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Chapter 2
 THE PURE GOSPEL OF
CHRIST AND GOD’S GRACE
by Daniel LeEarl Hall
The pure gospel of Christ is "His death, burial, and
resurrection, by which we are saved." (1 Cor. 15:1-4) This is the "grace of God
that brings salvation," and it "has appeared to all men." (Titus 2:11)
There is power in the gospel, (Rom. 1: 16) and it was preached throughout the
entire Book of Acts, by Paul, Peter, Stephen, Philip, and all the apostles and
disciples. This is the gospel of Christ, the good news of the New Testament. It
is a gospel of pure grace. It is pure grace because all God asks of anyone is to
believe and receive His Son, and God gives us the faith and ability to believe,
(Rom.12:3) and moves us to receive the Holy Spirit. (John 6:29; Eph.2:1,5)
Salvation is purely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus, for He is the
Great Cause of all things, including our salvation.
Besides the many admonitions in the book of John that "whoever believes in Jesus
Christ has eternal life," John stated at 1 John 4:15, "Whoever confesses that
Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and he in God." This salvation is by
grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. (Eph. 2:8,9)
Even some who are saved by this simple arrangement of God, later become obsessed
with adding to the pure gospel of Christ. They make up certain intellectual
requirements or flesh-works. They want to have some share in their own
salvation, so they create a new type of grace, blending God's grace with their
intellectualism and works.
God's grace is pure grace. He does not adulterate His pure grace with our flesh
works or mental gymnastics. If we accomplished an infinitesimal amount towards
our salvation we would brag about it.
But all the praise for our salvation goes to our Lord, who does it ALL!
Do you really want to earn something with God? Paul said, "The wages sin pays is
death." With our best flesh efforts, all we could ever earn is death. He
continued, "But, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
We cannot earn a free gift.
Some claim that we need more faith, so we should pray for more faith. Let me
ask, "What test would you like to go through so you can have more faith?" We
need to be very careful what we pray for!
Faith is a free gift from God, and He has given each of us a "measure of faith.
"(Rom. 12:3) He has lavished upon us the faith of Christ and faith in Christ,
just like grace and all His gifts. (Eph.1: 7,8) We have all the faith we need,
for we live by faith. (Heb. 10:38) We "grow" in faith as we make God's gift of
faith our own by experiencing our relationship with God and learning to trust
Him in all things.
This may bring to your mind the question, "What about
sin?"
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