Unbiblical Salvation Language, pt. 1

Also … un-bibical gospel presentations such as … :

• Christ died for your sins!

Comment:

No where in Acts is there a message with that content. It’s rather:

To the Jew: (example Acts 2)

• 2:21, “That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved”
• 2:22-36, “Jesus of Nazareth” whom you crucified, has been risen and is “Lord and Christ”

To the gentile: (Acts 17)

• 17:24, There is a Creator God: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth”
• 17:27, Seek the Lord: “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us:
• 17:30, Repent: “[He] now commands all men everywhere to repent”
• 17:31, An appointed judgment day: ” He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness”
• 17:31, And Who is that Judge? The Lord Jesus Christ - the risen One: ” the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead”

Comments: It makes good sense to talk about:

• Man’s sinful nature … and (addressing others) “you are a sinner”
• Christ came to die for sinners as in 1 Timothy 1:15, ” This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”

1 Cor 15: 1Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Who quoted 1 Cor 15:3, ” that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures”

Who is the “our” above?

Well to whom is the epistle written? 1 Cor 1:2, ” To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours”

Jim, in response to your statement that it is fallacious to say “Christ died for your sins:”

This is Paul’s summary of the Gospel message:

2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

• God sent Christ
• Christ came to reconcile the world to Himself by His substitutionary, sacrificial death
• When men repent and believe, their trespasses are not imputed to them
• This message of reconciliation is entrusted to Paul and his fellow ambassadors (as well as all of us)

20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

• We are ambassadors for Christ
• It is as if God begged you through us, “We beg you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God!”

21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

• Remember, this is the summary which Paul delivers as part of his ministry
  • God made Christ to be sin for us …
    • (The audience, the listeners, the folks who hear him proclaim the Gospel)
  • … who knew no sin …
    • (Christ was sinless)
  • … so that through repentance and faith in Him we might be made righteous
    • Positional sanctification
    • Justification

I think this is pretty definitive. The dividing line, obviously, is where you stand on the extent of Christ’s atonement. If you believe Christ died for the sins of the world, you can say, “Christ died for your sins.” If you hold to limited atonement, you won’t say that.

The title of your post says “unbiblical gospel presentations”, yet the gospel is as Paul outlines to the Corinthian church that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, was buried, and raised on the third day. This is the Gospel, therefore to proclaim it is not unbiblical. All that said, too often gospel presentations wrongly begin with this news rather than beginning with a presentation of our violation of God’s law. If an unbeliever doesn’t know the bad news of their guilt before God, the Gospel will not make sense. However, once the law has been preached, if we fail to present the mercy and grace in the perfect sacrifice of Christ, we fail to present the Gospel.

The author’s concern seems to be the use of the word “Savior,” which is a perfectly Biblical term. Why not, instead, question the use of the verb “accept”? Where in the Bible do you find anyone “accepting” Jesus Christ, or anyone calling upon a sinner to “accept” Christ? That’s the real un-Biblical language in the phrase “accept Jesus as your savior.”

[TylerR] If you believe Christ died for the sins of the world, you can say, “Christ died for your sins.” If you hold to limited atonement, you won’t say that.

I never tell lost people that Christ died for their sins. I say Christ died to save sinners of whom I am chief (1 Tim 1:15)

[Jim]

I never tell lost people that Christ died for their sins. I say Christ died to save sinners of whom I am chief (1 Tim 1:15)

I ask them if they’re a sinner. If they say yes, I tell them there is good news, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15)” and they qualify.

Why not view the preaching in Acts as authoritative gospel presentations?

• Peter’s Sermon in Acts 2 … his presentation excludes this construct - “Christ died for your sins”
• Peter and John @ Solomon’s Porch (Acts 3) … “Repent therefore and be converted” but no “Christ died for your sins” construct
• Stephen before the council (Acts 7). Ditto
• Saul’s 1st preaching (Acts 9), “he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (vs 20). Ditto
• Peter to Cornelius (gentile) (Acts 10), “And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (42-43). Ditto
• Paul at Antioch/Pisidia (Acts 13) (Jews): “He has raised up Jesus”. Ditto
• To the Philippian jailer (Acts 16): “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (v31). Ditto
• at Thessalonica (Acts 17). “explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, andsaying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” (vs 3). Ditto
• At the Areopagus. Acts 17 - already noted above. Ditto
• Paul’s defense before Felix (Acts 24). ” I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead,both of the just and the unjust.” (14-15). Ditto
• Paul before Agrippa (Acts 26); “[I] declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance … that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead” (19-23). Ditto

Conclusion: (and admittedly we probably don’t have all that was said by Peter, Paul or Stephen). But of the gospel preaching in Acts there is not one message that has the phrase Christ died for you or anything like that. To me that speaks volumes.

[Lee]

Jim wrote:

I never tell lost people that Christ died for their sins. I say Christ died to save sinners of whom I am chief (1 Tim 1:15)

I ask them if they’re a sinner. If they say yes, I tell them there is good news, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15)” and they qualify.

[Chip Van Emmerik]

Lee wrote:

Jim wrote:

I never tell lost people that Christ died for their sins. I say Christ died to save sinners of whom I am chief (1 Tim 1:15)

I ask them if they’re a sinner. If they say yes, I tell them there is good news, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15)” and they qualify.

Lee, you must be omniscient to be able to identify the elect like that.

Not really. I just have the spiritual gift of reading comprehension. :)

I believe the best, simplest and most Biblical definition of the Gospel was given by Christ:

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mk 1:14-15).

The Gospel is repent and believe, and be reconciled to God. I sympathize a lot with Bro. Brandenburg’s article. Looking forward to the rest.

You wrote:

But of the gospel preaching in Acts there is not one message that has the phrase Christ died for you or anything like that

I’ve explained progressive sanctification before by this illustration:

• When you rinse out the filter on your vacuum, it is filthy and very dirty
• You rinse water through it, and wash the dirt out. The water that runs down the drain is black from the dirt
• Gradually, the water changes color and becomes progressively less dirty
• Likewise, we ought to be growing in our Christian faith and maturity as we daily take up our cross and follow our Savior. He must be Lord of our life. Sin must be continuously washed out of our life, as we strive to be holy, because our God is holy.
• Like the vacuum filter, less and less dirt should be rinsing out the older we get
• We’ll never be rinsed clean this side of the grave
• the point when the filter is clean is when Christ returns for us, or He calls us home. Wr’ll put off our vile, corrupt bodies and put on incorruptible bodies. We’ll be washed completely clean!

Neither Peter or Paul used the vacuum filter illustration, but I’m sure I’ll be ok. It is a perfectly valid application of Scripural truth. Again, the issue many people with your objection have comes down to their idea of the extent of Christ’s atonement.

And the one witnessing to them didn’t use the right words in the presentation…

Is the penitent saved or not?

I expected to hear a call to ban phrases like “ask Jesus into your heart”, “repeat this prayer after me (and really mean it)”, or “the Bible says whosoever will may come”.