Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“Any gospel that looks within man for good is not the gospel of God’s grace; it is another gospel.” ~ R. C. Sproul

If your gospel is that God is looking within you to find something good, useful, or beneficial to Him and He is calling you to Himself in order to bring out of you the potential within then you have another gospel. (Galatians 1:6-9)

God is not looking within us and seeking something useful to Him because He needs us (Acts 17:24-25). Consider the implication. When we believe that God needs me or sees something in us worth saving, we are elevating ourselves and bringing God low.

Who wouldn’t think this way? We are sinners (Romans 3:23). We have a high view of ourselves (Romans 12:3). Of course, God needs me, right? Of course, there’s something within me worth saving, right? I’m not totally depraved; I’m just a little messed up but me plus God can make me fulfill what I was always meant to be. I just need a little fixin’ up.

This is not the Gospel! But we may miss it. Gospel language is used but either in addition to or subtraction from some of the correct components of the Gospel. When this happens it becomes another gospel.

A gospel presentation that has some of the right components may sound like the Gospel. Some may let it slide when important components are missing or when other components are added. They don’t realize the danger. This is not acceptable.

At any point we add to or take away from the Gospel, we have another gospel. Scripture is clear concerning the man who proclaims another Gospel: let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8-9). It’s a matter we must consider of utmost importance.

The truth is, God is self-sufficient (Psalm 50:9-12; Acts 17:24-25). God does not need us.

If your gospel fails to deal with sin and does not use words like judgment, wrath, hell, or the holiness of God, then you have another gospel (John 16:8; Romans 1:18; Matthew 10:28; 1 Peter 1:15-16). If your gospel presents a different problem than Scripture by addition or subtraction, you have another gospel.

If your gospel presents your problem as not realizing your full potential and sin is hindering what is great within you from being manifest, you have another gospel (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-12). If your gospel presents your problem as your lack of realizing what you were made to be and needing to repent of the sin of not realizing your potential, you have another gospel.

The Gospel begins with God. The Gospel does not begin with man or something in us worth saving (Romans 3:9-28).

God is not just longing for us and desperate for us to see how wonderful we really are. That is NOT good news! Consider that. If God needs us and the problem is we just don’t realize our potential and God is trying to bring out our full potential, then we have a fundamental misunderstanding of just how sinful we are and who God is (Ephesians 2:1-3).

When we hear the Gospel we do not look within and see anything worth saving (Romans 7:18). We cry out against our hearts (Psalm 51:10). When we come to understand the holiness of God as presented in the Gospel, we do NOT know how we could possibly be saved (Isaiah 6:1-7). We see how evil we are—how depraved. We do not want what is within to be brought out (Matthew 7:20-23).

The Gospel calls us to come and die (Luke 9:23; Galatians 2:20). When we hear the Gospel, we want that old man to die (Romans 6:6)! When we hear the Gospel we are not encouraged to be a better version of ourselves or think that we are something worth saving and God needs us. No!

We understand that we are not worth saving and we don’t know how we can be saved and we fear the just wrath of God that we deserve (Romans 3:19; Hebrews 10:31). Then, at this point, comes the Good News of how we may be saved. Then, we rejoice when we hear who Jesus is and what He has done for wretched sinners like us (Romans 5:1-11)!

God has never saved anyone who was good and just needed to realize their full potential (Luke 5:32). God saves hell deserving sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Any gospel that adds to or takes away from that is a false gospel (Galatians 1:6-9).

God is not saving us from our sins so that we can be a better version of ourselves. As flattering as that is to our sinful nature, it is horrible news! We do NOT want to be a better version of our depraved selves (Romans 7:18; Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 2:1-3; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-18). We must come and die. We must hear the Gospel that leaves us asking, “How can I be saved”? But we must be careful that we have a right understanding also of what we are being saved from (Romans 5:9).

We may agree that we are sinners, but if we define sin as something external that is hindering our potential, we make ourselves victims of sin and not those who are guilty before a holy, righteous, and just God for our sins against Him (Romans 3:19-20; James 2:10)!

We have sinned (Romans 3:23). We have sinned against God (Psalm 51:4). We have sinned against holiness (Isaiah 6:5). We have no good thing to offer God that He may look upon and determine that He needs us so we are worth saving (Romans 7:18). Our sin is so grievous and heinous before God that we deserve an eternity in hell (Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:15). The punishment is not too severe. It is just (Romans 6:23)!

God cannot be unjust (Deuteronomy 32:4)! Do we realize how sinful we are? Perhaps not! Perhaps this is because we do not know Who we have sinned against and we can’t imagine ourselves as bad as we truly are (Exodus 34:6-7). We are a lot worse than we think ourselves to be (Romans 3:10-12)! God is much holier than we realize (Isaiah 6:3)!

It is not that you are a sinner, and you just need to realize how great you are. We stand justly condemned before a perfect, holy, righteous Judge (Hebrews 9:27). There is nothing in and of ourselves worth saving. We deserve the full undiluted wrath of God (Romans 1:18).

Scripture says that we are dead in our sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1). It says that the intentions of men’s hearts were evil only (Genesis 6:5). It says that the heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). Scripture testifies to the goodness and the greatness and the power and the holiness and the majesty of God. It reveals that God is self-sufficient in need of nothing and no one outside of Himself. God does not need me or you!

Any gospel that begins with men and presents God as looking within man seeing something worth saving is a distorted view of the gospel and of who God is and who we are.

Scripture says that there are none good, no, not one (Romans 3:10). God saves us for His own glory (Ephesians 1:5-6; Isaiah 43:7).

The true Gospel is offensive to those who think themselves better than they are and God far less Holy than He is (1 Corinthians 1:18; John 3:19-20)!

Once we understand the Gospel, it is very humbling and no man can stand before God thinking that there was something about himself that God saw within him that was worth saving.

The Law reveals our depraved, wicked, and wrath-deserving condition. Any gospel that points to the cross apart from dealing correctly with the holiness of God and the depravity of man, is a blasphemous gospel.

Any gospel that is man-centered is a blasphemous gospel that denies the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Christ on behalf of wicked sinners (Isaiah 53; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone as revealed in Scripture alone that any man is saved. The true Gospel leaves no room for boasting (1 Corinthians 1:22-31).

The true Gospel starts with God’s holiness (Isaiah 6:3), not man’s perceived potential or inherent value (Romans 3:10-12).

Let every man examine himself.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria