The late Zane C. Hodges proposed this dilemma in his famous desert illustration:
Let me begin with a strange scenario. Try to imagine an unsaved person marooned on a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He has never heard about Christianity in his life. One day a wave washes a fragment of paper up onto the beach. It is wet but still partly readable. On that paper are the words of John 6:43-47. But the only readable portions are: “Jesus, therefore, answered and said to them” (v. 43) and “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life” (v. 47). Now suppose that our unsaved man somehow becomes convinced that this person called Jesus can guarantee his eternal future since He promises everlasting life. In other words, he believes Jesus’ words in John 6:47. Is he saved? I suspect that there are some grace people who would say that this man is not saved because he doesn’t know enough. For example, he doesn’t know that Jesus died for his sins on the cross and rose again the third day. Needless to say, there is a lot more he doesn’t know either, such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the eternal Sonship of Jesus or the doctrine of the virgin birth. But why is he not saved if he believes the promise of Jesus’ words? (Zane C. Hodges, “How to Lead People to Christ, Part 1: The Content of Our Message,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 13, Autumn 2000: 4).
The late Zane C. Hodges who was part of The Free Grace Movement, which was a response to the “Lordship Salvation” movement, advocated what is described as a “crossless gospel” and “the promise only gospel.” The crossless gospel is based primarily on John 6:47 where Jesus said, “He that believes on me has everlasting life.”
Hodges states his view of the gospel even more bluntly later: “People are not saved by believing that Jesus died on the cross; they are saved by believing in Jesus for eternal life” (Zane C. Hodges, “How to Lead People to Christ, Part 2: Our Invitation to Respond,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 14, Spring 2001: 10).
In other words, a sinner can be saved not knowing about or believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What says the Scriptures concerning the necessary content of saving faith?
When Paul, who was competent in witnessing to sinners, was at Corinth he informs us as to the content of his witnessing in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” In Paul’s resurrection chapter, he definitively declares the content of the gospel that must be preached (15:1a) and received (15:1b). What is the content of the gospel that must be preached and received? “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (15:3-4).
In Paul’s most comprehensive presentation of the gospel (Romans 1:15), the book of Romans, Paul plainly states what is the sine qua non of the gospel that must be believed: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus i.e. Jesus is God, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). The irreducible minimum of the gospel is that Jesus is God’s son who died for our sins (substitutionary death) and that He was buried and that He arose from the dead.
Robert N. Wilkin advocates that the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 is a sanctification message
“The good news in First Corinthians is the good news that Paul preached to the believers [all the NT was written to believers], not unbelievers, in the church of Corinth. The good news message he preached was Christ crucified. This was a sanctification message that a divided church needed to hear badly …. The reason we don’t find justification by faith alone anywhere in 1 Cor 15:3-11 is because this was sanctification good news” (Robert N. Wilkin, “Justification by Faith Alone is an Essential Part of the Gospel,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 18, Autumn 2005: 13). Robert N. Wilkin is the executive director of the Grace Evangelical Society.
Paul is battling incipient Gnosticism’s moral and doctrinal influence on the church at Corinth.
The dualism of Gnosticism stated that the flesh is evil and the spirit is good which resulted in the Corinthian’s immorality.
But Gnosticism’s denial of the worth of the physical body rejected a literal and physical resurrection which cut the heart out of the gospel.
Paul corrected the immoral impact of Gnosticism in chapters 1-14
Paul refuted its corruption of the gospel in chapter 15. Chapter 15 is not just about sanctification but rather is Paul’s defense of physical resurrection which was being denied as 15:12 states: “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
What must be preached and received today for a sinner to be saved was true when Paul preached at Corinth in Acts 18: The Son of God died for our sins, was buried and arose. Let’s assume Wilken is right about 1 Corinthians 15 (which I do not believe), are there examples of the gospel being preached to sinners in the first century and if so what was the content of that gospel? On the day of Pentecost Peter preached and 3000 were saved. What did Peter preach? Was Peter’s sermon to the Jewish multitude, “Believe on the name of Jesus who gives eternal life?” No! Peter preached that Jesus was the Son of God who died “according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” which was carried out when the Jews put the Messiah to death with “wicked hands” (Acts 2:22). In addition to the death of Christ, Peter preached the centerpiece of apostolic preaching, the resurrection. The Jews with wicked hands put Christ to death, “whom God has raised up” (Acts 2:24).
