What truths are worth dying for?

By Mark Lauterbach

That’s the question guest blogger Mark Lauterbach helps us tackle this week as we learn to differentiate between what is primary and what is secondary in our Christian faith. Mark is senior pastor of Grace Church in San Diego, CA. Careful, you should read slowly. Mark’s sentences are soaked in truth…

It is not uncommon for Christians to debate each other about doctrine. It is also not uncommon for those debates to become harsh and for fellowship to be broken over the differences. Are we called to argue for all doctrine in the same way? Is it possible to have differences without a divisive spirit? What truths are worth dying for?

It’s clear from Scripture that we are called to contend for the Savior and the Gospel in this world. The theme saturates the Bible from Genesis 3:15 to Revelation 20. The question is: what does that look like?

When I read the New Testament I see all manner of “correction” going on – moral and doctrinal. I have been struck again this week, in the midst of pastoral work, with how patient the apostles were, how realistic their expectations, and how impatient and self-righteous I am. The example of the apostles is clearly what is being called a humble orthodoxy. That is quite different than a generous orthodoxy.

Humble orthodoxy draws a line in doctrine, mindful of being a redeemed sinner, mindful of limited understanding, mindful that my enemies are those who oppose the Gospel not just those who differ with me, mindful that truth must be clear or people will perish.

Here is where I am helped: Paul did not get white hot with passion until the issue was the Gospel itself. He knew that as long as the Gospel was clear, he was dealing with intramural issues. He differentiated between those advocating a false gospel and those asking legitimate questions. He did not turn his friends in Christ into enemies. But let the Gospel be altered and it was time to take no captives and accept no compromises. Eternity was at stake.

What do we mean by the Gospel? The full person and work of Jesus. If people tamper with the doctrine and character of God in Trinity—the nature of Christ as God-man, his substitutionary work as a sacrifice while on the cross, his bodily resurrection, the nature of humanity in sin—these issues provoke much more response than others. But even about these essentials Paul is willing to answer questions.

Consider times when Paul defended doctrine. In Corinthians 15 we find Christian having doubts about the resurrection. Paul defends this central truth but he does so with instruction. He was patient when churches were having legitimate questions or did not understand (as in Colossians). But sometimes Paul met with false teachers that proclaimed a different Gospel and a different achievement of the cross. They met with the apostle's call for condemnation.

I am not like the apostles. Here is what I find in my heart: a proud tendency to make every issue a Gospel issue. When we hear ourselves saying, "We alone are consistent" -- that is pride. I also find in my heart a tendency to make no issue a Gospel issue. That is false humility. What are we to do?

The truth that defines the Gospel is the most urgent truth. Lies about Jesus will damn people. So, when there is a new movement in the church questions the centrality of substitution—the cross itself—it is no small matter. Not that this is new. For centuries people who have wanted to retain the label of Christian have also taught error. They do so with scholarly sleight of hand, re-writing the text and advocating positions for which there is no basis.

The New Testament rings with the teaching that Jesus stood in my place bearing God's punishment for me. Those who deny the vicarious death of Jesus are outside the realm of Christianity.

And modifying is not just “diminishing” or “denying”. It may be adding. The Judaizers of Galatia believed Jesus was Messiah -- that he died for sin -- but they also believed that unless someone became a Jew his death had no benefit for them. They wanted to add to the atonement. Paul insists that we make no contribution to the salvation God brings through Jesus. If righteousness is by the law, Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21)

I would add to these core truths of the cross the person and work of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. Our salvation is established on the inscrutable teaching that Jesus is the God-man, one person, two natures, without sin, united forever. He is fully human and experienced every element of human life without sin. He is truly God. The sacrifice required by God for sin must be both infinite in value and made by a man. Thus Jesus is and must be God and man.

Denials of the deity of Jesus or his humanity jeopardize the nature of his sacrifice. Denials of the deity of the Holy Spirit deny the effect of its application to our lives.

One more area I consider to be essential is the doctrine of sin. If humans are not made in the image of God, and if sin has not brought their just condemnation, then atonement is not necessary. There is no need for a new birth. Sin is manageable. But if sin is that vile thing which corrupts us thoroughly, and only the sacrifice of God the Son can bring about forgiveness and new life, then it is not manageable. Salvation must come from outside us.

The last area is the nature and authority of Scripture. If it is the sole (final) authority for the Christian -- the unique word of God to us, as much the Word of God as if God himself wrote it -- then I am on common ground.

But what about our differences?

We differ from each other due to the ignorance and dullness of our minds -- the Holy Spirit does not bring infallible clarity. We differ from each other because God cannot be comprehended by ones as small as we. We are not to act like we do not differ but we see each other as comrades against the same enemy. Humble orthodoxy joins others in a discussion of what Scripture says as we pursue truth together.

So, where these Jesus truths rest, I have friends. We may differ on other matters, but if they hold to the singular sufficiency of the death of Christ and that He stands alone as Savior and nothing we do can add or detract from his work then I have a friend. I expect to meet them at the feet of Jesus, by grace alone, and there to come to complete on agreement on all the matters we discussed in this life

Mark Lauterbach is senior pastor of Grace Church in San Diego, CA and blogs at GospelDrivenLife