"Paul's Defense of His Gospel" | by William R. Newell

WILLIAM R. NEWELL
(1868-1956)

Some Free Grace people teach that the burial of Christ is not part of the gospel. They love to quote William R. Newell because he's a proponent of Free Grace theology, but they conveniently fail to mention that he disagreed with their interpretation of the gospel! Did the apostle Paul preach more than one gospel? If he did not, then one gospel is true and the other gospel is false. That is to say, if Paul preached Christ's burial as part of the gospel, then the no-burial interpretation of the gospel is false. Notice what Newell says about the gospel in the following statements, excerpted from his books Old Testament Studies, Romans Verse-By-Verse, and Galatians 1 and 2, or Paul's Defense of His Gospel (popularly known as Peter vs. Paul: Remarks on Galatians 1 & 2):

1 Corinthians 15:3-5

“The beginning of the Gospel is CHRIST CRUCIFIED. See 1 Cor. 15:3. That, Paul says, is the ‘first of all’ truth. Then (1 Cor. 15:4, 5) follow the next two: CHRIST BURIED, and CHRIST RISEN.”¹

Romans 1:3-4

     “[Romans Chapter 1] Verses 3 and 4: Concerning His Son—Specifically (a) that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (b) that He was buried, (c) that He hath been raised the third day according to the Scriptures, (d) that He appeared to various witnesses. The good news Paul preached is therefore scientifically specific, and must be held in our minds in its accuracy, as it lay in that of the apostle. (See 1 Cor. 15.3-8.) 

     These great facts concerning Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection are the beginning of the gospel; as Paul says: ‘I delivered unto you (these) first of all.’ 

     The gospel is all about Christ. Apart from Him, there is no news from heaven but that of coming woe! Read that passage in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: ‘I make known unto you the gospel which I preached unto you: that Christ died, Christ was buried; Christ hath been raised; Christ was seen.’ It is all about the Son of God!”² 

Romans 1:16-17

     “[Romans Chapter 1] Verse 16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel…For it is the power of God unto salvation—The second ‘For’ gives the reason for Paul’s boldness: this good news concerning Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and appearing, ‘is the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth.’ There is no fact for a preacher or teacher to hold more consistently in his mind than this.”³ 

     “Again we repeat that it is of the very first and final importance that the preacher or teacher of the gospel believe in the bottom of his soul that the simple story, Christ died for our sins, was buried, hath been raised from the dead the third day, and was seen, IS THE POWER OF GOD to salvation to every one who rests in it—who believes!”⁴

     “Paul’s preaching was not, as is so much today, general disquisition on some subject, but definite statements about the crucified One, as he himself so insistently tells us in 1 Corinthians 15.3-5.”⁵ 

     “This story of Christ’s dying for our sins, buried, raised, manifested, is the great wire along which runs God’s mighty current of saving power. Beware lest you be putting up some little wire of your own, unconnected with the Divine throne, and therefore non-saving to those to whom you speak.”⁶

     “Therefore, in this good news, (1) Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (2) He was buried, (3) He hath been raised the third day according to the Scriptures, (4) He was manifested (1 Cor. 15:3 ff),—in this good news there is revealed, now openly for the first time, God’s righteousness on the principle of faith. We simply hear and believe: and, as we shall find, God reckons us righteous; our guilt having been put away by the blood of Christ forever, and we ourselves declared to be the righteousness of God in Him!”⁷

Romans 10:8

     “[Romans Chapter 10] Verse 8: Now, answering all these inquiries, these sign-askings, came the simple word of faith preached by Paul. This expression, ‘the word of faith,’ involves the whole story of the gospel: that Jesus was the Christ, that He had come, died for sin, been buried, been raised, and been seen by many witnesses after His resurrection (1 Cor. 15.3-8).”⁸

Galatians Chapter 1

     “In Gal. 1:6 Paul is marveling—a very strong word. What is he marveling at? Who had ‘called’ these Galatians? Rom. 8:30. In whose grace had God called them? ‘The grace of Christ’ here means that these Galatians (as also all of us) had their whole salvation—forgiveness, justification, new standing in divine favor, as a free gift of God by Christ, for which they in nowise worked and of which they were in nowise worthy, nor could be. But what were they doing ‘so quickly’ after Paul's preaching to them? In Gal. 1:7 we find they were ‘removing’ not to a different gospel (for there was none other); but they were the objects of false teaching. What did these false teachers desire to do? Verse 7. See Acts 20:29, 30, and also 2 Cor. 11:13, 14. False teachers are whose ministers, and what will their end be? 2 Cor. 11:5  Are there teachers nowadays who also seek to corrupt the true gospel? 

     What terrible language does Paul use in verses 8 and 9 concerning men who teach ‘another’ gospel than his?

     If an angel from heaven (whom you knew to be such) were to appear to you and tell you some ‘new revelation’ contrary to the Pauline doctrine, what should be your attitude toward such a message? Gal. 1:8, last four words. And if any man (no matter how talented, ‘beautiful’ in life, ethically ideal or generally magnetic he may be) preaches other than the Pauline gospel, what does God say of him? Gal. 1:9, last four words. Paul's gospel is summed up in 1 Cor. 15:3-8: (1) Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (i.e., as the Passover lamb died shielding Israel from divine judgment by its blood; as the atonement goats died in Lev. 16, procuring, in type, the removal of Israel's sins from year to year through their shed blood, etc.); (2) Christ was buried; (3) Christ hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (i.e., in a physical body, though without blood; having flesh and bones, able to be seen, touched, and generally known. Luke 24:36-43, etc.); (4) Christ appeared—was seen of Cephas, the twelve, above five hundred, to James, to all the apostles, last of all to Paul.