The Free Grace Movement is divided
The Free Grace Alliance issued the following statement which can be found on their website: The Free Grace Alliance is not associated with the Grace Evangelical Society and does not endorse the GES Gospel (also referred to as “crossless” or “promise only” by some).
In the Free Grace community there is a debate over unbelievably, “What is the Gospel?” The debate is not between the RCC’s works for salvation and Reformation’s salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The debate is not between, their once common enemy, Lordship Salvation and the Free Grace community. Now they have turned their guns on each other over what a sinner must believe to keep his soul out of hell.
The debate is between “Free Gracers” who preach a “Crossless Gospel” and “Free Gracers” who preach a “Legalistic Gospel.”
The “Crossless Free Gracers” contend that the sinner must believe only that Jesus promises eternal life to be saved. This group includes the late Zane Hodges, Robert Wilkin, Lon Gregg, and Ken Neff.
The “Legalistic Free Gracers” believe the sinner must believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died for our sins (substitutionary atonement) and that He arose. Greg Schliesmann, Tom Stegall, J. B. Hixson, and Jonathan Perreault represent the latter group.
Is the gospel found in a single evangelistic verse?
There are at least three points of contention. In this post, I will discuss the first. One area of disagreement is the belief that the gospel can be found in a single evangelistic verse. This is the message in a bottle idea from Hodges’s famous desert island example. Here is how Zane Hodges expressed this view: “Just think for a minute of John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; Acts 16:31, and so on, and not a one of these verses invites us to get saved by believing that Jesus died on the cross …. People are not saved by believing that Jesus died on the cross; they are saved by believing in Jesus for eternal life” (Zane C. Hodges, “How to Lead People to Christ, Part 2: Our Invitation to Respond,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 14, Spring 2001: 10).
Bob Wilkin promotes this gospel in a single evangelistic verse view by distinguishing between the object of faith and the means of salvation: “The object of faith is Jesus and His promise of eternal life to the believer, not the means by which He is able to fulfill that promise (His sinless life, His deity, His incarnation, his virgin birth, His death on the cross, his bodily resurrection, etc.). Sadly, even some who call themselves Free Grace have indicated that believing in Jesus for eternal life will not save anyone unless they also believe a number of other doctrines about the Person and work of Christ. Thus some “Free Gracers” deny the truth of John 3:16!” (Bob Wilkin, “Most Evangelicals Need Evangelizing,” Grace in Focus March/April 2009: 2).
Saying that the gospel is contained in a single evangelistic verse ignores the context of those verses
While the cross is not in John 3:16, it is in the immediate context of John 3:14: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” John 12:32-33 further explains what Jesus meant by being lifted up: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.” The context of each of the verses cited by Zane Hodges stresses the death and resurrection of Christ.
In the famous message in the bottle verses, John 6:43-47, the context of John 6:51 refers to the death of Christ: “The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” These graduates from Dallas Theological Seminary should know the importance of context in the interpretation of Scripture and not rip single verses like John 3:16 and 6:43-47 from the immediate and remote contexts of chapters and books.
The basic principles of hermeneutics from fellow Dallas faculty, Roy Zuck, would have solved this issue: “The context in which a given Scripture passage is written influences how that passage is to be understood. Context includes several things: the verse (s) immediately before and after a passage, the paragraph and book in which the verses occur, the dispensation in which it was written, the message of the entire Bible, and the historical-cultural environment of that time when it was written” (Roy Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation. Wheaton: Victor Books 1991, 77).
