As the world continues giving in to fighting and division, Christians find themselves facing a difficult question. On one hand, we know we’re called to live in harmony with fellow believers, even if we disagree with them. On the other, we know that there are things so core to the Christian faith that not agreeing on them puts the gospel itself in danger.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)
Galatians 1:8 warns us that anyone who comes preaching another gospel must be rejected. The goal of this article is to discuss those things that Christians need to agree on, which will also tell us when we must consider someone “accursed.” Some are necessary for salvation itself, while others are necessary to maintain the integrity and truth of the gospel, both today and for future generations.
More than essentials vs non-essentials
“In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”
-Rupertus Meldenius
When discussing the importance of some beliefs over others, we often put them in the categories of “essential” and “non-essential.” In other words, what things are essential for genuine Christianity, and what non-essentials are we free to disagree on without worrying about someone’s salvation?
For the sake of this discussion, I want to move beyond those two categories. They are useful distinctions, but today we often think of non-essentials as those things we simply don’t need to think about, study, or even have meaningful discussions about with those we disagree with. We think that non-essential beliefs should be free from scrutiny, debate, and even division.
Thus, I want to instead break beliefs into two new categories:
- What should Christians divide over?
- What should churches divide over?
I make these distinctions with the purpose of helping us decide whether we can call someone a brother or sister in Christ versus whether our beliefs allow us to submit to the teaching and authority of a particular church. Through my discussions in this article and the next one, my desire is that people can better distinguish when we should be concerned for someone’s salvation, but also help us realize that these “non-essentials” are essential to how we think about a church, and thus are incredibly important for Christians to study and come to a decision about.
An important note about the Holy Spirit and our ignorance
With those distinctions clarified, I’d like to say one quick note about the content of this article. Some of these beliefs will be essential to understanding salvation. Not holding those beliefs will lead to our need for a savior coming from such a warped understanding that we don’t accurately understand sin, Christ, and the gospel.
Others, however, aren’t things someone must believe for salvation, but they’re necessary for salvation to make sense. Someone can be ignorant of these secondary things when Christ saves them, but through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, they are beliefs that will be evidence of their conversion and continued growth in spiritual maturity. So while they aren’t necessary for salvation itself, they are necessary for the gospel to remain uncompromised.
What beliefs are necessary for salvation?
God exists
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
This seems obvious, but it’s basically the first thing someone must believe before anything else will make sense. The gospel centers around the violation of God’s law, the existence of God’s wrath on lawbreakers, and the love of the Heavenly Father to send Christ to pay the penalty for our crimes so that we can be forgiven through faith.
However, it all begins with believing that God exists in the first place.
Dig deeper: Who Is God?
Our sin has an eternal cost
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18)
Why should we worry about the choices we make? What are we being saved from? If we don’t believe that our sin has put us in some kind of peril, then we have nothing to be rescued from. Thus we must believe that sin is a violation of God’s law, and that God’s wrath is the consequence of sin.
Dig deeper: What Happens to People Who Never Hear the Gospel?
We need Christ for salvation
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
If we believe Christ is simply one way to be forgiven of sin, then we don’t truly understand who He is or why we need Him. We don’t understand the weight of John 3:16 and why the Father would send Jesus Christ into His own creation, why He alone could live a perfect life that made Him a worthy sacrifice, and why the depth of our sin made it necessary for Christ to be brutalized and slaughtered by the people He came to save.
Dig deeper: Salvation Is Through Christ Alone
Salvation is through faith in Christ and nothing else
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)
We cannot mix good works with salvation. If we think we are capable of saving ourselves through good works, we misunderstand our sin and what God requires. If we could actually do something to save ourselves from God’s wrath, we would have a reason to boast about our inherent goodness or the hard work we put in to be good people.
It’s only through trusting in Christ and His sacrifice on the cross that we have any hope of gaining God’s forgiveness. Only when we realize the weight of our sin in light of God’s holiness do we see how incapable we are of escaping its consequences. The importance of understanding that salvation is through faith alone, with no room for good works, is why Paul wrote such harsh words in Galatians 1:8. Any gospel that says we’re saved by anything other than faith is no true gospel at all.
