Mark 8:34-38 ESV
“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’”
The gospel message which is permeating the American church at large today is not this gospel that Jesus taught, and it is not the gospel that the NT apostles taught, but it is a man-created gospel message intended to tickle itching ears, and to sooth guilty minds and hearts, and to appease human flesh. But it is a trap! And it is a deception (a lie). And if you fall into that trap you will not have salvation from sin, and you will not inherit eternal life with God, for you don’t really believe in God but in a lie of Satan.
This lie of Satan has some of the appearance of the true gospel, but it is a half-truth (lie) gospel message intended to deceive naïve minds and those trapped in sin who are looking for an easy way out of having to spend eternity in hell while they continue to live in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. But it is a lie! It is a trap! And if you fall into it, you will die in your sins. You will not have heaven as your eternal destiny regardless of what other humans are telling you. Read the Scriptures in their context!
So, what do I mean by a “Half-truth gospel”? I mean that what so many are teaching as the gospel today is being parceled out in segments, but not in whole, for they are removing key Scriptures from their original context, and they are twisting them to make them say what the Scriptures do not teach, in whole. So, let me give you some examples of what I mean:
John 10:28-30 is being taught absent of John 10:27 which is where we learn who these promises apply to, which is critical to us being able to apply them to our lives, or not. For it isn’t those who merely make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ who are promised eternal life with God, but it is those who are listening to Jesus, who are heeding his counsel, and who are walking in obedience to him in following him in his ways who have this promise and this hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
And Ephesians 2:8-9 is being taught with the message that no works are required of us at all, and that they play no part in our salvation. But this is absent of Ephesians 2:10 which teaches us that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them, making them our practice. And this is absent of the whole context of Ephesians which teaches us that we must forsake our former lives of sin and now we must live holy lives or we will not inherit eternal life with God (see Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6).
And Romans 6:23 is being taught absent of the entire book of Romans, especially absent the whole of chapters 6 and 8, as though our salvation from sin is just handed to us on a silver platter and that nothing is required of us other than some obscure belief in Christ which is rarely biblically defined. The same with John 3:16, which is not usually taught in the context of an ongoing continuous walk of faith and which is not usually taught in the whole of John 3. And the same is being done with Romans 10:9-10, etc.
So, what many are doing is that they are pulling these Scriptures out of their context and they are building their doctrines of salvation around them, but half-truths are lies if they are deliberate half-truths with the intention to deceive and to lead people astray, which these are. Now I am not saying that everyone who teaches these half-truths is a liar and a deceiver. Some are just the deceived who don’t know they are believing lies. But many know it is a lie but they hang on to it because the lie appeases their flesh.
And many of these lies are being spread via social media memes and short devotionals and short videos and via preachers’ sermons and “Christian” authors’ books, and via movies and cartoons and TV dramas which are loosely about the Bible and the character of God, of Christ, and via “Christian” artists and their music lyrics, etc. And since we live in a “fast-food” society, where most people, it seems, want things short and quick and easy, the masses are falling for these clever lies being told by people in their trickery and cunning and craftiness and in their deceitful scheming.
So, what is the truth? Let’s go back to this passage in Mark 8 and to Jesus’ words. For he said that to come after him we must deny self (reject the self-life), and we must take up our cross (daily – Luke 9:23-26), i.e. we must die daily to sin and to self, and we must follow (obey) him. And here I will paraphrase Jesus’ words: For whoever holds on to his old life of living in sin and for self will lose it for eternity. But whoever denies self, dies daily to sin and to self, and who follows Jesus in obedience, for his sake, and for the sake of the gospel, that person will have salvation and eternal life with God.
This is the essence of the message of the gospel of our salvation and the purpose for why Jesus died on that cross. For he died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and that we might live for him and no longer for self. And he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of living in sin and for self so that we will now honor God with our bodies. And he was crucified that we might be crucified with him in death to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness.
[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 6:1-23]
My Sheep
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they follow me.
https://vimeo.com/114938263
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