The Gospel according to Jesus

The crux of this tome is the discussion of Jesus Christ as Lord. MacArthur lays out the argument that the idea of “easy believism salvation” where a person states they accept Christ as Saviour without also accepting Him as Lord is not consistent with the Bible and specifically with Jesus' own statements.

Obviously, if you aren't a Christian, this discussion doesn't apply to you. If you DO claim to be a Christian, it's a very good idea to consider what that means and what should be expected of a Christian. Given the widespread nature of progressive Christianity and other versions of “Christianity-lite” (not to mention cultural Christianity) wherein people maintain beliefs that are widely incompatible with actual Biblical Christianity, along with the large numbers of “pastors” who preach these very principles, you might find yourself in a church where things are taught that are not Biblical. Heck, there are polls that reveal significant percentages of people who call themselves “Christian” don't believe Jesus died, or that he wasn't resurrected, or that he didn't actually perform miracles, or that he didn't die to atone for our sins. These are all important things to consider, and the standard upon which we should turn to consider them is the Bible.

John MacArthur, as always, does an excellent job of taking the question to the Bible and getting to the very source of the matter. He shows what Jesus expected of his disciples and Apostles. And what the Apostles taught their churches based on Jesus' teaching. It's really quite clear: A Christian cannot claim faith in Christ without also turning over their EVERYTHING to the Lordship of Christ. You can cling to Christ, OR your sins, but not both. If you are doing the latter, you do not have the Holy Spirit within you. That doesn't mean we won't sin, but Christians will find themselves fighting against their sin nature.