Dig deeper: Why Good Works Can Never Save Us
What Christ did on the cross
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
In a broad sense, salvation requires us to believe Christ took our place on the cross, suffering God’s wrath for our sin so that the Father’s justice could be satisfied. When we understand sin and our inability to save ourselves, we see our need for Christ to somehow pay for our sin.
However, that somehow is what specifically occurred on the cross. Though all who are forgiven understand that Christ died for their sin, it isn’t something everyone can readily explain even after salvation. Did Christ pay the one-for-one price of our sins, being punished for every individual lie or evil thought we’ll ever have (substitutionary atonement)? Did His death open up an infinite amount of “credits” that the church can apply to grant forgiveness of sin (Catholic theology)? Did He just die so that we could live better lives (liberal theology)? What happened on the cross is important for Christians to understand, but we don’t need to be able to articulate the specifics in order to recognize that we needed Christ to die in our place so that we can have eternal life.
Dig deeper: Jesus, Salvation, and the Gospel (part 2)
Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:14)
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thessalonians 4:14)
If Christ was simply a good man who taught the world how to do good deeds until He was wrongfully executed, then Christianity itself takes on a totally different meaning. Christ’s death paid the penalty for our sin, His burial was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, but it’s His resurrection that gives us hope that our Savior has victory over sin and death.
Similar to what happened on the cross, a person doesn’t have to be able to explain the specifics of this for salvation. However, it’s critical that we believe what God’s word says about all aspects of Christ’s redemption of sinners, including His resurrection from the dead.
Dig deeper: Christ’s Victory Over Death
What beliefs are necessary for consistency?
These are some (though not all) things that we must believe if we’re going to hold to the beliefs necessary for salvation. Again, these things aren’t required for salvation, but compromising any of these will have disastrous consequences for our other beliefs.
Life after death
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19)
Simply stated, if we believe our death is the end of our existence, why should we care about anything else? In that way, the gospel is only good for improving our lives now.
Dig deeper: What Happens to People Who Never Hear the Gospel?
The truth of the Bible
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
It becomes very difficult to believe anything about Christ if we don’t believe the Bible is divinely inspired by God. If we believe the Bible is just a book of opinions or fallible writings, then it’s pointless to live for anything it says. If we’re going to believe what it says about sin and salvation, we must believe it has an inherent truthfulness to it that goes beyond any other book in existence.
Dig deeper: What Is the Bible?
Christ’s human nature
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)
The specifics we believe about Christ will directly impact His worthiness of a sacrifice and His ability to save us. In this case, Christ must have been fully human to take our place under God’s wrath and apply His perfect righteousness to us. Christ’s death can’t save Satan or send a dog to Heaven. Christ was a perfect human who stood in place of evil people like us. Likewise, He gave us His righteousness so that God can look at us and treat us as though we’d lived the perfect human life of Christ.
Dig deeper: Jesus, Salvation, and the Gospel (part 1)
Christ’s divinity
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)
I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, (Colossians 2:9)
Can any of us truly understand what it means that Christ was not only 100% human, but also 100% God? There are certain aspects of Christ, and the godhead, that will forever be things we must trust without fully understanding them. However, we also know it was necessary that Christ was God to do all He did. He wasn’t a creation of God, an angel, or just a human. Christ’s sinlessness, His worthiness to be king, and everything else about Him hinges on the reality that He is just as much God as the Father is.
Dig deeper: Jesus, Salvation, and the Gospel (part 1)
Christ’s perfect obedience
And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. (John 8:29)
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. (1 Peter 2:22)
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
James 2:10 reminds us that if Christ had sinned once, He would have been guilty of breaking the whole law of God. Thus, He would have been incapable of paying for our sins because He would have faced the wrath of God for His own sin. Not only that, but 2 Corinthians 5:21 would have been impossible for Paul to write because it was only by Christ living a perfect life that He could apply His own righteousness to us.
Dig deeper: Jesus, Salvation, and the Gospel (part 2)
[Check out part 2: What Should Churches Divide Over? What Should We Look For in a Church?]
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