Gospel, Not Myth
Frank
Believe the Gospel, not denominational myth.
Most people who profess to be "Christian"
believe their baptism as an infant is saving,
and that infants do not need to understand
to be baptized.
But in the New Testament church, those baptized
were those old enough to understand and believe
the Gospel.
What did they have to understand?
Who Jesus is, so that they could believe on him
for their salvation:
That he is the Christ, the Son of God, who came
into the world as our Substitute, and lived a perfect
life for us, and went to the cross for us, so that his
righteousness would be regarded as ours, so that
we could have eternal life by believing on him, and
that he gave his life for us, and he rose again.
Christ gives the light and the faith to believe the Gospel.
To believe on Christ is to believe what he has revealed
about himself; to believe that he is our Righteous Substitute
is to stop trusting in our "righteousness" for salvation and
start trusting him to be our entire righteousness for us.
Christ showed the Scriptural Gospel to the world by showing
the meaning of Romans 1 verse 17, that Christ gives us faith
to trust him to impute his own righteousness as though ours
so that we are justified by him so that he gives us eternal life.
Christ showed the meaning of that verse to Luther to save
him and others, and to enable the Protestant Reformation.
To the extent that the Reformers believed what Christ showed,
the real Gospel was once again declared on earth for salvation.
To the extent that the Reformers retained glorified sacraments
and infant baptism, Gospel was clouded, Reformation divided.
Today, that clouding of the Gospel allows the false "gospel" of
surrender, and the division into thousands of denominations.
Though people should definitely repent, trust must never be
on repentance for salvation; all trust must be on Christ alone.
References:
For understanding and believing the Gospel:
Mat 14:33, Mat 16:15-17, John 3:13-17, John 4:21-42,
John 6:29-65, John 9:35-39, John 10:7-30, John 14:1-11,
John 19:23-37, John 20:15-31, Acts 8:30-37, Acts 16:30-34,
Rom 1:15-17, Rom 3:21-26, Rom 4:20-25, Rom 5:8-19,
Rom 9:30-33, Rom 10:1-17 (v 9 KJV), 2 Cor 5:20-21
For Christ showing Luther the Gospel:
Mat 13:33-35, John 16:7-16, Preface to Luther's Latin Works
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