A recent visitor to my church explained to me his understanding of the Christian Gospel:

1. “God loves me.”
2. “I have sinned.”
3. “Jesus died for me.”
4. “I need to decide to live for God.”

The visitor was earnest, lovely, a kind and gentle soul. The only problem is this: What he said is not the Christian Gospel.

Point 2 is absolutely true, and is the teaching of God’s Law. Points 1 and 3 are also absolutely true, and are the teaching of God’s Gospel.

But point 4 confuses Law and Gospel, and does the opposite of the Gospel: it diverts people’s eyes away from Christ and onto themselves.

The visitor was sharing with me the “Four Points”—a system designed to make the Bible easy to speak and talk about. You can read more about it here: https://tfh.org.uk/4points26/

I really appreciate and commend that these brothers and sisters in Christ are trying to spread the good news about Jesus. And they seem truly sincere. But the confusion of Law and Gospel is not true, because truth is defined by God’s Word, not sincerity.

As a Confessional Lutheran, I summarise the Gospel like this:

1. God is in a good mood with you!
2. You see that when you look at Jesus.

I have been accused by other Christians of not preaching the Gospel, because this summary sounds to them universalist.

Universalism is the unbiblical belief that all people will be ultimately saved. But while this summary of the Gospel may sound universalist to some, it is not.

It is important to keep saying that universalism is wrong. In every sermon at Manchester Lutheran Church, I use God’s Law to warn people of the consequences of sin.

Yet, we should not qualify the promise of the Gospel simply to avoid sounding universalist or from fear that we could be misunderstood as universalist. The greater danger is the widespread and subtle confusion of Law and Gospel that is displayed in the Four Points quoted above.

At the Reformation, Martin Luther rediscovered the Bible’s central doctrine of justification by faith. The problem is that soon after the Reformation, other Protestants emerged who redefined justification by faith.

For Luther, “justification by faith” means:

1. In Christ God has objectively justified all people.
2. So, you cannot obtain this justification by earning it yourself.
3. So, the great pastoral danger is trusting yourself instead of Christ.

But for many other Protestants, justification by faith means:

1.  In Christ God has provided everything needed for the justification of all people.
2. So, you must obtain this justification by having faith.
3. So, the great pastoral danger is presuming on God’s mercy when you don’t have proper faith in Christ.

The final one of the “Four Points” quoted above illustrates this common Protestant mistake. By saying “I need to decide to live for God.” they make the Gospel about something that I need to achieve, and shift my focus away from Christ and onto myself.

The only solution to this mistake is to express the objective justification of the world so clearly—in a way that sounds universalist—that it seems like there is nothing left for me to do. Because that is precisely right: There IS nothing left for me to do. Not even to “make a decision” or “have faith.”

Faith is not a quality I have that results in God justifying me—it is the assurance that I’m already justified. Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as “the assurance of things hoped for.” That’s it. While we often use active language to describe faith as “receiving” and “taking hold” of justification, we should not misunderstand this. Because in reality faith is entirely passive. We are passive as God creates it in us through the Gospel. And through it we passively receive the justification promised by the Gospel.

When we state objective justification clearly enough, then it becomes clear that God is asking nothing of us in the Gospel. We must state objective justification so forcefully that people find it bizarre and paradoxical that nothing is demanded of them. Only then have we made the Gospel clear.

The big danger I find day in, day out, talking to people on the streets of Manchester is not people saying “God is too loving.” but rather variations of “If there is a God, then of course he loves me, because I’m such a good person.”

I did not observe this because I’m an excellent psychologist. I learned to see it in people after reading Martin Luther. Because this is exactly how Luther describes both faith, and the major pastoral danger of the opposite of faith: confidence in myself. Here’s an example (emphasis mine):

Faith is nothing else but the truth of the heart, that is, the right knowledge of the heart about God. But reason cannot think correctly about God; only faith can do so. A man thinks correctly about God when he believes God’s Word. But when he wants to measure and to believe God apart from the Word, with his own reason, he does not have the truth about God in his heart and therefore cannot think or judge correctly about Him. Thus when a monk supposes that his cowl, his tonsure, and his vows please God, that these make him acceptable, and that grace and eternal life are granted to him for these, he does not have a true idea about God; he has an idea that is wicked and a lie. Thus truth is faith itself, which judges correctly about God, namely, that God does not look at our works and our righteousness, since we are unclean, but that He wants to be merciful to us, to look at us, to accept us, to justify us, and to save us if we believe in His Son, whom He has sent to be the expiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). This is the true idea about God, and it is really nothing other than faith itself. By my reason I cannot understand or declare for certain that I am accepted into grace for the sake of Christ, but I hear this announced through the Gospel and take hold of it by faith. (Luther’s Works 26:238–239)

And so, to drive this home pastorally, Luther sometimes has to use language that sounds universalist. In the following example, Luther is expounding the significance of John 1:29 “Behold,the Lamb of God, whotakes away the sinof the world!” with language that is so strong it sounds like a straight denial of John 3:36 (emphasis mine)!

