THE GOSPEL, UNITES US, NOT THEOLOGY

In Christ you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth. the gospel of your salvation; in whom also. having believed. you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.—Eph. 1:13

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians can properly be described as the church’s mandate for unity. There is a plea for unity among believers on virtually every page. It is in this letter that Christians are urged to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3), and it is here that the apostle lists the seven ones that serve as the basis for that unity: one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:4-6).

The apostle is not in this case seeking to unite divided believers, for the Ephesians were already united. Paul urges them to preserve or keep the unity that was theirs as a gift of the Spirit. It was “the unity of the Spirit” that they were to preserve. That is a lesson within itself in that unity is not ours to create or to destroy, but to receive and keep as a gift from God.

In Eph. 1:13 Paul shows that it was the gospel or the word of truth that united the Ephesians in Christ. By virtue of hearing the gospel they trusted in Christ, which he refers to in verse 15 as “your faith in the Lord Jesus,” and having believed they were stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit.

Does this not show that when one hears the gospel and goes on to believe and obey the gospel that he or she receives the Holy Spirit? And is it not being in Christ and being sealed with the Holy Spirit that unites us and makes us one? That is why Christian unity is the Spirit’s unity. And does not that mean that all those in whom the Spirit dwells are one in Christ? And aren’t they in Christ and recipients of the Spirit by hearing, believing, and obeying the gospel?

Now you have my thesis: It is the gospel that unites us. not theology. Paul in this context defines the gospel as “the word of truth” about Christ. Or it is the seven unities of Eph. 4. Or it is the facts of Christ’ s death, burial, and resurrection as stated in 1 Cor. 15:3-4. Or it is “the message of the cross” of 1 Cor. 1:18. Or it is the proclamation of “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” of 1 Cor. 2:2. It is the “good news” that is “the gospel of your salvation,” not theology.

These are facts about what God has done through Christ. There are no opinions, theories, or theology in the gospel, only about the gospel. No theorizing or theologizing is necessary in order to hear, believe, and obey the gospel. We never divide over the gospel itself, but we often divide over theology.

An instance of this would be one of the first divisions in the history of the church, which led to the Council of Nicea in 325, which was called to formulate the “correct theology” about the nature of Christ. They all believed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God and the risen Lord, which are facts of the gospel. But some of them began to theorize about the nature of Jesus’ sonship. Was Christ “of the same substance” (homoiousios) as the Father or “of one substance” (homoousios) with the Father, thus distinguishing between the Father and the Son. The Nicean fathers ruled that the latter was the correct theology, that Christ and the Father were of one substance. In retrospect it appears to us as theological hairsplitting, but it was crucial to them.

Other theologians contended that one could believe that Christ and God were of one substance and still believe that they were distinct persons (hypotaseis). On and on the controversy went, dividing the church. There is no way to attain complete agreement on theology. The gospel itself, yes, but not theology. They even brought Mary the mother of Jesus into it. Since they made Christ “of one substance” with the Father, then Mary became the “God-bearer” (theotokos) and the Mother of God. That is theology, not gospel.

Since Nicea the church has debated thousands of theories and theologies, and they have often divided us asunder. The distinction is clear: the gospel or the word of truth is what the Scriptures actually say about Christ, while theology is what we think it means by what it says (and sometimes when it says nothing at all).

This does not mean that theology is bad. It is in fact good or can be, and we need to theologize—and there is much theology in the Bible! My point is that we must distinguish between the gospel and theology. The gospel unites us, and here we can all agree. We can all agree that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that is the gospel. But there are many theologies about the atonement that we will not see alike. But we don’t have to see theology alike. We can have our theological debates and profit from them, and we can agree to disagree. But as to the gospel itself we are to agree and be of one heart and one mind.

It is the gospel that unites us—not theology, not theories, not opinions. You are free to have your theology, and you may be right therein; but you cannot bind it on others except as they come to see it as you do. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a different matter, for it is the “good news” that makes us one in Christ.

It is this distinction that led our pioneers to formulate the slogan, “In essentials (the gospel), unity; in opinions (theology), liberty; in all things, love.”—the Editor