As we have already seen, the gospel found in Scripture is the gospel of the kingdom. This word "gospel" means good news. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of the kingdom God established when He gave all authority unto Jesus, raising Him from the dead, making Him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:32-36).

By raising Him from the dead, never to die again (Romans 6:9) so that He would never undergo decay (Acts 2:27), God declared Him to be the Son of God (Romans 1:4), the very God Himself (John 10:31-36). It is by believing in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, resulting in righteousness, and confessing with our mouth, Jesus as Lord, resulting in salvation, that we are able to enter into this kingdom of God (Romans 10:9-10, Colossians 1:13-14).

It is only as we repent, as we change our mind about Jesus and joyfully submit to Him, believing and confessing Him as Lord, that we are ushered into this kingdom and are born of the Spirit, receiving the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

We then begin a life-long experience of entering into the fullness of the riches of Christ Jesus our Lord, the King of this magnificent kingdom of light. In Acts 26:18, the Lord tells Paul that he was sending him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

By the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, the power of Satan was broken, and we were set free from his dominion, free from the dominion of sin, set free to serve God in the obedience that results in righteousness. Romans 6:6 tells us, “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body might be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin” (HCSB). Romans 6:12 continues, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its lusts.”

Paul says in Galatians 1:7 that there are some that distort the gospel of Christ. He says in Galatians 1:9 that “if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.” You can see that in God’s eyes, it is not a small thing to preach another gospel. Anyone that does is an enemy of the gospel. Jesus said clearly, “He who is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30).

There is another gospel that is being preached today. It has become very popular with some pastors and with some evangelists. It is called the gospel of repentance. It is a gospel without cost or discomfort. It is “another gospel.” The focus of this gospel is the sinner and their sins. The focus is not on the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ as Lord.

This gospel teaches people that God has a law that must be kept, and that it is sin to break that law. It teaches that all have sinned and that the wages of sin is death. It teaches that if they do not repent of their sins, feeling sorry for them and ask Jesus to come into their heart and be their savior, they are going to spend eternity in the torment of unquenchable fire. If they do repent (feel sorry), and ask Jesus into their heart, then they will be saved and will go to heaven when they die.

Then, after sufficient manipulation of the emotions through the use of stories and music, they ask how many would like to be saved and know for sure they are going to heaven when they die. Then they ask the people to raise their hand or come down front or say the sinner’s prayer with them. After doing one or more of these things, they assure them that they are saved and going to heaven when they die and that there is no way they can lose their salvation.

This “other gospel” requires no obedience or submission to the authority of the King of the kingdom, Jesus the Christ, our Lord. In fact, this “other gospel” claims to have no cost at all; it is totally free, easy and painless. During the response to the presentation of this “other gospel,” the people are often assured that they will not even be embarrassed by having to do anything in public. Often during this process, everyone is asked to bow their heads and close their eyes. Only the pastor’s or the evangelist’s eyes are open so they can make a head count and add the recorded number of notches to their salvation belt.

In order to deceive and inoculate the hearers against receiving the genuine gospel of the kingdom, this “other gospel” contains many elements of truth. However, a gospel without cost, a gospel without obedience and submission to the authority of the king, is a gospel with no scriptural basis at all. Nowhere in Scripture is an unbeliever told that, if they feel sorry for their sins and ask Jesus to come into their heart and be their savior, they will be saved and go to heaven.

"Repentance," or "repent," as used in Scripture in presenting the gospel of the kingdom to unbelievers does not mean to feel sorry for something, but rather it means to change your mind. To repent means to change your mind about the direction you are going in life, and to turn back to God by trusting in Jesus. To do this requires that you change your mind regarding what you think about Jesus.

Those that preach this “other gospel” present it as a gospel without cost, but, in reality, the cost of receiving this “other gospel” is devastatingly high. Those that respond to this “other gospel” are assured by those that preach it that they have eternal salvation. These “new believers” are thereby inoculated against the genuine gospel of the kingdom.

The god of this world has used this “other gospel” to blind their minds “that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Every time the people who received this “other gospel” hear the genuine gospel according to Scripture, the enemy of the gospel will assure them again that they are already saved. They will point them back to that time when they responded to this “other gospel.” By doing this, the enemy of the gospel is able to keep them from ever responding to the genuine gospel of the kingdom, and thereby truly be saved.

There are many “other gospels,” the gospel of salvation through water baptism, the gospel of salvation through good works, etc. Each of these “other gospels” has the common feature that they deny the need to simply believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, establishing His authority as Lord and King (Matthew 28:18), and a complete voluntary submission to His authority, confessing Him as Lord.

Anyone who preaches “another gospel” or that assures another of their salvation is an enemy of the gospel. If a requirement of salvation is that we believe in our heart, how can we assure anyone of what is in their heart? Scripture says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately wicked; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give each man according to his way, according to the results of his deeds.”

Only God knows a person’s heart, and only God can give anyone an assurance of salvation. He does this by the witness of His Holy Spirit that He causes to dwell within the believer. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” This Spirit dwelling in the believer teaches him about Christ and spreads the love of God abroad in the believer’s heart. It is also by this love, the love that God gives the believer for the Christian brothers, that the person can be assured that they are saved. I John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”

God wants believers to have an assurance that they are born again, that they are truly His children. However, God insists on being the only one His children look to for that assurance.

As we have seen previously, Scripture sets forth only one gospel that we are to preach, the same gospel the apostles preached, the gospel of the kingdom. This gospel presents Jesus as having been given all authority by virtue of His having been raised from the dead by the power of God, and the necessity of our submitting wholeheartedly to that authority in all obedience.

Romans 6:16-18 says, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Anyone that preaches “another gospel” or assures another that they are saved is an enemy of the gospel. Are you an enemy of the gospel? If you are, or have been, I urge you to repent and return to the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel found in the Bible. Return to proclaiming salvation through faith in Jesus and His resurrection from the dead and submission to His authority, confessing Him as Lord. In doing this, you will become a fellow laborer with the apostles, building up the kingdom of God.

I strongly encourage you to read through all of the Scripture references given here. Search the Scriptures and see for yourself what gospel the apostles in the first century were proclaiming. Prayerfully seek understanding from God according to His Word. As you prayerfully search the Scriptures, if you are a believer, the indwelling Holy Spirit will teach you. He will enlighten your heart that you might understand and walk in His way.

My prayer is that this will stir up within you a desire to proclaim to all that Jesus has been raised from the dead, never to die again, and that all authority has been given unto Him (Matthew 28:18-20). May this gospel of the kingdom go forth into all the earth; then will come the end of the age (Matthew 24:14).

Writings By Jon von Ernst

The Lord of All Things Series - A Trilogy of Truth 
Books in this series:
Book 1 - The Gospel of the Kingdom
Book 2- The Victorious Christian
Book 3 - Walking in the Light  -  Following in His Steps

*- Audio of these books are available free of charge at thepureword.net.