     This great passage (1 Cor. 15:1-8) gives the foundation truths of the Pauline gospel. All the great doctrines that Paul was given to unfold or primarily to reveal spring from these four vital facts: Christ's Death, Christ's Burial, Christ's Resurrection, Christ's Personal Manifestation.

     Notice carefully that the gospel begins with Christ's death; not with his earthly life. This is the message the sinner needs. It is at the cross the sinner finds his Savior. Had Paul ever talked in this intolerant way before? Gal. 1:9. Was Paul a milk-and-water man? Are you? Why was Paul willing to be vehement concerning the truth? Gal. 1:10. Always distrust a preacher who is salving things over for you or is afraid to displease you. Such men are not servants of whom? Gal. 1:10. See Phil. 1:21.

     Paul now, verse 11, shows the absolute newness and independence of his gospel—and the consequent authority with which he spoke. First, his gospel ‘is not after man’; i.e., no human being ever would or could have conceived it. It is a heavenly, not an earthly thing. Did Paul receive it from man? Gal. 1:12. Was he taught it? (That is, possibly by angelic mediation, or imparted by instruction as a doctrine.) How alone was Paul's gospel given him? The expression ‘through the revelation of Jesus Christ’ should be compared, for instance, with Acts 26:16: ‘To this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee.’ And also Acts 18:9, and 23:11, together with such expressions as that in 1 Cor. 7:25, and 10, 1 Thess. 6:16. These passages show that the risen Lord conveyed directly to Paul (doubtless through the Holy Ghost, yet personally and immediately) not only the great fundamental truths of the gospel, but those new revelations concerning the body, the church, identification with Christ, and the heavenly standing of the church, etc., that make Paul's epistles a consistent body of truth as new and unified as was Moses’ law. Even the Lord's Supper, with the instructions concerning it and the deep doctrines connected with it were conveyed directly by the Lord to Paul, and not imparted from any other apostle. 1 Cor. 11:23.

     Surely it behooves us to learn most faithfully these things the Lord directly communicated to Paul, for if we are ignorant of them we will not know where we are in the purposes of God nor what our privileges and responsibilities are. A man who is ignorant of the Pauline gospel is constantly getting ‘mixed up’ both in his interpretation of the Bible and in his personal experience.”⁹

     “The man of grace will tell you that no good work, nor all of them together, is what he trusted in. ‘The blood of Christ,’ saith he, ‘of which God hath told me, hath answered before God's judgment bar for all my sin forever. And Christ Himself, being risen up and ascended to heaven, is alone my righteousness and my hope. Suppose I have no experience of joy, or delight, or hope; suppose I perform no works; Suppose I engage in no prayers, yet I see my Saviour at God's right hand. In Him and in His work on the cross do I rest. It is not in anything connected with myself, not even the fact that I am born again, or am filled with the Spirit, that is the ground of my assurance; but it is the shed blood of the Saviour, Christ, which I find spilled here at the cross, concerning which blood God mightily witnesseth, that it secures eternal redemption for those who rely upon it as sinners—unworthy sinners; yea, eternally unworthy of such a gift from the great and righteous God!’

     It is just here that the legalist flees away. He cries, ‘I must be this or that!’ ‘I must do this or that.’ He dares not rest in the word ‘finished,’ as spoken by Christ on Golgotha's tree. He does not believe it is finished, in his case. He dare not come out into the open before God in his inmost soul as a guilty sinner. He cries out with his mouth that he is guilty, but in his heart he hopes to put away his guilt. He speaks much about his utter unworthiness, but he never dares to smite upon his breast and wait for mercy from God. He flees to church membership, to baptism, to the Lord's Supper, to ‘Christian work,’ to fastings, prayers, anything—sometimes to the gospel ministry itself, to get relief from his accusing conscience.

     Now, if the gospel concerning Christ and His work is to be made clear, it must be separated utterly from the sinner and his work—even from the saved sinner, and his work. For we must believe that these Galatians were Christians, though weak indeed, in faith. For, if the gospel concerning Christ and His work (that is, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, which is Paul's exact statement of the gospel—1 Cor. 15:1, 3-5) be God's one only, sole, particular, necessary, final means of salvation, yea—if this good news about Christ and His work and His death on the cross be the very and only power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16) and all other works whatsoever, and by whomsoever performed in any age, and by howsoever renowned people, be nothing but filthy rags as regards righteousness before God, then the main business of the true preacher in his preaching of the gospel is to defend the gospel from all mixtures therewith of human religion and legal works, whether of Jew, pagan, infidel or professing Christian.”¹⁰

References:

¹ Newell, Old Testament Studies (Toronto: 1908), pp. 75-76, emphasis his.

² Newell, Romans Verse-By-Verse (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1994), p. 6. Note: This book was originally published in Chicago by Moody Press, 1938. 

³ Ibid., pp. 18-19. 

⁴ Ibid., p. 19, emphasis his. 

⁵ Ibid., p. 20, emphasis his. 

⁶ Ibid., p. 21. 

⁷ Ibid., p. 24.

⁸ Ibid., pp. 276-277.

⁹ Newell, Galatians 1 and 2, or Paul's Defense of His Gospel, pp. 8-9.

¹⁰ Ibid., p. 11. For more information see my article: “What Gospel Did Paul Preach to the Galatians?”.