“1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. 2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:1-2).

“16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:16-19).

     In the above two texts, we have two very similar warnings from Scripture. The warning is twofold:

1. Don’t add in any way to what God has said
2. Don’t diminish in any way what God has said.

     Judaism and Apostate Christianity added things to the simple truths of the objective facts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ such as Moralism or Ritualism. This is what is known as Soteriological Expansionism. New Evangelicalism introduced various degrees of subtraction/reduction to the necessary truths of the objective facts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This came in three major streams of Soteriological Reductionism:

1. Easy Believism (New Evangelicalism)
2. Only Believism (Evangelicalism)
3. Easy Prayerism (much of Fundamentalism; One, Two, Three, say it after me!)

     When defining the Gospel, we must understand the detailed facts of what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection/glorification so that sinners might be saved. The Minimalist would wants us to reduce these details of spiritual accomplishment down to the very smallest number of Truths (what I call Stick-Man Evangelism). However, as every artist knows, the depth of a portrait (understanding) is in the depth of the details. The greater the depth of detail, the greater the comprehension. The basis for spiritual understanding and conversion is in the depth of the details of what Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection/glorification accomplishes for the condemned sinner, dead in trespasses and sin, and destined for eternal separation from God in a place God calls Hell.

“1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (I Corinthians 15:1-8).

     There are three basic or minimal aspects of the Gospel of Jesus Christ given in I Corinthians 15:3-4.

1. Christ died for our sins
2. Christ was buried
3. Christ was resurrected

     The Minimalist would lead us to believe that if we believe these three basic, minimal facts, and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, we can be assured of salvation. The Minimalist would tells us we need not understand the theological ramifications of these facts with any kind of detail or depth in order to be saved. The sinner must merely believe these facts and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.

     However, I have spoken with many, many people who have been evangelized by this methodology who believed that Christ died for their sins, that He was buried, and that He was resurrected. They have prayed a prayer and received Jesus as Lord and Savior. Yet, they continue to trust in their Church membership, their infant baptism, keeping the Commandments, and participation in the Eucharist to be sure of Heaven. They can believe all that the Minimalist Evangelists tell them to believe, pray the prayer to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, and still be lost because this reductionist position is compatible with almost every position of Co-Redemption (Grace + Works) that is out there. In other words, this Minimalist form of Evangelism makes an acceptable bridge to the Soteriological Expansionist making all forms of legalism acceptable baggage to bring along to the Cross.

     Understanding, believing and obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only God ordained way to be saved from condemnation and the wrath of God upon the fallen first creation in Adam. Salvation is found only in Christ and through His miraculous deliverance into the New Genesis (“new creation”) in the “last Adam,” Jesus Christ offered as a gift to “whoever will.” This gift is offered by the grace of God and received through the faith of the believing sinner. However, what exactly does the sinner need to understand and believe? Secondly, according to Scripture, what are the required responses to the Gospel the define faith? In order to answer these two questions, we must carefully define the three aspects of the Gospel given in I Corinthians 15:3-4

Christ died for our sins

     When Adam chose to sin, he immediately died spiritually. In God’s condemnation of Sin (a crime against God’s sovereignty), God sovereignly and judicially put a death sentence upon Adam and everything that originally came under the dominion that was given to Adam. The original Creation was condemned to a day of wrath and the execution of God’s sentence of condemnation when the whole of the original fallen Creation will be completely and eternally separated from God (the “second death,” or eternal death).

     However, before “the foundation of the world” (the original creation), God had inaugurated a plan of Redemption through the incarnation of the Second Person of His Tri-unity; i.e. the eternal Son of God. Through the incarnation, sinless life, death, burial, and resurrection/glorification of God’s incarnate Son (Jesus the Christ), God would open a door of escape from the cursed original Creation into a New Creation “in Christ.”

     According to what Christ said in His parable of the Sower, the Seed, and the Soils in Matthew 13:1-23, understanding (vs. 23) the details of the Gospel (the Seed) is the only way sinners will “understand with their heart, and should be converted” (vs. 15). There are some very important details in all of this to give the sinner understanding of the theological ramifications that are in the statement Christ died for our sins.

1. The first essential detail of the Gospel of Jesus Christ IS NOT just that He died, but that He died for our sins. No one will understand the depth of God’s love and grace who does not understand the depth of His hatred for sin. No one will understand salvation who does not understand condemnation; i.e., what the sinner is saved FROM.
2. No one of the human descent of Adam could die for the sins of mankind because they too are sinners like Adam (Rom. 5:12). Therefore, the Redeemer could not be born of Adam’s seed. The Sin Nature is passed seminally through the man (in his DNA), not the woman’s egg. Therefore, this is why the immaculate conception of Jesus and His virgin birth are absolutely essential Truths to understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Deny these Truths and you deny the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. Jesus had to live a sinless life in order to succeed where Adam failed. If Jesus had one single sin on His account, He too would be condemned with the rest of mankind (II Cor 5:21). Therefore the sinlessness of Jesus is an absolute essential to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If a person does not believe in the sinlessness of Jesus Christ, he has not believed in the Christ of the Gospels. Christ did not die for His own sins. Christ died for OUR sins.

“1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He {God} shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied {saba`; i.e. His wrath is satiated}: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities {judicially and vicariously; I Peter 2:21-25}. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-12).

4. The death of Christ was vicarious or substitutional. In other words, the death sentence upon sinners MUST BE executed in order for God to be just. God’s justice or righteousness MUST be satisfied. We might say that God’s judicial wrath upon sin must be satiated. When God’s judicial wrath upon sin is satiated, it can be said that God’s wrath is then propitiated. Therefore, the fact that Christ’s death for sin propitiated God (God’s wrath was satiated in the substitutionary death of Christ) is an essential to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A central reason why many people do not understand eternal security in Christ is because they do not understand propitiation.

“19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested {Jesus Christ and His vicarious death}, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith {faithfulness} of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe {sufficient for all; but given only to them that believe} : for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:19-26).

“1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:1-2).