To anticipate a possible objection, someone might say: "But isn't John 3:16 true? Can't I simply believe in Jesus?" And in response to that I would say yes, it's true, but it needs to be read in context. I'm sure many have heard the story of the man who was in the habit of cherry-picking Bible verses at random for his daily devotions. The first verse he came upon was Matthew 27:5, "Judas went and hanged himself." The next verse he happened to choose was Luke 10:37, "Go and do thou likewise." And the third verse he landed on was John 13:27, "And what thou doest, do quickly." The point of this story is obvious: don't take Bible verses out of context! In other words, don't pull a Bible verse out of context and then build an entire doctrine on it. That's horrible Bible interpretation, and quite honestly it's a misuse of Scripture. But sadly that's exactly what the Grace Evangelical Society is doing. Let's take John 3:16 as an example; that's the Bible verse I've been focusing on in this series. If we only share John 3:16, we are sharing maybe 5% of what Jesus said to Nicodemus and omitting everything else! (Editor's note: Using the King James Version, John 3:16 is approximately 5.11% of all the words that Jesus shared with Nicodemus in John chapter 3.) Of course John 3:16 is true! It's 100% true. That's not the point. The point is that it needs to be understood in context and interpreted in light of the complete message of Jesus, which in this particular case is John chapter 3, where, among other things, Jesus pointed Nicodemus back to the incident in the Old Testamemt where Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole as an ensign for the dying Israelites, so that everyone who simply looked to the serpent on the pole would live! (See Numbers 21:4-9.) Jesus likened Himself to the bronze serpent by saying, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:14-15). So the point I'm making is that Jesus shared more than John 3:16 with Nicodemus! And yes, of course John 3:16 is true. But it needs to be understood and interpreted in context, not out of context. In reading through John's Gospel, John 3:16 first of all needs to be interpreted in light of it's immediate context. Because as the saying goes, "A text without a context is a pretext for error [a covering for error]." To say it another way, what the GES calls "the saving message" isn't the complete message. To get the full message of John's Gospel, the reader should be like those who can’t resist flipping to the end of a love story to see how it all turns out. That's how the Apostle John wrote his Gospel; it's written from a resurrection perspective. It always has the end in view. So that's the complete revelation of the Gospel. The gospel is the good news of who Jesus is and what He came to do -- and did! (See John 19:30, "It is finished!") It's the same gospel message that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15, which he says all the apostles preached (see 1 Cor 15:11). So that is the complete saving message! The Grace Evangelical Society always talks about "the saving message". That's the terminology they use. Well, John 3:16 is part of it. It's most definitely part of it (a BIG part of it!); but still only part of it, right? Because that's not the whole story. That's not the complete picture. Like I said, even if we just look at the Gospel of John (or even just John chapter 3), John 3:16 is not the full message that Jesus gave to Nicodemus. So right away we are seeing red flags in terms of what the GES is saying compared to what Jesus said, for example, in John chapter 3. Not even looking at the full Gospel of John or the teaching of the New Testament in general. Not even bringing in 1 Corinthians 15; let's just look at John chapter 3, and still we see a discrepancy between the GES gospel and Jesus' gospel because He told Nicodemus, "you must be born again" (Jn 3:7). And Jesus also brought in the Old Testament. He said to Nicodemus, "you don't know these things?" (Jn 3:10). But where would Nicodemus have known these things from? Obviously from the Old Testament! Nicodemus was a Jew living before the cross, so we know the New Testament wasn't written yet. So obviously Jesus is referring to the Old Testament, right? So again, my point is that Jesus is bringing in the whole counsel of God's Word. He's not isolating a Bible verse out of context and building a doctrine on it. He brings in the Old Testament Scriptures, and basically says, "Nicodemus, you should know these things. You should know that you must be born again; there has to be a new birth." If the GES gospel were correct, we would expect Jesus to say, "It's okay that you don't know these things. Just believe in Me for life." But Jesus doesn't say that. He expected Nicodemus to know, and He took the time to explain. Jesus also says to Nicodemus, "That which is flesh is flesh" (Jn 3:6). In other words, the flesh is corrupt. The flesh is condemned. The flesh is perishing. In the words of the Apostle Paul it's, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23), right? Paul said: "in the first Adam we all die, but in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Cor 15:22). The Old Testament bears witness to this, that there needs to be life from above. There needs to be regeneration. And in the Old Testament there are pictures of that, such as when Moses struck the rock and water came out of the Rock and gave life to the thirsty Israelites (Exod 17:6; Num 20:7-8; cf. 1 Cor 10:4). It was a picture of the water of Life (Jn 4:14, 7:37-39; Rev. 22:17). And in John chapter 3, Jesus particularly points out the story of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness and how the dying Israelites only needed to look at it to be healed; they simply looked to it in faith, to be saved (Num 21:4-9). In that case they were saved physically. Jesus of course is talking spiritually (Jn. 3:12-17). So again, these are things we need to keep in mind and it highlights a problem with the GES gospel: they aren't preaching the gospel that Jesus preached. Because as I've just described, Jesus said much more than simply "Believe in Him for life." Jesus explained the problem: that we're sinners, that the flesh is corrupt and perishing, and that we "must be born again." Jesus furthermore told of God's love, and how He Himself will be "lifted up" on a cross (just as the bronze serpent in the Old Testament was lifted up on a pole in the wilderness), to bear the curse of humanity and to give His life to take away the sins of the world: so that everyone who believes Him, that is, everyone who believes in "the Son of man to be lifted up" (i.e. "Christ crucified") will receive eternal life! And that's the message of the Gospel that Jesus preached and that people must believe to be saved.
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