From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 11 of a 13-part series. Read part 10.

In an earlier article in this series we identified the seven marks of a Scripture-driven church. In subsequent installments we are examining each one in detail.

A Scripture-driven church preaches the one true Gospel in its fullness, and it rejects all false gospels.

They say, with the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:16, that they are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God unto salvation. For that reason, they preach the one true Gospel in its fullness. That is how Jesus preached the Gospel throughout His earthly ministry; how Peter preached the Gospel on the Day of Pentecost; how Stephen preached the Gospel to the religious leaders of Israel; and how Paul preached the Gospel throughout the Roman world.

What is the one true Gospel, and what does it mean to preach it in its fullness?

Remember, we said in an earlier article that the Corinthian church got so far off the Biblical track that the Apostle Paul actually had to remind them what the Gospel really is. He had to re-teach the Gospel. That's the context of the familiar passage in First Corinthians 15:11:

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 I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

This passage, among many others, embodies the Gospel in its fullness: Christ died for our sins. It is not a therapeutic "gospel" that focuses on "acceptance" and "affirmation" but turns a blind eye to the deep problem of mankind's total depravity. It is not a watered-down "gospel" that focuses on self-esteem but says nothing about the Biblical definition of sin, the eternal consequences of sin, and to the immense price that had to be paid for sinners' redemption by the Son of God Himself. Nor is it a false "gospel" that, when it is preached, leaves people feeling better about themselves, but still eternally lost.

The people and leaders of a Scripture-driven church preach about the reality of sin. They preach about deliverance from the wrath to come - God's wrath against sin. They preach about the great ransom that has been paid for sinners. They preach about the need for repentance from sin. The Gospel is only good news to those who come face to face with the reality of the bad news, the terrible news, about their own hopelessly lost and sinful condition. The one true Gospel is the glorious message of salvation by God's grace alone, by faith alone, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone, apart from any reliance on our own works or merit of any kind.

The people and leaders of a Scripture-driven church are not ashamed of the one true Gospel of Christ because they recognize, as Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapters one and two, that it is through the foolishness of preaching this Gospel that the Spirit of God brings souls into the kingdom:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

And Paul continues:

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.... Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:2-5, 12-13)

Salvation does not come through strategies of our own invention. It does not come through appeals to the sinful pride of man. It does not come through compromise of the message - watering it down, dumbing it down, or leaving out the parts we don't like or are afraid will offend our hearers. Salvation is by the power of the Holy Spirit, because the Gospel message is foolishness to a man without the Spirit's regenerating work. A Scripture-driven church preaches the one true Gospel in its fullness, and it rejects all false gospels. That's the sixth mark of a Scripture-driven church.

Next: Apologetics or Apologies?

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