If the sins of the entire world are on that one man, Jesus Christ, then they are not on the world. But if they are not on Him, then they are still on the world. Again, if Christ Himself is made guilty of all the sins that we have all committed, then we are absolved from all sins, not through ourselves or through our own works or merits but through Him. But if He is innocent and does not carry our sins, then we carry them and shall die and be damned in them. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.” (1 Cor. 15:57.) (Luther’s Works 26:280)

Luther presses this universalist-sounding language even further:

By this deed the whole world is purged and expiated from all sins, and thus it is set free from death and from every evil. But when sin and death have been abolished by this one man, God does not want to see anything else in the whole world, especially if it were to believe, except sheer cleansing and righteousness. And if any remnants of sin were to remain, still for the sake of Christ, the shining Sun, God would not notice them. (Luther’s Works 26:280)

He then writes three long paragraphs making explicitly universal claims about how sin, death and God’s wrath attacked Christ on the cross, but were defeated by him not just for those who have faith, but for the whole world:

Now let us see how two such extremely contrary things come together in this Person. Not only my sins and yours, but the sins of the entire world, past, present, and future, attack Him, try to damn Him, and do in fact damn Him… Thus in Christ all sin is conquered, killed, and buried; and righteousness remains the victor and the ruler eternally. (Luther’s Works 26:280-281)

Thus also death, which is the almighty empress of the entire world, killing kings, princes, and all men in general, clashes against life with full force and is about to conquer it and swallow it; and what it attempts, it accomplishes… Through Christ, therefore, death is conquered and abolished in the whole world, so that now it is nothing but a picture of death. Now that its sting is lost, it can no longer harm believers in Christ, who has become the death of death, as Hosea sings (13:14): “O death, I shall be your death!” (Luther’s Works 26:281)

Thus the curse, which is divine wrath against the whole world, has the same conflict with the blessing, that is, with the eternal grace and mercy of God in Christ… Therefore Christ, who is the divine Power, Righteousness, Blessing, Grace, and Life, conquers and destroys these monsters—sin, death, and the curse—without weapons or battle, in His own body and in Himself, as Paul enjoys saying (Col. 2:15): “He disarmed the principalities and powers, triumphing over them in Him.” (Luther’s Works 26:281-282)

Luther’s language is universal and uncompromising. However, paradoxically, even though Christ has truly and genuinely accomplished this for and in the whole world, it is only received and enjoyed by those who look at Christ and see this reality. This is faith: simply seeing what is already true for everyone, and is therefore already true for me. Those who do not see it, i.e. who don’t know Christ, don’t experience it:

Therefore they can no longer harm the believers. (Luther’s Works 26:282)

This circumstance, “in Himself,” makes the duel more amazing and outstanding; for it shows that such great things were to be achieved in the one and only Person of Christ—namely, that the curse, sin, and death were to be destroyed, and that the blessing, righteousness, and life were to replace them—and that through Him the whole creation was to be renewed. If you look at this Person, therefore, you see sin, death, the wrath of God, hell, the devil, and all evils conquered and put to death. To the extent that Christ rules by His grace in the hearts of the faithful, there is no sin or death or curse. But where Christ is not known, there these things remain. And so all who do not believe lack this blessing and this victory. “For this,” as John says, “is our victory, faith” (1 John 5:4). (Luther’s Works 26:282)

This is the chief doctrine of the Christian faith. (Luther’s Works 26:282)

How on earth can Luther make such extreme, universalist, claims about the atonement? And why does he treat faith as simply seeing and recognising that this universal atonement is true?

Because that is exactly what scripture does.

In Romans 3:23-25 Paul states in three verses what takes Luther pages of exposition to drive home:

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:23-25)

All have sinned. All are justified. God objectively put Christ forward as a propitiation—but this is only seen and comprehended, i.e. received, through faith. Faith simply receives the benefit of what God has already accomplished and now proclaims.

Paul’s point here and in many places is exactly what Luther teaches: Sin, death and God’s wrath have been ended for the whole world. This is real and universal. But those who benefit from it are simply the ones who see it and recognise it.

That’s precisely why the Gospel—the declaration of this universal atonement—actually delivers forgiveness: because all the Gospel is doing is telling you something that is already true.

This is why “I need to decide to live for God.” is not the Gospel. It tells me at the very end not to look at Christ, but to look at myself and my decision. We need to proclaim Christ’s work so clearly that it sounds universalist, so that people have nowhere to look other than at Christ.

This is what Luther taught. He taught this, because it is what the Bible teaches. And that’s why it is what Manchester Lutheran Church preaches every Sunday. So come, hear this Gospel and be strengthened in the assurance that Christ justified all people, which means he justified you. Join us at 10:45am for coffee and 11:00am for the service: https://mcrlt.ch/sundays/

If you live outside Greater Manchester, you can gather online with the Confessional Lutheran Church every Wednesday at 6:00pm to hear this Gospel and receive faith alongside Christians from across the country and beyond: https://lutheran.ch/online-service/