Church Math & The Simple Gospel

Church Math & The Simple Gospel
 “Let all men know that it is nothing but sin that separates between them and God.” –Matthew Henry

I half-joke that I went to seminary because they promised there wouldn’t be any math there – but I’m going to do some biblical math today. Acts 15 contains three mathematical equations that Christians need to take to heart:

1. Jesus + Anything = Nothing. In the early days of the church, some Jewish believers began to teach that Jesus alone could not save. Instead, one needed Jesus + circumcision and keeping the law of Moses. Galatians 1:6-7 emphatically rejects this Jesus + equation. Paul writes, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – not that there is another one.” The gospel is a gospel of grace. Jesus alone. Not grace + works. Not Jesus +. Jesus + anything is not the gospel. Jesus + Anything = Nothing.

2. Believers + Sects = Disaster. When these Jewish believers began teaching this Jesus + version of the gospel, Paul and Barnabas opposed them. These new teachers were “of the party (or sect) of the Pharisees.” They were believers, but they had identified themselves as part of a group within the church that held certain beliefs over and against others. People in the church will always disagree. That’s not the problem. The problem comes when we make something nonessential – that is, something not about the gospel – into something that is essential. Turning nonessentials into essentials brings disaster because it divides the church against itself. Believers + Sects = Disaster.

3. Experience + Scripture = God’s Will. In the course of debate over this matter, Peter stood up and shared what God had done among those Gentiles who had not been circumcised. God saved them and gave them his Spirit. James then stood up and quoted a Scripture from Amos 9 that clearly showed God’s plan to bring the Gentiles into his family. After hearing Peter’s experience and the Word of God from Amos, the church discerned God’s will for the Gentiles. Experience + Scripture = God’s Will.

Math is hard, but the gospel is simple. We have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus. Let’s keep the gospel simple by not adding anything to it. Let’s keep sects out of the church by keeping the main thing the main thing. And let’s rely on the simple and clear Word of God through Scripture and experience to direct our paths.

Your Pastor and Friend,
John Knox Foster