Dever: Only true converts finally respond to the truth about Jesus Christ.

Teach that hope is found in Christ alone.

A pastor must teach very clearly that a person’s hope and trust must not be in who they are or what they have done, but in Jesus Christ and what he has done—that God became man in Christ, that he died on the cross as a substitute for everyone who repents and believes, that he rose again for our justification and as the first fruits of the final resurrection.

• So any idea that people can be converted through our own works must be rejected. Romans 1–3 by itself clearly destroys any such idea.

• We must confess that Jesus is the Christ and the incarnate Son of God (see 1 John 2:20–25; 3:23; 4:2–3, 9–10, 14–16; 5:5, 10–12).

• We must be clear not only about his person but about his atoning work. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16; cf. 2:2).

• We must also be clear, over against theological liberalism, that denying the bodily resurrection of Christ, according to the Bible, is denying Christ himself. What else is Paul’s majestic 1 Corinthians 15 about?!

Without preaching salvation through Christ alone, we can make converts to fatalism or to an ethical society, as so many Protestant churches have become. But we cannot have a truly Christian church.

When we get this teaching right, we both offend and attract all the right people. The self-righteous and wrongly self-confident will be offended at such talk of a Savior, while those who know they are sinners in need of a Savior will hear the news and rejoice. Only true converts finally respond to the truth about Jesus Christ.

Mark Dever in (Jonathan Leeman et al.,) The Underestimated Gospel (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2014).

Comments

Repackaging the gospel? It's more like obscuring the gospel!

Preface : I recognize this post may make me unpopular with some, but I think it is an important issue to blog about here. I’ve had time to reflect on this video and in my opinion, I think what is in this video raises some questions. This gentleman featured below is slotted to speak at the SBC's 2020 Pastors' Conference and it prompted me to think more about this illustration. I want to note that I don't know him and I have no personal issue with him. I assume he is a brother in the LORD. Having said that, I see some significant issues here that relate to this type of preaching being clear on the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, it appears to be obscuring it in my observation. Concern: Should the SBC or churches, in general, be in the habit of holding this up as a good and healthy example? Let's think about it some together. (Watch this clip below here first.) Context: The clip was posted to stand on its own as if it were wise and sound on it

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Men stirred, boys exhorted, and Jesus exalted!

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