Question: “I’ve heard you say that a person must ‘obey the gospel’ in order to be saved. Could you please explain what you mean by this?” Answer: I appreciate this thoughtful question. Please consider the following:
The Gospel is defined in the New Testament as the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that 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” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; cf. Acts 8:25; 14:21; 16:10; Galatians 1:6-11).
Those who fail to obey the Gospel will be eternally lost. “And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; cf. Mark 16:15-16).
An individual is saved by the Gospel when he obeys a form of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).
Baptism is a form of the death, burial and resurrection. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the death by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
