Last month, we considered 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 to show our sins create a debt that must be paid. Click here to read that post. Today, I want to explore how we can all avoid being in a certain group of people. A phrase in verse 8 says Jesus will deal out “retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8 NAS).
In the Apostle Paul’s day, those who did not know God referred to Gentiles. Knowledge of God was made known to the Jews through the Law of Moses. Gentiles didn’t have the Law. The other group refers to the Jews who refused to believe in Jesus. The distinction I’ve made between the two groups may not always be so clear, because not knowing God also refers to anyone without a personal relationship with God. For example, the Bible teaches that the sons of Eli, who were Jews, were wicked men who did not know God. (1 Samuel 2:12).
The requirement to obey the gospel reveals there is something believers must do to be obedient. Acts of obedience should not be confused with working to earn salvation. God requires his followers to obey him, but salvation is a gift that cannot be earned. This may seem like a contradiction, but in Titus 3, the apostle Paul explains this working of God’s grace. “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5 NAS).
The question is what is involved in obeying the gospel? This includes both immediate actions and long-term changes. This post will address immediate actions of belief, repentance, and baptism. My goal is to present what ordinary humans can teach so people obey Jesus.
Let’s start by seeing what Jesus said when he spoke to his apostles after his resurrection.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NAS)
Jesus commands the apostles to go and make disciples. Making a disciple of Jesus includes teaching about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The purpose is to cause people to believe in Jesus, so they become his disciples. The newly made disciples are to be baptized and then taught again to obey everything Jesus commanded. This great commission should be taken as orders from Jesus to everyone who becomes a disciple.
The second teaching implies Jesus came to Earth not only so we could avoid punishment for our sins, but so our way of life would change and we would become like Jesus. The instructions Jesus gives in the great commission are clear and easy to teach other people. Why would anyone claim that requirements to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach are not requirements that every believer ought to obey?
The book of Acts describes how the apostles carried out Jesus’s great commission and what the apostles taught people who were not saved yet. The Apostle Paul provides a concise explanation of the change I’m referring to.
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” (Colossians 1:13 NAS)
In this post I’m focused on how this transfer happens and not on all that must happen afterward. This is why Acts is a good reference for this subject. Next we’ll look at what the Apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus was resurrected. Peter is obeying the commands Jesus had given in the great commission. In Acts 2, Peter spoke to religious Jews, who had not yet obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” (Acts 2:36-40 NAS)
Peter confronts these people with the fact that they had crucified their Messiah. They recognized they were guilty of a great sin, but Peter informs them there is still hope for them. What are Peter’s instructions? Repent and be baptized. We can all understand and do this, and we can teach others to do the same. What is the result as Peter explains it? Forgiveness of sins, reception of the Holy Spirit, and salvation. These are straightforward instructions explaining what it means to obey the gospel. Every believer in Christ should do these things. Some argue that ‘for the forgiveness of sins’ means baptism occurs because forgiveness has already been granted. However, the Greek preposition used here most naturally points forward to forgiveness as the goal of baptism, which is consistent with the plain reading of Peter’s command.
It’s beyond the scope of this post to describe what God does during water baptism but other New Testament passages such as Romans 6:1-7 and Colossians 2:9-15 explain God’s amazing work. Click here for a post describing what God does during baptism.
Objections to my explanation of how to obey the gospel
Some individuals who disagree with me cite passages such as the conversion of the Philippian jailer in Acts 16.
And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas; and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Act 16:29-31 NAS)
These teachers conclude belief in Jesus results in immediate salvation. This sounds good because it is true that without belief in Jesus no one can be saved. However, this immediate salvation view neglects teaching that guides the new believer to obey the gospel. Let’s look a little further at what happened with the Philippian jailer.
And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. (Act 16:32-33 NAS)
Paul and Silas taught the word of God to the jailer and his household, and they were baptized right away. Teaching that separates baptism from the process of salvation contradicts what Peter said in Acts 2 and it could lead some to disregard Jesus’s commands in Matthew 28.
A friend of mine, Sam, (not his real name) objected to my teaching about baptism for a different reason. Sam says my teaching about salvation is not wrong, but it’s incomplete. He calls Jesus paying for our sins by dying on the cross substitutionary atonement.
Sam said, “It is not that substitutionary atonement is wrong, but that the Bible has a lot of different ways to look at salvation, SA is just one of them …. An example of this is the story of Zaccheus in Luke 19. Here Jesus says today salvation has come to this house. Now if we only had substitutionary atonement as a lens, this wouldn’t make a lot of sense. What does Jesus’s death have to do about salvation with Zacchaeus today? However if we also have an idea of Jesus’ teachings, death and resurrection being the beginning of a new age, a new way of living life in accordance with God the story of Zacchaeus makes much more sense.
“For our church we make a distinction of believing and following. Even demons believe, our call is to follow Jesus both now and tomorrow. God’s salvific work is more than just saving us from our sins but saving us to a new way of life that starts today.”
The story of Zacchaeus is found in Luke 19:1-10.
Sam makes some excellent points. Zaccheus’ decision to give half his wealth to the poor and to repay fourfold money he had stolen exemplifies the fact true belief in Jesus must bring about repentance and a new way of life. Sam’s conclusion is also powerful. God didn’t just save us from the punishment due for our sins, but he saved us so we could live a new life. I completely agree with this truth.
Jesus was God in the flesh during his earthly ministry. He had the wisdom and authority of God. Jesus could say with certainty salvation had come to Zacchaeus. Jesus could declare a person’s sins forgiven. He had the right to promise paradise to the thief on the cross. Jesus had the authority to declare the paralytic’s sins were forgiven (Mark 2 and Matthew 9). However, we who are followers of Jesus Christ must be careful to not assume authority we do not have. If we are going to teach others how to obey the gospel, we can only teach what Jesus and his apostles have taught in the Bible for us to teach.
In summary, my understanding of the process of being saved looks like this: hear the gospel → believe → repent → be baptized + have sins forgiven + receive the Holy Spirit.
When a person believes a change begins in their life, but my main objective in this post is to identify the precise point when a person is transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:12-13). I believe scripture teaches this takes place at the point of baptism when the penitent believer in Jesus is immersed in water.
My hope is that you, and I, and everyone we know will escape eternal destruction and experience the joys of heaven. Scripture tells us what we must do to be saved, the next and final post in this series, Part 3, is titled “Transformation.”
Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash
Excellent dissertation concerning soteriology. Also, I would include Revelation 1:5 KJV, which states, “…Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” There is something beyond human comprehension happening when you are baptized.