Thursday, December 2, 2010

In Defense of the Gospel, Pt. 1


In this series I will be answering questions about "the gospel" (see 1 Cor. 15:1). The key verse for this series is 1 Peter 3:15, which says: "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you...."

"IN DEFENSE OF THE GOSPEL"
(Philippians 1:16)

Question: Does a lost person need to know and believe that Christ appeared to the Lord's brother James in order to be saved? (1 Cor. 15:7) I don't think I knew this at all when I was first saved. Does that mean I did not have a genuine conversion?

Answer: A lost person needs to believe "the gospel" in order to be saved (Rom. 1:16; Eph. 1:12-13; 2 Thess. 1:8-9). So the next question is, "What is the gospel?" Or, "What is the specific content of the gospel?" The content of the gospel is contained in 1 Corinthians 15:3b-5 (notice the four-fold repetition of the hoti content clauses in verses 3-5), whereas verses 6-8 provide corroboration to that data. (Please see my article "Getting the Gospel Right" for more information on this.) So in answer to your question, a lost person does not need to believe that Christ appeared to the Lord's brother James in order to be saved because 1 Corinthians 15:7 is not part of the specific content of "the gospel" (1 Cor. 15:1, 3-5). 
 
[Editor's note: This article has been updated and abridged since it was first published. To read the original full-length article, click here.]

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