The gospel must always emphasize repentance and obedience as a requirement for salvation or it isn’t the full gospel.
What must a man do to be saved? Many modern-day Christian preachers will say to “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” and they’ll quote the following scriptures:
- John 3:16
- Acts 16:30-33
- Romans 10:9-10
What some pastors leave out
Belief in the Messiah is only part of the salvation process. What’s often omitted is repentance. The call to repent of one’s sins can be found in the below passages:
- Acts 2:38
- 2 Peter 3:9
- 2 Timothy 2:19
- 1 John 1:9
- Proverbs 28:13
- Psalm 32:6
Why a pastor leaves out repentance may have to do with pleasing his listeners. The call to repentance can be offensive to some people because it highlights their wickedness and lays the burden on them to make difficult life changes. This could discourage people from becoming church members and effect monetary support.
Nevertheless, without repentance, there can be no forgiveness and cleansing of sin. So, any preacher omitting this vital stipulation is doing his listeners a grave disservice.
What does belief in Jesus mean?
To further distort the gospel message, some pastors don’t explain what belief in Christ really means. This leaves the listener thinking belief in Christ is performing good works or simply accepting the historical facts about Jesus, but these aren’t enough. Faith in Christ primarily leads to obedience as seen in Hebrews 11:8.
Overall, the gospel must always emphasize repentance and obedience as a requirement for salvation or it isn’t the full gospel.
Here is the gospel message as this ministry presents it.
Other scriptures mentioned:
- Why do you call me ‘Lord’ but do nothing I say? (Luke 6:46)
- If you love me keep my commandments (John 14:15).
For more information on how to obey, see this article:
This ministry is no longer in service. I left the Christian faith and no longer agree with some of the content posted here. However, this website will remain available for archive purposes. Read the details in my last post.
