activity, rather than a completed action.  Is this esoteric and nerdy?  Yes.  But does it matter?  Absolutely!

The Scriptures themselves are full of examples that demonstrate the importance of precision in interpreting them (e.g. Mt 22.31-32, Ga 3.16, He 4.8-10).  It’s obvious that this meticulousness can be taken too far, but it’s even more obvious that a refusal to give due attention to precisely what God has said, is very dangerous indeed.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

(2 Peter 3.16)

The phrase in question appears basically the same, in 2 Thessalonians 1.8, referring to an ongoing activity, obedience to the gospel.  Perhaps one would suggest that what Paul and Peter both meant to imply was that judgment is coming for those who “do not obey the gospel” before the day of judgment arrives; but the Greek language would require a different tense for that.  In fact, Paul used this other option, in the remaining passage: “But they have not all obeyed the gospel” (Ro 10.16).  So, there it is.  We can talk about having obeyed the gospel, in the present perfect tense, and that’s a load off the minds the three or so people who were worried about it.  But it’s not that simple, is it?

We’ve been dancing around the problem.  Let’s address it head-on.  When someone asks whether you have obeyed the gospel, or tells you when he obeyed the gospel, he’s not using the phrase in the 1 Peter or 2 Thessalonians sense; he’s using it in the Romans sense.  He’s talking about when he believed and was baptized.  And that’s perfectly appropriate, in and of itself.  The problem is that, by ignoring the first two Scriptures in favor of a narrow interpretation of just the third, we brush aside the Christian’s ongoing responsibility to continue obeying!  Of course, no one ever seriously says out loud that he can do what he wants with impunity, regardless of God’s plain instructions in some dusty old book, because he was once dunked in the water by someone who said the proper words; but neither does anyone seriously present the once saved, always saved position along similar lines!  Instead, the clear thinker must resort to impressive mental gymnastics in order to square that obviously absurd doctrine with his own observations of the world, never mind what the Bible says!  But in preaching once saved, always saved, he misleads the simple into a false sense of security, encouraging them to profess faith in Jesus, and then disregard any of Jesus’ commandments they don’t much like.  It is no different, to make an idol out of baptism and give little attention to the lifelong obedience to the gospel that Jesus demands of us.

But what, then, does it mean, to obey the gospel?  We’ll examine that in greater detail, in next week’s article.  For now, consider how the author of Hebrews exhorted Christians:

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

(Hebrews 4.11-13)

Jeremy Nettles

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