Even in Acts 16:31 which does not mention the cross or resurrection, Tom Stegall provides an excellent explanation: “The reason the faith alone message is presented by Paul and Silas in the form that it is in verse 31 (“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved”) is only because they are answering the specific question of the Philippian jailor in verse 30 when he asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Once they give the jailor the answer to his specific question right up front, then they go on to fill in the details. Acts 16:32 tells us, “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” Because the Philippian jailor specifically asks what he must “do to be saved” in verse 30, they give him the one condition for salvation up front in verse 31, namely to “believe.” They even give him the object of faith, “the Lord Jesus Christ.” However, they do not immediately explain the contents of faith or who the Lord Jesus Christ is until verse 32. Had the jailor asked the question, “What must I believe to be saved?” in verse 30, Paul and Silas’s answer in verse 31 would have included an explanation of Christ crucified and risen” (Tom Stegall, “The Tragedy of The Crossless Gospel, Part 4,” Theological Issues, page 6).
Had the historical-grammatical method of hermeneutics been consistently applied this single evangelistic verse view would never have been used to define the gospel.
The “Legalistic Free Gracers” cannot agree on how many items are in the gospel that must be believed
The “Crossless Free Gracers” not only believe the gospel can be found in a single evangelistic verse but they also contend that the “Legalistic Free Gracers” cannot agree on how many items are in the gospel that must be believed.
“Biblically, the good news (the gospel) addresses different truths concerning Jesus. First Corinthians 15 addresses eight items and, I guess, Luke 2:10-11 could be used to support a position that His birthplace of Bethlehem is part of the gospel…. As a result, the necessity of picking and choosing the four or five or six items from some ten or more as absolute essential requirements for salvation causes one to pose and ponder---“Which ones?” (Ken Neff, “What Is The Free Gospel?” Grace in Focus, March/April 2009, 4).
Neff continues in the article to mention the different “Legalistic Free Gracers” contradictory lists of necessary items for salvation. For example, Greg Schliesmann believes four necessary truths about Christ must be received by the sinner: Christ’s deity, Christ’s Death and Resurrection, Gift by faith alone, and Christ’s incarnation. Tom Stegall has a list of five essentials which include in addition to Schliesmann’s list, the humanity of Christ. Jonathan Perreault has six essentials.
Two essential truths must be believed to be saved: Christ's death and resurrection
Are there eight items in the gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15:1-8? No! The eight items discussed by Paul are the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and Christ’s appearances to Cephas, the twelve, the five hundred, James, and Paul. The two essentials in this passage are the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. The burial was proof of Christ’s death and the appearances were evidence of His resurrection. The gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 is essentially the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Zane Hodges argues that “one could believe all eight of the truths listed above and not yet be born again. Believing all these truths is not the same as believing Jesus for eternal life” (Zane Hodges, “Hydra” Grace in Focus, September/October 2008). The same could be said about believing in the name of Jesus for eternal life. “Crossless Free Gracer,” Robert N. Wilkin has his own list of essentials in the gospel: “We, too, must share those three elements. They are: 1. believing 2. in Jesus 3. for eternal life. I like to put it together in one sentence as follows: Jesus guarantees everlasting life to all who simply believe in Him” (Robert N. Wilkin, “Secure and Sure. Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2005, 74-75).
A sinner equally could believe all three of Wilkin’s essentials and still not be saved.
Saving faith requires knowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Son of God
Mental assent (Someone can know these gospel truths and reject them, such as Judas Iscariot)
Trust in the person and work of Christ. The “Crossless Free Gracers” says requiring the sinner to believe more than is necessary is legalism. I guess Paul was a “Legalistic Free Gracer” in Romans 10:9 for requiring faith in the Son of God who was crucified and resurrected when he wrote, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (i.e., God) and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.”